Maundy Thursday 2025
On the eve of His Passion, Jesus performed two actions which were equally unexpected: he washed the feet of His disciples, and He gave them the bread of His body to eat and the chalice of His blood to drink. The Church repeats the first action only once a year, whereas the second is celebrated every day. Nevertheless, these two gestures belong together.
The washing of the feet is a gesture of hospitality. It is intended to make you comfortable at the end of a long day and to refresh you as you are about to take part in a festive dinner. In the context of the Passover meal, this becomes also a rite of purification. The meal Jesus and His disciples are intending to share has a strong religious dimension. It happens at one of the holiest times of the year. Who would not welcome a rite of preparation for it? By the water poured on parts of the body, the heart, too, is invited to get ready for what it means to eat the Passover. Therefore, what is unexpected is not the gesture, but the identity of the person who performs it. Washing the feet was the job of a slave. When the disciples see Jesus, their master and Lord, getting ready to wash their feet, they are astonished.
In a similar way, blessing cups of wine before sharing them and bread to be distributed to all was part of the Passover dinner. But Jesus’ words of blessing are very unusual. He identifies the bread and the wine He is distributing with His Body and His Blood – with Himself. The gospels do not register any reaction of the disciples. I suppose they were so much taken by surprise that they did not know what to say.
For the disciples, this evening was to be a festive pause to be welcomed amidst the tensions they could feel growing between the powers that be and their Master. But Jesus began to act in a mysterious way which took them by surprise. His gestures and His words were loaded with mystery. The personality of Jesus seemed to be always growing under their eyes, revealing new facets of its infinite riches. Who was He who could act as humbly as a slave and prepare a unique banquet of which He was at the same time the host and the food?
The same surprise and the same question could, and maybe be should, be ours each time we attend Mass. Who is speaking to us through the texts which are proclaimed? Who is leading us into a universal prayer to the Father? Who is giving Himself for us in sacrifice and to us in spiritual food? Who is making us one in Himself? Who is sending us into the world to live out the Gospel and announce it?
Each Mass is an encounter with Jesus. He speaks to us. He purifies us. He nourishes us. He shares His life with us. He makes us one with Him and in Him. He does all this with the humility of a servant and a slave, with the royal dignity of a high priest, and with unique divine authority. God alone can purify our inmost heart from sin. God alone can unite us with Him in one life. God alone can send us into the world and make us witnesses to His truth and love.
Each time we attend Mass, it begins with a purification rite, the so-called “penitential rite”. While we confess our sinfulness and ask for God’s mercy, we may think of Jesus washing our feet and thus preparing us for the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. The Mass is a school of humility. What Jesus did for us, we have to do for one another. Let us always be mindful that there is no other way to announce to the world the truth of the Gospel than the way He Himself showed us: the way of humble and loving service.