Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.
What is it that we often do when we know we are about to depart from loved ones and those to whom we have responsibility, whether it be to go on a long journey, to depart on a dangerous mission with risk of life, or upon gaining knowledge of a terminal health condition? We seek to, as the saying goes, “get our affairs in order.”
There are two things that happen in that process. One is that there is created, whether intentionally or not, a certain gravity or seriousness, even if peppered with humor. We sense that this is a serious moment and somehow, the gravity of that knowledge clarifies and sharpens our focus on what really matters. It becomes a moment where priorities emerge from a sea of distractions, like large rocks revealed and remaining as the tide recedes. The other thing that happens, is that almost always there is the imparting of information of great importance to those close to us. These are the things that we want those close to us to know before we go. These are the things that matter.
So it is with Jesus and his disciples; with Jesus and us. He wants us to know before He goes what are the most important things; what really matters. And what does he impart to us, before he leaves this world and returns to the Father? He gives us His Body and Blood in the Eucharist and tells us to partake of it, eating and drinking of His Body and Blood that we might have His life within us. “Do this in memory of Me.” And then he tells us to wash each other's feet, as he has washed us. To serve each other, as he has served us.
There are two things in this command to wash. The first is a question: Have we allowed Christ to serve us, to wash us, to cleanse us? Or are we like the impetuous Peter who tells the Lord, “You will never wash me!” What’s in that attitude? Do we think that we are not good enough to allow the Lord to cleanse us? That the Lord would not, or should not, stoop to wash us? Like a loving parent, in whose image and likeness we are created, who stoops and bathes their child? Or, do we think that we are the independent child in control of our spiritual hygiene in the presence of the Lord? Either way, what the Lord calls us to is nothing less than a tender act of obedient humility, submitting and allowing ourselves to be served and cleansed by the Lord. And the Lord’s response is a tender, loving, washing of our feet. In this reciprocity of giving and serving, we enter into our inheritance with the Lord, enabling us to serve others as he has served us.
The second thing in this command Jesus gives us to wash each other, to serve each other, is that this is how we are to love each other. When we are tempted to withdraw or strike back after we have been hurt — wash each other’s feet. When we are tempted to anger and agitation — wash each other's feet. When we are tempted to cynicism and criticize unjustly — wash each other’s feet. When we are tempted with discouragement or despair — wash each other's feet! The Lord calls us to get out of ourselves, get out of our selfishness, and serve one another!
As we contemplate these important final instructions Jesus gives us, we would do well to recall the context in which he gives them: It is the Passover Meal. The Passover meal is a meal of a people in flight; a people who will not be staying long. That meal — this meal, this Eucharistic Meal — is to be eaten with “loins girt, sandals on our feet and our staff in hand…like those who are in flight.” People who will not be staying long. Sisters and brothers, by virtue of our Judeo-Christian heritage, we are a Passover people, called to live our lives always recognizing that we are in flight, on a journey, to our true home in the Lord. We are, from the moment of our birth, preparing for and taking leave of this world. Our time here is not long. The world is not our destination. Let us remember that. Let us live like that. May our actions and attitudes be those final commands Jesus gives us, to do in memory of Him and in love for one another: Wash each other’s feet.