9 April 2009

Christ is our salvation, our life and resurrection. It is through his cross we are saved and made free. With confidence in his loving mercy we turn to him and ask mercy and pardon.
Lord, we call on your name.
Lord, have mercy.
You are good to us.
Christ, have mercy.
You loosen our bonds.
Lord, have mercy.

Homily

Imitation is the best form of flattery. Lead by example.
I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.
I had quite a number of my family staying with me over Christmas, and as happens when families get together, we started going through photographs both old and new and we began to reminisce. Then a recent picture came out of me blessing the new hall at St Vincent’s just before Christmas. One of my cousins burst out laughing and said, “My goodness, it’s your dad in a mitre.” And I had to admit that, just having looked at the old photographs, it was a remarkably accurate description.
How often, as we get older, do we recognise just how much we are becoming like our parents and how much they have influenced us for better or ill? How many times have you caught yourself thinking, “I sound just like my mother,” or “that’s what my dad used to say, and here I am coming out with it.” Parent’s example is so fundamental in our lives. In fact, we so often learn the most important lessons and longest lasting life-strategies in an almost unconscious way. We see significant people in our lives doing things in a particular way, or reacting in a certain way and we imitate them, we copy them.
We also know that you can’t tell your children to do one thing and then not do it yourself. You are asking for trouble. That is certainly true when you are dealing with older children. To say one thing and then do another can be a real bone of contention and cause endless family arguments. The same is true in the world of work. If you are in a supervisory or leadership role of any kind your example is vital and through it you will either have the moral authority to fulfil your role or not, as the case may be.
…now he showed how perfect his love was…If I do not wash you, you can have nothing in common with me… If I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.
“I wish I knew what God really wants of me. Why doesn’t he just tell me what his will is for me?” We have all thought this often enough, haven’t we? What does it take to really be Jesus’ true disciple, to be a true follower, a true Christian? Well, you have the answer in one this evening: If I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet.
It was very shocking for the apostles to witness what Jesus did at the beginning of the Last Supper, wash their feet. That was the job of the lowest of the low, not for the master, the leader to do. However, Jesus wanted to make it abundantly clear what being his disciple was all about – service, washing the feet of others; self-effacing, self-sacrificing, self-giving service. And to seal his actions, he gave himself up to suffer an ignominious death on the cross for the sins of all humankind throughout all generations.
That is what he asks us to do, first of all he asks to wash our feet so that we can be part of him, then he asks us to do the same to others, so that through us they too can become part of him and enter into his Kingdom where we will all find the fullness of love and life.