All Saints by the Lake, Dorval
April 2, 2026
St. John’s, Little Gidding
In Holy Week, I always find myself returning to T. S. Eliot.
On this Maundy Thursday, specifically to the line from “Little Gidding”: “A condition of complete simplicity (costing not less than everything)”.
When Jesus rises from the table to wash his disciples’ feet, it is on one level the simplest imaginable action. And when he then gives them a new commandment to love one another as he has loved them, that too seems almost childishly simple.
And it may be simple in the sense of easy to understand. But as soon as you start thinking about it, let alone trying to put it into action, you realize that this condition of complete simplicity will cost you not less than everything.
Because if we love each other as Jesus has loved us, that means taking up our cross. It means facing torture and death. It means serving and giving without regard to our comfort, our reputation, or our gain.
This is one of the things that scares me about, say, engaging with someone begging in the metro – because if you take the time to pause, if you offer to buy them a meal or just actually listen to them about their life, then you have opened yourself up to the entirety of the world’s pain and need, and where does it end?
It’s like a pit opens up before you and you step back from the edge, horrified because you might fall in. Is Jesus asking us to jump into the pit?
On one level, yes, if we have to – and Jesus has gone with us into that pit and on Saturday night he’ll reach down and pull us out. But I can’t help thinking that it’s maybe still not the best idea to be constantly flinging ourselves into the pit on purpose, as a matter of principle.
And yes, if we all decided overnight to behave this way, then we would get back as much as we gave, and the problem would solve itself. But that hasn’t happened yet, and who knows when it will. Does that mean that in order to be a good Christian you have to abandon boundaries, embrace total selflessness, pour yourself out unto exhaustion and never complain?
As you can probably tell from my tone, I think the answer is “absolutely not”. I know people who have fallen into this pattern, who have become completely captive to what their families want, or to a particular good cause, or to what they think a good person has to do (that has nothing to do with what actually brings them joy and fulfilment), and the resulting burnout and dysfunction can be very, very ugly – and not just for that person, but for everyone around them. Such dynamics are not God-given or God-willed.
But here we are, on Maundy Thursday, with Jesus inviting us to a condition of complete simplicity costing not less than everything. Not inviting – commanding. Giving us a new commandment, to love one another as he has loved us.
But Jesus is God and we are not. Jesus has already died on the cross to save the whole world; none of us have to do that.
So what does it mean to take this commandment seriously? What would this condition of complete simplicity look like? What does it mean for it to cost us everything, if it is also going to be life-giving?
For us to love one another as we love God and love ourselves, and as Jesus has loved us, means that we can have only one ultimate motivation in our lives, which is the full and complete flourishing of every human being and of the whole creation. And that very much includes our own flourishing, with all the gifts that God has given us.
We have as much right to a joyful and fruitful life as anyone else, but we are not permitted to have any other priorities. Not material gain, not ambition, not national pride, not revenge for perceived wrongs, not the desire for control or the desire to look good, not even family loyalty or romantic love: the only criterion a Christian may have is whether their actions are in accordance with God’s will for the flourishing of the whole creation.
None of us are called to do it all – each of us is called only to a tiny portion of the work – but this must be the priority that unites us all, and is symbolized by the Saviour who girds himself with a towel and kneels to wash our feet. That is what it means to love one another as God has loved us. And that will cost us everything, but it will also give us everything.
Quick now, here, now, always–
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
Amen.
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