Maundy Thursday (9 April 2020)
John 13:1-15
Quick note: there’s both a video and a reflection today. The video is a guided contemplation for the gospel reading on the washing of the feet in the Gospel of John. The reflection contains the points that I had for the homily that I would have preached at the Maundy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Do use the video, reflection and prayer points as they help you to enter more fully into the experience of the Triduum.
I often contemplate and stay with the reactions of St Peter because he’s probably the most relatable of all the disciples. He’s the one with the big heart (and sometimes big mouth too!) who yearns to do big things. He’s got faith but he’s also very human, often unable to put into action what he says. And that’s often our experience of faith as well – we want to do many things to express our faith in the Lord and make plans to do so but life and our own personal realities sometimes get in the way of this. That’s not to say that we don’t try but being with Peter in his journey with the Lord can give us comfort that even one of the greatest of the apostles was also flawed, just like us.
Peter’s reaction to Jesus wanting to wash his feet presents an interesting paradox of sorts, especially us as Christians committed to following the Lord. We’re told so many times to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34), that faith without works is dead (James 2:17); and these become guiding principles for us to want to do good to others. There’s a song that we sing quite a bit that has the title In omnibus amare et servire (in all things love and serve), reminding us that we’re called to love and serve the Lord and others all the time.
But Jesus approached Peter and asked to serve him. Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God, wanting to wash the smelly, dirty feet of a fisherman. Peter, recognising the incongruity of the scene refused. But Jesus, with great grace and gentleness insisted, essentially telling Peter that he would have no part in Jesus and his mission if he could not accept this simple act of kindness. I feel this points to two important things that we need to be aware of in seeking to love and serve the Lord and others in all things.
The first is that it’s hard to be a good helper if we’re unable to be helped ourselves. We’re not superhuman and cannot expect to do everything. There’s a wisdom in realising that we need help and a humility that’s necessary to accept it. Being humble and accepting the help of others can make us better ministers and helpers, more able to be the love that we are called to be to others. The second point has to do with empathy and reciprocity. It’s sometimes difficult to receive help because it seems to shift the power to the giver, making the latter the more powerful and more able person. If we’re always on the giving and serving end, we can unintentionally aggregate this sense of power and ability as others become more reliant on us. Shifting this and allowing ourselves to be at the receiving end of help and service can give us an insight into what being helped can feel like so that we can learn to serve better, with true humility as Jesus did.
That’s not to say that we should just sit back and wait for people to wash our feet. I believe that there’s a balance to our lives of wanting love as Jesus loves us. We are loved and we love. Our expression of our love for others is often found in how we serve them but at the same time, these others also seek to express the same love by serving us. Give and receive, serve and be served. This takes a new complexion in these times where many of us live in close proximity with our family, friends, and in some cases, our religious communities. There’s a delicate balance that has to be made between helping and being helped – and we sometimes have to resist the urge to help too much because others too have the need to do things, to express their care for us and for others. And so we live, as Peters always in need of instruction and love, allowing ourselves to be served so that we can love and serve that much better in the future.
Prayer for today
- Pray with John 13:1-15. Read the passage at least twice, slowly and prayerfully.
- Ask for the grace that we need: To have a deep interior knowledge and experience of the Lord, who suffered and died for us, and to be able to stay with him through his journey to Calvary.
- Three options for the prayer today. The first is to follow the guided contemplation video given above. Use that as it helps, pausing or stopping it where one is called to go in prayer.
- The other option would be to contemplate the gospel passage from Peter’s point of view. What if I were Peter – what were my thoughts as I speak with the Lord about washing or not washing my feet? How did I accept the Lord’s washing my feet and what did that mean to me?
- The third option is to do a slow Lectio Divina of the text, pausing and meditating with the words, phrases and images that draw me deeper into communion with Jesus.
- I end with the conversation with the Lord, speaking with him heart to heart, as a friend would with another friend. I listen to what he has to say to me.
- End with the Lord’s Prayer.
musings of a brush 