May 2014 The Road to Daybreak A Spiritual Journey by Henri J M Nouwen

Continue from ...... Washing the Feet of the Poor This afternoon I took the train to Paris to celebrate the Holy Thursday liturgy with the L'Arche community, "Nomaste." It was a very moving celebration. We gathered in the community room of Nomaste. There were about forty people. In his welcome, the director of the community, Toni Paoli, expressed his vision that L'Arche should be not simply a comfortable place for handicapped people, but a Christian community in which people serve one another in the name of Jesus. After the Gospel reading, he again proclaimed his deep love for Jesus. Then he stood up and washed the feet of four members of his community. After the Eucharist, a rice dish, bread, and wine were brought and put on the altar. In silence,, deepened by three short Gospel readings about God's love, we shared this simple food. Sitting in the basement room in Paris surrounded by forty poor people, I was struck again by the way Jesus concluded his active life. Just before entering on the road of his passion he washed the feet of his disciples and offered them his body and blood as food and drink. Theses two acts belong together. They are both an expression of God's determination to show us the fullness of his love. Therefore John introduces the story of the washing of the disciples' feet with the words, "Jesus ... having loved those who were his in the world, loved them to the end" (John 13:1). What is even more astonishing is that on both occasions Jesus commands us to do the same. After washing his disciples' feet, Jesus says, "I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you" (John 13:15). After giving himself as food and drink, he says, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Lk. 22:19). Jesus calls us to continue his mission of revealing the perfect love of God in this world. He calls us to total self-giving. He does not want us to keep anything for ourselves. Rather, he wants our love to be as full, as radical, and as complete as his own. He wants us to bend ourselves to the ground and touch the places in each other that most need washing. He also wants us to say to each other, "Eat of me and drink of me." By this complete mutual nurturing, he wants us to become one body and one spirit, united by the love of God. When Toni spoke to his community about his love for Jesus and when I saw how he washed their feet and gave them the bread and wine, it seemed as if - for moment - I saw a glimpse of the new kingdom Jesus came to bring. Everybody in the room knew how far he or she was from being a perfect expression of God's love. But everybody was also willing to make a step in the direction to which Jesus pointed. It was an evening in Paris I will not easily forget.

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2013. All rights reserved.