Pope Francis kisses the foot of a refugee during Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Center for Asylum Seekers in Castelnuovo di Porto, about 15 miles north of Rome March 24. The pope washed and kissed the feet of refugees, including Muslims, Hindus and Copts. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano, handout)

Washing of the Feet

The Church on this day commemorates the Last Supper, when Jesus instituted the Eucharist, and also repeats this gesture of washing feet, which reminds us that we must serve one another. “Jesus took this path for love and we too must love one another and be servants, in love … This is the legacy Jesus leaves us.”

In the Eucharist the Lord makes us walk on his road, that of service, of sharing, of giving.

The Holy Spirit is the soul of mission who impels us to open the doors of the church and go forth to proclaim and bear witness to the good news of the Gospel, to communicate the joy of faith.

No one is a Christian by pure accident, no one. You are called, you and you and you.

Following Jesus, is a call of love and friendship, a call to become a child of God. Jesus does not want to act alone; he came to bring the love of God into the world, and he wants to spread it in the style of communion, in the style of Brotherhood.

God is love. Jesus’ love is not “a sentimental, emotional kind of love but the love of the Father who is the origin of all life, the love of the Son who dies on the cross and is raised, the love of the Spirit who renews human beings and the world.”