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Holy Thursday
“So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, ‘Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do,’” (John 13:12-15).
Today’s Gospel reading models what Christian love looks like. Jesus bends down and washes the feet of his disciples, commanding them to do the same for others. In the washing of feet and the sacrament of the Eucharist, we see “the same mystery of a divine expression of love.” Both show Jesus humbly lowering down, meeting us where we are, and offering an expression of love.
Pope Francis said: “There is much that we can do to benefit the poor, the needy and those who suffer, and to favor justice, promote reconciliation and build peace. But before all else we need to keep alive in our world the thirst for the absolute, and to counter the dominance of a one-dimensional vision of the human person, a vision which reduces human beings to what they produce and to what they consume: this is one of the most insidious temptations of our time.”[1][2][3][4]
Written by Sarah Ciotti
Reviewed by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB, STD
[1] Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Adrien Nocent, The Liturgical Year: Volume Two (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014), 159-174.
[3] John Paul II, Homily, April 17, 2003.
[4] Francis I, Address, March 20, 2013.