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? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.My religious history is a long and winding road, from my christening at the age of six months down till now: a story much too tedious to relate in one sitting, and of no use or interest to anyone but me. Nor has it been a casual stroll down a blossom-covered lane; rather, times without number it has seemed a stony, uphill path leading only to Calvary. As C. S. Lewis phrased it, I have "learned my driving in a hard school"; though whether anything I have learned can be of the slightest help to anyone else, I cannot possibly say. I can only share and relate what has happened in this obscure life of mine, for whatever it may be worth to anyone else, and that is probably not much.
And I can speak only in Christian terms, because that is the only religious grammar and vocabulary I know. Though I have come to realize at this late age that God is bigger than the Church, and bigger than the Bible; inconceivably bigger than we can comprehend: a mystery, a joy, a boundless love at the heart of things I can in no way define but merely affirm.
Tonight I will share with you my Maundy Thursday story; and all I can do is tell it, not explain it.
Continued after the jump . . .
