March 29, 2024
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for Holy Thursday (the Mass of the Lord’s Supper) on March 28, 2024 at The Paulist Center in Boston, MA. The homily is based on the evening’s readings: Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; and John 13:1-15.
It’s profound what Jesus did on the night before he died. John tells us that Jesus knows what is about to befall him. He is about to be betrayed, beaten, mocked, condemned, and… crucified. And yet, on the last evening of his life, Jesus offers a remarkable gift to his disciples and to all of us. A gift. A legacy. How profound!
It’s not only profound; it’s humbling. Jesus, after leading blessings at the ritual meal with his beloved disciples, starts washing their feet. At that time in the Middle East, hosts of meals would sometimes provide for their guests to have their feet washed. But either the guests washed their feet themselves, or servants would wash their feet. Never had a host washed the feet of his guests, and never in the middle of a meal. Jesus, the Begotten One of God, bows down before his followers and washes the grime from their feet.
What does it mean, to wash someone else’s feet? When you come right down to it, washing someone’s feet doesn’t do a whole lot for them. The moment they get up and walk, their feet will become dirty again. And the person doing the washing has to go through a fair amount of effort – to get a pitcher of water, a basin, and a towel, and to hold someone else’s careworn feet. But it’s the very triviality of the benefit and the amount of effort and humility required that makes it so special. It says: “I care about you. I am connected to you. We have a lasting, enduring relationship with one another. I love you.” Something so simple, and yet so profound and humbling!
It’s not only profound and humbling; it’s also challenging. Jesus calls us to do likewise. Imagine what a better world it would be if Joe Biden would kneel and wash the feet of Donald Trump, and if Donald Trump would wash the feet of Joe Biden. Imagine if members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet washed the feet of the leaders of Hamas, and if the leaders of Hamas washed the feet of the members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet. When we wash someone else’s feet — even the feet of someone whose politics we detest, or the feet of a family member who rejects an essential part of who we are — when we wash someone else’s feet, our relationship with that person can never be the same. When we wash someone else’s feet, it begins to break down the barriers between us. When we wash someone else’s feet, we pledge that we care about them, that we are trying to love them as Christ loves us. How challenging!
If you can’t even imagine washing the feet of someone you dislike, or of someone with whom you think you have nothing in common, can you at least express your care for someone you don’t know very well here in this chapel tonight by washing their feet? Even if you want to say, “Foot washing isn’t really my ‘thing,’” we warmly invite you to participate in this profound, humbling, and challenging ritual tonight. Here’s how it works: you’ll come forward to one of our foot-washing stations — either on the main floor or up in the balcony. Once you’re seated, take off your shoes and socks, and someone else will wash your feet. After the other person has dried your feet with a towel, put your socks and shoes back on, and then kneel in front of the chair, so that you can wash the feet of the next person in line. If you have a hard time kneeling, the station in front of the tabernacle [point] has two chairs, and Bob will gladly assist you with the foot washing. Even if it feels impractical for you to participate, please come forward, and we’ll find a creative way to include you in this rite! And, in the interest of public health, we’ll have a bottle of hand sanitizer at each station, so you can cleanse your hands afterwards. (We’ve tried to think of every concern that you may have!) To wash someone else’s feet is challenging, but we hope that you’ll accept the challenge.
Because the act of foot washing is not only profound, humbling, and challenging. It’s also life changing. If you’re uncomfortable having your feet washed by someone else, that’s normal. Honestly, most of us are probably more willing to wash someone else’s feet than to allow them to wash our feet. It has been said that love is easier to give than to receive. But think about this: we profess that God loves each of us, just as we are. Jesus says to each of us: “I care about you. I am connected to you. We have a lasting, enduring relationship with one another. I love you.” No matter how ugly or dirty you think your feet may be, I assure you that we at the Paulist Center want to express God’s unconditional love for you. To express our communion with you.
Communion. Yes, that is what we celebrate tonight. Whenever we gather for Mass, we share one bread, just as Jesus did on the night before he died. And starting tonight, after a 4-year hiatus, for those who are comfortable doing so, we’ll have the opportunity to share the cup, too. Why do we share the bread and the cup? To say what we say when we wash one another’s feet: “I care about you. I am connected to you. Because we are all children of God, we have a lasting, enduring relationship with one another. I love you.”
On the night before he died, Jesus Christ gave us a new commandment: to love one another as he loves us. When we wash one another’s feet tonight, we demonstrate Christ’s unconditional love for us, and we demonstrate our pledge to love one another unconditionally as Christ unconditionally loves us. Every time we gather for Eucharist, we celebrate Christ’s unconditional love for us, and in receiving the Eucharist, we are strengthened in our pledge to love one another unconditionally as Christ unconditionally loves us.
My friends: God loves us, just as we are. Over these next three days, may the Holy Spirit help us to come to a deeper understanding of God’s profound, humbling, challenging, life-changing love.