Reflection - Holy Thursday

Peter once again shows us just how stubborn a disciple of the Lord can be. Jesus moves to wash his disciples' feet. Peter blurts out, “You will never wash my feet.” He's already forgotten the whole Get Behind Me Satan episode. And a couple of others where he's fundamentally failed to grasp the Lord's lesson. Peter's fervor for protecting Jesus' status once again threatens to derail or delay the Lord's act of sacrificial love on the Cross. We can ask: is Peter worried about the Lord's status or his own?

Peter knows that a disciple must follow his teacher. What happens to the teacher could happen to the disciple. By washing his disciples' feet, Jesus is “lowering” himself to the status of a slave. Lower than a slave. Is Peter imagining himself spending the rest of his life as a lowly footwasher and dying a disgraceful death on a cross? If he is imagining such a life and death and trying at the same time to avoid it, then he is failing to understand what a life and death following Christ entails.

Jesus asks, “Do you realize what I have done for you?” Given that all of his apostles but one is martyred, he might have asked, “Do you realize what I have done TO you?” At the time, I doubt they did. He made them all Christs. And they died as Christs in service to the Gospel. Holy Thursday is our annual reminder that – whether or not our feet get washed – we have chosen to follow Christ. We are almost to Golgotha. Along the Way, preach the Good News like it's your last chance. It just might be.