Holy Week Devotions - Maundy Thursday

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which
He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

~ St. Theresa of Ávila
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How will I participate today in the body of Jesus, to be the hands and feet of Christ?

As I write, it is Maundy Thursday morning. "Maundy" is from the Latin word "mandatum" which means "command, mandate" and it refers to the instruction Jesus gave his disciples on the night of their last meal together, from the gospel of John 13:34, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another."

A commandment to love each other. It's not an option. To follow Christ is be charged with love. Love those who love us? That is easy, but Jesus tells us to love those deemed outsiders, those believed unclean, even our enemies. But Jesus is not concerned with how we FEEL about others, but how we put our love into action. How do we show others the love of God in our ACTIONS and in our behavior?

A scene I witness while visiting Panchsheel Ashram School last year: I was touring the school while the children were doing their chores and I saw the girls gathering water in buckets. With the water, they were washing their clothes, washing sidewalks and floors, doing a general cleaning of their areas, etc. Two girls walked ahead of me carrying three buckets among them, then stopped and changed hands so that the weight would be distributed evenly between. Sharing the load.

How will I participate today in the body of Jesus, to be the hands and feet of Christ?