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<\/a><\/p>\nSome weeks ago I began yet another painting project at home, the third room so far. I have a piece of advice to share with you: Never say \u201cnever.\u201d I\u2019ve said, \u201cNever,\u201d to painting two or three times, to no effect.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I find painting exceedingly boring, so I usually troll through old movies that are dialogue heavy. They are distracting and I can follow them, without actually watching the TV screen.<\/p>\n
One of my more recent weekend choices was \u201cPaper Chase.\u201d It\u2019s the story of a new law student named Hart and his struggle to clear the hurdles associated with what is called 1L and, in particular, his struggles with the imperious Professor Kingsfield, his contracts professor.<\/p>\n
The movie is filled with tidbits that reflect Kingsfield\u2019s approach to the classroom, which \u2013 although described as Socratic \u2013 could also be described as \u201cassault with the intent to teach.\u201d Kingsfield tells the new class of incoming students: \u201cYou come in here with skulls filled with mush and, if you survive, you will go out thinking like lawyers.\u201d He tells another student, \u201cHere\u2019s twenty-five cents. Go call your mother and tell her that you\u2019re not going to be a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Basically, the message is that life as a \u201c1L\u201d is life on a knife\u2019s edge or on a precipice. It\u2019s dint of effort. Gut it out. A \u201csee if you can make it, kid\u201d kind of world.<\/p>\n
Sadly, in my experience, a lot of us come to Maundy Thursday in much the same frame of mind. Jesus sets the table, serves the bread and beverages, outs the traitor, challenges Peter (his over-achiever from the front row in the classroom), washes everyone\u2019s feet, announces that he won\u2019t be here much longer, and then reminds them to love one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cSee if you can make it, kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in trying to figure out what this night is supposed to be all about, the name of the celebration doesn\u2019t help much either. What is a \u201cMaundy\u201d anyway?<\/p>\n
Some scholars think it comes from the phrase \u201cMaundy purses\u201d and refers to the bags of alms which the King of England handy out on this day in the Christian calendar before going to Mass. On that reading, \u201cMaundy\u201d is from the Latin, mendicare,<\/em> meaning \u201cto beg.\u201d<\/p>\nMore scholars believe that the word \u201cMaundy\u201d derives ultimately from the Latin, mandatum, <\/em>or \u201ccommand,\u201d and refers to Jesus\u2019s command that we love one another. Were it not for getting the word through Middle English, then, which adds the \u201cu\u201d to Maundy, we would be celebrating \u201cMandy\u201d Thursday and that would be really confusing. But as it is, the emphasis on \u201cmandate\u201d or \u201ccommand\u201d takes us right back into our worst fears about this day: \u201cHere are my orders, kids, see if you can make it.\u201d<\/p>\nBut it turns out that there has never been a universal name for this day in the Christian calendar and I think the spiritually most helpful one comes from the ancient Syriac Church which \u2013 early in Christian history \u2014 referred to this day as \u201cThe Thursday of Holy Mysteries.\u201d<\/p>\n
That name, unlike the more obscure name that we typically use, puts the emphasis where it belongs and gets to the heart of why we celebrate this day. You see, Jesus isn\u2019t setting up demands: \u201cYou come in here with souls filled with mush, and \u2014 if you survive \u2013 you will go out acting like disciples.\u201d And he isn\u2019t waiting to watch us fail: \u201cHere\u2019s a quarter, go call your mother and tell her you\u2019re not going to be a child of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the Syriac Church understood is that this is the day on which Jesus enacts the giving of his body and blood, washes our feet as a sign of our part in his life, and \u2013 on the strength of his work on our behalf \u2013 makes loving one another possible. The message, then, is not that we are on our own, but that Jesus has made our participation in the life of God possible.<\/p>\n
So, what difference does that make?<\/p>\n
One<\/em>, to see this day as the Thursday of Holy Mysteries is to be invited<\/em> to lay down our anxiety about making it, about being good enough, or about loving well enough. We aren\u2019t on our own. God is with us.<\/p>\nTwo<\/em>, to see this day as the Thursday of Holy Mysteries is to be reminded<\/em> that the possibility of participating in the life of God is already a reality. We don\u2019t make ourselves children of God. Jesus makes us the children of God in his body and blood.<\/p>\nThree<\/em>, to see this day as the Thursday of Holy Mysteries is to be embraced<\/em> something larger than ourselves. When we eat his body and drink his blood \u2014 when we wash feet \u2014 when we find concrete, surprising, and extravagant ways of loving one another, we do those things in deep connection with work of God.<\/p>\nInvited, reminded, embraced?<\/p>\n
Yes \u2014 because the phrase \u201cHoly Mysteries\u201d always refers to the work of God, to wonders made possible by God alone, and we aren\u2019t on our own, kids.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some weeks ago I began yet another painting project at home, the third room so far. I have a piece of advice to share with you: Never say \u201cnever.\u201d I\u2019ve said, \u201cNever,\u201d to painting two or three times, to no effect. Anyway, I find painting exceedingly boring, so I usually troll through old movies that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2431,2432,2429,2430],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holy-thursday","category-holy-week","category-maundy-thursday","category-the-thursday-of-holy-mysteries"],"yoast_head":"\n
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