Today’s scripture reading is John 13:1-20
Now before the festival of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. -John 13:1 NRSV
I’ll never forget a conversation that I had with my father before he died. He had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1989 and given about ten years to live. “Daddy, what’s it like to live, knowing that you’re dying?” My dad, a factory worker not known for his profundity, looked at me and replied, “Tommy, what’s it like to live, acting as if you’re NOT?”
What my dad was trying to teach his young son was that each day is one day closer to death. He wasn’t trying to be morbid; he was trying to help me see that each day is precious, an amazing gift from God, an opportunity to serve, and an opportunity to love. He didn’t want me to waste my days but instead to seize them and savor them.
In our scripture today, Jesus knew that it was the night before his crucifixion. He gathered with his closest friends, the original apostles, to celebrate the Passover. He knew that one of the men at the table would betray him, one of the men would deny him, and all of the men would desert him. And yet Jesus loved them to the end.
May God grant you the grace, in the words of Bishop John Shelby Spong, to “live fully and love wastefully” today.
