|
|
- Holy Thursday
Sacrifice alone, bare and unrelieved, is ghastly, unnatural, and dead; but self-sacrifice, illuminated by love, is warmth and life; it is the death of Christ, the life of God, and the blessedness and only proper life of men and women.
- Frederick W. Robertson
(How does sacrifice open you more fully to give and receive love? Be alert for opportunities to make loving sacrifices this day.)
|
Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18.; 1 Cor 11:23-26
Jn 13:1-15
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him,
“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all.”
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
John 13:1-15 (Jesus washes the apostles’ feet)
This is Jesus’ final evening with his apostles. He begins to say farewell and prepares for the treachery to come. Matthew, Mark, and Luke emphasize the sharing of the bread and wine, with Jesus asking the apostles to remember him in that manner. John, however, shows Jesus washing the apostles’ feet as the last symbolic intimacy he will share with them.
- Bishop Sheen once wrote that, although we have Jesus’ example of the washing of the apostles’ feet as a model of service, it is difficult to find people today fighting for the towel. Is this true of you? What are some of the lowly jobs at home and at work you avoid because you feel they are beneath your dignity?
- Pray for the grace to be washed clean of false pride.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
____________
BOOK II: THE HISTORY OF THE GENERATION AND HEAVENLY BIRTH OF DIVINE LOVE
Chapter 20: How the mingling of love and sorrow takes place in contrition
So Theriacum-wine is not so named because it contains the proper substance of Theriacum, for there is none at all in it; but it is so called because the plant of the vine having been steeped in Theriacum, the grapes and the wine which have sprung from it have drawn into themselves the virtue and operation of Theriacum against all sorts of poison. We must not therefore think it strange if penitence, according to
the Holy scripture, blots out sin, saves the soul, makes her grateful God and justifies her, which are effects appertaining to love, and which apparently should only be attributed to love: for though love itself be not always found in perfect penitence, yet its virtue and properties are always there, having flowed into it by the motive of love whence it springs.
|
|
|
