Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Dear Epiphany Disciples of the Supper of the Lord 

Cena Domini 
In the Quiet of the Towel, Heaven Spoke: Serve as I Served 

Mass of the Lord’s Supper: John 13:1-15 (17 April 2025) 

This is moving. Jesus, washing the feet of his disciples. Peter did not understand it at all, he refused. But Jesus explained it for him. Jesus – God – did this! He himself explains to his disciples: “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:12-15). It is the Lord’s example: he is the most important, and he washes feet, because with us what is highest must be at the service of others. This is a symbol, it is a sign, right? Washing feet means: “I am at your service”. (Pope Francis, Homily, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, 2013) 

Dear parishioners, walking in sandals on the roads of Israel in the first century made it imperative that feet be washed before a communal meal. People ate reclining at low tables, and feet were very much in evidence. In Jesus’s time, washing people’s feet was usually a task for the lowliest of servants. One of the most poignant and powerful acts of Christ was the washing of the feet of His disciples during the Last Supper. This act of humility and love is not merely a lesson in servanthood but a profound revelation of God’s heart. 

When Jesus rose from the Last Supper and began to wash the feet of the disciples (John 13:4), He was doing the work of the lowliest of servants. The disciples must have been stunned at this act of humility and condescension-that Jesus, their Lord and Master, should wash the feet of His disciples. 

Washing feet was more properly their work, but no one had volunteered for the job. This act of humility and love is not merely a lesson in servanthood but a profound revelation of God’s heart. Jesus came to earth not as King and Conqueror but as the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. As He revealed in Mathew 20:28, He came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The humility expressed by Jesus’ act with towel and basin foreshadowed His ultimate act of humility and love on the cross. 

Jesus’ attitude was in direct contrast to that of the disciples, who had recently been arguing among themselves as to which of them was the greatest (Luke 22:24). There was no servant present in the upper room to wash their feet, and it never occurred to them to wash one another’s feet. When the Lord Himself stooped to this lowly task, they were stunned into silence. Peter was profoundly uncomfortable with the Lord washing his feet, and he protested: “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8). 

Then Jesus said something that must have further shocked Peter: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me” (John 13:8), prompting Peter, whose love for the Savior was genuine, to request a complete washing (John 13:9). Then Jesus explained, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you” (John 13; 10). The disciples had “bathed,” and they were all “clean” but one-Judas, who would betray Him (John 13:11). 

So, Jesus’ act of washing the disciples’ feet illustrated their spiritual cleansing. Jesus is the One who forgives. Peter and the rest had experienced the full cleansing of salvation and did not need to be bathed again in the spiritual sense. Salvation is a one-time act of justification by faith. What follows is the lifelong process of sanctification: a daily washing away of the stain of sin. As we walk through the world, some of the world’s spiritual filth will cling to us, and that needs to be washed away-forgiven by Christ (John 1:9). Peter and the other disciples-all except Judas, who never belonged to Christ-needed only this minor cleansing. 

The Servant King: in John 13, we see an astonishing scene: Jesus, the Son of God, the Creator of the universe, takes on the role of a lowly servant. He removes His outer garment, wraps a towel around His waist, and kneels to wash the feet of His disciples. This was a task reserved for the lowest household servant, yet Jesus willingly embraced it. Why? Because He came “not to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). His act shatters worldly notions of power and honor. True greatness, Jesus teaches us, is found in humility and love. 

A Cleansing Beyond the Physical: when Peter initially resists, Jesus tells him, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me” (John 13:8). This statement carries deep theological meaning: the washing of feet is symbolic of the cleansing from sin that Christ offers. His coming Passion and death would provide the ultimate purification-one not of feet, but of hearts and souls. In this way, Jesus reveals that true discipleship requires both humility in receiving His grace and a willingness to be made clean by Him. 

