INTRODUCTION
When the Church in her official teaching tries to help us understand and appreciate the Eucharist she begins with the Last Supper.
- “At the Last Supper, on the night when he was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of his Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.”
The context in which this happens is important. It is the Last Supper. It is in that last meal that Jesus has with His friends that He shares with them His gift. It is a farewell gift.
This gift is a memorial of His death and resurrection. It is His death and resurrection that has brought salvation to the world. Now Jesus gifts his followers with a memorial of His death and resurrection. A memorial is a “making present” of something. In this memorial entrusted to his friends Jesus makes present for all time and for all of us, the benefit of his death and resurrection. The event of his death and resurrection is made present for us every time the Eucharist is celebrated. This means that whenever the Eucharist is celebrated we are able to take part in the real event of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and are able to benefit from it in a very special way. Today, in the celebration of the Eucharist we benefit from Jesus’ dying and rising. This is why it is so important that we participate in, that we enter actively in the celebration of the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is a “sacrament of love”. In a sacrament we meet Christ our Redeemer. When the Gospel of John describes Jesus’ action at the Last Supper it says: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end”. In the Fourth Eucharist Prayer we pray: “He always loved those who were his own in the world. When the time came for him to be glorified by you, his heavenly Father, he showed the depth of his love”.
Jesus’ love for his own will be experienced in the foot washing and its completion in his death. Up until now Jesus has been the shepherd leading his flock. He has performed miracles and spoken with the power of truth. Having announced his message of love he is now going to offer himself up in humility, in weakness, in silence and in love even to death. He will go to the very end of love; he will love totally and unconditionally, giving life, giving his life. He will reveal in a new way who he is and who God is.
The Prologue of the Gospel of John shows us a descending God who becomes flesh to lead us into the womb of the Father. Now we see Jesus descending to his knees to wash the feet of his disciples. In the Jewish culture, it was a slave’s job to wash the feet of others. Never would a king kneel down in front of one of his subjects, nor a teacher before his disciples. Jesus takes on the role of a slave; Jesus serves. He serves by washing the feet of his disciples, but his service goes beyond this. He serves by giving himself up to death out of love.
When we are taught that the Eucharist is a “sacrament of love”, what we are being taught is that in the Eucharist we meet Jesus who is serving us, washing our feet and giving himself up to death in order that we may have life.
Further, we are taught that the Eucharist is a “sign of unity”. In life we admire and obey those who do great and brilliant things and we put them on a pedestal. But admiration is not love. Love implies closeness, mutuality. When people really love they need each other and are vulnerable to one another. With the incarnation the all-powerful One becomes the little, powerless one. He needed his mother to feed him, love him and be in communion with him. He needed the Samaritan woman to give him water. And we will discover that he needs each one of us. He wants to dwell in each one of us as a friend. He is knocking at the door of our hearts, begging to enter and to become our friend:
- “Listen! I am standing at the door knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”
The history of humanity has changed since God has knelt humbly at our feet, begging our love.
The Eucharist is a sign of our unity with Jesus. Jesus said: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love” (John 15:9). In celebrating the Eucharist we celebrate that sign which makes us one with Jesus.
In addition the Eucharist is a “bond of charity”. If Jesus has washed my feet, and if Jesus has washed your feet then we have something very important in common, we have each been washed by the same Lord and Master. Once Jesus has washed their feet, he puts on his outer garment and sits down. He then entreats them to do for each other what he has just done for them. “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 13:14-15). When Jesus calls us to wash one another’s feet, it does not mean we have to actually wash everybody’s feet. What is does mean is we are being called to love, to serve and to forgive each other.
In the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we read about Jesus at the Last Supper breaking bread, passing the cup, giving his body to eat and his blood to drink. It is a moment of intense communion through his body. To receive communion is to be in communion with Jesus. There is a deep link between the Eucharist and the washing of the feet. The washing of the feet, too, is an intense moment of communion through the body. Jesus tells the disciples that he is giving them an example; they are to do for each other what he has done for them. In the mind of John, communion at the table of the Lord cannot be separated from the communion lived in washing each other’s feet. The Eucharist as a “bond of charity” tells me that as I receive the Lord and Master in communion, I am to be a foot washer for my sisters and brothers. I am to be in communion with them.
As Jesus kneels humbly before each one and washes their feet he reveals to each one his love, which is both comforting and challenging. He sees in each one a presence of his Father whom he loves and serves. The love of Jesus reveals that we are important, that we are a presence of God and are called to stand up and do the work of God. We are called to love others as God loves them, to serve others and to wash their feet.
The teaching of the Church, to which I referred at the very beginning, also states that the Eucharist is “a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed”. In the next reflection I want to talk about the various ways that Christ is present in the Eucharist.