It’s Time to Take Flight
At the Last Supper, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet.
Today I am imagining the Exodus journey. God delivered the Israelites from slavery, freeing them for life in the Promised Land. They were instructed to eat with “loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand. You shall eat like those who are in flight” (Exodus 12:11). The Passover meal celebrated by Jesus 1300 years later has become for Christians the Eucharistic meal. Today it compels me to respond as I can to injustice.
The Passover and Eucharist
To eat the Passover meal as one “in flight” means I am not to remain at the table or be still for too long. I’m meant to move: to go from the Eucharist table out to the world and be the body and blood of Jesus for others. Gazing alone is keeping me away from my call to serve, to “wash the feet” of others. Eucharist is important, but if I watch the events in our nation and world without trying to respond in some way to the suffering and injustice then I fail to understand what and who I am receiving. Am I allowing others to convince me that these decisions are necessary to become a “great” nation – that sacrificing the dignity and humanity of others is worth a future promised by and for the elite few?
I can choose to wait, to be still, to even cheer it on. Hold on, maybe they’re going too far but let’s give it time because soon we will all profit, be safer, and benefit from the suffering and egregious injustices happening now.
“Do this in remembrance of me.” Let us remember – but our memory is selective. We briefly consider the washing of feet and then return to our gazing. It’s too uncomfortable to touch bare feet, let alone allow someone else to touch mine! “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Peter was indignant and horrified at the idea of his beloved master acting as a slave. Jesus, patient and tender, explains that here lies the heart of it all.
Holy Thursday
Jesus asks, “Do you realize what I have done for you?” (John 13:12) Jesus, our Lord and Savior – GOD – washed the feet of his disciples. Remember that.
Each Holy Thursday, Pope Francis washes the feet of unexpected people: male and female prisoners, refugees, young people of different nationalities, and Muslims. This symbolic gesture speaks louder than words, stirring the faithful to remember the God of mercy and welcome. He reminds us that we as a Church are called to wash the feet of all people, sinners. Jesus washed the feet of sinful men. Judas! His betrayer – let’s remember that he washed his feet, too. With tenderness and an outpouring of mercy, Jesus shocked them, he made them uncomfortable. The job of a slave, the lowest of the low.
It makes me think of the mega-prison in El Salvador. Someone compared it to a concentration camp but for profit. I see it. On so many levels, the existence of such prisons ought to make me cry out! These men are children of God, free to receive God’s mercy; but how will they know that’s an option if no one shows them? Who will wash their feet? And so we send them unwanted migrants, even the innocent.
After washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you.”(John 13:34) To love as Jesus loved means that I do what Jesus would do. Lord, help me to love as you love.
This morning, I read a reflection by Michelle Francl-Donnay in “Give Us This Day.” I am sharing it with you because it lit a fire in me. May your experience of the Paschal Triduum help you to take flight.
“This liturgy begs us not just to listen, but to hear, not just to stand in witness as a procession passes by, but to bear that Word out the doors of the church – to make it flesh. Look! Here is the eternal Word that stirred the universe into being, the whispered Word that called to Elijah, the redemptive Word that silenced death on the cross, the Living Word that sent Mary Magdalene out of the garden to proclaim the Resurrection. Listen! Hear the Word that commands me to wash my neighbors’ feet, that whispers to me, ‘take up your cross,’ that speaks my name and sends me out to make manifest the Good News. Verbum caro, panem verum, Verbo carnem efficit. Become flesh to me.”
Call to Action: In the comments below, reflect on how Jesus taught us to love. Is “washing the feet” of others a necessary part of loving like Jesus?
