Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper – Fr. Barko
Jn 13:1-15
March 28, 2024

What’s the Point?

I have to assume Jesus did a terrific job washing his disciples’ feet, but that was never really the point. They are all already clean––Jesus even says as much.

If washing were truly a need, it would have happened the moment they entered the home, not when it does – when supper is mostly finished.

The real point is not the action itself but the relationship that manifests within it. That is what matters.

Despite all that is going on, the purpose is clear.

Through the hustle and bustle, the noise and distraction, see the other and serve them genuinely.

If God kneels and washes our feet, dare we do any less?

The year to come will be challenging. From spring and summer right through the first week of November, the performative noise swirling around us will only get louder, distracting us more and more from God’s lesson shown in this passage.

The mysteries of our faith are truly profound, and yet at times, they also confound us.

We begin the Sacred Triduum by remembering how Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist.

Jesus changed the bread and wine into His Body and Blood, to show how perfect His love is for us.

And so, we celebrate the Eucharist in memory of Him, as He commanded us to do so.

Yet, other than the 2nd reading which mentions the Body and Blood of Christ, the Gospel only mentioned Jesus having supper with His disciples.

And then, the focus turned to the washing of feet.

Jesus washed the feet of His disciples.

That confounded His disciples. And that should also confound us.

We may ask: What has the holy Eucharist got to do with the lowly washing of feet?

When we think about it deeper, we will see that the Eucharist is for everyone, regardless of the state of holiness or sinfulness or worthiness.

In other words, Jesus offers His love for saints as well as for sinners.

In the washing of the feet, Jesus is showing us that He cares about the lowest, the neglected and even the despised.

Jesus gave us the example of humility and charity by being a servant who washes the lowly feet.

In partaking of the Eucharist, we follow Jesus by being servants of humility and charity.

In partaking of the Eucharist, we become servants to the lowly and the lowest, to the neglected and the despised.

In partaking of the Eucharist, we will go down on knees with Jesus, and wash those lowly feet.

That is what Jesus, our Lord and Master did.

We follow Jesus and do likewise.

When we accept this commandment, we walk the path of joy.

When we internalize this law, we become happy.

And so, the paradox: happiness is never a function of filling oneself up; it is a wonderful function of giving oneself away.

When the divine grace enters one’s life (and everything we have is the result of divine grace), the task is to contrive a way to make it a gift.

In a sense, the divine life—which exists only in gift form—can be “had” only on the fly.

Notice please that we are to love with a properly divine love: “I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.”

Radical, radical, radical. Complete, excessive, over-the-top.

Let us continually remind ourselves that, from God’s perspective, the other is only ever us in different shoes.