This is just a brief reflection for Holy Thursday.
The one primary image of this evening is not the Eucharist, at least, in John’s account of the Last Supper. Rather, it is Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. What follows this action is John’s account is the great discourse, in my opinion, of John’s Gospel, in which Jesus takes time to teach his disciples for the last time prior to his Passion, reassuring them of his love and protection in the danger, the confusion, and the fear of the next several days, and a very intimate conversation between Jesus and God his beloved Abba.
The one directive Jesus gives to his disciples is to love one another as he has loved them. This IS the Great Commandment of John’s Gospel. “Love one another as I have loved you!” This is later emphasized in the first letter of John, in which only those who love with the love of Christ are considered disciples of Jesus.
This is the kernel of all sacred scripture. All the words of the Bible boiled down to one essence, “love one another as I have loved you.” This is the primary message of these three days of the Triduum. Not reparation for sins, not satisfying the bloodlust of an angry God, it is only about how much God loves us as exemplified in the Jesus dying out of love for us!
As Ruthie, Luke and I were celebrating our own “Last Supper” ritual at home this evening, this is what we reflected upon after we proclaimed the readings of this night. While we didn’t use water to ritualize the action of Jesus in the Gospel, it was unnecessary. Ruthie and I have fallen into the practice of anointing one another’s feet every day. This began back in late June when I initially broke my left ankle. Confined to my chair, Ruthie would rub my feet with lotion to break down the dead skin on my feet and to encourage the new skin growing underneath. As I was finally able to stand and put weight on my left ankle, I, in turn, would anoint her feet with the same lotion, to ease the pain of her own feet.
I remember reading in a book many years ago from a therapist explaining the words “making love.” The author, a clinical therapist, wrote that making love was waking up and warming up the shower for a loved one, making coffee in the morning for their loved one. Making love was calling up the one we love in mid-day and ask them how their day was going, and upon arriving home, listen to their loved one’s day as dinner is prepared. Making love is cleaning up the dishes and putting the food away, and sitting with their loved one watching television or engaging in some entertainment. And after looking after one another throughout the day in these small things of life, making love just might be expressed in a sexual expression of love for one another. The therapist concluded, it mattered not whether the day ended in an expression of sexual love for one another, they had been making love all day.
All this came to my mind as I proclaimed the Gospel this evening for my family. And, I must say, that my beloved Ruth has been the greatest expression of love for me throughout my life. I will always be a mere apprentice to her who loves so much, who fulfills the commandment of Jesus in such outstanding ways.
To conclude, I wrote this little poem this past summer as I sat in the long isolation of my chair for three months about Ruth, which I think, expresses the message of the Gospel for tonight.
TRUE LOVE
My feet suspended
from the end of the
foot rest of my recliner.
Socks gently removed,
your hands warm the oil,
softly, tenderly massaging its
mysterious healing properties
into my dry heels,
my weary arches,
my sore soles and toes.
Your reflexology of love
simultaneously, lovingly
massaging my soul.
