If you have ever attended the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening, you might have asked yourself this question: “Why does the Gospel for this day tell the story of Jesus washing the feet of the apostles? Why doesn’t it tell the part of the story where Jesus institutes the Eucharist?” You are not alone in questioning this. The question was once posed to me by a man who had been a priest for over 50 years!
Perhaps the answer can best be understood in this particular year, at this particular moment of history, and in this particular place. Here we are living in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic that is claiming hundreds of lives every day, in a country that claims to be the most powerful country in the world. We have been banned from attending Mass with more than ten people present, consequently most bishops have waived the obligation to attend Sunday worship for the time being. Many have expressed their hunger for the Eucharist – the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus in our midst. We are trying to satisfy that hunger by attending Mass virtually, but somehow it just doesn’t do much to satisfy our hunger for the consecrated bread and wine. So as we celebrate the Feast of the Institution of the Eucharist, we are asked to focus our attention on Jesus’ confusing action of washing the feet of his disciples. Actually, every year we tell that story, but this year it may just make more sense.
Make no mistake about it. Washing the feet of first century people was not a matter of pouring a little warm water over one foot and wiping the foot with a towel, the way we ritually symbolize Jesus’ action. The people of first century Israel did not have a sewer system. Consequently the streets were full of both human and animal excrement. The roads were dusty and disgusting thoroughfares. Hence it was customary for house guests to have their feet washed by the family slaves. The master and mistress of the house would not consider doing it. This was work for slaves, for the least, the last. So when Jesus gets up from table and puts on an apron and washes the feet of his disciples, he is teaching them the great lesson of the Eucharist; namely, the gift of servanthood and sacrifice.
Right now, while many of us are sheltering-in-place, many others are doing their best to bring comfort and healing to the victims of the Covid-19 virus. Nurses and doctors and aides and orderlies are working in dangerous conditions. Many of them have contracted the virus themselves. Some have died. First responders, ambulance drivers, EMT’s, fire fighters and police are answering the frantic emergency calls. They too are placing themselves at risk, some of them have perished as a result. Truck drivers are continuing to haul essential goods to our cities so that those who are sheltered will not starve. Teachers are working overtime to help the children continue learning at home. Grocery store employees have continued to stock the shelves. Some of them have succumbed to the illness; some of them have died. Pharmacists are still filling prescriptions and even making it possible to pick up supplies from drive-through windows.
These and many more people are “washing our feet.” They are living out the meaning of the Eucharist. They are taking on the role of servants for the rest of us. The have been called heroes by news commentators, and the title is well deserved. However, that term doesn’t really tell us what they are doing for the rest of us. They are teaching us a lesson just as Jesus tried to teach his disciples a lesson when he washed their feet. The lesson is simple. If you are starving, hungry for the Eucharist, there is a way to satisfy that hunger. Reach out to the ones in your life who are in need and do what you can to ease their situation. The Eucharist is the gift of life which Jesus gave us by dying on a cross. Before being nailed to the cross, he washed some dirty, disgusting, smelly feet as an example of how we are to live out that gift.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator