Holy Thursday - Homily 6

 Homily 6 - 2021

“If I have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet… I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you”.

Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet was a parable in action. It is John’s parallel to, and reinforces, the parable that Jesus enacted at his Last Supper -- according to the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke [and Paul]. There he had said, “Do this in memory of me”.

The important thing is to understand what he had done in metaphor, and to repeat it in life.

In John’s account of the foot-washing, Jesus’ action was a servant’s act of service, a metaphor of his boundless love for the disciples. That metaphor became reality on the next day when Jesus, went so far as to give his life -- motivated by his utter conviction of the essential necessity of the way of love if the world is ever to be saved from itself. Jesus went so far as to say that Peter would never have anything “in common with Jesus” if he did not let Jesus “wash his feet”, that is, give his life, expend all his energy, out of his total commitment in love for the world.

Jesus made the same point, in the accounts of the Eucharist found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and in Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians. There they said, as Jesus took the loaf of bread and broke it into pieces so that it could be eaten by all those present, “This is my body, which will be given up for you”. Jesus was soon to let his body be broken as the price of his unshakeable commitment to the way of love as the means to the world’s salvation.

He made the same point when he took the cup of wine and passed that around. He said it was his “blood” that would be “shed for you and for ‘the many’ so that sins may be forgiven” and people freed from their instinctive violence; and be regularly reminded, and learn, to live together genuinely in mutual respect, care and love.

Much like what he had said when he had washed the disciples’ feet, Jesus said to the disciples, “Do this in memory of me” – never forget it, understand it, and live it. Give your lives in service to each other, in service indeed to all, if the world is to have any chance of becoming truly alive, any taste of salvation.

The eucharistic action took place, takes place, as did the foot-washing, in the context of a meal shared together. Meals can be beautiful parables of mutual respect, friendship and love. Our task is to make sure that the parable, contained in every meal and every Eucharist, is translated into life.

“If I have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet… I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you”.

“Do this in memory of me”.