Do You Realize What I Have Done For You?

March 20, 2008

Holy Thursday

This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD. For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first--born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt-I, the LORD! Exodus 12:11-12

If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. John 13:14-15

Piety

Psalm 116:12-19

How can I repay the LORD for all the good done for me?

I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.

I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

Too costly in the eyes of the LORD is the death of his faithful.

LORD, I am your servant, your servant, the child of your maidservant; you have loosed my bonds.

I will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.

I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,

In the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Hallelujah!

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/032008b.shtml

Like the original covenant between God and Abraham, today humanity gets another gift from our God who can not stop loving. Like this covenant with Abraham, the Lord offers himself through his blood and his body unconditionally. He asks us to share his humility, obedience, and love. Yet, whether or not we deliver on our end, he will not rescind his love. This again is not a contract, not a bargain.

Jesus does not seek to have the disciples wash his feet in return. He offers his servant leadership as a model so that we may follow. Not only do we benefit from God’s unconditional love whether we return that love or not, but also we realize that our God will never ask anything of us that the Lord did not already experience.

Jesus offers himself as the New Passover, the New Lamb – changing the original perspective of a vain God striking down the male children of Egypt. Instead, Jesus offers a new vision of a loving and forgiving God no matter how we turn our back on him. He offers himself as the Lamb of God at Seder knowing full well that Judas will betray him, Peter will deny him and the rest of the disciples will scatter like Ash Wednesday dust in the wind.

Action

Jesus asks us to follow his lead. Tomorrow he will remind us that his kingship is not of this world. Rather than seeking groveling subjects, the Lord wants us to pay our “vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.” Let us commit to serving the Lord by serving the children of God. Just as the Jewish families were to share the Passover meal with another family, so we are to share God’s love for us as a “perpetual institution.”

Just as Jesus’ feet were anointed by Mary, today, Jesus bends down in love and caresses our weary feet. Whose feet will you wash today in Thanksgiving?