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Service, solidarity and community – the message of Maundy Thursday

Those in ministry have been workers in the frontline of faith and community during the pandemic, Archbishop Michael Jackson told the annual Maundy Thursday Chrism Eucharist. He said their service during the pandemic and beyond is part of the same mandate Jesus gave his disciples on Maundy Thursday and there were many ways of living out that mandate. The service took place in Christ Church Cathedral this morning (Thursday April 14) those in ministry, lay and ordained from across Dublin and Glendalough were in attendance.
The Archbishop washes the feet of the Revd Terry Lilburn on Maundy Thursday.
The Archbishop washes the feet of the Revd Terry Lilburn on Maundy Thursday.

During the service, which was sung by the cathedral choir, those in ministry renewed their commitment to ministry. Oils for use in healing and baptism and the oil of the chrism were consecrated. The Archbishop also washed the feet of a number of clergy and lay people and in turn had his feet washed.

In his sermon, the Archbishop looked at the events of Maundy Thursday when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and instituted the Lord’s Supper. He examined the washing of feet and Holy Communion and the roles they play in service and bringing about solidarity and belonging in community.

He said Maundy Thursday brought an unpredictable reversal of predictable hierarchy. Jesus had already told the disciples that they were no longer slaves but friends. The act of service he performed in washing their feet was offered as a gift of transformation of existing relationships. The Archbishop observed that the act of courtesy that was afforded by any householder in the ancient and eastern way of life through his servants and slaves was offered to the disciples by their teacher, the one who was sent from heaven and made his house in all humanity.

“With this extraordinary event, we may feel left hanging in the air. It is such a big gesture. We may wonder: What are we to do next? Where do we go next with this quite remarkable expression of inclusion? The Ukrainian people now in our midst offer us an obvious focus of service. Service is itself a communion,” he said.

Turning to the second half of Maundy Thursday, when clergy return to their parishes and celebrate the Institution of the Lord’s Supper with their own parishioners, the Archbishop said that in quite a different way Jesus shared himself with the same disciples.

“… take, eat and drink, this is my body, this is my blood given for you … Holy Communion creates a community of faith and response. Holy Communion gives solidarity and belonging to those who now, as then, have the courage to follow Jesus Christ in all the complexities of life and to offer back to him their thanksgivings for all that is good and true on a regular basis and to offer back likewise their anxieties about everything that disturbs and distorts our own lives and the lives of those for whom we have a care and concern. At the same time, this is also a community that God is equipping to do the work of God in the world of his creation; ours are the hands that follow through the words and the deeds of God in Jesus Christ. We are equipped for this by participating in Jesus Christ in both word and sacrament to go out to do his work in the world and for the world. Service is the outworking of the Communion that is Holy, of the thanksgiving for the body of Christ that is Eucharist,” he said.

Archbishop Michael Jackson preaching at the Chrism Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral.
Archbishop Michael Jackson preaching at the Chrism Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral.

Archbishop acknowledged the service of clergy throughout the pandemic. “You have been frontline workers in the frontline of faith and of community. Your constant efforts have kept tens of thousands of people going, tens of thousands of people cheerful, tens of thousands of people afloat. This is a service that you have carried through as part of the same mandate that Jesus gave to his disciples on this day. I want to thank you for it and for all of it. Service and the washing of feet take many forms. There are indeed many ways of living out the mandate:

‘For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done for you’,” he said.

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