Holy Week 4- Maundy Thursday



What does it mean to be truly human? What is the best that we can be? How can we be our most authentic selves? Perhaps it is in the last few days that Jesus, the Son of Man, spent on earth that we catch some glimpses of humanity at its best.

Paul reminds us that Jesus certainly was truly human- he had forsaken all divine privileges and submitted to the limitations of human flesh.

Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death-
even death on a cross.
Philippians 2: 6-8

 Being truly human is not dependent on status, position, physical ability or achievements. The opposite seems to be true- we read here of emptiness, humility, obedience and eventually death. This seems extreme, counter-intuitive, and certainly against the grain of contemporary thinking......but then we remember the sacrifice of PC Keith Palmer, whose death in the line of duty we considered the day after the Westminster attack. His funeral was on Monday of this week, attended by thousands of his fellow officers.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/10/pc-keith-palmer-funeral-cortege-makes-journey-to-southwark-cathedral



We might think too of the thrill of watching a top class athlete compete, at the peak of his or her physical ability- and compare this with the courage, determination and achievement shown by paralympic athletes and the success of events such as the Invictus Games.

Our humanity shows through who we are on the inside, rather than through our external circumstances. It is, in the last account, our character that determines who we are. The project of cultivating character is not one that will end with Lent, but the task of a lifetime- becoming day by day, decision by decision, through failure and through success a person of courage, integrity, kindness, patience, wisdom, gentleness, peace, joy and love. If all else is taken from us- as it was with Our Lord- what will remain?

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