Maundy Thursday: “Do you understand what I have done for you?” To love, serve and care
27 March 2024Today, Maundy Thursday, John’s Gospel asks us a question: “ Do you understand what I have done for you?”
In silence, let us contemplate the gestures of Jesus that come from the depths of his heart and invite us to: love (“He loved them to the end”), serve (“He began to wash his disciples’ feet”) and act (“I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you “); gestures and actions, expressions of his immense love for each one of us. Do I understand what Jesus has done?
Jesus, tonight, reminds us that “To serve is to care. To care is to love”. And all love is an invitation to grow in humanity. “Service in great part means caring for vulnerability”, Pope Francis reminds us (FT no. 115).
Looking at the gestures of Jesus, let us ask ourselves: How do I love? How do I serve? How do I care for my sisters in community, my family, my friends, my brothers and sisters with whom I share my life, my colleagues at work, the poor, nature? It is the simple, everyday gestures that can change our reality.