Dear friends,
Every Sunday we gather in our church, around the altar, to encounter our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Head of the Church — yes, but He is also the Head of our families, of our home. He is, as the Apostle Paul says, Father — but a Father with the tender heart of a Mother (Ephesians 3:14-15; Isaiah 66:13).
Just as it was two thousand years ago: the crowds went out to meet the Lord, they touched Him, they listened to His Word. And some had a profound experience — certainly not all, but those who sought the voice of God and His will with all their heart. As today's Psalm says:
“O God, you are my God,at dawn I seek you;my soul thirsts for you,my flesh longs for you,in a dry, weary land without water…” (Psalm 63:2)
In this Eucharist, Jesus Christ, gentle and loving, comes and washes us all, just as He washed the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper. What Jesus did that evening, He does for us at every Mass: He bends down before us to make us clean. He does not look at our faults: He forgives, He washes, He makes us pure from our sins. Jesus says in the Gospel of John: “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
Therefore, let us welcome today's Word of God; let us listen carefully to what the Lord says, so that His healing touch may reach us in our innermost being, in the secret of our heart.
The prophet Jeremiah was mocked and persecuted precisely because he faithfully proclaimed the word of God: he carried his cross centuries before Christ. He says:
“You seduced me, Lord, and I let myself be seduced;you were too strong for me, and you prevailed.I have become a daily laughingstock;everyone mocks me.”
Yes, it is true: at times we too may become “a daily laughingstock,” like the prophet Jeremiah. Faithfulness to God has always come at a price.
Today, in the Gospel, Jesus tells us to prepare ourselves to face the cross. “The cross!” No — the world cannot accept this word. “The cross!” — it cannot be accepted. In today's Gospel, Peter rebukes Jesus, saying: “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But Jesus said to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do!”
The cross is a scandal and foolishness to the world; and yet it is precisely through the Cross that God's plan is fulfilled and accomplished. In God's plan, it was necessary for Jesus to carry the Cross. Jesus, with firm resolve, carried the Cross, and He said to His disciples: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Only a small group remained faithful to Jesus all the way to the cross: His Mother, Saint John, and a few women.
In our church, on this Sunday, in this Eucharist, when Jesus comes to wash our feet, wiping away all our faults and offering us His forgiveness, we can make a decision: to offer our small (or great) sufferings in order to follow Jesus — as Saint Paul urges us today: “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1).
To those among us who respond to His invitation, He has promised that they will find their life again, and receive many, many blessings, both in this world and in the Kingdom to come.
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