"On the night of the Last Supper, the apostles were quarrelling as to who would have the first place at table among themselves. Our Blessed Lord then got down on his knees, washed their feet and wiped them with a towel. How few there are who ever fight for the towel!"

Those words of Bishop Fulton Sheen are as true now as they were when he wrote them 50 or 60 years ago. This "towel" (which signifies selfless service of others) is definitely not what fallen human beings normally desire most. If it were an item sold on the Home Shopping Network, there would be very few takers.

And perhaps this gives us an insight as to why there’s so much unhappiness and discontent in our culture right now. In Acts 20: 35, St. Paul quotes Jesus as saying, "There is more happiness in giving than receiving." A line like that may sound very strange to us, because we live in a materialistic, hedonistic culture where it’s very easy to become self-absorbed! It’s a constant temptation which all of us face. Just think of the way products are advertised in the electronic media and in magazines and newspapers--the message normally promotes self-absorption on some level: "Indulge yourself"; "Pamper yourself"; "Fulfill all your desires." Those are some of the selling points used by advertisers today—with great success, I might add!

"But Fr. Ray, what’s so bad about self-absorption?"

Well, among other things my brothers and sisters, self-absorption is usually a prime characteristic of people who are suffering from a mental illness! Autistic people, for example, are deeply self-absorbed, are they not?--sometimes so much so that it’s almost impossible to communicate with them. Those who suffer from schizophrenia or clinical depression or an eating disorder are also overly-focused on themselves in one way or another. Sadly, some of you may know this by your own experience.

Is there healing to be found? Praise God, yes. But part of the healing has got to involve an overcoming of the "self-absorption"—through psychotherapy, counseling, prayer, and (if necessary) with the help of prescription drugs.

So when Jesus says to his apostles (and to us) in this Gospel, "I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do," he’s really giving us some good psychological advice, as well as good spiritual counsel. In this regard, one of the women who came to evaluate our school a couple of weeks ago said to me, "The need of the giver to give is greater than the need of the receiver to receive." An interesting insight.

Now what’s extremely important for us to take note of on this Holy Thursday night is the fact that this act of service performed by Jesus (the washing of his apostles’ feet) took place immediately after the meal at which he instituted the Eucharist! This, I would say, gives us the pattern that Jesus wants us to follow in our own lives: Eucharist, then service—ideas which are often disconnected in the contemporary Church. You see, there are some Catholics who perform acts of charity on a regular basis, but who almost never come to Mass; and, unfortunately, there are also some Catholics who are extremely faithful to Mass but who very rarely perform acts of charity. According to the pattern outlined for us on Holy Thursday by Jesus, our Lord and Savior, both of those approaches to life are wrong. For example, Catholics who do good things but fail to come to Mass have, at best, a "truncated charity." As good as it might be, it would be even better if it were energized and empowered by worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist. And Catholics who come to Mass but have no time to help their parish, or their brothers and sisters in the community are squandering the graces they receive in the Blessed Sacrament. Mother Teresa--as you will recall--went to Mass, prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, and then went out to serve her brothers and sisters on the streets of Calcutta. Her charity was powerful and extremely effective because it was rooted in the pattern Jesus set down for us on the night before he died: Eucharist, then service.

And in all this let’s not misunderstand the nature of service. The Church has always rightly distinguished between the corporal works of mercy and the spiritual works of mercy—both of which involve service to our brothers and sisters. So service is for everybody: even the sick and those who have severe physical disabilities such that they’re not able to perform the corporal works of mercy. In this regard, I recently came across a teaching of Thomas Aquinas (the great Dominican saint), concerning this Gospel story of the washing of the feet. Thomas said, "The washing of the feet signifies the washing away of stains. You therefore wash the feet of your brother when, as far as lies in your power, you wash away his stains. And this you may do in three ways: 1) by forgiving the offences he has done to you; 2) by praying for the forgiveness of his sin, as St. James bids us [in James 5: 16]; and 3) by forgiving sins through the authority of the keys." That last one, of course, would apply to priests and bishops only (in the sacrament of Confession), but the other two (forgiving on a personal level and praying for the forgiveness of others) can be done by all of us, regardless of our age or the quality of our physical health.