GOSPEL POWER - APRIL 1, 2021 - HOLY THURSDAY

Gospel: Jn 13:1-15 

 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had  come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved  his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.  The devil  had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to  betray him. And during supper  Jesus, knowing that the Father had  given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and  was going to God,  got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and  tied a towel around himself.  Then he poured water into a basin and  began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel  that was tied around him.  He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,  “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”  Jesus answered, “You do not  know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”  Peter  said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless  I wash you, you have no share with me.”  Simon Peter said to him,  “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said  to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the  feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not  all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had  returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have  done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are right, for  that is what I am. 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.”

REFLECTION

Our limited notion of divine omnipotence is shaped by how  we see power exercised by human beings in the world.  Thus we conceive of it in terms of sovereignty, dominion and  control — actions normally associated with an exalted status. Today’s  Gospel offers us the scandalous but true picture of divine omnipotence — Jesus, the incarnate Word, washes his disciples’ feet. Divine  omnipotence is the power to love without limit and to demonstrate that  love by stepping down from the most exalted status to render the  humblest form of service. St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians  (2:6-11), speaks of this divine omnipotence as kenosis: Jesus, though  divine by nature, empties himself of glory, takes on the form of a slave  by becoming human, and obeys perfectly to the point of accepting  the lowliest form of death — death by crucifixion.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, only by having our logic turned upside-down do we get the  slightest hint of divine power as self-emptying love. Amen.