Patrick Comerford
We are reaching the climax of Holy Week, the last week in Lent. Today is Maundy Thursday (17 April 2025), known in the Orthodox Church as Great Holy Thursday, and we preparing for Good Friday tomorrow and Easter Day.
I awoke this morning to the sound of the church bells from the Cathedral and the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon, having arrived in the Hotel Brascos late last night after a flight from Luton to Iraklion. I am spending these closing days of Holy Week and Easter in Rethymnon, and I am thinking of visiting the villages of Tsesmes and Platanias, on the eastern fringes of Rethymnon later today.
My Easter visit to Crete this year means, of course, I am going to miss the Chrism Eucharist in Christ Church, Oxford, today when the bishops, priest and deacons in the opportunity to renew our ordination vows. But I may visit the cathedral and some churches in Rethymnon, Platanias and Tsesmes during the day. Before this day begins, though, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 13: 1-17, 31b-35 (NRSVA):
1 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ 7 Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ 8 Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ 9 Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ 10 Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’
12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants[d] are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
31b ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
Today’s Reflection:
During Holy Week, we have a series of readings from Saint John’s Gospel, in which Jesus has a very different set of encounters or exchanges each evening.
This evening, the Water for Washing the Disciples feet continues a theme we find throughout Saint John’s Gospel:
• The waters of the River Jordan, at the Baptism of Christ (see John 1: 19-34);
• The water that is turned into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2: 1-11);
• The Water of Life that the Samaritan Woman asks for at Jacob’s well in Sychar (John 4: 5-42);
• The water of the pool in Jerusalem where the paralysed man is healed after 38 years (John 5: 1-18);
• The water of the Sea of Galilee by which the 5,000 are fed (John 6: 1-14);
• The water by Capernaum where Jesus calms the storm (John 6: 16-21);
• The Rivers of Living Water (John 7: 37-39);
• The healing waters of the Pool of Siloam (John 9: 1-12);
• The water Christ cries out for on the Cross when he says: ‘I am thirsty’ (John 19: 28);
• The water that mingles with the blood from Christ’s side when it is pierced after his death (John 19: 32-35);
• The waters of the Sea of Tiberias, where the Risen Christ appears for a third time, after daybreak, and from which the disciples haul in 153 fish (John 21: 1-14).
Why then, in Saint John’s Gospel, does Pilate not wash his hands when he denies all responsibility on his part for the events that are to unfold that Good Friday (see John 18: 38)?
The Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) is best known for his posthumous novel The Master and Margarita, a masterpiece of the 20th century. Here Bulgakov portrays Pilate as a man who is ruthless, yet complex in his humanity. When Pilate meets Christ, he is reluctant but resigned and passively hands him over of him to those who wanted to kill him.
In this novel, Pilate exemplifies the statement ‘Cowardice is the worst of vices,’ and so he serves as a model of all the people who have washed their hands by silently or actively taking part in the Stalin’s crimes.
The actor Richard Boone plays a calm and stern, though, slightly guilt-ridden Pilate in the 1953 film The Robe (1953). There is an interesting touch when Pilate asks again for water to wash his hands, forgetting he has already washed those hands at the conclusion of the trial of Jesus.
When do we forget that we are complicit in the sufferings of others, and when do we deny we are complicit in the sufferings of others?
As Christ washes the feet of his disciples this evening, he calls us out from our complacency and our cosy forgetfulness, and challenges us once again to renew the promises made in the waters of our Baptism, to come again with forgiveness to living and healing waters, to dine and drink with him at the banquet, to have him calm the waters in the storms in our lives, to accept the miracle, to be cleansed by the waters from his side, to walk with him afresh and to join the Disciples in the new promises of the Resurrection.
Today’s Prayers (Thursday 17 April 2025, Maundy Thursday):
A ‘Holy Week Reflection’ provides the theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Bishop David Walker of Manchester, who is the chair of USPG trustees.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 17 April 2025, Maundy Thursday) invites us to pray:
Lord, on this sacred night, we remember your great love and sacrifice. As you took the bread and broke it, and shared the cup, you gave us the gift of yourself. We thank you.
The Collect:
God our Father,
you have invited us to share in the supper
which your Son gave to his Church
to proclaim his death until he comes:
may he nourish us by his presence,
and unite us in his love;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ,
we thank you that in this wonderful sacrament
you have given us the memorial of your passion:
grant us so to reverence the sacred mysteries
of your body and blood
that we may know within ourselves
and show forth in our lives
the fruit of your redemption,
for you are alive and reign, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
God our Father,
your Son Jesus Christ was obedient to the end
and drank the cup prepared for him:
may we who share his table
watch with him through the night of suffering
and be faithful.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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