Today's Gospel
Proclamation and of course the rest of the celebration cannot be understood
apart from the action depicted in the Gospel: the washing of feet. This is not
just a side incident or an introduction to the main point of the dinner. This
is one way of stating what the gift of His Body and Blood proclaim: Jesus Christ offers Himself up completely
for us, and then calls us to offer ourselves up completely for others. My brother,
my sister, the washing of feet is an action demanding our humble acceptance of
the Lord and an action mandating that we do to others what is done for us: serve
them without limits, with sacrificial love[1].
When Jesus
washed the feet of his disciples he performed, let us say, a prophetic action. Even a slave could not be made to wash the feet
of his or her master. It was degrading, disgusting. But not to the Lord. He
would empty Himself in service to His people. He would give Himself completely to them. He would give them
His Body and Blood. He would die on the cross for them. He would demonstrate to
them that the Love of God had no limits. Nothing was too demanding. Love was
all that matters. The Last Supper began with a prophetic act demonstrating the
love them and us all experience pouring down on us from the cross.
But this action
of the Lord demands, at the same time,
that we accept Him in our lives. We need our Savior. We cannot conquer the
evils of the world alone. We have to let Him save us, and Jesus save us trough
the Church which is “Sacrament of Salvation”[2].
You remember this very well: Peter tried to prevent the Lord from humbling
Himself: Would you wash my feet, Lord?[3]
And Jesus tells Him and us that if we do not allow Him to give Himself to us,
if we are so proud to think that we do not need Him, or we do not need the
Sacrament of Confession, or we do not need the Magisterium of the Church, then
He will have no part of us.
So, this evening
we are reminded that the Meal of Love begins with our humble recognition that
we need Christ to empty Himself for us.
In a few moments
we will perform the symbolic action of washing the feet of the children of our
parish, and afterwards we will celebrate the action of Christ in His Gift of
Body and Blood. At the end of the Mass we will process with the Blessed
Sacrament and we will wait and watch with Him remembering his night at the
Garden of Olives. Let us pray for the
humility to be nourished by Him and the determination to nourish others. But
especially let us pray together may we be a Eucharistic People ■
