Beauty surrounds us, but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it - Rumi
On Holy Thursday we read the Evangelist’s description of the Passover meal that Jesus shared with His disciples, an event we now call the Last Supper. At that gathering a most unexpected event took place. Jesus, whom the disciples rightly called, Rabbi, Master, Teacher, Lord, 4 ….. got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. John 13:4-5 RSV. Later Jesus goes on to say:14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. John 13:14-15. In other words He gave His disciples a mission.
In a prayer Cardinal John Henry Newman wrote many years after that event, he says: “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission.” Indeed, we all have a God given mission, however young or old we may be, for through Baptism, we are committed to living a life of service and it is up to us to do it “ that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ” 1 Peter 4:11(AKJV). We may not know yet what that mission is and indeed it may not be the one we expect. That will naturally fill us with apprehension but when the Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote: “And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road” he gave us the assurance that we will not be undertaking it alone, for God will walk with us at every stage of the journey. We can be confident about that. Let us then be led by Jesus’ model to affectionate service for those soiled and weary from life’s journey. That must be our mission in this life for remember “Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.” St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). So it is up to each and every one of us to continue Jesus’ work in this world. May the Lord walk with you.
4 Comments
22/4/2019 02:29:59 pm
The words of St Teresa of Avila are often upon my heart. Thanks for yet another lovely posting, may Easter joy be yours!
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Peter
23/4/2019 01:27:01 pm
Thanks Fran. You are right, words written 500 years ago but as relevant today as when first written.
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Steve Givens
22/4/2019 03:26:56 pm
Wonderful reflection for the beginning of this Easter season. It is so easy to get caught up in comparing our mission with others that we can forget to just be the person God created us to be, with our distinct and blest mission.
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Peter
23/4/2019 01:22:29 pm
You are right Steve we cannot change the world on our own we need to work with one another and with God. As St Paul reminds us we each have our own attributes to bring to the task. Let us use them for the greater glory of God.
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AuthorI am an Authorised Local Preacher in an Anglo Catholic parish church, in the Diocese of Essex UK Archives
February 2022
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