Holy Thursday

On Holy Thursday, we celebrate three anniversaries: 1) the anniversary of the first Holy Mass, 2) the anniversary of the institution of ministerial priesthood, in order to perpetuate the Holy Mass, convey God’s forgiveness to repentant sinners and preach the Good News of salvation, 3) the anniversary of Jesus’ promulgation of His new commandment of love: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). The word Maundy means Commandment; therefore Maundy Thursday means the day Jesus gave the commandment of love.  

 It was at the conclusion of the Passover meal that Jesus himself added two more symbols. He took a loaf and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying: Take eat, this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me. Then he took a cup with wine. He drank from it and gave it to his disciples saying, “ Take drink of this, for this is my blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin.” Thus was born our sacrament of the Lord's Supper, out of the experience of an ancient Jewish custom.

On this night, Jesus already knew that Judas had betrayed him and he already knew that the powers of darkness were circling. In this most vulnerable of moments, his focus is not on himself. If it were any of us we would be focusing only on ourselves. Rather, Jesus gives each person present all of his love.

He knew the trials that were soon to crush his mortal body. They would be a means to prove his worth: his love. “He loved his own in the world, and he loved them to the end.” Love endures anything. Love can draw forth good even from the worst of situations. Love redeems. The very betrayal of his friendship will let him demonstrate the authenticity of his friendship: “There is no greater love than to lay one’s life down for one’s friends.”

The Apostles sensed the added intensity in Jesus' words and manner, and their own expectations rose to a higher pitch. And when Jesus interrupts the Passover ritual by standing up, their eyes are fixed on him. Conversation ceases. Eating stops.  Jesus walks over to the large water jug, the silence deepens. Slowly, deliberately, but still without a word, Jesus begins washing their feet. Only Peter breaks the silence. Peter’s reaction, Master, are you going to wash my feet?” does not come as a request, rather as a resistant acknowledgment of what Jesus is about to do. Do humility and love need our ‘permission’? The question is: who is humble enough to receive someone else’s love? Am I humble enough to receive Jesus’ love for me? Jesus’ humility and charity are purifying in their effect. In fact, precisely the attitude, “You will never wash my feet,” needs to be washed away. Only the poor in spirit, the pure of heart, the childlike enter the Kingdom of heaven: “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

When Jesus started washing the disciples' feet, it was shocking for two reasons.

First, because of the nature of the task. 

In ancient Palestine, washing other people's feet was a job reserved for slaves. By lowering himself to the level of a slave, then, Jesus is making it forever clear to his Apostles, that the way of Christ is a way of self-giving, not self-indulgence. Jesus never sought to get, but only to give. His followers are to do the same. That in itself goes far beyond simply being nice.

But secondly, he was disrupting the sacred ritual of the most hallowed ceremony in Jewish tradition: the Passover Seder, the ceremony that God himself had commanded Moses to institute to commemorate the Israelites' miraculous escape from Egypt.

God himself had established the rules of that ceremony, and Jesus was deviating from them, adding to them, just as he did when he established the Eucharist. Clearly, Jesus sees himself as more than just another teacher or prophet, on the same level as Moses. Only God himself can alter God's commands.

Our celebration of the Eucharist requires that we wash one another’s feet, i.e., serve one another, and revere Christ's presence in other persons. In practical terms, that means we are to consider their needs to be as important as our own and to serve their needs, without expecting any reward. 

When he washes their feet he shows his love. The main message here is not that I should go and wash the feet of others – though of course we are called to do that every day. No, the main message is that we are to let Jesus wash our feet, to let Jesus wipe away our weariness, to let Jesus heal the scars of our straying, and to let Jesus’ love renew our bodies and souls. This is what Jesus chooses to do in the face of death.

Symbolically we will have 12 people getting their feet washed now. Getting our feet washed, even ritually, also requires certain amount of humility. But all of us need to let Jesus wash us from the ground up, with all the affection and hope he has been carrying for us. If we won’t let him do that, we will lose our part with him. Decide today, do we want part with him? Then humble ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus.