Homily
for Thursday
4th
Week of Easter
May
12, 2022
John
13: 16-20
Provincial
House, New Rochelle, N.Y.
“If you
understand this, blessed are you if you do it” (John 13: 17).
Jesus pronounces
another beatitude here. What is it that
we’re supposed to do so as to be blessed?
It’s not washing people’s feet, per se. That action, a slave’s duty, is presented in the 1st verse of this chapter as a sign of Jesus’ love. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (13:1). “To the end” may be interpreted as one of the double entendres that John’s so fond of. Thus it may have a temporal meaning, “to the end” of his life—also pointing toward his death, a slave’s death, i.e., crucifixion. It could also have a qualitative meaning, “to the utmost,” as much as humanly possible, to the nth degree. The Jerusalem Bible takes this meaning: “he showed them how perfect his love was.”
And that’s
what we’re to do who follow him as our master:
to love one another, to serve one another—not by washing each other’s
feet but by doing little and great acts of loving service for each other, and
doing them with love (not by constraint!).
An act of
loving service could be as simple as picking something off the floor or as
great (in scope and burden) as filling some office on behalf of the confreres
and the young. It could be the quiet
acceptance of suffering, as we observe in Gus and other confreres. It could be letting ourselves be served or
helped by others—as Peter was compelled to do when Jesus came to wash his feet
(13:6-9). One commentator writes: “Peter’s reluctance to accept the humbling
service of his acknowledged Lord and Master is matched by our refusal to accept
it from those we deem inadequate, unqualified, lacking credentials, or what
have you.”[1]
So many ways,
so many opportunities to be the slaves or servants of the Lord and of one
another. So many ways to be blessed by
our master.
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