Christians Are Called To Serve
(By Fr. Dexter Brereton)
In the summer of 2001, I had just taken over as parish priest of the community of Bocozelles in the Artibonite in Haiti and for the first time I visited the rice field which was owned by the Catholic community. In the early stages we had to transplant the rice from into the muddy rice beds. At the end of an hour I had to go and my friend Georges Mayette, at that time president of the Parish Council at Bocozelles, said Father! let me wash your feet…before I could stop him he had taken a plastic jug and was pouring water and washing my feet. I was embarrassed because my feet were all swollen and muddy. Here he was washing me clean as if I was one of his own children. Well this incident came to mind as I reflected on the central theme of tonight’s gospel reading. It reminds us a lot of what the Christian life is about and the life of service to which you and I are called.
Our reading tonight is really a teaching or a parable whose central teaching is on the humble service of Christ of which his willing death on the cross on behalf of humanity was a the supreme manifestation. Rather than focus on the reality of Christ present in the Eucharist the Church chooses rather to take us into the heart of the mystery of the Eucharist tying the mystery of the cross. The cross is not a sign of “masochism”. It is not the sign of those who do not love themselves or who wish to harm themselves. The one who bears the cross wants life for himself or herself, but as much as this person wants life for himself or herself, they also want that life for others. The overwhelming desire at the heart of the life of Jesus Christ was to give life to others and to that extent, he was willing to to the extent of handling all that is dirty and deformed in the lives of human beings.
Tonight I want to pray for all people who find themselves in professions where they have to handle, and to touch the dirt on people’s feet, to regularly wash the feet of others. I think for example of police officers who have to put up with the scorn and the resistance of members of the public. I think of the nurses in our hospitals who regularly in the course of their duties literally have to wash the bodies of their patients, cleaning urine and faeces, I think of teachers, often abused both by students and teachers, and blamed for poor performance. May these brothers and sisters of ours find inspiration in their service from the life of Jesus Christ, the one who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
