Holy Thursday! A day where people around the world gather together in Jesus name to commemorate the three mysteries of today’s celebration: the institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the priesthood and Christ’s commandment of brotherly love. Mysteries, which are inter-related and any of them will be meaningless without the understanding of the others. We must have a clear idea of the meaning of the washing of the feet if we really want to understand the importance of the Eucharist and the significance of the new commandment.
2000 plus years ago, the popular way to go from one place to another was on foot and they walked long distances on rough and dusty roads. You can imagine the feet of the people when they arrived in Jerusalem from Galilee for example. For sure their feet will be sore with blisters and painful. It was therefore normal that the house servant of slaves would provide a warm foot-bath and massage to relieve their pain and to restore energy to continue and complete their journey. For sure the disciples would have understood Jesus washing their feet in light of this cultural background, however for John and for us it is an indicator to the meaning of the Eucharist we celebrate.
Nowadays we do not travel on foot. We have faster and more comfortable means of transport, however our life as Christians is a hard journey in this long pilgrimage. Along the way we find difficulties, trials, get tired, worn out and out of energy to continue our journey and we may be tempted to give up. But Jesus has given a place where we can go in to bath our aching feet and to be refreshed in body and soul for the journey that is still ahead. That place is the Eucharist. This is very well expressed in the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. When we give communion to a sick person, we call it viaticum which means “provisions for a journey.” This is my Body and this is my blood, take it, eat and drink. With this words Jesus is telling us that his Body and his Blood is always a viaticum to regain strength to continue our journey toward God
As we can see in the Gospel we just read, John doesn’t give any account of Institution of the Eucharist at all. I believe this is not an omission. This story of the washing of the feet explains the two Sacraments: that of the Priesthood, and that of the Eucharist. It tells us what it means. By washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus is saying, “This is my body; this is my blood; Do this in memory of me.” And, he is also saying, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
By washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus is establishing a close link between him washing the disciples’ feet and the disciples washing the feet of others. If the Eucharist is the place where the Lord washes our feet, daily life is the place where we ought to wash the feet of others. True Eucharist piety must lead to service of others. Jesus who broke the bread of the Eucharist also washed the feet of his disciples.
The Eucharist is the start and finish of our journey. It is the place and the center from which we are sent out to bring Christ to the world. We should not be afraid to get our feet dirty, to run out of energy. There is no other way of putting into practice Jesus command, “this is my blood, this y my flesh, do this in memory of me†than by passing through the dust and mess of the world in which the world is. We cannot love and keep our feet clean. We cannot love and save our life. The washing of the feet is not the prelude to the Eucharist, it is the Eucharist.
What we have just listened in the Gospel is only part of John’s account of the Last Supper; John’s account concludes with Jesus’ Priestly Prayer. During that prayer to the Father, Jesus prays for the apostles, “Consecrate them in the truth.†My dear brothers in religious life, tonight we celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the gift of Priesthood to the Church. Jesus in the Upper Room embraced the fullness of humanity and showed us the way. Let us consider ourselves the first ones to get our feet dirty and the first one to follow Jesus example, to bend down and wash the feet of our brothers and sisters who cross our path. Jesus knelt down at the feet of his friends and washed them, and called upon them to do the same to each other. That is our calling, too. In whatever form it needs to take, we are call to be companions of our brother and sisters in the long journey, to relief their spiritual aching and help them regain their strength so that they may be transformed by the truth.
Holy Thursday is also known as Maundy Thursday. The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin word mandatum which means “commandâ€. Holy Thursday is a day of love, the day when Jesus showed us the depth of his love. He instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist where he gives his own body and blood, and to fulfill his promise of being with us as our daily nourishment, he instituted the sacrament of the Priesthood. Through the ministry of priests, the Eucharist is celebrated until Jesus comes again in his glory.
Tonight, my dear brothers and sisters we are given a new commandment, a lesson in how we are to give ourselves to and for each other. “I have given you a model to follow,” he says, “You too should wash one another’s feet. As I have done for you, you should do for one another. Blessed are you if you do it.”