For my readers who observe the holiday, I wish you a blessed Easter. For everyone, I wish you a glorious spring. I don’t know about you, but this time of year always makes me more hopeful of better times to come.
So much has happened to me during the course of the Triduum. From Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to Holy Saturday to Easter Day, it has been an amazing journey. I would have written all along, but I’ve been so busy with work and with singing in the choir that this afternoon is the first time I’ve had to get back into the swing of posting to my blog.
Today’s post will take us back to Maundy Thursday; I’ll post the remainder of my reflections over the next several days.
Part of the Maundy Thursday service commemorates Jesus’ washing the feet of his disciples. In most churches the clergy assume the role of the servants and wash the feet of whoever in the congregation wishes to participate and comes forward. This is a beautiful act of submission and is quite powerful as it is. However, the tradition at my church has evolved in recent years to having anyone who wishes to assume either role. It is quite moving to see whole families come forward and then wash one another’s feet. I don’t really know how or why this tradition started, but it is very powerful.
While singing the mesmerizing Taizé chant “Ubi Caritas,” I found myself musing on persons in authority assuming the role of the servant. And then I remembered my post here from a few months back titled Abundance ~ Service ~ Prosperity and the centrality of service (servanthood) to prosperity. Unless one provides something of value to the world, true prosperity is impossible.
Then I considered who was freer, the master or the slave? To my surprise, I determined it was the slave who was the freer of the two. Positions of authority carry huge burdens of responsibility with them, while positions of service merely involve performing the desired tasks at hand. Perhaps modern life can be made less hectic by simply reorienting one’s thoughts to focus on being of service: find out what the task at hand is (what people are looking for), and then do it.
I’m taking an online course in Internet marketing, and one of the recommended strategies involves keyword research to determine a niche market to exploit. Although I’m sure this works for some, this has never made much sense to me. If it is not an area in which I have personal expertise, why would I want to expend any energy on it? Instead, what I teach my protégés is to identify their own personal strengths and then determine ways to share those strengths with others to mutual benefit—i.e., to be of service.
Before I knew it, the footwashing was over and I ended my reverie, but not without reinforcing my resolve to seek to be of service in all that I do, whether through this blog or through my various business ventures or through the book I am writing. My greatest desire is for the world to be a better place for my having been here. Let me know how I may be of service to you.
