Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Rudy Horst SVD – Christ the King Mission Seminary, Quezon City
Commemoration of the Lord’s Supper – Holy Thursday
When I was six or seven years old, I was allowed to join the altar boys, not to serve yet, but to observe and learn how to serve. How surprised I was when, after the Gospel was read in Latin which I could not understand, the priest took off his vestment and went to twelve men, sitting on chairs near the Communion rail. They had removed their shoes and socks from their right feet waiting for the priest to wash their obviously clean feet.
Over the years I learned its meaning and, later as priest, washed on Holy Thursday also the feet of twelve men. Another surprise came the other year, when I saw on TV Pope Francis washing the feet not only of men but also of women. And among them were Muslims!
Asking what Holy Thursday is all about, the usual reply is: “It’s the day of the institution of the Eucharist.” Correct. But John does not tell anything about it; he replaces the institution narrative with that of the washing of the feet. Why?
First of all, when John wrote the Gospel the institution of the Eucharist had already been described three times by Mark, Matthew and Luke. And he had dedicated a whole chapter (ch.6) to the Bread of Life, the Eucharist where Jesus humbles Himself every day to serve His followers in an unprecedented way. It was necessary for John’s Christian community – and us – to realize that Christ gave an example. We have to learn from Him, we have to imitate Him and so make His love and service visible to the people of our time.
Jesus was demonstrating that to love as He loves, to follow Him, we must be willing to serve, to get down on our knees and get dirty. In the kingdom of heaven there is no job too small, too menial, beneath us. To follow Him means to live a life of service. And so to get us started, Jesus begins, as usual, at the bottom: by washing feet.
John reminds us that the Eucharist was not given to us to stand on its own. The Eucharist is magnificent, of course. Through it, God unites Himself with us and us with God who shares His love with us. And this love has to be shared by getting down and “washing our neighbor’s feet,” by serving them in their needs. That makes us real CHRISTians.
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