As we continue to live out the Easter celebration in the coming weeks, my mind keeps going back to my favorite Mass of the year: Holy Thursday. This particular feast became my favorite as an adult, when we started going to a church that celebrated this day by actually washing each other’s feet. It is always so moving and humbling to see the priest tie a towel around his waist and then bend to wash the feet of twelve people chosen from the community. Whoever cares to process forward to have their feet washed may do so, and then in turn, they wash the feet of the next person who approaches. This is loving service. This is being vulnerable to others and trusting that we are all part of one body that takes care of each other.
One of the things I learned in Lay Ministry Formation class a few years back is how drastically different the Gospel of John is compared to the prior three: the Synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John is by far, the most spiritual of all the gospels. Jesus is confident in everything he is doing, often spouting long discourses that explain things he is much more mysterious about in the other gospels. The Synoptics capture our curiosity and draw us in, and then John seems to reveal everything in full.
With this in mind, I keep pondering the fact that the Last Supper, as described in Matthew, Mark, and Luke details how Jesus broke bread and offered the cup to his disciples, telling them that the bread was his body and the wine was his blood. In the Catholic tradition I was raised in, this is known as the Institution of the Eucharist.
John’s gospel, however, shows us a very different Last Supper scene. Jesus does not break bread and offer wine. Instead, he gets up from the table, takes off his outer garment, ties a towel around his waist and gets busy washing the feet of his disciples. They are astonished by this, as this is the task of a servant, not a master. While foot washing was common when entering a home, washing the foot of another person was not the usual routine. (Why would it be? Gross, right?) But as Jesus often does, he turns common assumptions upside down, and challenges us to leave our comfort zones. (1)
When he is done washing their feet, he challenges them with these words, “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: 12b-15)
True to form, John reveals the depth of Jesus’ example. He is saying, “Look! This is the most important thing. This is the heart of Jesus’ ministry and message.”
Jesus explicitly says he has given us a model to follow. So the question remains: how are we doing with that?
Due to continued COVID precautions, our church did not have a foot washing this year, but we were invited to stand and briefly share an experience of foot washing in our lives. We were to consider who had given of themselves completely in service to us, with no thought of their own gain. The stories were remarkable: a wife thanking her husband as they raise their first child, a woman with cancer thanking all the people who have brought meals for her family, and thanks to doctors, nurses and teachers who have truly given everything they have in this past year.
I left Mass that night wishing that the foot washing was what we always focused on. There is so much division over the Eucharist: who “understands” it best, who is “worthy”, how to receive it. I wonder sometimes if Jesus thinks, “You missed the whole point.”
We are wasting so much time arguing about the Eucharist and leaving people out, when instead, we should be opening ourselves to everyone we encounter, and do as Jesus did: wash their feet.
Let’s get busy.
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