Holy Thursday Reflection, April 5: Holy Thursday 2007

Holy Thursday

Scripture Readings
Exodus 12: 1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116
1 Corinthians 11: 23-26
John 13: 1-15

Of all of the many and varied liturgical rituals that take place during the Church year, the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday is certainly one of the most meaningful. At the same time, it may strike some of us as a bit unusual or even strange. Some people are not very comfortable with this action. It is messy and time-consuming. Stooping down and getting up is awkward. No matter how sanitized we try to make it, with clean towels and customized basins, it is still messy. This is true for the priest who does the washing and for those who serve in the role of “apostles” (the “foot washees”!). It is awkward for some people to sit in front of a large congregation, take their shoes and socks off, and have their feet washed. A few years ago, I was in charge of setting up the Holy Thursday liturgy at a retreat house in which I was serving, and I really had to search to find volunteers who were willing to have their feet washed. The folks would head in the other direction when they saw me coming! People find this to be messy and embarrassing.

In the time of Jesus, this action of washing the feet of guests was a lot messier than we make it today. It was a very earthy gesture of hospitality and service. In a hot, dusty land where most people wore sandals, to wash the feet of another person was the menial task of a servant. It was a truly humbling act of service. As the Gospel tell us, Jesus uses this action of a servant to teach his disciples about his own authority and about the way in which they should relate to one another in the community of disciples. Through it he displays what John says about him, “He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.” If he, the teacher and master, exercises his authority through this humble gesture of service and care, they must show the same care for others. This action of washing the feet of the disciples summed up the way in which Jesus saw his role as servant of God and servant of the people of God. As he says to his disciples, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

This ritual of foot-washing reminds us that genuine love, the “love to the end” exhibited by Jesus, is often quite messy, awkward and humbling. As I reflected on this Gospel passage, I remembered visiting my brother Tom last summer when he was dying of brain cancer. Tom was a rather private and very dignified person, having been an officer in the Navy. His wife, Dot, also carries herself with great dignity. The first time I saw him in the hospice where he spent his last days, he was sitting in a chair trying to eat lunch. Dot, was trying to help him with his meal. Because of the effects of cancer, Tom was bent over in the chair, his head almost touching the table. Dot would gently lift his head so that he could eat some of the food. He would try to get the fork up to his mouth but often he would miss and she would have to wipe the food off the bib he was wearing, as well as his shirt and pants. He spilled the carton of milk all over himself and she had to wipe up that as well. It was all very messy stuff, awkward for Tom and Dot and awkward for me, Tom’s younger brother. It was towel-and-basin stuff. But it was also a very profound expression of my sister-in-law’s love for my brother “to the end.”

In the Gospel, this scene begins with the Gospel writer telling us that Jesus realized that the hour had come. This hour is a moment of conflict that will mean his death. It was a time in that upper room in which it must have seemed as if the walls were closing in upon him. Jesus was about to lose his freedom – to be arrested, tried and put to death. Yet at this hour he shows that he is supremely free. He is free because he has been faithful in the service of his Father, faithful in showing his disciples and others the meaning and reality of God’s tremendous love. Jesus is free enough to take up the basin and towel, stoop down, and wash the feet of his disciples. His path to freedom is one of humble, self-giving love, love “to the end.” In that faithful service, he knows that the God he has revealed will be faithful to him, too, and will release him from whatever binds him, even from the chains of death. In offering this act of footwashing to his disciples and to us, he tells us that this is our path to freedom, too. In the effort to respond to God’s presence and grace in our lives by serving others, serving them in all the messy details of daily life, we discover an inner freedom that nothing can take away.

Every time we celebrate the Eucharist we hear the words through which Jesus instituted this sacrifice-meal: “This is my body given for you; this is my blood poured out for you.” These words articulate the meaning of a sacrament; they also express a way of life. The celebration of the Eucharist and the washing of the feet go hand in hand. The basin-and-the-towel go hand in hand with the bread-and-cup. When we celebrate the Eucharist we dedicate ourselves to a way of life marked by humble service. We commit ourselves to a “love to the end” that is comprised of service. Each one of us falls short in this way of life; all of us struggle with selfishness and pride, with the inclination to be self-serving in our actions and in our whole approach to life. And so we stand in need of the forgiveness and strength of Christ. The Eucharist is one of the places where we find that forgiveness and strength. We come to the table of the Lord again and again to experience the Lord’s mercy and to receive food for our journey of discipleship. As we celebrate the Eucharist on this holy night, may we ask the Lord for the strength to emulate the pattern of his life, a model exemplified in the washing of the feet. May we be people of the basin-and-the-towel as well as the bread-and-the-cup.

Robin Ryan, CP