28 March 2024 – Maundy Thursday

by Fr Fabian Dicom

Dear brothers and sisters,

We have heard this passage before, many, many times. You witnessed the washing of the feet countless number of times, in the church, we do it even with programs, we did that lately with the young people in the parish.

Now what does it really mean to you? Does it have any impact on our faith life? Does it have any impact on our spiritual life? Does it have any impact on our social life?

Now, traditionally we have seen Holy Thursday as the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. And it is that, of course, which is celebrating and receiving especially the Sacrament of the Eucharist through the sacred rituals. These rituals are important but there is another aspect of the Last Supper that we often forget. And John’s Gospel is reminding us about it. And it is very, very important.

In many parts of the world, this day is referred to as ‘Maundy Thursday‘. Derived from the first latin word of John 13:34, it is after the passage that we read, it Latin it is ‘Mandatum Novum do Vobis‘, in other words:
I give you a new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you. So you also should love one another. (That is John 13:34).
Jesus explains his washing of the Apostles’ feet with the Mandato, the mandate.

So back to my question to our question: How does this mandate feature in my life? In your life? In the life of the church?

I refer to again, Richard Rohr, my favourite author. He says this:
There is no real story of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John as we find it in other Gospels. There is no passing of the bread or passing of the cup.

There is no mention of it in the Gospel today but the context of today’s celebration, we need to look at the First Reading and the Second Reading. The context is making an illusion by both the First Reading and the Second Reading where in Exodus we have the Passover Meal which is the basis, the foundation. And we have parallel links between the Passover Meal, the Eucharist and that Passover Meal and 1 Corinthians 11 where we describe, Saint Paul describes the institution of the Eucharist. And this is to be passed on.

So that is the context for today. The washing of the feet must be seen in that context.

So Richard Rohr says we come upon the story of Jesus on his knees washing the apostles feet. Really quite amazing and even more amazing is that we never made the foot washing into a sacrament. Now he says that it is the most explicit in the scriptures than any other actions we have made into sacraments. Really think about it.

Many of you know Lawrence Freeman, a benedictine monk who says:
In the washing of the feet (he calls it the forgotten sacrament of Christianity), Jesus acted out his approach to power in all human relationships.
He says that it was so subversive, so rebellious, so out of this world that later Christians neutralised the sign altogether. The washing of the feet does not fit into even our society. Does it?

Continuing with Richard Rohr, he says perhaps John the Evangelist realised that after 70 years (now John’s Gospel came about 70 years after the synoptic Gospels) so he says after 70 years the other Gospels had been read, he wanted to give a theology of the Eucharist that revealed the meaning behind the breaking of the bread. He made it into an active ritual of servanthood and solidarity instead of the priestly cult that had largely become.

Firstly, my dear brothers and sisters, I have said this before to some of you, to understand and appreciate and feel this whole act of Jesus deep down in our gut, we need to understand the cultural context of the footwashing in Jesus’ time. We only see a sanitised version of footwashing in the pictures.

In those days, let me explain, the disciples had to obey their rabbis as though they were slaves but with one major exception. They are to obey everything except one:
The rabbis could not ask their disciples to do anything related to the feet since anything related to the feet was considered so degrading that only actual slaves were required to perform such tasks.

So can you imagine. I want you to imagine, to know the impact. Imagine filthy legs, no pedicures, they wore sandals, walked everywhere and the paths were filled with dung and filth. Therefore, can you imagine the legs where caked with layers and layers of filth and grind and terribly smelly. Someone said that the closest perhaps for us to kind of experience it would be armed with the toilet brush and go to, I thought I would say a neighbour’s house (I am sure your neighbour’s house would be very clean), but to a public toilet. I think here it is not too bad, isn’t it? It is worst than that.

Now Jesus, by getting down on his knees before his own followers to wash their feet, emptied himself today of all ego. He showed himself as a servant to others, even those who called him rabbi, those who called him the Lord, the Son. The Son existed in the form of God from all eternity past and yet he nevertheless emptied himself willingly of his glory in order to take the form of a servant in this world. And this we hear in Philippians, it was the Second Reading on Palm Sunday.

And in this washing of the feet, we see that Philippians part coming alive in action. His servanthood was not empty or symbolic but real so that he humbled himself from the moment of his incarnation, during his act of footwashing and ultimately all the way to the point of death on a cross to serve me and to serve me (Philippians 2:8).

Now to follow Jesus’ example of washing each others feet means that we must take up the position of a servant, we must take up position of a slave. Just as Jesus did for us, footwashing then represents so much more than a ceremony of literally washing one another’s feet. That is easy.

It means refusing to do anything out of selfish ambition, of vain conceit but in humility to consider others as most significant than ourselves. And all these we find in Philippians.

It means elevating the interest of others above our own. Ultimately it means laying down our lives for one another, in self-sacrificial love just as Jesus has done for us. We find that in John’s Gospel, Chapter 13:34 as well as Chapter 15:13: No greater love than to lay down my life.

And all these can only be done if I, like Jesus, empty myself of everything. And when we talk about emptying, I just want to focus on a three-letter word: EGO. To empty my ego.

Like Peter this evening, I may not fully get it. Not really. But Peter symbolises all of us as he protest:
You will never wash my feet.

By doing that, he avoids full union being offered to him. Why? Because he has let his ego take control. And typically, the ego cannot receive a gift that threatens it because he was not ready for that kind of relationship. He was not ready to be a servant disciple. He was not ready.

So the question is: How about us?

This footwashing that we hear, we see, is not a novelty. There is no other way. It is not a once a year affair. What is stopping us?

And to be very frank, I would dare to say there is a dark cloud of ego that hangs over us, over the church, over the parish, over us. And that dark cloud prevents us from seeing the light of Christ.

Jesus answers: If I do not wash you (to Peter), you can have nothing in common with me.

What is Jesus actually saying? He is saying in reply:
I do not want to be Godly in the way you imagine or you want me to be. I want to show you that only humility can love and be loved. I want to show you that death is the most humble act of all.

Thank God Peter surrenders. But it probably takes him the rest of his life to understand and it will take me the rest of my life to understand fully. I believe that.

And I believe that it is a process of becoming a servant disciple. That does not gel with us actually. And that is why I say it is not a novelty. It is not some idea, a feel-good feeling.

This evening, my dear brothers and sisters, this is what I want to take back.

And as I was preparing this, I feel attracted to the self-emptying. There is something very, very liberating about it. In some ways, you could have experienced it. Or maybe in more ways than one. I pray that I will be mindful of it all the time and I wish that for you too.

If we misunderstand the washing of the feet, we lose the key to understanding the gift of self in the bread and wine, the sacrifice of the cross. And if we miss that, what sense does the Resurrection make?

The model Jesus gives us is more than even serving others. It is choosing life. It is seeking the inheritance only Jesus can give.

So on this Holy Thursday evening, may we all accept the call, the command of our Lord to empty ourselves and become humble servants, devoted to a way of life which brings honour to God, not to ourselves, and service to our neighbours, far and near. A service that values, respects, nourishes the rights and dignity of every single human person.

On this Holy Thursday evening, may we break bread together in the spirit of our Lord’s command to commemorate his life, his death, his resurrection and to follow him all the days of our lives until that time when we too are invited to the table of the heavenly banquet prepared for us.

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