S.M.SCHNEIDERS - The evangelist's contemplative description of Jesus' elaborate, almost liturgical, preparation for his action of washing the disciples' feet (13,4-5) focuses the reader's attention on the essential characteristic of the sign. That which Jesus is about to do is an act od serving, of literally waiting upon his disciples. Service, in other words, by its inmost structure, is capable of expressing ultimate love, and the love commanded by Jesus has the inner form of service. Every act of service, however ordinary, because it consists in preferring another to oneself, is essentially un act of self.gift and, therefore, an expression of love, which, in principle, tends toward the total self-gift. However, when we attempt to verify this trascendental or ideal concept in our real experience of giving and receiving service, it becomes abundantly evident that service as pure gift of self for another's good rarely, if ever, is realized in fact. John describes God's salvific intention not in terms of sacrifice on retribution but in terms of self-gift :God so loved the world as to give God's only Son to save us (3,16). Jesus, acting out of that salvific mission , so loved his own in the world that he laid down his life for them . Jesus 'self-gift was not, in John's perspective , the master's redemption of unworthy slaves but an act of friendship: “no longer do I call you servants … you I have called friends” (15,15). let us return now to the scene of the foot washing, Jesus symbolizes his impending death, his love of his disciples unto the end, by an act of menial service. He did not choose an act of service proceeding from his real and acknowledged superiority to them as teacher and Lord. Such an act would have expressed the inequality between himself and his disciples , their inferiority to him. Instead, Jesus acted to abolish the inequality between them, deliberately reversing their social positions and roles. To wash another's feet was something that even slaves could not be required to do, but which disciples might do out of reference for their master. But any act of service is permissible and freeing among friends. By washing his disciples' feet Jesus overcame by love the inequality that existed by nature between himself and those whom he had chosen as friends. He established an intimacy with them that superseded his superiority and signaled their access to everything that he had received from his Father (15,15) , even to the glory that he had been given as Son. (17,22). The principle of relationship between Jesus and his disciples is the love of friendship which transforms what would have been a humiliating self-degradation if performed under the formality of superiority and inferiority into an act of service, a revelation of self-giving love. Jesus goes on to say not that the disciples should wash the feet of their inferiors as an act of self-humiliation (for that is not what jesus had done for them) but rather that they should “wash one another's feet” (13,14). They should live out among themselves the love of friendship , with its delight in mutual service that knows no order of importance, which Jesus has inaugurated.
S.M.SCHNEIDERS - The evangelist's contemplative description of Jesus' elaborate, almost liturgical, preparation for his action of washing the disciples' feet (13,4-5) focuses the reader's attention on the essential characteristic of the sign. That which Jesus is about to do is an act od serving, of literally waiting upon his disciples.
RispondiEliminaService, in other words, by its inmost structure, is capable of expressing ultimate love, and the love commanded by Jesus has the inner form of service. Every act of service, however ordinary, because it consists in preferring another to oneself, is essentially un act of self.gift and, therefore, an expression of love, which, in principle, tends toward the total self-gift.
However, when we attempt to verify this trascendental or ideal concept in our real experience of giving and receiving service, it becomes abundantly evident that service as pure gift of self for another's good rarely, if ever, is realized in fact.
John describes God's salvific intention not in terms of sacrifice on retribution but in terms of self-gift :God so loved the world as to give God's only Son to save us (3,16).
Jesus, acting out of that salvific mission , so loved his own in the world that he laid down his life for them . Jesus 'self-gift was not, in John's perspective , the master's redemption of unworthy slaves but an act of friendship: “no longer do I call you servants … you I have called friends” (15,15).
let us return now to the scene of the foot washing, Jesus symbolizes his impending death, his love of his disciples unto the end, by an act of menial service.
He did not choose an act of service proceeding from his real and acknowledged superiority to them as teacher and Lord.
Such an act would have expressed the inequality between himself and his disciples , their inferiority to him. Instead, Jesus acted to abolish the inequality between them, deliberately reversing their social positions and roles.
To wash another's feet was something that even slaves could not be required to do, but which disciples might do out of reference for their master.
But any act of service is permissible and freeing among friends. By washing his disciples' feet Jesus overcame by love the inequality that existed by nature between himself and those whom he had chosen as friends. He established an intimacy with them that superseded his superiority and signaled their access to everything that he had received from his Father (15,15) , even to the glory that he had been given as Son. (17,22).
The principle of relationship between Jesus and his disciples is the love of friendship which transforms what would have been a humiliating self-degradation if performed under the formality of superiority and inferiority into an act of service, a revelation of self-giving love.
Jesus goes on to say not that the disciples should wash the feet of their inferiors as an act of self-humiliation (for that is not what jesus had done for them) but rather that they should “wash one another's feet” (13,14). They should live out among themselves the love of friendship , with its delight in mutual service that knows no order of importance, which Jesus has inaugurated.