Love and Service

There is an inextricable relationship between love and service, each one mutually supporting the other. Only love can give birth to genuine service, and therefore genuine service to humanity at large is nothing but an embodiment of true love. Service sans love is a mere selfish motive, not targeting at the wellbeing of the other, but oneself. Love and service are oriented towards enriching the other, even at the expense of causing damage and decay to oneself. This is so beautifully exemplified in the celebration of Maundy Thursday.

Tony D’Mello in his collection of anecdotes entitled, The Prayer of the Frog (Vol. 1) narrates this moving illustration. There is this soldier who is pleading with his boss, so that he could return to the battlefront to look for his friend. The boss assures that the friend might have been dead by now, and that the soldier should not risk his life. The soldier goes all the same, and returns after an hour mortally wounded, and carrying the corpse of his friend on his shoulder. The angry boss tells him, I had told you he was dead; was it all worth going out there to bring a corpse? The soldier replied, Oh, it was, Sir! When I got to him, he was alive. And he said to me before dying, Jack, I was sure you would come!

Where there is true love, we don’t mind taking any amount of trouble, risk. The wellbeing of the self is only secondary before that of the other. It is not easy to suffer for the one we love, but ultimately it is this which brings us true happiness. Look at the little five year old Johny who is informed that he has to give blood for his little sister. He is troubled at first and agrees. The next day when the transfusion is done, Johnny looks at his father with tears in his eyes and tells him, Daddy, tell me when I should die! Maybe for youngsters it comes so naturally. Small kids may go through any amount of pain and suffering to release a dog or a cat.

We learn best by seeing, not merely by hearing. That is the reason why Jesus demonstrates what service is all about. It is to climb down from our pedestals, and don the attire of the servant, and kneel down to wash the feet of those of our neighbors, whom we despise and neglect. This is no easy test. This in fact is the perfect test of all of his disciples – washing the feet is merely a symbol, what is more important is to place ourselves at the bottom of the ladder and accept it joyfully to serve those above us. Jesus is setting a model for us all.

Maundy Thursday recalls the sacrificing love of the Lord, who is prepared to lay down his life, so that humanity may have life in its fullness. Life does not come by itself. It has to be parted, shared and received. The example of the grain of wheat which can have life only when it dies, is so very applicable to Jesus and that is what he is inviting us to ‘do this in memory of me’ – to break ourselves and to shed our blood so that we may share in his new life!