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The late Henri Nouwen was a well know spiritual director and author of popular spiritual books. He had the gift of producing insights that opened up new insights for other people in their relationship with God.
He wrote that faith is not believing in something unseen but rather believing that we are unreservedly loved. We are loved by God. The four gospels do not focus on Jesus’ deeds, marvellous as they are, nor on his words, though we study them to this day, they focus on his person, his character. They explain that he had a profound obedience and orientation to God whom he called ‘Father’ whom he prayed to throughout the night, and also displayed a selfless love for people.
The scriptures for Holy Thursday night reveal these themes to us. When the disciples were together with Jesus to celebrate the Passover meal, before the meal he washed their feet, the action of a slave and told them to follow his example. Peter protested yet Jesus insisted that they do this, not as a ritual but from the heart to show their love for others. It is the person of Jesus which makes this action holy. In 2016 Pope Francis went to a housing facility on the outskirts of Rome for the Holy Thursday ceremony where he washed the feet of 11 refugees: four Nigerian Catholics, three Christians from Eritrea, Pakistan and Mali, and one Indian Hindu. The service we render, Pope Francis indicated is for all people of all faiths and none.
Fr Tomas King in Pakistan relates the story of a young Hindu man who was caught up in a Catholic crowd and ended up in the Catholic compound in Badin where he was co-opted to be one of the people to have his feet washed. Fr King said the young man went home and told his family that he was going to become a Catholic. They were astonished and asked for an explanation. His response was that it must be the right religion because the master of the house (Fr King) washed his feet.
After the institution of the Eucharist, Jesus went into the garden on the Mount of Olives with his disciples and he prayed to the Father to spare him from the dreadful future which was poised to take him over. He prayed that the chalice of suffering might pass him by but he would do the Father’s will wherever that led him. Those early Christians reflected on what happened and their conclusion was that it was not doctrines or rituals that were at the heart of their belief in Jesus, but living according to the pattern of his life.
He gave us the gift of the Eucharist; he called the disciples, ‘friends’; he left this special meal for us to repeat because he commanded it. When we do it in his memory, he is present in the bread and the wine and the prayer of thanksgiving.
We believe in him, we follow the pattern of his life as the early disciples did, in Jesus we see God’s unreserved love for us.
Columban Fr Gary Walker is currently living at the Columban house in Sandgate, Brisbane.
