Holy Thursday

Post date: Apr 03, 2020 2:59:25 PM

Holy Thursday Reflection by Fr. Jerome Kodell (in Give Us this Day)

“Are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus is standing before me with a pitcher and basin and a towel. I can’t believe it. I can’t stand it. “You will never wash my feet” Like Peter, I want to do something for Jesus, not have him do something for me. Especially after the denials, which both of us have to own up to.

“Are you going to wash my feet? No way!”

But Jesus has already been washing my feet for a long time. In fact, for all my life. He has been serving me, though I should be serving him. All he wants is for me to accept this gift: “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

Well, if you put it that way, okay.

But I have to be careful about what I’m getting into. On another occasion, James and John were asked by Jesus, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?” (Mark 10:38). They glibly replied that they could, without realizing what that meant. Only later in the Garden, did it become clear what drinking the cup would mean, and even Jesus recoiled from it. But he embraced his vocation and presented us an opportunity in the Eucharist to commit ourselves to drinking the cup.

The cup is not mentioned in John’s narrative of the Supper, but he has his own form of “Do this in memory of me”—the words, “As I have done, you should also do.” If you want inheritance with me, you will drink the cup and you will wash one another’s feet. Often that will be the same thing.

May our sacrifices united with our prayers bring strength to all affected by this pandemic.