Our liturgy commemorates the first Eucharist. But, it is much more than a commemoration. Ever since that holy night, Christians have gathered faithfully to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The 2nd Reading, taken from St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, is crystal clear about this. “This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you”. The Church, through the sacred [1] ministry of Her priests, is where the Eucharist we have received from the Apostles is passed on. The Eucharist and the Priesthood were born on the same night!However, the Gospel seems to go off-tangent because it remains quiet on the sacraments of Eucharist and also the Priesthood. There seems to be a silence in the Gospel because the Eucharist and Priesthood are wrapped in the towel which Christ uses to wash the feet of His disciples. The Gospel’s focus may be on service.
In a sense the focus on service is not so off-tangent because priesthood together with marriage are sacraments specifically directed to the service of the community—each according to its vocation—priesthood to serve the Church and marriage to serve the family. What is not so clear is the link between the Eucharist and service.
How is the Eucharist related to service? We take our cue from the great commandment which echoes both Deut 6:4-5 and Lev 19:18: Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Love your neighbour as yourself. In Christ, the Eucharist is His love for His Father and service is His love for His neighbour. Tonight, in the Washing of Feet, Christ teaches us that both the Eucharist and service are inseparable. The Gospel’s focus may be on service but it actually leads us back to the Eucharist.
The command to love God and neighbour is best lived through the Eucharist and service.
Firstly, the Eucharist without service often degenerates into a form of spiritual selfishness. It is like using God to legitimise who we are and it may even lead to self-righteousness. Take a look at the Carmelites or any of the cloistered religious orders. They live behind walls and seemingly have nothing to do with the outside world. What relevance is the Eucharist to them? The fruit of the Eucharist is selflessness as it draws a person out even to the sacrifice of his or her life. And that is precisely what the nuns or monks do—the life of prayer they lead is directed to others—they sacrifice themselves for the good of the Church. In that sense they mirror the Eucharist as the sacrifice of Christ’s life. Once we have this understanding of what the Eucharist means, it will lead us out of ourselves, our comfort zones, our securities to risk all for Christ. You see this in every saint of the Church. It was their love of the Eucharist that led them to all sorts of endeavours for the Kingdom of God.
Secondly, service without the Eucharist is humanistic activism. It is bound to fail because it will never be the kingdom of God. It might be a political or economical solution but it will never satisfy the spiritual need of people. There are many people of goodwill and they have great desires to serve. However, have you noticed that goodwill is just good for a while? When goodwill runs out, people usually end up fighting. Look at the current state of the opposition coalition—there was goodwill at the beginning but now infighting.
Service without God, at its worst, is like communism. But, if you look at the history of religious life, you will find that every religious congregation of the Church will have a sense of devotion to the Eucharist. The Congregation with a strong emphasis on service, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity leads the way in Eucharistic adoration. This link of service to the Eucharist is a reminder to those who serve that Christ alone saves the world and that we are merely instruments in His service. Otherwise, we would be tempted to think that we can save the world. Communism was humanity’s pride in thinking that it, not God, is humanity’s saviour.
The Washing of the Feet within the context of the Eucharist is a reminder that the Eucharist leads to service and service is strengthened by the Eucharist. It is natural that some of us want the benefits of the Eucharist without embracing its responsibility. But, Christ has shown that the Eucharist must come alive in us through our service of our neighbours. And some of us are convinced that goodwill is enough to sustain our service but we are shown by the examples of the saints that our service always brings us back to the Eucharist to beseech our Saviour for strength so that we give the best of ourselves. [2]
In conclusion, for Catholics, the Last Supper is by no means the last. Instead, it is perpetually the Lord’s Supper given for the love and service of the world and Christ Himself showed us the best example of loving service when, at the Eucharistic table, He also washed the feet of His disciples.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The crowd is phenomenal and it could be an occasion to take a swipe at those who come only once in a while etc… but no, I shall not take that path. People are here for some reasons of their own. Sometimes people stay away from the Church because the Church has hurt them in the past. It is funny that no matter how much we try to “deny” the Church, somehow, we are connected to her. For example, people who do not want to be Catholics define themselves as ex-Catholic. In the face of the current crisis, and we read every day the same salacious and sordid exposé, let me comment on this. Earlier, I deliberately used the word “sacred” in reference to the ministry of the priests because our morality has become too “earthly”. Have you noticed that we judge the truth of a statement or even an institution based on the failure of those who are supposed to uphold it? As such morality has become “earthly” simply because we are now the gauge, rule or standard of what morality should be. We fear the use of the word “sacred” because of the failures of the members of the Church. But, do not judge the truth of Christ’s Church by the failure of Her priests and religious. Despite our failure as priests or religious, Christ’s Church is sacred or holy because She is forever the faithful Bride of Christ. And we lovingly call the Church our Holy Mother and for that reason, Her liturgical actions are considered sacred because they are actions of the Church done through fallible men. Therefore, in the face of seeming systemic failure, when everything seems hopeless, as these days do feel, instead of withdrawing, all the more we ought to turn to our Saviour to ask for His help rather than depend on our own strength. It is the right thing to do because our entire liturgy is centred on the proclamation that Christ is our Saviour. To whom do we go if not to Him? Further to the current imbroglio, perhaps we can better understand how we ought to proceed if we know where the world is coming from. The world's reaction is indicative of how sad the world has become. The world looks at itself and it does not like what it sees. Since salacious scandals are staples for the entertainment media, it should come as no surprise that the world is in such a sordid state. However, I suspect that the world actually does not like what it sees of itself. Thus, when the world looks at the Church it realises that some members of the Church are reflecting back its ugliness. Instead of saying, "we have a problem and we need to change", what has happened is the world re-channels the rage it has against itself to the Church. It is a form of self-hatred and also it is more convenient that the fault lies elsewhere. [Here I am not giving excuse for the wrongs of the members of the Church. We have a lot to answer for].
[2]Our cynicism with regard to failed governance can probably be explained by the fact that we believe that goodwill is enough to will the good. It is not enough and when goodwill fails to achieve what we have set out to do, we turn cynical. If you think about it, most "activists" are people of goodwill who desire to change the world. They are fired by a vision of a better world. And they set their hearts and minds on the goal of making the world a better place. Often they get burnt out and after years of service without any result, they become cynical. Is there not a saying that "Cynics are failed Idealists"? Whereas, the previous footnote highlights the need to turn to our Saviour for salvation. A corollary of trust in Christ who redeems is courage not to succumb to despair or cynicism. The failure of governance does not negate the need for it and therefore, instead of cynicism, we reaffirm our dependence on the Lord as we endeavour even more to engage civil society in the enterprise of justice, love and peace. This is how Christian hope can be lived.
