Holy Thursday, April 1, 2021

John 13:1–15

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”  So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

“He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.”  This is a passage of surpassing consolation.  Those who belong to the Lord Jesus, “his own”, are those who are his through their baptism and through their earnest desire to do his will so as to return his love.  At the beginning of St. John’s Gospel we learn that “his own” rejected him, that is, those who were physically related to him: certain members of his extended family, many of the people of his hometown of Nazareth, and his fellow Jews.  But there are those who are his own because they respond to his call to be with him, which he enables them to do through his grace.

“He rose from supper and took off his outer garments.”  The Lord shows his great love for us and his desire to save us by laying aside the glory that belonged to him as the Son of God.  “He took a towel and tied it around his waist.”  Further, he joins himself to our human nature and clothes himself with our flesh.  “Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.”  He washes us from even our worst and most defiling sins.  “And dry them with the towel around his waist.”  He does this with his Flesh, giving up his Body for us in Sacrifice.  Peter, signifying the person striving for righteousness, tries to refuse out of holy fear of what the Lord is doing, but when he learns of the necessity of the Sacrifice, he gladly accepts it.  The Lord tells his Apostles — and all who are his own — to imitate him in what he has done.  Therefore we are to devote ourselves to service, that is, to sacrifice.  We offer ourselves to our God through the service we offer to others here on earth, especially by spreading the Gospel.

“So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table.”  That is, when he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, he reclined at the table of the great Wedding Feast in heaven with the Patriarchs and Prophets of old, awaiting the hour when we will go to the Father to be with him there.