Holy Thursday - Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper
I read an article today by the Catholic News Service about Pope Francis recently making a surprise visit to a group of homeless people in the Sistine Chapel while they were enjoying a private visit there. According to the article, the Vatican Museums had closed early to allow these special guests of the papal almoner to have the Sistine Chapel to themselves, accompanied by professional guides. The pope greeted each of these guests who live on the streets around the Vatican, asking them to pray for him and giving them a blessing before they were served dinner in the museum’s cafeteria.
This sort of thing is no longer a surprise to most people who have come to know Pope Francis’s way of relating to others, especially the poor. And yet it still touches me as a beautiful example of kindness and love. A little detail that was included in the news story spoke to me perhaps even more. Apparently one of the homeless men, Mario, declined the papal invitation because he had nowhere to leave his 5-month-old puppy, “Cookie,” who he had found abandoned in a dumpster. Mario referred to the puppy as his “baby.” A man with so little has plenty of love and self-giving for a vulnerable, abandoned creature of God, not unlike himself.
This entire story speaks to me of the kind of self-giving love that Jesus modeled for his disciples when he washed their feet the night before he died. From John’s gospel today we read Jesus’ words, “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should do also.” The reading tells us that Jesus performed this act of humble service while “fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.” Even with everything in his power Jesus took the role of one who is servant and powerless.
Soon after, he offers his life, his body and blood, which we celebrate in the institution of the Eucharist (see today’s second reading from 1 Corinthians) along with the foot washing in Holy Thursday’s beautiful evening mass. Both acts connect us in a physical way with God, our Creator. Jesus didn’t just preach love, he lived it; he embodied it, and he offers it to us.
As we enter into the Easter Triduum this Holy Thursday, let us be mindful that we, too, are the body of Christ. How are we being called to serve one another? Whose feet am I being asked to kneel down and wash with loving hands? What do I need to die to in myself so that I may more fully enter into the Easter celebration with joy?
The new commandment is simple yet challenging: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13: 34b)
Eileen Miller