![\"Pope](\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/PopeFrancis-washing-feet-young-people--500x312.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
What if,
\nat communion,
\nafter receiving the Body and Blood,
\nafter consuming the consecrated bread and wine,
\nwe were handed a consecrated towel?<\/p>\n
What if we came forward with arms held out,
\nand the priest or deacon or eucharistic minister said,
\n\u201cThe Body of Christ,\u201d and handed us the host,
\nand then, \u201cThe Blood of Christ,\u201d and handed us the cup,
\nand then \u201cThe Service of Christ,\u201d
\nand gently placed a white towel in our hands?<\/p>\n
And what if we took that towel
\nwalked out of this building
\nand went in search of feet to wash?
\nStrengthened by the Body of Christ,
\ngiven new life by the Blood of Christ,
\nwhat if we spent the rest of the week on our knees
\nwashing dirt from the feet of our friends, neighbors, and strangers,
\nor wiping their tears,
\nor binding their wounds,
\nonly to return the next Sunday to get another towel?<\/p>\n
Tonight we are reminded
\nthat the love of Jesus consists of two things:
\nsacrifice and service.<\/p>\n
Love is service made possible by sacrifice.<\/p>\n
At the Last Supper
\nJesus is about to humble himself to serve God and us
\nby his sacrifice on the cross.
\n\u201cHe loved his own in the world
\nand he loved them to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is on the eve of giving his Body and Blood for our sake;
\nand in his final act before accepting the cross,
\nhe does the work of a menial servant
\nand tells his disciples to do for others as he has done for them.<\/p>\n
This was the purpose for which Jesus came:
\nto serve God and neighbor,
\na service we are called to imitate
\nby loving one another as he loved us.<\/p>\n
This is who we are now\u2014
\nthe people who do this in remembrance of Jesus;
\nthe people who do for others as he has done for us;
\nthe people who bring the love of Christ
\nthrough service made possible by sacrifice.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis has described the Church as a field hospital.
\nThe world is filled with the sick and the wounded
\nwaiting to be touched by the love of Christ.
\nWaiting for us to wash their feet.<\/p>\n
When I imagine a field hospital, I think of the TV show M*A*S*H.
\nM*A*S*H stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
\nThe doctors and nurses of the M*A*S*H units worked in tents,
\npicking up and moving to wherever the wounded needed them the most.
\nIt was menial, dirty work;
\nthey were often exhausted;
\nthey were often put in harm\u2019s way;
\nand they often questioned the war;
\nbut they kept at their healing work for the sake of the soldiers.<\/p>\n
We are to be the M*A*S*H units for the wounded of this world.
\nWe go out from this place
\nstrengthened by the Body of Christ,
\nrenewed by the Blood of Christ,
\nand we set up our tents of healing,
\nwherever they are needed.<\/p>\n
Like the doctors and nurses of the M*A*S*H unit,
\nsometimes our healing work is menial and tedious;
\nsometimes it exhausts us;
\nsometimes it puts us in harm\u2019s way;
\nand sometimes we question a world that causes so much pain;
\nbut our discipleship calls us to keep at our work
\nfor the sake of the wounded.<\/p>\n
Tonight the liturgy asks us to consider,
\nIs my home a tent of healing?
\nIs my place of work a field hospital for the sorrowful and lonely?
\nIs the Church in our city a healing presence
\nfor the hungry, the imprisoned, the marginalized?
\nIs it time to move my tent to another location
\nwhere the wounded need help?<\/p>\n
This kind of service is a sacrifice,
\nas all true service is.
\nIt makes great demands on us;
\nit takes us away from things we would rather do;
\nit sends us to places we would rather not go.<\/p>\n
But it is only a shadow of the great sacrifice of service
\nChrist has done for us.
\nIn fact tonight is a foreshadowing,
\na prelude to the great act of love we commemorate tomorrow,
\nthe Way of the Cross.<\/p>\n
We can make tonight a prelude to our own Way of the Cross
\nby calling to mind all those in our lives who need healing,
\nwho need the grime of disappointment and desperation wiped away.<\/p>\n
On this Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord\u2019s Supper
\nwe will watch as members of our community come forward
\nto get their feet washed and dried with a towel.<\/p>\n
They represent all the wounded whom we are sent to serve.
\nAnd they are many.<\/p>\n
And later, as we come forward for communion tonight
\nwe won\u2019t get a towel to take with us out to the injured of the world.
\nBut we will receive the Body and Blood of Christ for their sake,
\nand take the love of Jesus into the wounded world,
\nto wherever there is pain and loss.
\nWe can provide our own towel.<\/p>\n
This is who we are:
\nthe people who do for others as Christ has done for us,
\nthe people who perform a sacrifice of service,
\nin pale imitation of the Christ who loves us more deeply
\nthan we can ever imagine.<\/p>\n