Boundless Love

For the third time in his four-year papacy, Pope Francis has taken the Mass of the Lord’s Supper to prison.  Shunning the majestic confines of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis has traditionally brought today’s special Mass to those most in need of God’s love at the margins of our society – to the poor, the sick and, especially, the imprisoned.  The Pope’s gesture is particularly appropriate because the Mass of the Lord’s Supper kicks off the Triduum – the most sacred three days of our liturgical year when we celebrate Jesus’ greatest gift to us; his boundless love.

When we think of the Lord’s Supper we usually think of the institution of the Eucharist, Jesus offering himself to us in the bread and wine consecrated into his body and blood.  It may seem strange, then, that at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, our Gospel reading doesn’t mention the Eucharist at all.  We hear of the Jewish Passover in our first reading from Exodus, and we have a brief mention of the Eucharist in Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, but our Gospel, the very voice of Christ himself, recalls Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.  Only one Gospel mentions the washing of feet at the Last Supper – the Gospel of John that we read; the other three focus on the institution of the Eucharist.  With three out of four Gospels pointing to the Eucharist, why did the Church choose the washing of the feet as our message for today?

 Jesus’ entire life is meant to be our best example of a life well-lived, a life lived the way God intends for us to live it.  So in washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus is teaching us by humble example that our whole purpose in life is to love God by loving our neighbor.  Washing the feet of guests was a common ritual in Jesus’ time because guests often traveled to their hosts’ homes on foot through the dusty roads of the Holy Land.  Interestingly, though, it was servants and slaves who washed the guests’ feet, not the host.  Yet, Jesus, the host of the Passover meal, washed his disciples’ feet.  As Pope Francis so beautifully explained, “The love that Jesus has for us is so big that he became a slave to serve us, to take care of us, to purify us.”[1]  Now, that’s boundless love.   

  

Jesus gave of himself both in charitable service and in the Eucharist, so the institution of the Eucharist and the washing of feet at the Last Supper are inseparable.  We need Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist to strengthen us to carry out his mission of loving our neighbor through humble service.  Whether we’re tall, short, handsome (like me), or not so good looking, healthy, sick, rich, poor, free and yes, even imprisoned, every one of us, no matter what our circumstance, can love our neighbor because Jesus, no matter what our circumstance, loves us with God’s boundless love.  Whether it be through heroic works of charity, prayer, or even a simple smile, every one of us can change someone’s life for the better by sharing the boundless love we receive from Jesus with others.  

   

          I was blessed today with the opportunity to bring Jesus in the Eucharist to inmates in our local prison.  I explained to them that when Pope Francis visits prisons on Holy Thursday, he follows the ancient tradition of washing the feet of twelve inmates, and makes a point of telling the inmates that the twelve whose feet will be washed represent all prisoners everywhere.  I also told them that our pastor will wash the feet of twelve parishioners at our Mass tonight.  Those twelve represent all of our parishioners, including those in prison.  We do this to remind ourselves that Christ’s love extends to everyone, that all of us, no matter our circumstance, deserve to have Christ’s love shared with us, and that we all have an obligation to share Christ’s love with others.  We do this because Christ’s love is boundless love.

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[1] Pope Francis, Holy Thursday Homily, April 2, 2015.