Holy Week Reflections I

This week I join millions of Christians in observing what is known as Holy Week, the week before Easter. It is the week Christians pause to recall especially the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus. It focuses on the events in the life of Christ from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Sunday, through the agony of scourging and finally crucifixion on Friday. As I write this, I reflect specifically on Maundy Thursday. That strange and uncommon word “Maundy” is based on the Latin verb for  ‘mandate ‘ and recalls Jesus’ new  “mandate” the commandment that we love others as He loved us.  

In the Lutheran tradition in which I was raised Maundy Thursday was the time we young people received our First Communion. It was a big event. In addition to all its spiritual meaning it was for us a rite of passage. It marked our moving from childhood into adolescence. It meant that we were now officially allowed to become members of the church youth group called Junior Walther League. It also meant that for the first time we could participate in the youth sponsored Easter egg hunt, an interesting event enjoyed at that time by all of us who were 13 years of age up into the 20’s. On top of that confirmation meant gifts from our godparents whom we always called baptismal sponsors. Seventy years later I still have that now well-worn King James version of the Bible with its leather cover being twice replaced by craftsmen in Hong Kong!

Since that first time the dozen or so of us nervous teenagers first knelt around that altar in rural Texas I have received Communion (or celebrated the Eucharist or the Mass or The Lord’s Supper) in many places around the world, in magnificent cathedrals, around a cross on a hill overlooking China, in the Garden of Gethsemane, at a memorable New Year’s Eve in Karachi, with US Air Force chaplains and with people in their hospital deathbeds. All of these brought me great blessings at that time and memories which sustain me to this day.

However, as I reflect I also do so with a tinge of regret. When I was first taught about this holy ritual I was taught that very few were eligible to receive it. Only those who possessed the Word in ALL its truth and purity, only those who shared adherence to rather narrowly defined doctrinal principals were deemed appropriate to share this table. This Maundy Thursday I am grateful for the many people and all the meaningful events which have helped me to come ro what I believe to be closer to Christ’s original vision, a vision encompassing a vast array of many tongues, backgrounds, insights and religious labels whom Jesus must have envisioned when He said, “ Eat this bread, drink this wine, all of you. Do this to remember me.”