Maundy Thursday Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all, how can I love Thee as I ought? And how revere this wondrous gift so far surpassing hope or thought?[1]
The summoning of the twelve apostles to the Upper Room on the eve of the Jewish Passover by the Lord is an essential indicator of the sacerdotal nature of what was soon to unfold there. It is noteworthy that these twelve are the sole invitees. The Virgin Mary, Martha, Mary, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene or the seventy two disciples were not included. Why was this so? St John, who was present, has recorded an eye-witness account affirming its reliability at the conclusion his gospel.[2] The reason soon becomes clear when the entire narrative is explored more closely since it describes a Mandatum, a commandment, that constitutes the order of priesthood and the institution of the Eucharist which are in fact manifestations of God’s love for mankind: “… Jesus knowing that his hour had arrived when he would pass from this world to the Father: while he had loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”[3] It was a new commandment because it enjoined the disciples to love in the way that Jesus loved, more specifically in the way that he empowered them to do through his sacraments.
St John records a ritual that takes place during the meal as follows: “Knowing that the Father had given all into his hands and whereas he had come from God and was returning to God, he (Jesus) rose from the meal, placed his garments aside and when he had taken a towel, girded himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of his disciples, and wiped them dry with the linen cloth that girded him.[4] He came to Simon Peter who said to him, ‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, and said to him, ‘What I am doing you do not comprehend, however afterwards you will understand’. Peter said to him, ‘You shall not ever wash my feet’. Jesus replied to him, ‘Unless I wash you, you can have no share with me’. [5] Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and head’. Jesus said, ‘Whoever has bathed, does not need to wash except for his feet, he is totally clean. And you are clean, but not all.”
Jesus returned to the table after the ritual and explained the significance. The example he has provided reveals the nature of their transformation. They are required to be as Christ is, in order to do what Christ will do. “The servant” Jesus teaches them, “cannot be greater than his master, no apostle greater than the one who sends him.”[6] Jesus notes that among the twelve, there is someone sharing the table who is “unclean” and will betray him.[7] The point of this ritual is that when those whose feet Jesus has washed, in turn “wash the feet of others”, they do so precisely as leaders of their community. When Jesus would “pass from this world to the Father”, they act “in the person of Christ” and have a status comparable to that of Jesus. Jesus’ teaching legitimates their position. In their liturgical functions they are like the master, in fact stand in for the master, but they are not “greater than the master”.[8]
It can be seen that the foot-washing episode is linked intrinsically to the priesthood which is the central institution of Holy Thursday.[9] Without the priesthood there can be no Eucharist. When the Lord gathered the twelve to be with him it was to institute the New covenant that supersedes the covenant of the Old Testament. “Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos” I give you a new commandment that you love each other as I have loved you.” As He has loved is the in finem dilexi eos, the “love unto the end” which is the total of what is summed up from Holy Thursday through Good Friday until the Day of Resurrection. Under the Old Law temple sacrifices were prescribed and regulated. These prefigured the one great sacrifice to come, that of Calvary. Jesus offered himself, a victim of consummate value to the Father, as the once and for all sacrifice that was total and final.
At the Last Supper, Jesus enabled his sacrifice, the greatest proof of divine love, to be available and applied in every age and circumstance. He made it possible through establishing a priesthood, those chosen to be identifiable as his apostles and those following in apostolic succession “to be with him” and “to do this” in commemoration (ανάμνηση) of his sacrifice. As Dom Gregory Dix explains, the Eucharistic action came down to us unchanged in Christian practice from before the crucifixion. He asks “Was ever another command so obeyed?” then observes “Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and groom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of a parliament or for a sick old lady afraid to die…yet best of all, week by week and month by month on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across the parishes of Christendom, priests have “done this” just to make the plebs sancta Dei – the holy people of God.”[10]
This is the institution that Maundy Thursday celebrates. God is encountered in his sacrament of love only because he reaches down to offer us a share in his life. In each communion Christ expresses this love and speaks within the individual soul: “Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as death….love no flood can quench, no torrents drown.”[11] Each communicant might respond in the words of St John of the Cross: “How gently and lovingly you wake in my heart, where in secret you dwell alone; and in your sweet breathing, filled with good and glory, how tenderly you swell my heart with love.”[12] In the stillness and silence of the post-communion period of thanksgiving, the power of “I sleep yet my heart is awake!” is realised. The heart is then forever awake to the One whose love is strong as death, who is my Lord, my God, my All.
[1] From the time-honoured hymn of Fr. F. Faber, founder of the London Oratory. [2] Οΰτος έστιν ό μαθητής ό μαρτυρών περι τούτων καί γρύφας ταύτα καί οϊδαμεν ότι άλμθής έστιν ή μαρτυρία αύτοΰ. This is that disciple who bears witness to these things and has written them, and we know, because his testimony is true. Jn 21:24 [3] Είς τέλος ήγάπησεν αύτούς, (in finem dilexi eos), Jn 13:1. He loved them to the utmost. [4] Note that this ritual takes place during the meal (or after) and not prior to it. The ceremony of foot-washing itself was the norm at the reception of guests and carried out by the lowest of the household slaves. In other words it is not the customary preparation as commonly held, but, as an unpredictable, irregular pause during the meal, it has a much deeper pedagogic significance. [5] The Greek Έάν μή means unless. Unless I wash you, you can have no share in my life. This indicates that a transformational change is required in Peter. See similar examples of this usage: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”; “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”; Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins”. [6] Jn 13:16. [7] Literally, “Who eats my bread, has lifted up his shoe against me”. Ό τρώγων μου τόν άρτον έπήρεν έν΄ έμέ τήν πτέρναν αύτού. Jn 13: 18. This is a familiar curse in the Middle East. [8] For a detailed analysis: Neyrey, J. sj. (1995) The Foot-washing in John 13: 6-11, Transformation Ritual or Ceremony. Minneapolis: Fortress. pp. 198-213. [9] It was shamefully misleading for the present pope to wash the feet of a female Muslim. The action lacked theological grounding. No wonder naïve enthusiasts rush to emulate him and in some parishes ask for any volunteers to come forward for the ceremony. It misrepresents what Jesus intended and reduces the sacred liturgy to a sacrilegious sideshow. Christ chose his twelve; that is why liturgical tradition has insisted that viri probati be chosen. [10] Dix, D, osb. (1945). The Shape of the Liturgy. London: Dacre. pp. 743-4 [11] Song of Songs 8:6-7. [12] Juan de la Cruz, Canciones del alma… de union de amor de Dios: “Cuán manso y amoroso Recuerdas en mi seno, Donde secretamente solo moras: Y en tu aspirer sabroso De bien y Gloria lleno Cuán delicadamente me enamoras!”
