Some thoughts on Holy Thursday

1. Washing of Feet

I now it's an act of humility for the priest to wash feet, but tonight I was struck by how humbling it is to allow the priest to wash your feet. I suppose my first inkling of this was discovering how difficult it actually is to get people to volunteer for the foot washing, but tonight I was particularly struck by it. I'm probably too "friendly" with Fr. Don to get the full impact, but I thought maybe for a moment I understood what Peter felt when he protested Christ washing his feet.

In our culture, we don't really have a sense of "hierarchical" friendship (my term), a friendship with a recognition of superiority of rank or kind. We're way too easily "buddy-buddy" with Jesus to the point where we forget he is Lord! He's God! We don't really understand what that means, since we don't normally have 'lords' anymore.

Yes, Christ calls us "friend" rather than "servant" (John 15:15), and that is very important for our conception of God (compare with the master-slave dynamic of Islam). I know a youth leader who likes to ask the teens if Jesus was there before you, would you hug him or bow to the ground? A bit tongue in cheek, I always said that the only person in Scripture that ever hugged Jesus was Judas! I think there is a lot of truth in that, though. Even Mary Magdalene, when she tried to embrace Christ after the resurrection, was told, "Don't touch me."

I think the gospel of Holy Thursday shows that important dynamic. The disciples were Jesus' friends, but they still maintained a respectful distance and recognized his position as rabbi, enough that they were troubled by his washing their feet like a slave. They were wrong in this particular instance because Jesus was trying to teach them something, but I don't think one can fault them for their respect and honor.

2. The Roman Canon! And it was sung!

This is my absolute favorite Eucharistic Prayer. I love the list of saints and martyrs; it connects us back to the earlier believers. We don't hear it hardly at all now since Fr. John left; it was the only one he ever prayed. It is arguably the only really "legitimate" Eucharistic Prayer. The others may be allowed by the Church, but Eucharistic Prayer 1 (the Roman Canon) is the only prayer that goes back to the earliest centuries of the Church. Eucharistic Prayer 2, which seems to be the favorite of many priests because it is the shortest, also has ancient origins (Hippolytus), but it is arguably not actually a full Eucharistic Prayer because with its length it was likely more of a summary guide, a kind of "highlights" manual for priests of what needed to be prayed as the priest made up the Eucharistic Prayer (since they weren't originally written down). Other of the Eucharistic Prayers were essentially made up whole cloth, I believe.