Even in the frigid cold can our hearts burn. But if not tended, we may lose ourselves along the way. The only way to tend such a flame—that is, the flame which lives in the heart—is with love, both given and received. Hence, Jesus commands the disciples: “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34). Love is our blood, our bones, our very being. Even when this is understood, to say “peace I leave with you” is a daring thing to say to a room full of friends who have some inkling of Jesus’ impending demise (John 14:27). Death looms. The disciples know it and Jesus reminds them constantly: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

Maundy Thursday is the day of the Last Supper. What Scripture intimates is not only the God’s glory will shine in Christ’s sacrifice, but also that the disciples are tasked with living like Jesus, by giving themselves in service, even unto death. Maundy Thursday’s message rests in the middle of the anticipation of a friend to become martyr. The anticipation of this moment is also a mystery that beckons us to become little eucharists, as the mystical Body of Christ.

Along the way, moreover, we must care for those little things which carry us, for if grace abounds anywhere, it abounds in our feet too. It is, for many, elation to have one’s feet washed, but we should also ask: Who are my feet? Who helps to bear my burdens? Who carries me along the way? How to tend the flame beneath my feet and in my heart? Washing is evermore efficacious when the water is warmed with a flame. Do these things in the face of death. Love loudly, quietly, and unashamedly, for “love is as strong as death” (Song of Solomon 8:6). Christ’s command to love one another is not without root in reality. On the contrary, it is a command to tend closely to all that so intimately sustains us and helps us to be. Death has no claim over us because it has no claim over Him.