Reflection on Holy Thursday
The opening sentence of the Gospel that we read today, in the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, serves as a portico for the entire celebration of the Paschal Triduum: «Before the feast of Passover, Jesus realized that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. He had loved his own in this world, and would show his love for them to the end» (Jn 13: 1). This masterful introduction by John the evangelist is a matchless way to frame all the events that will unfold from here: The Last Supper, the washing of the feet, the prayer and the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane, his trial, condemnation and crucifixion, his memorable forgiveness of his executioners from the cross, his death and his resurrection. The interpretive key that explains the Lord’s attitude through all these events is that, having loved his friends, he loved them to the end.
Today, as we enter with faith and emotion into the celebration of the central days of the liturgical year, it would not hurt to examine our reaction, both emotional and rational, to this moving statement of the evangelist. When I hear that Jesus «loved to the end,» how do I feel? What do I think?
And it is important to ask those questions because probably we are dealing with one of these Gospel passages that we could quickly dismiss. It would be easy to downplay it and to think, deep down, that it is a fine statement if we apply it Jesus, but that today, here, it is impossible to actually live out. That perhaps is not even desirable. For, what does it mean to love to the extreme? Is it even possible? Is there such pure love in the real world? Is this love that gives it all out actually healthy? Have we not learnt the importance of practicing self-care? And does not psychology teach us that in all acts of love for someone there is a bit (or a lot) of self-interest and self-love? From our experience of the complexity of life we could read this gospel story and think of it as a fable. Beautiful, yes, but fabulous after all. We will read that Jesus loved his friends to the extreme and reduce this phrase, at most, to an ideal. Nice, to be sure, but unrealistic. «In the real world, no one loves like that,» we will tell ourselves.
We will not be completely wrong if we think this way: absolute self-giving is attained by few people. For most of us, fears, selfishness and the pursuit of comfort reduce our ability to fully give ourselves to others. And yet, it is crucial that we realize that we are not facing an impossible horizon. Difficult, yes, but perhaps less distant than we think. There are, around us, in every neighborhood of every city in the world, in every village, in every town, people who love others with admirable dedication and generosity. To the end. The single mother who cares for her children working impossible hours in almost inhumane conditions, the woman who pays a daily and painful visit to her depressed neighbor and takes her for a walk, the grandson who lives with his grandmother, who’s been sick for years, and cares for her without losing his invincible smile, the parents who would do anything for their disabled son, the nun who cares for a group of orphans as if they were their own daughters. None of these examples (or many others that come to mind) is rhetorical or imagined: for each of them I am thinking of actual people who embody it, and whom I have had the privilege to meet. Suddenly, the model of Jesus, loving with a complete surrender, no longer seems so remote or unattainable.
Holy Week, with the contemplation of the Passion of Jesus (the man who loved to the end), could help us—who perhaps during the year let our Christian commitment cool down—to recover something of the passion of the saints. It is worth it: first of all, because having this radical love as our goal and horizon, will lift us up, even if we fall far short of fulfilling it. It will give depth and breadth to our life story. And, secondly, because if we «domesticate» the Gospel too much and try to live the faith without passion, sooner or later we will end up thinking that the Gospel demands a lot in exchange for too little. «He who loses his life will find it,» Jesus said. Only those who give themselves completely, or who at least try, and see self-giving as something possible and desirable, will reap (despite the many obstacles and hard times they will endure) the fruits of knowing that their time and efforts in this world are going somewhere. They will also experience the joy that this conviction brings with it. The absolute self-giving of Jesus, this Holy Thursday, tells us that a radical embrace of the Gospel is the way, also for us. A difficult path, no doubt, but one that will elevate us above our miseries, one that will help us get out of our little worlds, and one that is very much worth it. More than anything in this world.
