For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Holy Thursday’s liturgy is often referred to as Mass of the Lord’s Supper. It is an important celebration in the life of the Church because it introduces us to the events wherein we commemorate the great mysteries of our redemption, the Easter Triduum. Moreover, the events that we are commemorating on Holy Thursday are central to our liturgies so much so that they have come to define our Catholic identity. For today we are commemorating the institution of the Eucharist, the symbol of our unity and our sacrament. As members of the body of Christ, today’s feast celebrates our institution, for it is the very mysteries that we celebrate in the Eucharist that has come to shape who we are as a Church. 
The celebration of the Lord’s Supper is integral to our faith because of its connection to the great feast of the Passover. For when on that first Holy Thursday Jesus together with the twelve gathered around the table for a meal that has ever since been referred to as the Last Supper, they were not doing anything new. It was the eve of the feast of the Passover and they had come together in obedience to the command of the Lord of observing this great feast (cf. First Reading). The Passover was not just one of the many feasts that this community reverently observed. The Passover was THE feast. It was central not only to this community’s identity but also to her relationship with her God. For it is a feast that celebrates one of the greatest acts of God on behalf of this community: her liberation from slavery in Egypt. It is an act to which the Lord God often made references in an effort to remind the community of the special relationship she has with God. At the heart of the Passover celebration is a meal that became a memorial celebration recalling the salvific acts of God on the night of the Passover. However, on this particular day, even as Jesus and his disciples were honoring the Passover, Jesus proceeded to perform a ritual that broadened the significance of the feast and in so doing made it relevant for his non-Jewish followers (cf. Second Reading). 
Any Jewish meal was to be had in the context of thanksgiving. It was a thanksgiving in recognition of the goodness of God. It was a thanksgiving to God the giver of each and every good gift: food, health, family, peace, life, liberation from slavery in Egypt, and for special election as God’s people. When Jesus raised the cup and the bread in thanksgiving on this particular day, he thanked God for all these blessings as well as for what God was about to do in his life. He identified the bread and wine with his body that he was about to give for the salvation of his brothers and sisters. In addition, he issued a new command: those who were present and who witnessed what he did were to carry on what they had just witnessed. Henceforth, whenever this new community would raise the bread and cup of wine in thanksgiving, they would need to do so in memory of what he was about to do: his self-offering on the cross. But that was not all. Jesus also saw in his action God making a new covenant with creation, a covenant that was to be sealed in his blood. He saw in his act a new beginning, a new liberation, a new start for humanity, a new Passover. And just as God had given a command regarding the original Passover, Jesus commanded his followers to always remember the new Passover he was instituting: “Do this in remembrance of me.” In commanding his followers to raise the cup of thanksgiving in remembrance of him, Jesus was in effect asking them to join him in his act of self-offering. Like their master, they too needed to offer themselves as fragrant sacrifices to the Lord. 
The second thing that Jesus did as they sat down for the Passover meal was to remind his followers what constituted their special calling: service. By offering to wash the feet of the apostles, Jesus was once again doing what he had done throughout his life even as he called upon his followers to do likewise: “I have given you a model to follow. Do it in memory of me.” Jesus’ followers were to “keep his memory” by washing each other’s feet. 
Washing one another’s feet as Jesus did was not going to be an easy feat to accomplish. It was not easy for Jesus, and it was definitely not easy for the twelve as was evidenced by Peter’s protest. He was not going to let Jesus do that to him. It was not so much about Jesus being his master. It was probably on a more practical and personal reason. Jesus had not issued an earlier memo that there was going to be a washing of the feet. And even if he did, it would probably have made very minimal difference to Peter and the others. The most the disciples had for covering their feet was a sandal. They also had to travel on foot – not on paved walkways but on dirt roads which were muddy when raining and dusty when dry. In addition, when the twelve sat down to have their meal, it was late in the day. Their feet were covered with sweat, dust, mud, and any and all things that we trample upon when we walk. We wouldn’t want someone to touch our feet in such a condition. Peter didn’t think it was a good idea for Jesus to touch his feet in such a condition. But Jesus insisted that he had to wash Peter’s feet for if he didn’t, then he and Peter couldn’t be friends: “Unless I wash your feet, you will have no inheritance with me.” Peter just had to trust in Jesus. Their friendship depended on it.
Washing each other’s feet is a sign of trust and love. It is a demonstration of the willingness to allow oneself to be vulnerable in the presence of the other. This is what Jesus commanded the disciples to do: to be vulnerable before one another. He was commanding them to love and trust one another. For it is in this that discipleship is constituted.