This solemn feast is one of the most difficult and challenging for me. Right in the middle of Mass we have a washing of feet! That is a pretty intimate thing to do in public. But it brings us up against the realisation that we can so easily domesticate the Eucharist. It is important that we gather each week and do it in memory of Jesus. That regular ritual provides a needed anchor for us on our journey. But we can become so comfortable with it that we take it for granted. If that happens our attendance can fail to change us.

However, it is not the embarrassment of getting down on the floor and washing feet that is challenging for me. Rather, it is because the Eucharist asks me, "Whose feet am I prepared to wash?" It asks all of us that question and it asks it of the Church.

To be a disciple of Jesus I must be prepared to get down and serve even my enemies. Jesus washed Judas' feet. Judas, he already knew, would betray him. He washed Peter's feet. Peter, he already knew, would deny him three times. He washed the sons of Zebedee's feet. He knew the mixed motives of they had about being part of Jesus' project for the kingdom of God. He washed the feet of all of those whom he knew would run away when things got tough.

Do I wash the feet of those I do not agree with or just dismiss them out of hand? Do we wash the rebellious teenager's feet or just condemn? Does the Church wash the abused child's feet or retreat in denial? Do we wash the feet of those despised asylum seekers or tell them go back home without hearing their story? We need to try to answer these kinds of questions if we are to celebrate the Eucharist.

John puts this washing at the heart of his Last Supper account to emphasise this point. That is what Eucharist is. When I say "Amen" to the Eucharist we are not just saying I believe in the real presence. That can be easy to say intellectually. Because I can leave it at that and be no different afterwards. When I receive the Body and Blood of Christ at communion I am also saying yes, I am prepared to serve my brothers and sisters with whom I share the one loaf and the one cup. To love them as Jesus does. When I drink the precious blood I am saying I am prepared for the cost of such service just as Jesus was. Therein is where we allow the Sacrifice of the cross to be ours as well. We enter into that sacrifice of love Sacramentally in the Mass so that we might enter into it every day. Therein, too, is the mission on which we are sent at every Mass.

We are saying "Amen" to the mystery of faith. That is, the Easter mystery of Jesus life giving death and resurrection in which we are immersed at our Baptism.

What Jesus did at the Last Supper with the bread and wine anticipates what will happen over the next three days. It points to the cross and the cost of being a disciple. It points to the love which God has for us. Our frailty and sinfulness, like that of those 12 at the table, breaks God's heart as it were. Jesus still loves us and gives himself as our nourishment and strength for the mission while we are still sinners as St Paul would say. And because of the resurrection Jesus will always be present to us, loving us, redeeming us, to the end of time. It is not our last supper.

So we do not remain dismayed at our faults. We rely on Jesus as we set about washing each others feet.

Fr Graham