Maundy Thursday Homily

This is the night—this is our night.

I know Easter is the great celebration, the big party, but we don’t celebrate until we’ve done the hard work that leads us there. And we, my friends, have done that work. Through Lent, we have journeyed, and now we have arrived—here—at Maundy Thursday.

We can look at this night in two ways.

First, we look back. We remember that Jesus gave us the great commandment: to love one another as he has loved us. To love our neighbour. To serve others as he has served us. And to keep his memory alive—not just in our minds, but in our bodies as we receive the Holy Eucharist and take his life into our own.

We have followed—however imperfectly—his mandate. The Maundatum, the commandment that gives this night its name.

Secondly, we look forward. Forward because this commandment is not only something we remember. It is something we are sent out to live. It calls us to lean in even more deeply to love others, to keep working, and to keep striving to be our best selves. Our best Christian selves.

A few weeks ago, I spoke about our relationship with God in two directions: vertical and horizontal. The vertical is our connection with God. The horizontal is our connection with one another, seeing Christ in each other and loving that person fully, unconditionally, to the end.

Tonight is deeply, profoundly, about the horizontal.

Tonight we see Jesus at his most human. His most vulnerable. His most loving—loving to the point of sacrifice—even as he faces His own death.

What’s so important—what we cannot miss—is that Jesus washes all of his disciples’ feet. All of them. Even Judas. Even the one he knows will betray him.

Jesus, in all his humanity, calls us to follow Him in this humble, self-giving, profoundly loving ministry. He calls us to serve—not just those who love us—but even those who hurt us. Even those who betray us. He calls us to love those who are hardest to love.

For me, this night is the pinnacle of my call to ministry. It shapes everything I am called to be as a priest—a servant of God, trying to follow Jesus’ model as best I can.

And let me tell you, I fail. God knows I fail. But I will not give up being the Christian I am called to be, for you, and for our God.

That is why I wash your feet this evening. It is a reminder to me of the humble service I am called to, but it is also a call to you to go out into the world and do the same.

So tonight, as I kneel before you, know this: I love you. I will serve you, as your priest and pastor, to the very best of my ability. And I ask you—pray with me, walk with me—go out into the world, and love and serve as Christ has loved and served us all.

Amen.