One of the affirming aspects of the Octave of Holy Easter is both in the First Preface of Easter and in the Roman Canon, also known as the First Eucharistic Prayer, we affirm “This is the day…”. The glorious Risen Christ is the light and fire of divine love and mercy, light more brilliant than ‘natural light’ from all the suns and stars of the universe, which light is as darkness beside Christ our Light, fire so intense the sun is as a block of ice in comparison. Thus, it is particularly apt and wonderful that our Orthodox brothers and sisters refer to the week as “Bright” week as the Risen Jesus shines upon us.
Christ
Risen is Redeemer for everyone, and simultaneously intimately, always Divine
Lover- Redeemer for each of us as individual persons.
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. [v. 1]
This is
what all of Sacred Scripture is about, what our very existence is all about,
the existence of the entire planet earth and the cosmos, the existence of the
Angels, of the entire Heavenly Court, yes even of satan and his minions for
while, by their own egotistical and stupid choice they have literally turned
their backs on God, become the hateful enemies of every human being, of love
and all virtues: God who is Love, never
takes back the gift of existence to any angel, fallen or not, to any human
being who chooses hell over heaven, God’s love is never truncated or diminished
in any way. Indeed, in Jesus Christ we see Divine Love is urgent and full of
increased ardour for those most in need of His mercy, as St. John has just
taught us, for it is Jesus’ ardent love which compels Him to embrace His Hour.
An
ancient way in French to refer to God is the expression: le bon Dieu. It
is melodic on the tongue because it comes from the heart. The English
translation is: the good God. Thus, it is also a statement of profound faith
witnessing there is one true God, all others are fakes.
It is
this incarnate Good God, Jesus Christ, St. John places before us, prefacing the
goodness which is about to be enacted, with the antithesis of goodness: The
devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand Him over.
[v.2.]
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. [vs. 2-5]
Known
by its Latin name of Mandatum, this tender, humble, good, loving gesture of
Jesus is repeated by Popes, Bishops, Priests over the centuries, on Holy
Thursday, as a profound reminder that with deep humility each of we Christians
should be the tender, loving servants of all our brothers and sisters within
the human family.
Jesus
represents the whole of His saving ministry in one symbolic act. He divests
Himself of His
divine
splendour; He, as it were, kneels down before us; He washes and dries our
soiled feet, in order to make us fit to sit at the table for God’s wedding
feast. When we read
in the Book of Revelation the paradoxical statement that the redeemed
have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”
(Rev.7:14), the meaning is that Jesus’ love “to the end” is what cleanses us,
washes us. The gesture of washing feet expresses precisely this: it is the
servant-love of Jesus that draws us out of our pride and makes us fit for God,
makes us clean. [1]
We know
the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on fire with love for His Beloved Apostles, has told
them and us we must learn from and imitate His Most Sacred Heart and here He
demonstrates for us the essence of loving as He Himself does: self-gifting to
other, to all others, as humble servants.
In our
egotistical ‘me first’, relativistic, materialist, hedonistic-seeking time in history,
more so than at anytime, the damage done by such an approach to life
eviscerates from heart and soul the foundational Great Commandment from
Christian life, from society in general.
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.” [vs.6-8]
The
largest external organ of the human body is the skin. This is the external
organ which first experiences the sense of the sun’s warmth, the coolness of a
breeze, the experience of touching and being touched with the touch of love
first and foremost as a gift of joy.
Ever
impetuous Peter, such impetuosity rooted in his love for Jesus, resists being
touched through his feet because it is incomprehensible to him that Jesus whom
He loves should lower Himself to the status of a slave. Jesus’ reply should
touch our hearts in three ways in particular: 1] we are redeemed by Christ who
pours out His blood for us, and thus we are washed clean, rejuvenated, in the
waters of Baptism. 2] every time we receive absolution for sin the very
sacrament is itself a type of washing, a cleaning of sin. 3] Every time we
receive Jesus in Holy Communion we are touched by His Risen Divine-Lover kiss.
From a
treasured sixty year old book of meditations called I COVER GOD: …..The
other day I kissed a little tree, a sapling red pine, praying to You….tiny
globules of…sap had gathered here and there….I touched a finger tip to
one….then put it on my tongue…..You had kissed me, through the shining drop,
with the kiss of all Your forests!...”I have kissed you with the kiss of all My
forests,” You said – or seemed to say – “but I have been much more intimate
than that. I have also kissed you with the kiss of My mouth! My Son! My
word!.....”My Son, My Word, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, is placed daily
on your tongue……I am I. I am God. Out of My mouth comes the Word. The Word I
utter is I. I am the Father of the Word……I am the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost….I am the Crucified. I am the Resurrection and the Life….The Word I
uttered is a kiss. The kiss of My mouth. The kiss of peace. The kiss of pity.
The kiss of boundless mercy. The kiss of consolation. The kiss of love. The
kiss spurned. The kiss betrayed by a kiss, and sold and slain. The kiss of
redemption. The kiss triumphant over death. the eternal kiss of God….I come to
you gladly. I stoop to you. I visit you. I kiss you with the kiss of My mouth.
I give you the kiss of eternal life!” [2]
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.” [vs. 9,
10]
Now
Peter, never a minimalist, wants more of himself to be washed and Jesus in
reply shows tenderness extending beyond Peter to the others the profound
statement that they are clean, ritually clean for the Passover and adds, which
truth undoubtedly pained His Sacred Heart that not all the Twelve are clean. For
He knew who would betray Him; for this reason, He said, “Not all of you are
clean.” [v.11]
In St.
Luke, with the institution of the Holy Eucharist Jesus instructs us to “….do
this in remembrance of Me.” [Lk.22.19] Now Jesus will give a parallel
instruction: 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. [vs. 12-15]
He is
exemplary because in Him Christian life begins. He is its foundation,
demonstrates what it stands for, and supplies the necessary strength to
participate in it. “Imitation of Christ” does not suggest that He be literally
copied……but that the Christian live in Christ, and learn from His spirit to do
hour by hour what is right. [3]
Amen,
amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger
greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if
you do it. [vs. 16,17]
We may
see this word as the 9th Beatitude!
[1]
JESUS OF NAZARETH; HOLY WEEK: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the
Resurrection; Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI; p. 57; Ignatius Press
2011. Italics are mine.
[2] I
COVER GOD, by Eddie Doherty; pp. 65-67;The Bruce Publishing Company 1962; out
of print, Italics are mine.
[3] THE
LORD; Romano Guardini; p.363; Henry Regnery Company; 1957 Italics are mine
© 2021
Fr. Arthur Joseph
No comments:
Post a Comment