Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday reflection

The community hold a mandatum service each year on Maundy Thursday. It involves the superior washing the hands or the feet of each of the community. It is an act of humble service by the superior, who,as St. Benedict says, holds the place of Christ in the community. Perhaps some of youof you have attended church services or retreats in which you’ve washed others’ feet as a way of physically reflecting on this story. Maybe you are the one who washes the feet. It was the job of a slave or a lowly servant, not the Lord and Master. The disciples must have been horrified. No wonder Peter said no. Peter says, “You shall never wash my feet.” When Jesus insists, Peter can only cope with it by turning it into a symbolic ritual: “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” But Jesus wasn’t washing Peter’s feet just for mere ritual; he was washing feet because they were dirty and needed to be washed. It made Peter uncomfortable to receive a real washing. That wasn't a leader's job.

It can be awkward and uncomfortable to have somebody do something as humble as washing your feet or be the one washing, but it’s a useful way to consider the very personal, very humbling act of service that Jesus was performing. Life was far less clean in the time of jesus. Towns, streets, track roads, were dusty, muddy if it rained, and no doubt full of deposits from horses, camels and cattle. People wore sandals or even walked in bare feet. So when they entered a house as guests washing their feet must have been an essential task rather than the symbolism it is in today’s churches. A task left to the servants to undertake. When Jesus offered, insisted even, in washing His disciples’ feet He was teaching them, and us, a very important lesson. Here is God Himself, born in poverty, raised in poverty, living in poverty, submitting Himself to perform a task reserved for servants. Yet, He was preparing for an even greater submission and humiliation for us.

Dying a most horrible and painful death on the Cross.

Just for us. Because He Loved us.

The ability to receive gracious acts offered on one’s behalf calls for as much humility as the ability to offer gracious acts to another. Receiving such a gift – and it is a gift when it freely given and not the work of a slave or hired servant – exposes our need and our vulnerability. It puts us in debt to another, and our pride would prefer to be on the other end of that exchange. But we are not called to be proud, but humble, like Christ. There are times we are called to serve, there are times we are called to be served. It's hard at times to tell which.

Christian perfection is not individualistic. Rather, it is personal and can flourish only in the life of communion with God and our neighbours. How then can we refuse the feet of another? How can we refuse to offer our feet to another?We need each other’s feet. The life of God is one of intimate communion, not isolated individuals. St. Basil the Great wrote in the 5th century in his book, Ascetical Works:

"Consider, further, that the Lord by reason of His excessive love for man was not content with merely teaching the word, but, so as to transmit to us clearly and exactly the example of humility in the perfection of charity, girded Himself and washed the feet of the disciples. Whose feet, therefore, will you wash? To whom will you minister? In comparison with whom will you be the lowest, if you live alone?"

Whose feet will you wash today? Who will you let wash your feet?