Step #45-Serve with Humility

"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." John 13:14-15

Holy Thursday (April 9, 2009)

Today we celebrate the “Last Supper” of our Lord. Close your eyes for a second and place yourself in that room, with Jesus and the disciples. Imagine that you are one of the disciples and that Jesus is about to wash your feet. How would you react? Would you react like Peter who said: “You will never wash my feet.” (John 13:8) or would you give your feet willingly for Him to wash them? It’s not an easy answer. Sometimes is easier to serve than to be served. It is a very humbling experience to allow someone to serve us, especially if we consider that someone to be above us.

Jesus taught us how to serve and accept service with humility. During this entire journey we have seen Him serve us. His whole life was about service. He came to serve the poor, the sick, the abandoned, the forgotten, the sinners, etc. Even in his last hours, He was serving his disciples, including the one that was about to betray Him. He did not skip Judas in the washing of the feet. He washed his feet as well.

He wants us to do the same. He wants us to serve each other. Sometimes we will need to serve and sometimes we will need to be served. We need to learn to accept acts of kindness from others as a gift from Jesus. When we learn to accept these gifts in this way, we will be able to accept service from others with true gratitude and humility. He also wants us to serve others with humility. He does not want us to feel superior to anyone. If we help a poor person or someone undergoing economic hardships, we need to do it with love and mercy. We need to make sure that the person feels good, not inferior. If we go visit the sick, we need to take them our love. We cannot make them feel that what we are doing is a great sacrifice or an inconvenience.

Let’s spend some quiet time with Jesus tonight. Tomorrow, He will undergo the Passion and the Crucifixion. Let’s keep Him company in his last hours.

Holy Thursday (March 29, 2018)

In about four hours, God willing, I will be boarding an airplane which will take me to Israel. The past five days in Switzerland, I have felt as if I was in the desert. It’s ironic because Switzerland is nothing like a desert. Even though it’s still pretty cold, and I even saw snow up on the mountains, Switzerland is a very green country. And yet, to me, it still felt like the desert. Since it’s a Protestant country, the churches are bare. Every time I entered one, I felt a sense of desolation. No statues of saints or our Blessed Mother anywhere. Not even a cross on the altars. Only one church had a statue of the Pieta (Mama Mary carrying Jesus’ dead body).

Now that I am truly going to the desert, because I hear Israel’s climate is desert-like, and we will walk in the desert, I feel so excited. The feelings of desolation that I have experienced in the past few days are dissipating.

Jesus, take our hands and walk with us as we enter the Triduum.