“Holy Thursday: Be a Servant to Others while Remembering Jesus’ kindness and servant leadership”

On this Holy Thursday, we are called to serve others and show kindness and compassion to the vulnerable, the needy, and the poor, especially those in our community who have been infected and affected by the devastating power of the coronavirus.

As we continue to remember Jesus and his sacrificial death during the Passion Week, Let us thus follow Christ’s example of servanthood. It was on a Thursday like this one and on his way to Calvary and glory, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.

***Those who are serving and caring for us, our family, and our friends deliberately, intentionally, and sacrificially in this deadly time of coronavirus are agents of Christ in this broken world; they are demonstrating the spirit of servant leadership, the spirit of Christ, in a time of uncertainty, a moment of global crisis. They wash people’s feet everyday, moment by moment, and some of them wash our feet unreservedly while forgetting to wash their own until they breathe their last breath in this world toward non-existence, even death through unconditional service and selflessness.

It is the spirit of servant leadership and generous kindness embodied in the life of Christ Jesus that will transform the world; create another and better world; heal our individual and collective wounds; cure us from all of our diseases and terrors; inspire a new humanism in our country; foster revolutionary love and justice; and restore our human dignity in such a time as this one.

Hence, I invite you to mediate upon this passage below and follow the example of Jesus the Christ:

13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” John 13: 1-17