Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday, the beginning of the Triduum (i.e. the three days until Easter Sunday), a liturgy filled with readings on the Exodus event (where Yahweh leads the Jewish people from enslavement in Egypt to the Promised Land) and the Last Supper. It might seem like a peculiar combination but, in fact, it is central. As God wished the best for the Jewish people and led them to freedom so Jesus, through His life, death and Resurrection, can lead us to freedom.

The Gospel of John gives us a version of the Last Supper which differs from Matthew and Luke. For John there is no focus on bread and wine but on Jesus’s washing the feet of his Apostles. These accounts are not contradictory but complementary as Gospel writers focus on different aspects of Jesus’s last dinner. In John we get a radical view of not only a Servant King (as we saw in Palm Sunday) but a King who is so humble as to take on the filthy task of washing feet (this was a time when people wore sandals on roads which were dusty and muddy- thus feet which were very dirty!). It shows that we have a God who humbles Himself out of love to cleanse us from sin and lead us to freedom, if we choose to accept His love.

This is the God which Christianity preaches! Not a cruel distant tyrant but a God who is with us (especially through the Eucharist) and loves us as individuals far more than we can ever realize.

Are we too possessive of our status, position or titles?
Are we afraid to ‘get our hands dirty’ for others?
Do we see our life as one of service (to our wife, husband, children, relatives or friends) or power?

Mission Doctors get their hands dirty daily as they bring healing to God’s poor in the Third World. Perhaps you can help them through prayer and donations?

Today's guest blog post is contributed by Brother John Kiesler, OFM is a member of the facility of the Franciscan School of Theology in California. Brother John is a member of the Formation Facility for long-term missionaries through Mission Doctors and presents at the Annual Retreat Seminar on the theology of mission. Additionally he serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Mission Doctors Association.