Lent Day 38 – Holy Week Devotion – Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2024
Take and Eat This Bread
O’Brien
Take and eat this bread
Take and drink this cup
This is my body and my blood
When you eat this bread
When you drink this cup
You live in me and I in you
Come all who thirst
For life eternal
Come to the table of salvation
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
When was the last time an experience touched you at the core? When was the last time you wondered if you would ever be touched like that again? When was the last time you felt something touch you in a way you never thought possible?
When was the last time you touched someone else? That person knew it and you knew it. The two of you shared a connection, and you were the one who made the first move. Touching another, making a connection, is as amazing as being the one who is touched.
Maundy Thursday. What is this night all about? Where does the name for this night come from? "Maundy" comes from the Latin form for, "mandate." This night is about the "new mandate," the "new commandment," to love one another as we have been loved by the One who made the first move, to touch us at the core, for we have been touched by God in God's grace alone in Jesus Christ!
On this night, even in this night, in which He is betrayed, Jesus makes the first move once again! Jesus touched his disciples by washing their feet, by taking the bread and the cup, by serving them, by loving them and gracing them. Trust Jesus is still amazed and blessed as he touches you. He longs for you; he longs to touch you at the core again. He longs for you to touch another with his grace alone, to love one another as you have been loved, as you have been touched.
When was the last time you were touched at the core? Wondering if you will ever feel it again? In God's grace alone, let tonight, let this weekend, be the next time!
Let us pray: Lord, today I come longing to be touched by you, and yet, allowing you to grace me, to touch me, to touch another's life and to love another, is all so hard for me. Make the first move again; call me again to your Holy Table, to feel your touch, to love one another. Call me through your new commandment, to trust I can go and touch the lives of others, for I have first been so loved and touched by your grace alone. In your name I pray, touched by You, Your sacraments and Your grace. Amen.
