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Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Lessons
Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; Psalm 116:1, 10-17 ; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-17, 31b-35
The Meditation
This week I am sharing thoughts from Archbishop William Temple's classic work Readings in St. John's Gospel in these daily meditations.
The Lord has spoken of what that great moment for ever commemorated in the breaking of the Bread and the pouring of the Wine means for his friends. There is coming separation, he is going where they cannot come. He has little time to share what is most important.
Jesus commands his disciples: "Love one another as I have loved you." Obedience to it is evidence to the world of true discipleship. If the Church were really like that, the power of that witness would be irresistible, and out of that nucleus of self-giving love - love like that of Christ upon the Cross - would flow the power making all people generally love their neighbors as themselves. When the Church keeps the New Commandment, the world keeps the Second Great Commandment, "Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself."
(W Temple, Readings in St. John's Gospel, pg. 209-12)
The Sacred Triduum, Three Holy Days, begins at table. The most precious Body and Blood is shared, and a new mandate (mandatum = maundy) is given to love one another with the same self-emptying love Jesus shows his disciples throughout this long dark night, culminating with his death on the holy Cross.
The collects for these next three days add to the customary Trinitarian conclusion the single word 'now'. My Prayer Book commentary is silent on this addition, allowing us to ponder its meaning. For me, 'now' refers to the present. In the liturgy, and in our hearts, we are not engaged in only rehearsing the last events of Jesus' life. Rather, the sacrificial love, forgiveness of sin, unmerited and transformative grace, redemptive death and glorious resurrection, are fresh and alive and present for us and among us now.
This week we have recalled a specific tragedy in Boston one year ago, and seen new effects of sin expressed in bigotry, violence, and the deaths of innocents. Jesus was not deterred in the face of sin. Neither must we be deterred.
Let us as the baptized disciples of the Lord Jesus learn from him. "Love one another as I have loved you." Now.
Anthem  | |
Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castel - O sacred banquet
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Collect of the Day
Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Solemn Prayer Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the Cross, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. |
