Holy Thursday
Jn 13: 1-15
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him.
And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Live the Example of the Lord
Jesus partially undressing, wrapping a towel around himself, and washing the feet of the disciples. It is a memorable event, visual and visceral. We know the disciples’ surprise and discomfort from Peter’s very human reaction. I’ve felt an echo of that discomfort having my own feet washed at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. “As I have done for you, you should also do” – not in gauzy theory, but in gritty reality.
Ten years ago on Holy Thursday, parts of the Church were disputing who should be permitted to have their feet washed at this Mass. Pope Francis, elected only two weeks prior, went to a youth detention center and washed and kissed the feet of twelve prisoners, including two women and two Muslims. He explained to them: “It is the example of the Lord.” Can we also live the example and hand it on?
—Allain Andry is the Charlotte cohort coordinator for Contemplative Leaders in Action, an Ignatian spirituality and leadership program for young adults that is a program of the Office of Ignatian Spirituality. He is also a spiritual director at St. Peter Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC, the Jesuit parish in the Diocese of Charlotte.
Prayer
Jesus, give us the courage to go out, to do as you have done for us, and to encounter you in the process.
“It is not in soul-searching [as a Church] . . . that we encounter the Lord. We need to go out . . . to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters.”
—Pope Francis, Chrism Mass homily, Holy Thursday, 2013