Our Lady of the Angels Parish, Trenton, New Jersey, March 28, 2013

Each week I travel to the University of Pennsylvania Hospital for treatment of the results of a bone infection of my foot. The treatment involves placing a large cast on my foot and leg after examination by a surgeon. Each week after the old cast is removed and before it is replaced by a new cast, one of the staff washes my ulcerated foot. I go through this process every week. To have someone wash my feet is a very humbling event. I always think of tonight's Gospel. I find something spiritual in their actions. For the hospital staff, however, it is just part of their job. And they do it a dozen or more times a day to their patients.

In the ancient world in Jesus’ day, washing someone's feet was a gesture of hospitality. When someone visited in someone's house after traveling, it was customary to wash the visitor's feet. It was a practical thing to do as well as a humble sign of respect for the guest.

Jesus was aware of the custom. But in tonight's Gospel and the liturgy based upon it, the gesture has special significance. As with so many other practices, Jesus used what was common to make it a holy moment, a teaching moment, a symbolic moment intended to make the point that we owe each other great respect and care. That Jesus, the master, the teacher, the Son of God, did this to his followers within the institution of the Eucharist brought the two actions --- washing the feet and giving himself totally to them in a common meal of bread and wine --- together. The symbolism of respect for another person by humbling oneself, showing that humility and care by washing feet, and sharing one's life by giving one's life totally to another is the essence of what we celebrate together as a community of faith.

Our readings tonight trace the history of our salvation and our faith from the Old Testament Book of Exodus and Psalm 116 through the writings of St. Paul to the Church at Corinth in the New Testament, and conclude with St. John’s Gospel written toward the end of the first Christian century.  In Exodus, God instructs Moses and Aaron to establish the Jewish feast of Passover, the holy annual remembrance in a symbolic meal of the spilling of the blood of the Egyptians so that the people of Israel, God’s chosen people, could be set free from slavery to them.  Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians renews that Passover celebration but places it in the context of the Lord Jesus’ "Last Supper."  And John’s Gospel presents Jesus, at Passover, making the day forever sacred by his example of service.

For more than two thousand years, Catholics and Christians everywhere focus their attention on Holy Thursday remembering the dramatic events that make this day in this week "holy."

There was a gathering, a Passover meal and celebration complete with prayers and hymns.  There was a sharing of bread and wine, the anticipation of the end of one life and the beginning of a life that would never end.  And there was an example given from a "teacher" that was instructive and unambiguous and forever: "Do this in remembrance of Me."

My sisters and brothers, this night is Holy not because of the things we do but, rather, because of the things He did --- the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is He who gathers us.  It is he who gives us food and drink.  It is he who drops to his knees to wash the feet of his disciples.  He, the Lord Jesus Christ, makes this night Holy.  And what we do, we do in His memory.  

Calling to mind the whole of salvation history.  Celebrating the Eucharist.  Committing ourselves to the command to serve one another.  These actions blend together in memory of Jesus Christ and not only represent who and what he is in memorial and ceremonial actions --- they become and are and remain for us in the Church who and what he is.  Tonight is the unambiguous and non-negotiable core of our Catholic faith, intrinsically and integrally sown together as the one fabric of our Christian lives: one divine cloth that can never be torn or ripped apart because this is what the Church is and why the Church was established and what the Church does.

In that Cenacle, that upper room, the night before He died for us, that "Last Supper," that Holy Thursday, the Lord Jesus Christ clearly showed us the source of our faith, the reason for our faith, the practice of our faith, the goal of our faith and the reward of our faith.  And that is why tonight is holy.  This night and everything about it, everything that we celebrate and remember, is Him and from Him and about Him.  The Passover from death to life in salvation history is the background for what we believe.  The offering of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist and His continuing Real Presence is the heart of what we believe.  Humble and loving service of our sisters and brothers is how we confirm and show and authenticate what we believe, for, as the old song goes, "they will know we are Christians by our love." 

My sisters and brothers, "greater love than this no one has than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."  That is what he did this week.  That is what makes it holy.  "Do this in remembrance of me … until he comes" again.  Amen. 

Most Reverend David M. O’Connell, C.M.
Bishop of Trenton