Holy Thursday Homily --by Father Lester Smith

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What was the original meaning of the washing of the feet? What was Jesus actually saying by that deed? By the second century, Christians saw it as a symbol of Baptism. "Unless I wash you, you will have no part with me." Later they also saw it as a symbol of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. "He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet". There are even different interpretations in the Gospel itself. For instance, it is seen as an incitement to humble service- "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done." All these interpretations, are legitimate, especially the last one, since it is found right in the Gospel. But by digging deeper, scholars can get closer to the actual thing that happened. And what they have found is surprising! For what Jesus did was actually quite strange- to get up during the middle of the meal and begin to wash the feet of the other people at the meal. The disciples must have felt very uncomfortable. Peter was the only one who spoke up: "Are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered: "What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later." If it was humble service he was illustrating, they could have easily understood that. So it must have been something else he was saying. What was it?

      The washing of the feet, I think, was a prophetic action, like the prophetic actions of Jermiah, Ezekiel and other of the prophets of old. For instance, In Jeremiah 19, the Lord tells Jeremiah to take an earthen flask, and, in front of the elders of the people, to smash it to pieces and say: "This will happen to the nation of Israel." And in Chapter 13, the Lord tells Jeremiah to buy a linen cloth and wear it around his loins, and then to take it off and bury it. And the Lord says, through Jeremiah, "Just as a linen cloth clings to a person's loins, so I made the House of Israel and the House of Judah cling to me, but they left me". The washing of the feet was, I believe, a prophetic action like that. It was saying something almost too deep for words. By the time of that Supper, Jesus knew he was going to be killed. He had even come to see his death as part of God's plan. He had surely read Isaiah 53, where it says:"He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins...He shall take away the sins of many and win pardon for their offenses." Jesus had come to see it all as part of God's plan. But he was in great dread. Remember, He was completely human, as well as divine, and he was in great sadness and fear-dread! Yet he wanted the disciples to know the purpose of what was going to happen. So he shocked them by getting up and washing their feet. He was saying "I love you from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. Your whole body, your flesh and blood, is to share in my glory. I'm going to wash you with my blood." Jesus washed their feet to prophecy symbolically that he was about to die for them. It's interesting that, on another occasion when Jesus spoke of his death, it was Peter then too, who objected, saying:"Lord, that shall never happen to you." On this occasion, however, Jesus says: "Unless I wash you, you will have no part with me". In other words, "Unless I die for you, there will be no eternal life for you".

     We gain eternal life by being united to Jesus, through faith and through the sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion etc. He said in John 6:"Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you." And if we fall away through sin, or if even we grow weak through small sins, there is the Sacrament of Reconciliation, by which we are united more firmly to the Body of Christ and to the Lord, himself. Then as Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and gave them his Body and Blood, expressing his imminent death, let us as we share the Holy Eucharist, resolve to die for one another and for Him.

:       ---Father Lester Smith