Sensing the soul of Jesus, in front of his people, on the eve of Maundy Thursday

During the celebration of the Last Supper in March 2018, Father Roger Robert comments the washing of feet gospel.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John (13,1-15)

“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to his Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During the meal, although the devil had already convinced Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had left everything in his hands, He who came from God and will be returned to Him, Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe and wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he poured water into a bowl and started to wash his disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He stands in front of Simon Peter who says to him: “Why, Lord, you want to wash my feet!” Jesus said to him, “What I am doing you cannot understand now. But later you will understand.” And Peter answered: “No, you will not wash my feet. No, never!” Jesus in answer said to him, “If I do not wash you, then we have nothing left to do together.” And Simon-Peter answered: “Then Lord, wash not only my feet but also my hands and my head if you wish.” Jesus replied, “When we’ve just had a bath we do not need to wash. We are completely pure. You, yourself are pure. But not all of you.” He knew well who was going to betray him, which is why he said, “You are not all pure.” After washing their feet, he put his outer clothes back on, sat at the table and asked them. “Do you understand what I’ve just done? You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. As I have given you an example, so you should do as I have done to you.

This evening, in all Christian churches there will be this reading of the Gospel and this particular liturgy. You know the story of the event that happened that evening. Yet perhaps you didn’t know what Jesus had done? As we will see with Peter’s reaction, this wasn’t the done thing. In the Middle East, when someone arrived at your house, they had walked there and there could be dust on their feet. This was the norm, a gesture of welcome, or hospitality: usually, it was a teenager or young boy who poured water over your feet when you arrived. You would have to have lived in the Middle East to know what this was when you are tired having travelled somewhere in the heat, the first thing you needed was to freshen up. So water was bought out and this gesture was made...

How did Jesus do it? What happened inside of him to make him carry out this act of a little child who washes the feet of others, to speak to his disciples; to tell them something that they had not really understood. Whatever the case, was this gesture contrary to everything he did? Peter made him feel it, “Why, Lord, you want to wash my feet?” No! You will not wash my feet. No, never!” And Jesus was to say: “If I do not wash you then we have nothing left to do together...” So Peter said: “Then Lord, wash not only my feet but also my hands and my head if you wish.” And Jesus replied, “No Peter, you always get ahead of yourself! The words I have just given you, what I have said and you have welcomed, by staying close to me, has washed you from the inside. “You are all pure...because you are imbued by what you have heard. You are imbued by the life that is mine.” It was not about simply washing feet... “You are pure because of the words I have given you...His words wash us, in the sense where having been taken by Him, we are not simply wandering aimlessly. “My words live within you and you will feel the presence of my Father in me for you.”

Then, Jesus stops, “But not all of you.” And his voice breaks a little: “Not all of you. One of you shall betray me.” Emotion takes over as he thinks that one of his own, a loved one, one who the Father gave unto him, will betray him. This is a tragedy: how could it happen? Someone so close to him! This isn’t one of the people who will take him later, torture and crucify him, those are the executors. It’s a loved one...  It is so painful when someone close to you denies you, betrays you.

This gesture, it is made but once, they are already together so why does Jesus use this gesture which was simply something hosts did to guests who had travelled? There was doubtless a reason for the gesture, which Jesus planned, and it shocked them all. If we follow the tradition of the Gospel of Luke, the disciples had fallen out because Jesus talked about leaving and they said. “Who will take over? They argued as they tried to work out who was the greatest and who would now be in charge.” And according to Saint Luke, as this desire for recognition is voiced, Jesus intervenes and comes up with this gesture. Because he feels some sort of fever in his disciples around him, and what he is about to experience that evening, it isn’t about searching for glory, of who is the greatest! “Who is greater?” they ask. They are unaware that their appraisal is based on the criteria of people: someone important, someone who dominates, someone with power. That’s the way it is in the world. We want to shine, we want to be esteemed by others, there is this need for recognition...that’s where they are. And Jesus says to himself, “But even now?” So he comes up with this gesture for the group of people who surround him and it will last quite a while!

