RBWords

     Holy Thursday clearly focuses on the creation of the Eucharist in which Jesus establishes the miracle of changing bread and wine into his very person.  Tradition speaks of it as "body and blood, soul and divinity."  However, the Church restored another ritual to Holy Thursday in a reform of Holy Week liturgy in the 1950's.  This ritual is known as the "mandamus" (Latin for "command") or popularly as "the washing of the feet." Both the Eucharist and the Mandamus carry with them the command of Jesus to "do this in remembrance of me."  They are both a form of "Real Presence."  Yet, the washing of the feet is celebrated liturgically only on Holy Thursday and is optional, whereas "Mass" is celebrated every day!  Why this is so, I do not know enough liturgical history to answer.  I suspect that convenience has a lot to do with it.

     All three "synoptic" gospels and St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians mention Jesus' words concerning the bread and wine at the Last Supper.  The Gospel of John  mentions only the washing of the feet of the disciples.  (The Eucharist is mentioned in chapter 6, much earlier in that gospel.)  We cannot ignore the Lord's command about his service in washing the feet of the disciples, but we shouldn't take it so literally that this is the only form of service that he commanded.  His gesture was symbolic but it calls attention to the matter of putting skin on our baptism.  Eucharistic celebration without care and love and compassion for our neighbor is empty celebration.  The emphasis on the eucharistic miracle and the elaborate procession to a special altar can overwhelm the ritual washing of the feet.  It takes a special effort to realize the full dimension of "real presence."  It is not simply Jesus' presence in consecrated bread and wine.  It is also Jesus' presence in consecrated service to one another.  We do it all in remembrance of Him.  AMEN