“We, too, must be servants,” Cardinal Tobin says on Holy Thursday
On the evening of April 2, worshippers gathered in the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, NJ, to begin the Easter Tridium. The Holy Thursday Mass recalls the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. It also reenacts the moment in the meal when Jesus washed the feet of his stunned disciples, telling them to do likewise for each other.
“Tonight the Church wants the bishop to wash feet once a year, at least on Holy Thursday, to imitate Jesus’ gesture and also do good for himself with the example,” Cardinal Tobin said in his homily. “Because the bishop is not the most important one, but he should be the greatest servant, and each of us must be servants of each other.”
Following traditional, twelve members of the cathedral’s parish community sat as the apostles did 2,000 years ago and had their feet washed by the archbishop. A similar scene unfolded at parishes across the world on Holy Thursday.
Not power, but service
Cardinal Tobin also referenced the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his homily. Nietzsche claimed that what humans most desired in life was power. “For Nietzsche power was the affirmation of life and any system that denied it was a form of sickness,” the cardinal said. ”As for Christianity he dismissed it as ‘the worship of weakness.’”
He then pointed out how at the beginning the gospel reading, Saint John highlights Jesus’ awareness that “the Father had given all things into His hands.”
“In other words, Jesus had all the power, all of it,” Cardinal Tobin said. “And then He begins to perform His gesture of washing feet. It was an act that slaves did at the time, only slaves…”
After this surprising act, Jesus informs his disciples that they, too, must be servants of one another.
“This is Jesus’s rule and the rule of the gospel, the rule of service, not of power, not of dominating, not of doing harm, not of humiliating others. Service,” Cardinal Tobin said.
“Brothers and sisters, we, too, must be servants,” he concluded. “It’s true that there are problems in life. It’s no secret that we argue among each other. But that must be something that passes, something fleeting. Because in our heart, there must also be this love of serving others, of being in service of those around us.”
CLICK HERE to view more images of the Holy Thursday Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
Featured image: Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, proceeds to the altar at the beginning of the Holy Thursday liturgy at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, NJ, on April 2. (Photo by Julio Eduardo Herrera / Archdiocese of Newark)
