The Christian faith has many solemn days; and several "intimate" ones particularly touch popular devotion. On the evening of Holy Thursday, with the foot-washing, solemnity and intimacy go together, because we relive, together with Jesus, the last hours of his life, which he spent with his disciples. On that occasion, the Lord says and does the most important things:
• he institutes the Eucharist ("this is my body ... this is my blood")
• and the ministerial priesthood ("Do this in memory of me")
• showing how it must be lived ("If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet");
• He leaves His commandment ("I give you a new commandment: that you love one another")
• and His testament ("Father, may those whom you have given me be one, even as we are, and the world know that you sent me and that I have loved them even as you loved me").
In a word, as John says, "having loved his own, he loved them to the very end." The expression "to the very end" means to the last moment, to the last drop of blood. More was not possible, not even for God! In that hour, there is also the most unjust of torments, the kiss of a son who sells you for a mere pittance.
Holy Thursday, in the atmosphere of the Last Supper, is also the day to ask the big question: Who is God? The young apostle, who had rested his head on the Lord’s chest during that meal, replies, "God is love." Love, here, is not an attribute, not even God's first one. Here, love is the subject: God. All his attributes, then, are the attributes of love. Indeed, love is all-powerful, wise, free, good and beautiful.
