Romana

“Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). During these days of the Easter Triduum we are going to remember that “love to the end” of Jesus. A love that is not abstract, but made specific, shown constantly during his earthly existence.

How does Jesus show us this boundless love? First of all, Saint John tells us that He poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of his disciples. Jesus carries out a task reserved for servants. As He himself had already said: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (Mt 20:28). When the apostles argued about who would be the greatest among them, Jesus said that “whoever would be first among you must be your servant” (Mt 20:27). By this gesture of washing their feet, our Lord makes himself the servant of all. “While the great ones on earth build ‘thrones’ for their own power,” Pope Francis says, “God chooses an uncomfortable throne, the Cross, from which to reign and give life.” Serving others is not something humiliating. Rather it is the highest thing we can do, since it embodies the way Christ lived.

But Jesus’ love was expressed not only in this gesture. In the second reading, we have just heard the account of the Last Supper in words of Saint Paul. “The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me’” (1 Cor 11:24-25). Jesus has stayed with us forever. Saint Josemaría used the image of photographs exchanged between people in love to remind themselves of one another when life has separated them. But what Christ has left us is not simply an image or a memory: “He himself remains. He will go to the Father, but he will remain with us” (Christ Is Passing By, no. 83).

Jesus knows our weaknesses. By becoming man, He wanted to experience the limitations of human nature, except for sin. He knows that our life involves difficulties and suffering. Therefore his “love to the end” led Him to give himself as food, which strengthens us. Every time we receive Him we are united to Him; we are transformed into the One who is incarnate love. “When we nourish ourselves with faith on his Body and Blood, his love passes into us and makes us capable in turn of laying down our lives for our brethren” (Benedict XVI, Angelus, 18 March 2007).

In the first reading, we recalled the institution of the Passover meal, the memorial of being freed from slavery in Egypt. It is a prophetic image of the Passover of Christ, who frees the world from sin. The Passion is the culmination of Jesus’ “love to the end” for mankind: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). A father, when he sees his son suffering, suffers with him, and does everything in his power to alleviate that pain. And God, seeing us slaves to sin, did not hesitate to send his only Son to give us a deeper liberation than the one experienced by the people of Israel: the freedom of the children of God. We are no longer at the mercy of the Evil One. Jesus, with his Passion, has defeated the prince of this world. And now we too can say with Saint Paul: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).

Jesus loves us to the end. Without limits, but in specific ways. He washes our feet at each confession, cleansing us of our sins. He offers himself to us as food in the Eucharist, so we may find strength in our daily struggle to live as children of God. Today we can ask our Mother Holy Mary to teach us to welcome without limits the “love to the end” of her Son.