We gather tonight not for a one-off but for the beginning of something that doesn’t finish until the Easter Dawn. We are invited to share in a three-day rollercoaster as we accompany a cast of characters in the greatest story of them all. And we get front row seats for this show: we are there at that final meal with Jesus and his closest friends, at the washing of the feet, at the first ever Mass. We feel the anguish of our Lord in Gethsemane; experience the betrayal, become the baying crowd, meet Pilate and the rest, witness the death.

This is not for the faint-hearted and it doesn’t matter how many Holy Weeks you have been to; every year we experience it anew and this year we experience it at a time of great upheaval in our world where stories of violence and death are commonplace, war is routine and the setting for our story, the Middle East, is in the grip of utter catastrophe. Our prayer as we enter these days is for the people of those lands, for peace, reconciliation and an end to the violence.

Turning to this evening, in our first reading from the book of Exodus we hear the clear instructions given to Moses and Aaron on how to observe the Passover. Then, in the second reading, St Paul describes how that final Passover meal Jesus celebrated with his disciples became the new Passover, the Eucharist, the sign of sacrifice that, as St Paul says, each generation ‘receives’ from the previous generation up to here and now in this Church, when we celebrate Mass, but with particular significance this night as it today that we recall that first Mass, what we describe as the ‘institution of the Eucharist.’ And take a moment to consider this: a two-thousand-year tradition handed faithfully from generation to generation; the same words, the same gestures, the same materials, all of it witnessed by the Apostles. This is an extraordinary thing that we do, and we do it because Jesus asks us to; ‘Do this in memory of me.’ Every time, day in, day out, across the world, in open, in secret, legally and illegally, from the most beautiful basilica to the humblest chapel, people find a way to celebrate the Mass.

Our Gospel focuses on the washing of the apostles’ feet by our Lord. Something usually done by slaves, but Jesus turns the tables. Master becomes servant, leading by example, showing the apostles that when he is gone, they will be servants of the Gospel. Life will be hard, dangerous, will lead to martyrdom.

So, what is our response? I will shortly wash the feet of 12 volunteers, but these 12 represent all of us here today and the challenge for each of us is: whose feet are we going to wash? Where in our lives do we need to adopt a servant mentality? Where is there a need to roll up our sleeves, take a towel and minister to someone? Is there a Peter who steadfastly refuses our reaching-out, who doesn’t see that they need help? Is there a Judas who has taken the wrong path and may appear beyond redemption? Is there still a chance to save them?

What today tells us is that we have a responsibility to be the servants in our world, to live out the gospel values of humility, seeing life as a gift; of compassion, having empathy for people’s life situations; of peace, a commitment to peace-making and non-violence; of courage, standing up for the truth; of kindness, being gentle to those we encounter; of justice, working for a fairer and safer world; of forgiveness, reconciling with ourselves and others; and, finally, of integrity, doing what we say by being consistent and reliable.

It is a difficult challenge, and it can be counter-cultural. It requires courage to be the one to stand up against activities and policies that are in conflict with those gospel values, whether it’s life issues, rights for refugees, tackling homelessness, domestic violence, the right to express faith and beliefs, a myriad of injustices and issues that demand our attention; issues that require us to wash feet in public, to be at the service of the victims, the downtrodden, the dispossessed and the abused.

Where do we draw the strength needed to carry out this mission from? From the place our Lord gave his Apostles this very night, 2000 years ago, giving them the strength they needed for the mission ahead; from the Eucharist, the source of our strength and the summit of our faith.

This year, let us fully commit to these days, entering into the visceral reality of Holy Week, and may it strengthen our commitment to be the people our faith demands us to be.