Do you realize what I have done for you?

Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Paschal Vigil
Easter Sunday

This evening we begin the liturgical celebration of the Paschal Triduum - the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus - with the Mass of the Lord's Supper.  We recall the Last Supper that Jesus ate with his disciples.  And, in this liturgy, a strange thing happens.  When the Gospel is read we don't hear the expected words, "This is my body...This is my blood."  Instead, we listen as Jesus takes a basin or water, ties a towel around his waist, and washes the disciples' feet.  We hear the mandate of Jesus: "I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do."  We are given an example to follow, and this leads us to community.

Christian songwriter Michael Card, in his song The Basin and the Towel, makes this point in his refrain:

And the call is to community,
The impoverished power that sets the soul free.
In humility, to take the vow,
that day after day we must take up the basin and the towel.

In the simple and humbling act of foot washing,  Jesus invites his disciples (and us) into community by showing them (and us) how to be a member of community.  It involves letting the self go and being for the other.  Jesus reverses the logic of his day (and our day).  He takes not the highest position, but the lowest.  He does not exalt himself, but empties himself.  He becomes the servant of the others, letting go of himself so as to be with the others in an intentional and authentic way.  With great humilty, Jesus shows us a supreme act of love - love not for himself but for his friends.

If you reread the passage you will see a succession of action verbs throughout the story (he rose, took off, tied, poured, washed, etc.)  The love that Jesus models is not one of lip-service or lofty platitudes.  It is, rather, an active love - one that "does" for the other.  This is how we build community, by emptying ourselves and actively loving those around us just as Jesus did at the Last Supper.  This impoverished power sets him free and sets all of us free.

In the end, this is what Eucharist is all about.  Jesus gives of himself to us.  It is an act of love that is a gift and a task.  His flesh and blood are gifts given to us for all time.  We truly receive Jesus in the communion ritual.  At the same time, we must be Eucharist.  That is, we must be in communion with our sisters and brothers.  At every mass, this is symbolically acted out as we, all together, approach the altar to receive the body and blood of Christ.  We join together in the same line and sing the same hymn.  We do not hoard the food, but share it.  We assent in our "Amen" to receive and to be "The Body of Christ" here and now.  As we do at Mass, so we must do in our families, schools, work places, communities, and world.  This is no easy task, but it is the task given to us by Jesus.  Day after day, we must take up the basin and the towel.

This great Paschal Triduum begins in a surprising way.  Let us pray that the God of surprises might help us to live and love as Jesus did.  To serve and not to be served.  To wash each others' feet.  To build community.  To find new life from death.

[I first heard Michael Cards' The Basin and the Towel while helping at a summer family retreat at the Marianist Family Retreat Center in Cape May, NJ.  One evening, parents wash their childrens' feet in an act of reconciliation and love.  Click here for a link to the song.]

Blessings on your Triduum!

Ciao!