Wednesday 21 April 2021

ST. JOHN 13: 1-17

 

                                                              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