Experiencing Transformative Love
Julián Carrón - Before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He had loved his own who were in the world, and he loved them to the end. One need only identify with these words to grasp what prevailed in Jesus' heart that evening: his deep love for his own, that is, for each one of us.
He could not wait to love his own "to the end." In fact, he came for this very reason: to make us part of the immense love with which the Father had filled him and continues to fill him. "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love" (Jn 15:9). Those who do not want to miss out on the best of what happened that evening and what is happening this evening must let themselves be carried away by the passion with which He looked at them and looks at us now, by the special love for each of us that burns with that passion.
This love to the end is represented by the washing of the feet. In this simple gesture, Jesus anticipates his total self-giving that will take place in the Passion, his love to the end. What is the risk we often run when faced with this gesture of Jesus? That it becomes merely a ritual, staying superficial.
As seen with Peter, who, with his usual impulsiveness, exclaims: "You will never wash my feet!" Jesus' response reveals the significance of that gesture, to the point of challenging him: "If I do not wash you, you will have no part in me." In fact, Jesus' gesture is filled with the passion that leads him to anticipate, at the Last Supper, what was already burning in his heart: the total gift of himself for his own and for us.
Everything hinges on this difference: whether this gesture is reduced to a ritual or whether it is an event. If it remains only a ritual, everything becomes moralism. I must love as I have been loved, but without His actions transforming me or others in the present. If the gesture is an event, love burns so intensely that it arouses in the beloved the desire to love.
We see this immediately in Peter's response when he realizes that without letting Jesus wash his feet, he would have no part with Him. He immediately says, "Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!" Loving requires not only a commandment, but a gift that precedes it. Jesus first loves us, transforming our being and inspiring us to love in return.
Therefore, loving is not moralism. It is first and foremost a gift. When we are loved, we are not merely passive recipients; instead, we are transformed by this love, discovering within ourselves the desire to respond and to love in return, not out of duty, but because of the gift of being loved.
This love draws us out of indifference, awakens us from our torpor and dryness, and stirs in us the desire to love in return. Therefore, being loved is always a gift that comes before our response. Only from this being loved can the desire to love spring forth in us, so as not to lose this love that makes us more and more ourselves.
This is how Jesus involves us in our salvation. Feeling loved awakens in us a longing, an endless desire to love in return. We see this when we find ourselves in love. Responding is not just a duty, but a natural need, a heartfelt response to being loved so deeply.
It is the gift given to us this evening in the Eucharist, so that it may penetrate us to the core and make us capable of love. How do we recognize that our participation in the gestures, in the sacraments, which are this gift, is ritual or an event? By discovering in ourselves an affection, an ever more visceral attachment to Christ.
Holy Thursday “The Lord's Supper”
Notes from the homily by Julián Carrón - April 17, 2025
(First reading: Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; Psalm 115 (116); Second reading: 1 Cor 11:23-26; Gospel: Jn 13:1-15)