A Model for Christian Living: after washing their feet, Jesus instructs His disciples: “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:15). This is more than a call to perform an outward ritual; it is an invitation to a lifestyle of humility and service. As followers of Christ, we are called to serve one another with the same selfless love He demonstrated. The world often seeks power and recognition, but Jesus calls us to a radical love that stoops low, that lifts others up, that embraces the least, the lost, and the lowly. 

The Eucharistic Connection: The washing of the feet is inseparably linked to the Eucharist, which Jesus instituted at the same meal. Just as He humbled Himself to wash the feet of His disciples, He humbles Himself in the form of bread and wine, offering His very Body and Blood for our salvation. Both acts reveal the depth of Christ’s love and His desire to unite Himself with us. Just as He serves us in the Eucharist, we are called to serve others with that same sacrificial love. 

In the Upper Room, Christ ate the Passover Meal with his disciples in obedience to the Old Covenant prescriptions, but he gave the rite new substance. We hear how Saint Paul explains it in the First Letter to the Corinthians. This text, which is thought to be the oldest account of the Lord’s Supper, recalls that Jesus, “on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is [given] for you. Do this in remembrance of me’. In the same way also the cup at the end of the meal, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:23-26). 

These are solemn words which hand on for all time the memorial of the institution of the Eucharist. Each year, on this day, we remember them as we return spiritually to the Upper Room. In the Upper Room, Jesus filled the old traditions with new meaning and foreshadowed the events of the following day, when his Body, the spotless body of the Lamb of God, was to be sacrificed and his Blood poured out for the world’s redemption. The Word took flesh precisely with this event in view, looking to the Passover of Christ, the Passover of the New Covenant! 

In instituting the Eucharist, Jesus gives the Apostles a share as ministers in his priesthood, the priesthood of the new and eternal Covenant. In this Covenant, he and he alone is always and everywhere the source and the minister of the Eucharist. The Apostles in turn become ministers of this exalted mystery of faith, destined to endure until the end of the world. At the same time, they become servants of all those who will share in so great a gift and mystery. The Eucharist, the supreme Sacrament of the Church, is joined to the ministerial priesthood, which also comes to birth in the Upper Room, as the gift of the great love of the One who, knowing “that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father [and] having loved his own who were in the world. . . loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). The Eucharist, the priesthood and the new commandment of love! This is the living memorial which we have before our eyes on Holy Thursday: “Do this in memory of me“: this is the Passover of the Church! This is our Passover! 

In every Eucharist, the gesture of the foot washing is mysteriously renewed: the Lord stoops once more to cleanse us, to make us capable of sharing in His divine life—and to send us forth, that we too may kneel in love before one another. It is to this that Holy Thursday exhorts us: not to allow rancor toward others to become, in its depths, a poisoning of the soul. It exhorts us to constantly purify our memory, forgiving one another from the heart, washing each other’s feet, thus being able to join together in the banquet of God: 

Serving Christ in Others: Jesus tells His disciples, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17). The blessing comes not just from understanding His example, but from living it out. We encounter Christ in the hungry, the poor, the lonely, and the suffering. Each time we humble ourselves to serve another, we imitate Jesus and become His hands and feet in the world. 

Dear Epiphany, the washing of the feet, then, is not only the manifestation of divine mercy but also the mandate of Christian discipleship: “As I have done for you, so you must also do” (John 13:15). The fullness of gift and example found in this Gospel moment reveals something fundamental about the nature of Christianity itself. 

The washing of the feet is a call to transformation. It is a challenge to embrace humility, to receive God’s cleansing grace, and to serve others with self-giving love. As we contemplate this sacred act, may we allow Christ’s example to shape our hearts and lead us to a life of true discipleship. Let us go forth, not seeking to be served, but to serve-so that in all things, God may be glorified: 

Divine Love Knelt Low: Grace in a Basin, Glory in Humility! 
The Master Washed Feet: Hearts could be Clean! 
He Stooped to Serve: We might Rise to Love! 
Hands that Shaped Stars now Cleanse Dusty Feet: Love has no Pride! 
The Humble Love of Christ: A Call to Servanthood 

Fraternally, 
Fr. John Peter Lazaar SAC