JESUS CAME TO SERVE, NOT TO BE SERVED

TRIDUUM PASCAL - MAUNDY THURSDAY

In the Holy Week, there are three days that are set apart, being considered the most holy - we call them the Tritium Pascal, that’s Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

They are like a summary of Jesus’ life and ministry and so a summary of what it means to be a Christian.

We can put forward three images:

As a slave, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples

As a slave accused of high treason, Jesus dies on the cross

The silence and darkness of death, which open into the glorious light and the victorious song of resurrection.

Jesus made it very clear in his teaching and in his practice that he came to serve not to be served. He was not a man of violence but of peace. He came for the poor and oppressed and for all those who are ready to repent and to accept God’s loving mercy.

After washing his disciples’ feet, he explained his action:

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. (Jn 13:13-15).

Throughout the centuries, many times the church has gone astray, being unfaithful to Jesus’ teaching and example. That comes from our sin. However, time and again, the Church sets forward the ideal presented by Jesus. Blessed are the peace makers, they are the children of God. As Christians we are called to carry the cross, that is to undergo persecution and oppression, not to inflict suffering and death on others. We are called to put ourselves at the service of life and not to be instruments of death. Jesus was ready to lay down his life for humanity; and he scolded Peter when he tried to shed blood.

His service comes from his love. 

“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (Jn 13: 1). 

He calls us to his table and serves us with his food, in which he himself becomes our food. He commanded his disciples to do the same time and again in his remembrance. That’s why we celebrate the Eucharist.

In the Eucharist - a gift of love for his Church - we remember and celebrate Jesus’ attitude of service, his faithfulness up to the cross, his death and resurrection, so that we may find the courage and the strength to sow seeds of love and mercy and to bring the peace of the Kingdom of God into the world.