Maunday Thursay

Maundy Thursday - The Last Supper, the Washing of Feet and the Stripping of the Altars.

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you.” John 13.34

As a boy I always thought that Maundy Thursday was something to do with mourning – I knew it was solemn and sad.

But of course it comes from the middle English version of the Latin word ‘mandatum’ – mandate or commandment.

It is in today’s antiphon from Jesus’ words in our text John 13.34 "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" - "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you".

There are a number of different elements in the observance of the day. Lent ended yesterday, and so at the Chrism mass this morning we sang the Gloria for the first time since Ash Wednesday. We will sing it again this evening with the ringing of bells. And then there are no more glorias or bells as we enter the Triduum, the three days from sunset this evening.

Today we commemorate the institution of the Lord’s supper, the Eucharist, the Mass – although we celebrate it more specifically on the first Thursday in Ordinary time – after Trinity Sunday.

This morning in the Cathedral, because priestly ministry is so bound up with the Lord’s supper, deacons, priests and bishops renewed their ordination vows. It is a time for the renewal of priesthood.

Then again, because priests and bishops use holy oils at Baptism, confirmation and for anointing the sick and dying; the new oils are presented by deacons and blessed by the bishop in the Cathedral and the distributed to all the priests.

After the Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, and agonised in prayer for us. So we build a garden, an altar of repose, and take the blessed sacrament, the symbol of our Lord’s presence with us, and leave Jesus resting among the lilies and candles.

We keep watch with him. “Could ye not watch with me one brief hour’.

And then as Jesus was stripped and humiliated by the soldiers, we strip the altars and the chancel of all coverings and Christian symbols. The choir sing penitential psalms. There are no more blessings from priests, no more holy water, no more sacred fire or altar candles.

Nothing awaiting us now but the Cross and the Death of Death in the Death of Christ

And in the midst of all this movement, priests follow the example of Christ and wash the feet of the disciples of Christ.

For everything else is as a clanging cymbal, empty ritual, if there is no love, no serving the Common Good.

So on this night, here is the very tangible, and down-to-earth symbol of God’s saving grace: the washing of feet, the enactment of the Gospel truth that we are saved to serve.

Jesus sets the pattern for us – the life we receive from God, the Body and Blood of Christ, are to sustain us in service of one another and of the world around us.

This was the great Anglo-Catholic mission of the 19th century – to exalt the sacrament of the mass, in order to serve the needy and the outcasts of society. That was why St Paul’s founded St Mary’s and St Barnabas. That was why the slum priests spent their lives ministering to the poor and disadvantaged.

At this Last Supper we rejoice in a God who gives us his flesh to eat and who washes our feet as an example of the servant love we are to proclaim and demonstrate to the world.

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you.” John 13.34