Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 17, 2025
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him,
“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all.”
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.
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.”
I don’t remember the last time I was washed in or near a basin. Probably because I was a baby—and I was being baptized. My baptism was the last time Christ tied a towel around his waist and washed me in his water and word.
Now, I have the blessing of walking with 50-some students as they prepare to be received into the Church this Easter—although their baptism will take place at the baptismal font of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (much grander than a basin). I see their faces in the disciples’ here in this gospel for Holy Thursday. Shock. Wonder. Love—for this man in front of me. Awe—that this should happen to me. Incredulity—that the king of the universe would kneel at my feet.
But the Son of God came to serve, not to be served. Jesus gave his whole life over in service of us, whom he loved to the end, and his sacrifice begins now, with the washing of our feet at the Last Supper, calling us to love others the way that he loves us. And I am struck by his question: ”Do you realize what I have done for you?”
Our sin and brokenness are washed away by his water at the foot of the table and by his blood on the wood of the cross. He serves us, he saves us, and he shares with us. Jesus is, in fact, giving us a share in his own inheritance as the son of God, allowing us to experience what it means to be sons and daughters of the most high king. With him, we rise—all the way up to heaven! What an honor.
As we enter into the Holy Triduum, let us bring the dirtiest, grittiest, muddiest parts of us to Jesus so he can wash our feet with tenderness and a soft caress. Let us give him what is ours—and he will give us what is his.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, there is much in this world we struggle to understand. It is hard to grasp why one might betray a friend, why suffering enters our lives, or why the righteous sometimes pay for the sins of others. Such is the darkness that sets at the end of this holy day. Yet in this moment of uncertainty, you give us a sure model of how to live. As the Lord washed his disciples’ feet, so he calls us to do the same. Teach us, Heavenly Father, how to be more like your Son. Teach us how to suffer with dignity; how to accept the mysteries of life we cannot understand. Instruct us in the ways of love, so that we may be true disciples of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Saint of the Day
With the beginning of Holy Thursday Mass, Lent ends and the most sacred time of the liturgical year begins—the Triduum, the celebration of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. The Triduum is one liturgical act that begins with the opening procession of Holy Thursday Mass and continues uninterrupted until the closing procession of the Easter Vigil. The services on Good Friday, for example, have no official opening or closing because they are simply a continuation of the one prayer of the Triduum. During these three days, we will live and breathe the Paschal Mystery.
With Mass on Holy Thursday, in particular, the Church remembers the Last Supper at which Jesus offered us his body and blood in gifts of bread and wine. This Mass recalls the love by which Christ gave himself to us on the cross, and invites us to embrace and enact this love in service to one another.
Of the four Gospels, three depict the Last Supper as a meal at which Jesus broke bread and poured wine while blessing them, and gave them to his disciples, saying, “Do this in memory of me.” The Gospel of John, by contrast, presents a very different vision of the Last Supper—it is here that Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, and tells them, “I have given you a model to follow so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
Both accounts of the Last Supper tell us the same thing: in this meal and in this act of service, Jesus gave us one example of self-giving love that we are to follow. This example shows the inherent connection between the Eucharist we celebrate and the way we serve one another. Both are participation in self-emptying divine love.
Holy Thursday is sometimes called “Maundy Thursday.” The title comes from the Latin word, mandatum, which means “commandment,” and refers to Jesus’ instructions to follow his example of love.
The Last Supper is depicted in South Dining Hall as a replication of Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting. The foot-washing scene depicted above is a painting that hangs outside of the chapel in St. Ed’s Hall. The reliquary chapel holds a piece of the table at which Jesus and his disciples gathered for the Last Supper.
On this Holy Thursday, let us empty ourselves in loving service to others, as Jesus taught us!