Who Does God Love?

Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet, which the Church re-presents each year on Maundy Thursday, is intimately connected with the new commandment of love which Christ gives us in the Gospel.

Reading: Mark 12:28-34

The following homily was preached to the student brothers during Compline. You can listen here or read below:

One of the most beautiful and suggestive rites that the Church offers us once a year is that of the washing of the feet, a liturgical act that is intimately connected with the new commandment of love that we have just heard. As Pope Benedict XVI said, we can identify two different dimensions in the washing of the feet. On the one hand, this act of Jesus is Sacramentum, not like one of the seven Sacraments, but insofar as it is a sign of the mystery of Christ’s life, it is a sign of his lowering himself to the human condition, it is a sign of his humiliation on the cross, and finally it is a sign of God’s supreme love for us. “We love God, because he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19) as John says.

On the other hand, however, the washing of feet is Exemplum: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (Jn 13:14), says the Lord. Jesus Christ, as true man, shows us the way of self-giving. Yet, at the beginning it is not our doing, our moral capacity, our commitment. Christianity is first and foremost a gift: God who gives himself to us and does not give some thing, does not simply give norms of behaviour – as many think – but gives us Himself.

The fact that, first of all, there is no commitment on our part becomes even clearer if we think that the commandment of love, in Christ, extends as far as our enemies: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44). We can hardly, with our good will, love those who wish us harm, it is something unnatural. How then? If we look again at the washing of the feet, we can see that Jesus washes the feet of all the disciples, including Judas who will betray him. He washes the feet of God’s beloved people, Israel. Christ washes the feet of all humanity, because he gives himself to all. And so, we realise that the Lord also washes my feet, who so often deny him with my bad deeds and my sins.

But Jesus also washes the feet of my enemy, Jesus washes the feet of those who have wounded me, who have hurt me, who do not love me. It may be shocking, perhaps painful and difficult to realize it, but God loves even my enemy, the one whom I, from a human point of view, could never love. God loves him, because just like me he is a sinner in need of conversion and Christ has given his life for him too. In other words, God does not only love those whom I love.

So I think the way forward is to pray for Jesus Christ to give us his eyes, because only through him does God become authentically accessible, only through his eyes can I love even those who have hurt me.

Image: Washing of the Feet (Lavanda Dei Piedi) (1303) – Giotto, Scrovegni’s Chapel (Cappella degli Scrovegni), Padova. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.