Humility in radical power

Good morning, happy Maundy Thursday and blessings.

I remind you that today we will have our live mass ‪at 6:00 pm‬ through Facebook Live Worship: https://m.facebook.com/HolyroodSCruz/

The Gospel for today in John 18: ‪1-19: 42‬, and is about the encounter that Jesus had with his disciples and where he participates with them in the washing of the feet and the Eucharist. And all this puts it in the context of a mandate: I did not come to be served but to serve. And this is one of his most radical mandate.

This is not how the world works.  In the world there is a pyramid of power.  At the top are the rich, the powerful, and the intelligent.  They set the standards and enforce the rules.  At the bottom are the weak, the poor, the powerless, the vulnerable: the immigrants and refugees, the unemployed and destitute, the mentally ill and physically disabled, the uneducated, the exploited and oppressed, the excluded and marginalized, those without power and without a voice.  This is true of every human culture.  In every human culture there is a pyramid of power.

In this Maundy Thursday Jesus subverts the pyramid of power by taking the place of the least and the humblest.  He stoops to align himself with those at the bottom; those in the last place, the place of servants and slaves.

By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus does not diminish his authority.  He is still their “Lord and Teacher” (Jn ‪13:14‬).  But he has come to show them a new way of exercising authority, a new way of being with others that is characterized by humility, compassion and loving service.  He exercises authority not from above, but from below.  “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones are tyrants over them,” the Teacher said. “It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:25-28). This is his radical Mandate for our Maundy Thursday.

Are you willing to accept this mandate and start serving as Jesus did?

Blessings

R Luis+