For those wondering, I managed to get through my phone call to Social Security without swearing at them… at least over the phone. I was not having charitable thoughts. I’ll take this up the next time I do confession.

Today is Maundy Thursday (at least that’s what the Anglicans and Lutherans call it) with Maundy coming from the Latin word “mandatum”. If you read the story in John 12-14, you see Jesus commanding his apostles to wash each other’s feet, eating the bread and drinking the wine in His memory, and to love each other.

I could probably attempt to write a treatise on the Eucharist and how it’s an example of anamnesis but I don’t feel called to do that. I have the theological knowledge and the Greek knowledge but it’s late and forced recall is not a strong suit when I’m tired. Instead, I’m posting two YouTube videos.

First Youtube video: “How Beautiful” by Twila Paris with scenes from “The Passion of the Christ”. I first heard this song 10 years ago when the church I was attending based their midweek Lent sermons around it. It’s beautiful and somewhat ironic that it’s used for weddings and for Holy Week.

The second video is of the song “The Summons” which came out of the Iona community. I sang it 15 years ago and it embedded itself in my brain. The reason I include it is the repetition of “will you _______ and never be the same?” I know for me that my life has never been the same since I came to faith and if it was the same, I would wonder what was going wrong. Living out our faith changes us and I fully believe that it prevents us from ever being the same as we were before knowing Jesus.