MAUNDY

    Tonight I had the great privilege of participating in the most beautiful, moving, Maundy Thursday service.

                     Maundy.      Translates into Command.

Tonight we remember the last command of Jesus of Nazareth.       Love.   Love one another.


   In our Homily, we were asked to ponder what our last words would be.....our last command to those we love. What would we want them to know.


    I didn't really have to ponder. The proof of my last words hang on the bulletin board in my office - steps away from the place I wrote them.....4 months ago tomorrow. I knew that something devastating had occurred in my body. I used the last of my spoken words to ask for paper and pen. I wanted my family to know that my last thoughts, if that's what they turned out to be, were of them. I tried to write that I wanted  them all to be careful as they traveled to the hospital. I attempted to write that I loved them. I remember when the realization hit - that I could no longer use my hand or brain to form words or letters on the paper -as a last act, I underlined the important words....Love. Children. Care. John.

                                                           LOVE.

  Our country dropped a bomb today. The largest non nuclear bomb ever made or used. A MOAB - Mother of all Bombs. A terrible misnomer. Madness....Monstrosity....Murderer - those would be appropriate "M" words for the acronym.
Not Mother.....not that which is synonymous with Love and Care. Life giving and Fertile with creation, not desecration.
                   
                                 Love.                                 And its' antithesis.

   At about the same time this bomb was dropped, a three year old in a far away land knocked on the door to his home, having returned from an adventure in the park. With him was my Baby Girl. As the Mother stood on the other side of the door and playfully inquired "Who's there?", the young Master piped up proudly....announcing himself and his boon companion using both first name and surname. The thing is....he gave my Baby Girl HIS last name. When corrected by his Mother, he told her in no uncertain terms that My Girl was HIS FAMILY, so of COURSE she had the same last name.


                                                       LOVE.   Across nationality and culture.

Us - Them.   Right - Wrong.    Black - White.     Rich - Poor.    Resident - Alien.   Straight - Gay

   We have become an adversarial people. Made blind and narrow in our rabid quest to be Right.  We have ignored the Maundy in the Thursday.    The great, last command. Love.....Love one another. No conditions, or exclusions.....no index of those deemed unworthy.    Love. One Another.