Sherry Sterling

Dear friends,

I’ve been wondering why this Thursday before Easter is called Maundy Thursday. I knew it’s the day when Jesus had his last Passover meal with his disciples, that we now call The Last Supper.

But why the word maundy?

“Maundy” is short for the Latin mandatum, meaning mandate or command. This is the meal when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and gave them a new commandment: to love one another.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. —John 12: 34

Isn’t it interesting that this is considered a new commandment?

Earlier in his ministry, according to the other three gospels, Jesus had said the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves.

So this new commandment, to love each other as Jesus loves us, invites a leveling up of love.

Not just to love others as much as we love ourselves—which already stretches us beyond natural self-interest, but to love others like Jesus loved the disciples. He, who was called “teacher” and “Lord” by his disciples, washed their feet.

Jesus modeled literally lowering oneself from a position of power to serve those who look up to us. And he said we should do this for each other—across the same level of position, too.

From a psychological view, serving others ends up creating a happier life than self-focus.

Tara Brach, a psychologist and Insight meditation teacher, said in a recent talk: “Our positive emotions arise when we are not fixating on self. Think about it: Gratitude, joy, happiness—it’s not like we’re ruminating about, ‘What’s going to help me? How can I get more? What’s wrong?’ There’s more of an openness. There’s an outflow.”

She goes on to describe how when there’s a “fixation on an endangered sense of self” it activates the limbic system, the part of the brain that is concerned with monitoring threats to our survival.

However, “when we move into a well-being cycle, we’re actually activating the social brain that is responsible for empathy, intuition and sensitivity.”

Turns out, we are actually happier when we’re engaged in caring for others, rather than concerned primarily with our own wellbeing.

Serving others, fueled by savoring the Divine through communion, as Jesus modeled in the Last Supper.

Peace and love,

—Sherry