In monasteries where monks or religious people live, it is a good custom for all monastery members to take turns doing official work, such as preparing food, washing dishes, or taking care of the cleanliness of the premises. Young and old, ordinary and introduced. Years ago, I was a young priest in Frankfurt, Germany. They accommodated us in a dormitory near the college run by the Jesuits. It went without saying that we sat at the same table with different people during breakfast or lunch, often with older professors who sometimes served us. There used to be many of us in the seminary for future priests; we ate in the standard dining room, but the superiors and professors did not sit with us.
On Mandy Thursday, we read from the Gospel of John every year about the last supper that Jesus celebrated with his disciples. He sat at the table with his disciples and performed a service before dinner, which was reserved for male and female servants: he washed his friends’ feet. In some larger churches today, foot washing is part of the St. Mass. People whose feet are to be washed are washed in advance, and their best clothes are worn. The ritual is lovely, but it’s more about the game than the service. Jesus washed his dirty feet.
We should notice the connection between this service and what we call the Sacrament of the Altar, St. Mass, St. Reception. In the Middle Ages, all European people were Christians, but society was divided into privileged and subject, rich and poor. The church was split into clerics, lay people, priests, and ordinary believers. At St. communion was only attended by priests, the others only exceptionally, they even had to give it to them by order, at least on Easter. At that time, respect for the St. altar in the form of obeisance. St. Host was worn on the pole as a banner during the procession. However, almost no one received the sacrament. The understanding of what it is about has been lost. The awareness of the connection between Jesus’ actions and the church’s actions has been lost.
It is right to bow before the St. altar, the holy host, but we cannot see it as sacred. St. guests is part of the holy event, the holy event. What is that sacred event? The central prayer we read at Mass, he expresses it with the words: „He, before voluntarily going to death, took the bread and gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples.“ Jesus’ holy event was his inner setting to live for God’s kingdom, serve the world’s salvation, and give everything, including his own life, for these goals. That is why Jesus told the disciples that he gives them bread and wine, his body and blood. Finally, he said to them: Do it in memory of me!
What does it mean to do something in memory of Jesus? Maybe we have to read St. Mass, wash our feet, or even go to death? Yes, we should read St. Mass, but we cannot celebrate it without a genuine willingness to serve each other and give our lives for ourselves. Dining together, creating closeness, mutual service, and a desire to give life for each other were inseparable attitudes and activities for Jesus. However, for some Christians, including those attending church, these are separate activities. Although we have been together for some time, we have not become our own. We are together as people who, for example, get on the bus. Such people have common goals in something, a common direction of travel. However, they do not feel co-responsible for driving or for fellow passengers. The driver or the transport company is responsible for driving the bus. It is a great responsibility and service that does not transform anyone. People get in and out and don’t care more about themselves.
The St. Mass, the memory of Jesus’ dinner, receiving God’s word, and the St. bread are actions with much higher goals than a safe bus ride. If we profess Jesus, it is not enough to greet him, it is not enough to just bow before his image and the sacrament – a sign of his holy presence. If we profess Jesus, we want to understand and be transformed by him to act in his memory. Then our ceremonies, prayers, and speeches will not be just a nice game like washing and scented feet. Pope Francis is not in the habit of washing the feet of twelve venerable men when celebrating the memory of Jesus’ last supper. Today he went to a prison for women. Some Christians with weaker judgment say, What’s the point? They’re evil women, and a number of them aren’t believers… The Pope isn’t going there to praise them for the sins (for which they are in prison). It goes to show that we Christians care about other people and that we don’t think that we are better. He wants to show that we should serve and share what we have received well in life, and try to touch the human heart so that at least a small gap opens up in it, through which God’s grace will enter.
How are we together today? How do we start celebrating the Easter holidays? Are we together on a bus or as close people, transformed by Jesus into brothers and sisters, even with sinners? Let’s pray for ourselves that we become truly the family of Jesus, although different yet equal, mutually serving and once fully sacrificing ourselves in Jesus’ memory!
