In tonight's Mass we recall several key events in the life of Jesus and in the foundation of the Christian Faith.  This celebration is referred to as the Mass of the Lord's Supper.  Therefore, one of the things we recall is the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist.  Strange thing though, that's not the subject of the Gospel reading.  The institution of the Eucharist is recounted in the Epistle which is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians.  The scholars tell us this letter predates any of the gospels by about 10 years, and for today's celebration it provides a summary account of the Last Supper.  Today's Gospel focuses on Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.  It certainly is a powerful example of leadership from the front, driving home the point that they should do as he has done for them. But it doesn't end there.

St. John's account of the Last Supper is the most complicated one in the New Testament and takes up nearly a quarter of St. John’s Gospel.  In Sts. Mark, Matthew and Luke's Gospels they take 2, 3 and 5 paragraphs respectively.  More than likely, the actual is somewhere in the middle and the meal took at least a couple of hours.  Much was said in addition to the Jewish Seder ritual which recalled the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt.  Jesus knew what was coming.  All the Gospels agree on this point.  Something that I find astonishing is that, knowing what was coming, Jesus expected that they would remember anything that he had said or done during that Last Supper.

What I mean is this.  Right after dinner the disciples take a walk of at least, say, two or three miles outside the city.  At that time pretty much everyone in the city is asleep or bedding down for the night when a mob armed with clubs and swords comes for Jesus.  Most of the disciples are woken from a sound sleep.  We know that because Jesus has been trying to rouse them for some time with no success.  So they wake up to an angry crowd of people arresting Jesus.  "Holy mackerel, are we next!?!"  And they flee for their lives scared out of their wits.  They spend the next several days cowering in fear of being arrested at any moment.  Not exactly the best conditions for remembering complex instructions or the minutia of a speech given just before all the turmoil started.

As traumatic as the rest of that evening and the next day were for the disciples, they not only remembered these events, their memories became foundational for the early Christian community.  And Jesus was counting on exactly this to happen.  We must give proper credit to the action of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus did tell the disciples that the Holy Spirit would remind them of all that he had taught them.  How much ever the Holy Spirit did, Jesus' own actions were a tremendous reinforcement to help the disciples get the message he was sending.

In one sense it is very easy to say "this is my body given for you; this is my blood poured out for you," when you're referring to a piece of bread and a cup of wine.  If that's as far as it goes, you could say it's merely symbolic.  But that's not as far as Jesus went.  Jesus then striped off the outer layers, off with the mantle of leadership, off with the facade of the great teacher, down to the bare minimum covering of a slave to do a slave's task, the washing of the filth and grime of the road off the feet of his disciples.  Who knows what they stepped in that day.  Quite literally.  People road horses, donkeys, and camels; they drove cows, sheep and goats through the streets.  Who knows what the disciples stepped in that day, and Jesus washed it all off their feet.  "You call me 'teacher' and 'master' and rightly so, for indeed I am.  If I, therefore, the master and teacher," have done this for you so your service for one another should also extend even to the most menial, thankless and unappreciated of tasks.

He gave the disciples one final object lesson to drive this point home.  The next day, with every moment of mistreatment and agony which culminated in his death on the cross, Jesus lived and died what he said--"This is my body given for you.  This is my blood poured out for you."   When He told us "Do this in remembrance of me."  He didn't mean just the bread and wine part.  He meant every last bit of it.  To serve even in the most menial, thankless and unappreciated ways and to give of ourselves, to pour out ourselves for the good of others, at least as best as each of us are personally able.

- Fr. Paul Gebhardt