Do This In Remembrance of Her

The Church reflects on three texts on Maundy Thursday: The instructions regarding Passover; Paul’s reflections on the Last Supper to the Church in Corinth; John’s portrayal of the Last Supper. In all three texts it is about anamnesis, “remembrance.” What we remember are God’s saving deeds in the Exodus Deliverance and Jesus’ Death and Resurrection. This is no passive remembrance. This “re-membering” that we are called to do is meant for us to actively enter into the Paschal Mystery itself. As Paul reminds us, we are to proclaim his death every time we gather to share this ritual re-membering of this meal. A meal that that has deep resonances with Passover and is meant to remind us of just who we are, whose we are, and what we are meant to be doing.

One might recall from Palm Sunday’s reading of the Passion in Mark the story of the unnamed woman who appears as Jesus is having supper at Simon the Leper’s house. She brings an expensive jar of ointment, nard from the oxnard plant, pours it over his head and anoints him. The disciples whine that the ointment ought to have been sold and the money given to the poor. They scold her. Jesus’ reply to them is key to understanding what Paul Harvey would call “the rest of the story” as Jesus points to her faithfulness in discipleship and servanthood while exposing the disciples’ lack of understanding and hypocrisy:  “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

Try to remember a celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the Last Supper, when we have heard this story recounted? When has this unnamed woman ever been given her due? Paul in his correspondence to the Church in Corinth that every celebration of the Last Supper is a proclamation of our Lord’s death and promised return. Jesus is saying that every such proclamation must recall “what she has done,” concluding with the words of anamnesis at every mention of the bread and the wine, his body and blood - “what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” This unnamed woman’s living out the good news of servanthood to all people stands in stark contrast to those whiners, would-be disciples.

After all, after his walking around the dusty and rocky roads of Israel from Galilee to Jerusalem, what she is doing for Jesus must feel really really good. One might conclude that the would-be disciples are jealous! And then try to justify their jealousy by getting on their high horses of pretended concern for the poor. This is not hard for us to imagine in today’s social and political climate, which oddly enough is very much like the social and political climate in the first century Roman Empire. This unnamed, and heretofore unmentioned, woman is held up by Jesus as the archetype of discipleship. To further make his point, Mark's Jesus does not say “Do this in remembrance of me” at the Last Supper. Instead, he says we are to remember her.

As we ponder this, let us re-member the fourth gospel’s account of the Last Supper - what a seminar classmate once called “The Felliniesque Last Supper.” John’s is by far the longest account of that night, and yet makes no mention of bread or wine whatsoever across several chapters. This is odd in and of itself. Nor does John portray this as a Passover meal at all: “Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” That is, the evening occurs before the Passover and is focused on three things; 1) Jesus is going to die, 2) that the loves them to the end, and 3) a he gives them and us a new commandment - “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

This is where Fellini comes into the picture. Jesus immediately disrobes, picks up a towel, a basin and a pitcher of water and begins to get down on his knees and wash their feet. No bread. No wine. Just foot washing, which was usually the job of the youngest child or slave in the household. We might re-member that we must enter the Kingdom like a child. We need also re-member that good hospitality in that environment meant washing your guest’s feet on arrival as they too have been walking around in sandals or even bare feet on those dusty and rocky roads.

Perhaps Jesus recalls just how good it felt when the unnamed woman anointed him and wants to these whining hypocrites of his to feel how good true servanthood and discipleship feels as well. Think here of other disciples like Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day, Harriet Tubman, Linda Brown, Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, not to mention Miriam, sister of Moses, Mary the Mother of God, Martha and Mary of Bethany, and all women who know what it means to have “love for one another.”

Note that Peter recoils and rebels from having his feet washed. He wants none of it. Perhaps he already senses the punch-line and does not wish to submit to a lifetime of servanthood to the poor in the name of Jesus. This story urges representation in the lives of all who would be followers of Jesus, not mere recollection of an odd story. This stripped down foot washing tale is not merely about humility and service. It foreshadows his death and as such presents it as the ultimate act of servanthood for us, and as our liturgy reminds us, for the whole world - everyone and every living thing therein. This odd story is meant to disturb us at least as much as it disturbs Peter, and it is little wonder that it is immediately followed by Jesus’ betrayal!

Then there is the matter of love as God and Jesus mean it. This completely unconventional and disturbing tale of the Last Supper gives great depth of meaning and understanding of just what Jesus means when he says we are to “love one another.” Love is defined as more than feelings, more than liking, more than compassion-from-a-distance. “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” John’s Felliniesque Last Supper also gives deeper meaning and understanding of Jesus’ terse reply to his whining disciples in Mark’s account, “For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me.”

Fortunately for us, we always do have Jesus. If what he told his disciples is the Good News, which often sounds like Bad News to those of us who sincerely want to follow him but are disturbed, like Peter, at the cost, then this is the even Better News: we always have Jesus. And more importantly, he always has us. Elsewhere he says, “Lo, I am with you always to the end of the age!” This not only means that he is with us, but that we cannot get rid of him! As long as love one another as he has loves us. And oh yes, let us remember what the unnamed woman did as she demonstrates a life of serving others with great extravagance!  Amen