Holy Thursday -Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Some people don’t like to have their feet touched. My daughter, for one, thinks feet are “gross” and doesn’t want anyone to touch her feet. When we’re born, our feet start out so clean and smooth and fresh, and then after years of wear and tear, they become rougher, calloused, cut and bruised, and they smell bad! Jesus’ disciples walked everywhere they went and probably only wore sandals on the dusty, dry roads, so we can imagine how dirty their feet would get. Washing another person’s feet was an act that could not even be required of the lowliest Jewish slave, so imagine the disciples’ surprise when in today’s gospel reading of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper (John 13:1-15), Jesus gets up from the table, takes off his outer garment, wraps a towel around his waist, and begins to wash and dry the disciples’ feet.
Peter initially resists letting Jesus wash his feet until Jesus explains that although they do not understand now what he is doing, they will understand later, and that “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Peter seems to get the importance of this act and then wants Jesus to wash his hands and head as well! When Jesus has finished washing their feet he tells them that he has given them a model to follow, “so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
I think it’s noteworthy that the gospel passage begins by telling the reader that Jesus was “fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power…” As the Son of God, Jesus could have used his power in many ways, but he chose to model serving others with love, and offer his life, his body and blood, as a sacrifice for all to be freed from the bonds of sin and death. Holy Thursday’s evening mass celebrates the institution of the Eucharist (see today’s second reading from 1 Corinthians) as well as Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet. They are both acts that connect us in a physical way with God, our Creator. He doesn’t just talk about it; he lives it.
Over the years at various parishes I have been in, I’ve had the opportunity to both have my feet washed and to wash the feet of others. In those experiences, I have found that it takes greater humility for me to allow someone else to wash my feet than it does to wash theirs. It can be a grace-filled honor to serve others when it is done out of love. I think it is more difficult to expose our need, our vulnerabilities, our “dirt” to other people and allow them to “wash our feet”. Just as Peter felt unworthy and initially told Jesus “you will never wash my feet,” it can be difficult to open to others, and even to Jesus, to clean what is unclean. And yet I pray that we, as did Peter, may say “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
As we enter into the Easter Triduum, let us allow Jesus to wash us completely clean, not holding back any of ourselves of which we are ashamed. Let us pray, too, for the humility to be a servant to others and to let others be as Christ to us in our need. As the hymn, The Servant Song, so beautifully says, “Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you; pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.”
- Eileen Miller