Holy Thursday Homily 2006
"Before the feast of the Passover,
Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father."
Before this first verse of chapter thirteen in John's Gospel
we are told that "Jesus' hour had not yet come."
So when we hear this statement
"Before the feast of the Passover,
Jesus knew that his hour had come..."
our ears perk up.
Something is happening.
Something changed.
We are looking for summative and definitive action,
for integration and synthesis, for coherence.
How does all of what Jesus has been teaching and doing
fit together and make sense?
Well, believe me, Jesus will not disappoint us.
I can almost feel the tension in the disciples
when Jesus stands up,
takes off his outer garment and wraps a towel around his waist,
and puts water in a basin.
"What is he doing now?" even though it is perfectly obvious.
Jesus is truly "teacher" and "master."
Yet he is their servant.
Peter gives expression to reluctance of the group.
"You will never wash my feet."
That is, I don't want you to be my servant —
I want you to be the leader, my Lord.
"Unless I wash you, you have no share with me."
In a thought provoking article in Worship
our School of Theology faculty member Martin Connell
explores the possibility that feetwashing
may have served as baptismal entrance
for some early Christian communities.
Later — "Do you realize what I have done for you? No! Not really!"
"If I who truly am Master and Teacher have washed your feet,
you should wash each others' feet."
Later still — this is a long meal in John —
"I give you a new commandment —
love one another as I have loved you."
That is, love one another by serving one another.
And you will have a community that changes the world.
By washing the feet of his disciples
Jesus is insisting that Eucharistic eating
must be as embarrassingly visible as feet washed in public.
By bending his towel-wrapped body to the ground
and doing for his disciples
what could not be required of a Jewish slave,
Jesus is revealing that to eat and drink at Eucharist
is to live in a world where social roles are reversed,
where ordinary bread can no longer be called food.
From now on, ordinary meals do not define the meaning of Eucharist;
instead, the nourishment of Eucharist defines the meaning of all meals.
Not only that!
Feetwashing challenges our notion of Eucharist
in which everything is all tidy and there are no unexpected guests.
Feetwashing is a parabolic action in which the unlikely can happen.
As such it points to a meal that Simon the Pharisee
hosts for Jesus in Luke chapter seven —
in which a woman who known as a public sinner comes in
and washes Jesus' feet with her tears,
dries them with her hair and anoints his feet.
If this happened at our Eucharist,
tonight or any other time,
we, like Simon the Pharisee, and his other guests,
would be taken aback.
And yet with the washing of feet
Jesus tells us that this is exactly what we should expect.
And it will bring delight to our hearts and being,
because we will see the reign of God present in our midst.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
April 13, 2006
|