When I hear this lecture, it reminds me of something. For two years, I lived in a Benedictine monastery in the North of Lebanon. One day, at dinner, the monks started to argue loudly, shouting insults at one another. The Father Prior tried to calm them down, but he also got called names, and things became very heated. We were guests of the monks, and we saw this aggressiveness and wondered how this could be turned around. We didn’t see one of the monks disappear, the one usually disregarded a little: Father Jean-Marie, he was an Alaouite. He was there to make amends, to take a little better care of his students. A worn-out man, good, but apparently not very educated, as it turns out he was actually very well educated. As things got louder and we all became rather afraid, wondering what we could do, Father Jean-Marie arrived with a bowl and a towel. And he got on his knees in front of the Father Prior, under the table, took off his socks and shoes and began to wash his feet. He did this to every monk...and they went quiet. They went quiet because they recognised Jesus’ gesture...the apostles were arguing too. They recognised Jesus’ gesture in this lowly monk that was there. We too witnessed this, and we were moved by what happened. We said nothing. There was a silence...these men experienced the gesture Jesus made again.

When we have experienced it, we understand it so much better. It was utterly striking to watch Jesus’ gesture, made today by this lowly monk! Why did Jesus do it? Was this was the gesture of a child or a slave? “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. So if I, the Teacher and Lord make this gesture it is so that you will also make it among you.” There you have the great reversal of the Gospel.

A moment later Jesus says, “You have these people who are politicians, they make you call them ‘Lord’, ‘Master’ and they rule the world...and everybody reveres them. Or there are others with money, and with their money, they do all sorts of interesting and important things and so they are called ‘benefactors’. “There is nothing like that among you! The greatest is the one who serves.” There you have a reversal of all human values, what we called ‘great’ ‘worthy’ ‘reputation’... People love those reverences! And Jesus comes and reverses all these human values linked to greatness where there are people who command and people who obey. The greatest is the smallest... Jesus, there on that evening inaugurates a new way to appreciate one another. Are we searching for recognition?

At the end of the first half of his Gospel, John notes that Jesus remains in a certain solitude because even those who know him don’t dare declare themselves for him as they are afraid of being rejected. And John says: “They prefer the glory that comes from men to the glory that comes from itself.” That’s why Jesus received no recognition. At that moment, he shouted, “It is not me you are rejecting, it is the One who sent me...to take us away from these ceremonies, where, in the end, there is nothing left. Everybody dies...” And Jesus said, “I have come so that you have a life, a life that does not disappear.” There is a great inner reversal: is what we call “great” truly “great”? Well, there is a question there: What am I looking for? To be seen by men or to enter into an intimate relationship with my God?

This is why I am moved. I love hearing the Spirit guiding me, I love sensing the soul of Jesus, I need to feel his soul. Learning things about him, yes I’ve learnt some, but that isn’t what makes me love him! It is when we feel his soul...and rightly, John is on Jesus’ chest: he needs to feel his soul. When we love someone, we need to feel their soul. The day we are no longer in touch with each other’s soul is when distances start to appear.

So, that evening, there is a peculiar atmosphere among his disciples. John, at the start of the text, says, “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to his Father..,” A phrase we see time and again in the Gospel, “Jesus’ time.” “This is not my time”, he said to Mary. “My time has not yet come..." But now, here it is! “Now the time has come to pass from this world to his Father,” Jesus knows that he will die and John writes with the perspective of years passed, from memory. “Jesus having loved his own who were in the world, will love them until the end,” there is no defection in God’s house concerning anyone. God cannot withdraw his love, he does not know how to do that! The only thing that God knows is what he passes on to us, “The art of God” is precisely to give of oneself. When we love, we want to give our life and give life to those whom we love. “Jesus having loved his own who were in the world, will love them until the end,” until the end.

So John says, “It was during a meal when the devil had already suggested to Judas to betray him...” Judas would have felt safe if Jesus had used the greatness that came from men. But Jesus does nothing and Judas says, “What’s going on? He is shy, we have to force him!” He does not accept Jesus’ attitude and pushes him against the wall, he’ll force him to reveal himself, either we’ll know that it’s true and we can’t lay a hand on him or it’s not true and we’ll see that he isn’t so powerful after all. So then, according to Jon, Jesus invents this gesture. Having experienced it, I can tell you that it’s really breathtaking to have a human at your feet, making this gesture. For you? A human being on their knees making this gesture? It's very poignant. And it is God’s gesture. It is God’s gesture... “Having loved his own, he will love them until the end.”

F. Roger Robert

French to English translation by Debbie Garrick and Cécile Simon