Student Daily Reflection

“I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” John 13:15

As I read today’s Gospel, I feel completely awed by the totality of God’s love for us. Jesus, mindful of the events that will soon come, nonetheless chooses to manifest God’s overwhelming love for all of creation through his humility and selflessness. The humility and selflessness that Jesus lives are not superhuman. While no one will achieve these ideals in their fullness, Jesus invites all of us to treat each other with the same humility he models with his disciples at his final meal.

In a course I’m taking this semester, we discussed the centrality of the Incarnation in our tradition. A key point of the discussion was that the Incarnation was not a one-shot deal that ended with Jesus’ death on the cross. The Incarnation continues through the Eucharist and the people who are the Church. The “body of Christ” refers to more than the historical Jesus—it also refers to the body and blood of Christ present in the Eucharist and the community of believers. When the Psalm reminded us, “our blessing cup is a communion with the blood of Christ,” I was reminded of the multiple meanings of Christ. As Jesus prepares to sacrifice himself for our sake, the Psalm also invites us to see the blessing present in the blood of Christ: the blood that Jesus sheds for us, marking us for inclusion in the heavenly reality, the blood in which we are invited to share at the Eucharist, and the blood and suffering of our neighbors (both near and far) in our present reality.