Maundy Thursday

People have asked me what Maundy means. Maundy is derived from the Latin mandatum, or commandment which is found as the first word in Latin of John 13:34. A new commandment I give you that you love one another. This verse is an antiphon for the ceremony of foot-washing done on this day in imitation of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples just before the Last Supper.

We are having a meal in the parish hall to start off Maundy Thursday. We will eat together just as Jesus ate with his friends before he died. After hearing the readings and having a reflection on them, we will process into the parish hall for communion, the stripping of the altar and then the vigil.

The last supper is about becoming united with Christ and then taking Christ word to where it is most needed. Taking Christ word means not just talking but doing and being a Christian presence in a broken world. It is about feeding others, literally and metaphorically.

We will give thanks for our meal together in the parish hall. Thanks for the food that we have, thanks for the community that we have and thanks that we have in addition to the food, God's word that feeds us. We will go into the Eucharist to be fed by Christ and to prepare ourselves to relive the events of the Passion. Part of that is stripping away the material things from the church. The decorations, the linens, the objects that we use in worship so that we are left with nothing but ourselves and God. During this process there will be a lament. A lament is expression of grief and sorrow. This is a great time to offer up our own sorrows, stripped before God.