Holy Thursday 2021

I had an Indian colleague back in a day working in the Bank. He regularly invited me to his house for meals. His wife never ate with us. What she did was to eat after him but using his plate. Whatever he does not finish, she would eat it up. That was about 35 years ago. In the meantime, we have gone through that much of “wokeness”, that is, supposedly we have become so much more aware and sympathetic to the “perceived” injustice in the world that such a cultural expression of eating off a husband’s plate would have to be reinterpreted as “patriarchal oppression” of women. For me, it was fascinating not on account of the pre-eminence of man but rather on account of it being an expression of unity that this dietary habit symbolised. This kind of “proximity” in sharing a plate illustrates the union between husband and wife. The pairing may be cultural, but it reflects a unity which speaks to what we are doing tonight. It is even more so in this pandemic where nearness or proximity is considered to be deadly.

 

This Mass is called Thursday of the Lord’s Supper or Maundy Thursday. The word Maundy is derived from “Mandatum” and this mandate has been sacramentalised to give us the two institutions central to the definition of the Church. They are the Sacraments of the Eucharist and the Priesthood of the Ordained.

 

And yet, the Gospel we heard this evening paid no attention to these two Sacraments. It is possible because the institution of the Eucharist is covered under the 2^nd Reading. The focus is on an action which we have not been able to carry for the last two years, and that is, the Washing of Feet.

 

The unity symbolised by my friends’ eating arrangement might shine a light on this ritual which is absent in our liturgy tonight. Whenever a visitor arrives, slaves are to perform the rite of ablution, that is, to wash off the dirt and grime from the feet of the guest. The exception to this regime is that instead of a slave, a wife may wash the feet of her husband. While we may chafe at such disparity or unfairness of women serving men, the action or the servitude of a wife with respect to the washing of her husband’s feet flows from the truth that they are of one body, joined together by love.

 

Tonight, Jesus demonstrated that the love which is at the heart of the Eucharist must flow into the service of the Priesthood. Alternatively, the charity of the Priesthood must flow into the service of the Eucharist. In other words, the unity of Christ’s Body is cemented by love and strengthened by service. The best example is to be found in Christ Himself. He loves His bride, the Church and serves her through the sacrifice of Himself so that she may have life to the full. Thus, the washing of feet, the work of a slave, is actually an expression that flows from the unity of the Christ, the Bridegroom and the Church, His Bride.

 

Today, the invitation is for us to follow His example. The language used to describe Jesus’ symbolic action is instructive. How so? He took off His outer garment before the washing began and took it up again when He had done the washing. The manner of John’s recounting of this event is reminiscence of the action of the Good Shepherd who lays down His life only to take it up again. Within this action of laying down and taking it up there is an invitation to trust Him. Why?

 

Because we are at best surrounded or at worst trapped by the wall of self-preservation, which is, at the same time, fortified by an ingrained sense of entitlement. “What is in it for me?” However, let us be clear that self-preservation is natural, as it has been pointed out before. It is about survival. But consider this. In the area of conjugal unity, and we are speaking of spousal relationship, the current experience has somehow reduced conjugal union to “recreation” rather than “procreation”. A contraceptive mentality facilitates this reduction. The result has been an increased tendency to be “me-centred” or “I-focused”. However, when love in marriage is sacrificial, it is life-giving. Married couples know the difference between a selfish and a selfless spouse.

 

Love finds its greatest expression in self-sacrifice. Many of us who have had the privilege of being ministered to by the countless French or Irish Missionaries serving this country, also know that they had left their homes and their loved ones without counting the cost of separation. They forsook their families and sacrificed themselves for the Church in Malaysia. There must have been a reason for them to leave home and never go back.

 

The present is quite different. Missionaries these days have acquired this entitlement to yearly, and if not yearly, then every other year, home visits. One may point out that this is the result of an enlightened psychology. We breathe a kinder climate; one which is less heartless, so to speak. Yet, it is important to recognise that the martyrs of the Church, and this includes the French and Irish missionaries of yesteryears, they all dared to give up everything because they trusted that in the Lord nothing of their sacrifice will be destroyed even if they were annihilated. The Shepherd who laid down His life and who took it back again has given us the roadmap to follow Him along the path of self-sacrifice. The current of love flows strongest in the river of selflessness.

 

The Washing of Feet offers us a chance to recover for ourselves the extraordinary notion that love ought to be manifested in the service of each other. The action of Jesus from tonight onwards is done in light of this consummate awareness that no sacrifice to His Father and for us will ever go to waste. His Resurrection is our promise of that. He will never allow us to be lost. This promise gives meaning to our abnegation, renunciation, and self-denial. We dare to offer our lives for others, even for our enemies because we are never vanquished in Jesus Christ. Unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains but a single grain. In Him, self-sacrifice is always a triumph, always a victory and never a defeat.