I was assigned to San Fernando Cathedral from 1995 to 2008. The cathedral, being in the center of downtown, attracted all kinds of people at all hours of the day. Among the regular visitors was a homeless man with a scruffy beard and dirty tattered clothes. His name was Adam, which was appropriate since remembering how God created the first Adam, the name means “dirt.” It was obvious he never bathed so no one could sit anywhere near him. He would sit in a pew for hours on end, sometimes reading the newspaper. Every so often something remarkable would happen. Someone, I never knew who, would kind of kidnap him for a day, bathe him, shave him, give him a haircut and wash his clothes. He would return looking and smelling like a completely different person. Then people could sit near him. Then he could be part of the community. It was amazing how a simple washing would transform his relationship to everyone. Whoever did the service helped not only Adam but in reality all of the community that gathered at the cathedral. Washing, an act of service and compassion by an unknown Good Samaritan, made him a part of the people and a part of the table fellowship at Mass.
During this coronavirus outbreak the one thing that is repeated often is to wash your hands thoroughly over and over. Your hands can be the source of contacting the virus or giving it to another. Washing as well as other precautions allows you to get out into the community for groceries, medications or other necessities. Washing and sanitizing the hands is critical for first responders, medical, grocery, drugstore, delivery and so many more people who need to interact with the community. Washing allows them to serve others safely.
Jesus was all about that in the gospel of Holy Thursday. In John’s gospel, read at the Mass of the Last Supper, remarkably there is no mention of the institution of the Eucharist. We do not read the words of Jesus over the bread or the cup. Instead John passes over that part of the supper and gives focus to the washing of the feet. For John it is the foot washing, the cleansing, the act of humble service on the part of Jesus that demonstrates what Eucharist is all about. It must have been an astounding moment for the disciples. In those times in Israel people entered homes after walking in sandals or barefoot on dusty roads. Washing feet was important as a gesture of welcome and hygiene. However, the master, the teacher, the leader never washed feet. This was always reserved to the slave to do, and not even the Jewish slave, but the very lowest person, the gentile or non-Jewish slave.
Pope Francis also has astounded us every Holy Thursday since becoming pope. He gives us an example of Jesus’ teaching: he has washed the feet of all kinds of people, including Christians, Muslims, Hindus, prisoners, the young, elderly, refugees and homeless people. In doing so he has lifted up some in the community that have been rejected, excluded or demonized. Having their feet washed by the pope put the spotlight on them and placed them in the midst of us all to be looked at in a new way, as people Jesus loves and serves and as people who should be welcomed. It is in the receiving of the Eucharist that we are called to be one in service with Jesus who came to serve and not be served.
After he finishes washing feet Jesus asks the disciples, “Do you understand what I have done?” Jesus only asks this kind of question one other time in the gospel. He really wants them to get it. This was a crucial teaching right before Jesus gives his own life. Do we get it? Do we understand that to gather around the table at Eucharist we are called to wash each other’s feet, to humble ourselves in serving others, so that all feel welcome to the community and the community reaches out to all? Humble service is the outcome of gathering around the table at Mass and receiving the Eucharist. It is a requirement, not an option.
You need to wash feet, to not only humble yourself in service but to help others put their feet in the right direction, just as you have served. It is in the receiving of the Eucharist that we are called to be one in service with Jesus who came to serve and not be served. Our feet ground us, they connect us to earth and to each other. That is how we meet each other, how we move towards each other, how we move through time and space. People on their feet all day long at work know the sacrifice. Refugees who walk hundreds, maybe thousands of miles for a better life or to save their family, do it on their feet. People, during this pandemic, are now standing on their feet in lines for hours to get food for their family. Volunteers work on their feet giving out food and supplies to the needy. Feet are sacred in many ways. To serve others is to wash feet. It is to support them and to help connect them to the rest of us. Washing is what happens at Baptism. It is the washing that puts us on our feet as Christians to begin that journey to the Lord.
Another dramatic moment of foot washing happens some time before the Last Supper, when a woman washes the feet of Jesus with costly oil. This story is in all four gospels in slightly different ways, but with the same meaning. Her action is criticized by those at table as a terrible waste. Jesus defends her action as helping prepare him for his death and burial: “Leave her alone… She has done all she could.” Listen to that: “She has done all she could.” Powerful description! Have we done all we could in the current pandemic crisis? Can we find ways to do especially for others in need what we can? Those who criticized the woman could not see what this was about because they had not yet done what they could for Jesus or for others. Do what you can!
The Last Supper also was about table fellowship, which was so important…Jesus taught the disciples over and over throughout his ministry how to be in fellowship at the table. He taught what all our mothers taught us from our youngest years, namely table manners. There are six stories in the gospels where Jesus multiplies loaves and feeds people. Six times Jesus teaches table manners. Much of what Jesus taught was at table. Everyone deserves a seat at the table. Feed the hungry. Sit with those you don’t like. Don’t judge others around the table. Share hospitality with those in need. Extend friendship to the stranger. Serve the poor. There is always enough for all if we try. Jesus’ miracles feed people. The setting for a meal was key. Table was family. I know this was true for me as a child where I have so many memories of sitting together to eat and talk about our lives with family. There was also always room for one more. As we say in Spanish when an unexpected visitor arrives at mealtime, “Hay que hechar mas agua a los frijoles!” “Just add more water to the beans!”
The importance of table fellowship and manners around eating together is why Judas betraying Jesus at table was so painful. Judas is always referred to as one of the 12, the inner circle, the closest friends. It was a family member who betrayed Jesus at table, an insider, one Jesus loved in a special way, one he had lived with for three years. The Passover meal of the Last Supper commemorated Israel’s freedom from slavery, a freedom given by God, which the Jewish people remembered as they gathered at table. Yet, it was here that Jesus would be betrayed and sold into slavery and death. Jesus says it is one who is eating with me now. The Passover meal was so important. It was loaded with meaning: reconciliation, unity, spirituality, religious faith and tradition. That is why the moment of betrayal was so tragic. It breaks your heart to reflect on it since that table, as all of our family tables, was a place of trust, sharing and familial bonds. The Gospel shows that even within the Eucharistic community betrayal is found. Our challenge with the pandemic fear today is to not let greed or thinking only of myself betray my Eucharistic community. I may not be physically sitting at Mass these days, but I must continue to live the manners that come from the table of Jesus’ body and blood.
Holy Thursday is a reminder of the food and nourishment that God gives, but it is not just food for keeping the body alive and it is not just about us, it is a call to keep the Body of Christ alive, and make service our food and our nourishment. Humble loving service. Letting Jesus wash us, love us, serve us so we can do the same for others. What are your ways of washing feet today in the midst of this extended virus crisis? How are you practicing the table manners Jesus teaches at the Last Supper?
Wash your hands a lot these days and weeks. Every time you do let it remind you of the one who washed feet and taught us how to be at table with each other.
Fr. David Garcia is a retired priest from the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas, where he served for 44 years. During that time, Fr. Garcia was instrumental in the effort to have the Old Spanish Missions recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and also oversaw the multimillion-dollar restoration of San Fernando Cathedral. Fr. David served as pastor for several parishes in San Antonio, including the historic Mission Concepción. He also served as Senior Advisor for Clergy Outreach at Catholic Relief Services, the official international humanitarian and relief agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.