Point I – Jesus the Servant: Before a very great feast it was the custom for a
slave to wash the guests’ feet. Though the Apostles knew it not, a greater
Banquet was about to take place…Jesus loving His own with an eternal love,
and with an intense desire to eat this Last Supper with them, would show them
first the importance of being “clean” before partaking of It…He washed not
only the feet that were going to carry His Gospel into all the world, but also
those which were going to be swift to shed His Blood. “I am in the midst of
you, as He that serveth,” (Luke 22:27) – as the slave! What love, and what
humility! He comes to us, too, and washes our feet in every absolution that we
receive. Let us think sometimes of all He had to go through before He could do
this.
Point II – Jesus the Master: He begins with Peter, and Peter objects: “Lord,
dost Thou wash my feet?” Then Jesus acts as the Master and tells Peter that he
cannot understand His actions now, but that he will understand later…All this
Peter did not understand yet, because He did not understand about Holy
Communion, but afterwards the lesson would come back to him; and John
wrote it down that all might learn it. Have we learned it? Do we, each time
before receiving Holy Communion ask our Lord to “wash our feet” which may
have gotten soiled since we were bathed in His Precious Blood at our last
Confession, telling Him while He does so how sorry we are?
Point III – Jesus the Example: But this was not the only lesson that Jesus
meant to teach…when He had finished He said to them, “Know you what I
have done to you? I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so
you do also.”…Serving others by acts of charity and humility. This is the
example the Master has given us to copy, and He presents some sharp contrast
to bring His lessons home—the Master and the servant; the One Who sends and
the one sent; the knowledge of charity and humility, and the practice of them.
This example and these lesson are for us. How can we wash the feet of others?
By doing little acts of kindness… by taking the lowest place; by taking the
worst and so ensuring that others get the best…Every time that we put into
practice the things that we know, we not only earn from our Master’s lips the
title of blessed, but we find ourselves kneeling and washing His Feet, those
Sacred Feet that were pierced for us, for He says, “As long as you did it to one
of these My least brethren, you did it to Me.” (Matt. 25:40) Passio Christi
Meditation for Lent by Mother St. Paul, 1917, from pgs 57 to 60