Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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There was once a soldier from Spain called Ignatius. He loved his job. He loved to fight. Then one day, he was injured in battle, so much so, that he required a lot of time and a lot of healing to even be able to walk again. This was back in the 1500s, so that should give you an idea of how long his healing would have taken.
While healing, Ignatius looked for great tales of knighthood and chivalry to keep him occupied at this time. Instead, he received books on the lives of the saints, and they changed him.
From that point on Ignatius “studied war no more.” He devoted himself to Jesus, founding the monastic order of the Jesuits. He dedicated himself to listening God. He decided to live in poverty and try and help others. He changed his life from harming others to showing them the same love he received from our Lord.
Ignatius, in putting his old life behind, tried to live into the humility we see in Jesus tonight as He washed His Disciples’ feet. He was also trying to live into the commandment Jesus gives the Disciples, the commandment from which this Thursday, “Maundy” from the Latin for “commandment”, gets its name. That commandment being to “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
This commandment has a particular meaning for us in this parish. In the very next chapter of John following our reading this evening, Jesus once again calls the Disciples to keep this commandment of love. If they do this, Jesus says He will pray to the Father to send them “another Paraklete”, “even the Spirit of Truth”. This word, Paraklete, has been translated so many different ways. It has been rendered as “Helper”, “Advocate”, and “Counselor”.
It also has been translated as “Comforter”.
Comforter is a word that fits Jesus very well. Jesus is described as a shepherd. He called the children to come to Him despite His Disciples’ actions, as depicted in one of our windows. He was healer of illness. He even reached out to Samaritans and Gentiles, people His fellow Jews would have looked down on in His day and age.
As a Comforter, Jesus is sending us another one, the Holy Spirit even. This Comforter is there to help the Disciples, to help us, now that Jesus is gone. The Spirit changes us. The Spirit helps us. The Spirit aids us in following Jesus’ commandment. Thanks to the Spirit, we do not have to be alone. Thanks to the Spirit, we have God’s presence with us always.
It is through the work of the Spirit that we are able to be transformed to be able to love one another just as Jesus loves us. It is the power of the Spirit that led Ignatius to a new form of life, one that he is still remembered for and remembered well.
If we are to be a parish that bears the name of Holy Comforter, then we need to live into all which that means. We have a special call to live into the commandment of tonight, to as Jesus tells us “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
Jesus’ commandment is inseparable from His sending us the Holy Spirit to be another Comforter to us, just as Jesus was a comforter in His earthly ministry. We need to be an example of love, not just to each other but the community beyond our walls.
Thankfully we have hope in the Comforter Jesus has given us: the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is there with us all the way. The Spirit is there to guide us through. The Spirit is there to fundamentally change us so that we can live into Jesus’ words and love one another as Jesus first loved us.