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Maundy Thursday
Daily Scripture Passage: John 13:1-17, 31b-35

I was a pediatric intern working in an emergency room in northern Manhattan when, right in front of me, a small child threw up in the middle of the waiting room. Contagion of course was of concern, but the urgent priority was that someone would slip and fall. I called out to the clerk to call a janitor. But Juana, a triage nurse from the Dominican Republic, took action: she ran to the janitor’s closet, filled a bucket with hot water and soap, set up two yellow safety signs, and began to mop up the mess.

Before medical school, I had worked many years as a part-time janitor. My father and grandfather were janitors. But now I was a doctor. I hadn’t rushed to clean up the vomit. Did I now think I was too grand for this kind of lowly work? I felt guilty, and with some embarrassment offered to take over. But Juana gave me a smile and said, “Go back to saving lives. This isn’t in your job description.” And, of course, it wasn’t in hers, either. This was an act of love.

Simon Peter didn’t think the lowly act of washing feet was in Jesus’s job description. "You will never wash my feet," he said. But Jesus insisted, and after he washed all the disciples’ feet, Jesus said:

“Do you know what I have done to you?... I have set up an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

On this Maundy Thursday, look around you. The action of Juana, the triage nurse, was not unique. We are surrounded by the manifestations of Jesus’s commandment to love one another as He has loved us. There is abundant goodness in the world and multiple ways to serve others. Open your eyes, rejoice–and serve!