An example worth following

Tonight we are gathered to relive the first moment of the Pascal Triduum. In order to better understand and appreciate the significance of this moment in the life of Jesus and his disciples, we must re-read the narrative provided to us in the first reading we heard tonight. This is a meal that is shared with family and neighbours (cf Ex 12:4) but it is not a meal like any other normal meal. This meal must be eaten quickly: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand (Ex 12:11). It may seem strange that this meal is eaten so quickly, but there was a deep meaning to this evening and in the shared meal.

It was this Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples the night before his death, but that night Jesus did two things that astonished his disciples: the breaking of the bread and the washing of the feet. The details are recounted in the Gospel story (John 13:1-15) and in the letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11:23-26).

Two thousand years later, the breaking of bread is part of the ordinary life of the Church; it lives in her memory like a most precious treasure. Not so with the washing of feet. This gesture, strange and often annoying, is only done on Holy Thursday, and even so ... this is not always the case. However, these two acts - the breaking of the bread and the washing of the feet - are inseparable because of their origin and their meaning: both are born out of the same love that beats in the heart of Jesus, love that is offered to the world. As for the Eucharist, Christ commands his disciples to do as he did: You too must wash one another's feet (John 13:15), he says.

We can imagine the disciples' heads when Jesus knelt before them. This gesture, which manifests the folly of God, was the exact opposite of their dreams of greatness. Christ becomes a servant because he knows only how to love. The people of God - that is, we - can not hope to do better in our heads and in our hearts than to renounce the temptations of power and instead to serve the Gospel and one another.

The Holy Thursday liturgy we are experiencing reminds us of this truth. It's up to us to put it into practice.