The Language of Love
Jesus has said: the greatest
expression of love is giving one’s own life for one’s friend. Today we find
Jesus fulfilling his own words. In the most striking manner he offers his own
life to his beloved disciples in two extraordinary ways. In one he washes their
feet and in the other he feeds them with his own body and blood in the form of
bread and wine. Thus Jesus institutes the sacrament of love in the Upper Room
where he ate his last supper with his beloved ones.
The words and actions of Jesus
are beyond the comprehension of our practical minds. The language of love can
be understood only by love.
It is the most crucial moment in
the life and mission of Jesus. It is filled with the pain of farewell. It is
filled with anxiety of the impending suffering, rejection, humiliation and
death. Jesus has already started to undergo the moments of his passion.
The disciples are totally
ignorant of the condition of Jesus. They are not aware of the deep significance
of that particular Pascal-meal for Jesus. It is going to be his last one with
them. Jesus wants at this moment to show that he loves them till the end. Nobody
can love more than that.
In love Jesus does not hold back
anything for himself. In the words of St. Paul, Jesus empties himself to the
extent that he becomes a servant to his disciples. St. John has brought out the
picture of the serving love of Jesus very powerfully in the washing of the feet
of the disciples. The Lord becomes a servant.
The washing of feet by Jesus is
the proof of his love, which is willing to bend before the other in humility.
It means not only being humble, but also being considerate of others, acknowledging
them as they are. It means also unprejudiced love to all, to saints and sinners
alike. It is the mentality of the loving Father in heaven who loves his
children unconditionally and showers his blessings equally to all.
Quite deliberately, Jesus says,
“I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.” In
this sense, the washing of feet and the Eucharist the same challenge for us,
the disciples of Jesus. We are challenged to love as he loved with body and
soul, in word and deed.
In the Eucharist Jesus identifies
himself with the Paschal lamb. On the Passover day the Paschal lamb is
sacrificed and the blood of the sacrificed lamb is shed as a remembrance of the
salvation of Israelites from slavery. The flesh of the lamb is eaten during the
celebration of the feast at home. Jesus substitutes the Pascal lamb with the
Eucharistic lamb which is himself.
When Jesus utters the Eucharistic
words over bread and wine in the Last Supper, he calls to the attention of his
disciples to the sacrificial lamb. He says, this is my body broken for you,
take and eat; this is my blood poured out for the remission of sins, take and
drink from it.
The words that prolong the
institution of the Eucharist to the present and to the future are: “Do this in remembrance
of me”. With these words, Jesus entrusts us with a great tradition to be
carried out till the end of the world, till he comes again.
Whenever we come together we have
to remember the great love of Jesus immortalized in the Eucharist. The Eucharistic
memory is not simply a recollection of the past. But it is memory which
challenges our present life, behavior and relationships.
The holy Eucharist is not simply
an object, but an action. In the Eucharist Jesus obliges us to discover his
broken body as really present in the world in the suffering people around us.
He invites us to break ourselves as the bread on the Eucharistic table and
share with others. It is an invitation to come out of our selfish world to the
world human relationships.
The broken body of Jesus is
visible not only in human beings, but also in nature where the glory of God is
becoming less and less visible by the greed of human beings. Care for the
environment is an extension of our Eucharistic commitment. Let the celebration of
the Eucharist continually challenge our conscience. Let it awaken us to our
responsibilities to human beings and to the entire universe.
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