He alone understood the magnitude of what lay before him. Troubled in his spirit, he knew the betrayals, injustices, physical abuses, and indignities to come. Yet, while knowing the trials of the next three days, he thought less of the shame and more of the joy to follow … and he pressed on.
He said, “let not your hearts be troubled”, though his own heart was breaking. He showed us what love looks like in the symbol of the basin and the towel. He held nothing back. “Take, eat; this is my body.” “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood.”
And with the “mandatum novum” — “love one another”, though the world’s hatred soon will be a torrent poured out upon him — he challenged us to walk the same path. He asked, “do you understand what I have done to you? … If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example…”
“Watch what I have done and do the same. Follow the trail that I’m blazing for you through death into real life.”
Dare we to follow him? To keep the new commandment? To dip our hands into the water soiled by another’s feet out of love? To align our steps onto the same path he trod? Above all, to identify ourselves with his death, so that we can participate in his resurrection?
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Holy Father,
Your Son, having loved his own in the world, he loved them to the end. May we likewise follow Christ’s good example, submit ourselves to his holy will, set aside perceptions of shame or weakness, love one another as he loved us, and follow him home to that place which he has prepared for us. These things we ask in his name, who together with you, O Father and the Holy Spirit are to be worshipped, loved, and praised. Amen.