Thoughts & Homilies

Holy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-8,11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15

Tonight we begin the longest Liturgy of the church year.
It begins tonight and continues through tomorrow and Saturday and concludes with the last service on Easter Sunday.
This is the Easter Triduum -the holy three days.
In this three day Liturgy, measured sundown to sundown,
we celebrate one great event, our salvation,
One Christ, through suffering and joy,
through cross and glory,
through life and death and life again.

One great event - the Paschal Mystery.

As this Liturgy begins, the season of Lent has ended.
Happily, the Jewish celebration of Passover
coincides with our celebration of the Lord's Supper this year.

The first reading we heard tonight from Exodus will also be heard at the table of every faithful Jew who celebrates the Seder meal this night.
Tonight Jews and Christians throughout the world
turn to the same God and give thanks.
We pray to the God of peace that our hearts will be transformed by an ancient and sacred meal of remembrance.
In this Liturgy we recall not only our Jewish heritage
- we focus on the last Seder Jesus ate with his disciples.
We approach the hour of his glory.
We place our humanity, with all its mortal weaknesses
confidently before the mercy of God.

Confidently?

Oh Yes, confidently!
For look what kind of God we see in this Gospel.
This scene of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples
at the Last Supper stands out as one of the most significant and extraordinary events in his life.
Christian psychiatrist, M. Scott Peck, points out that
until that moment the whole point of things
had been for someone to get to the top, and once they'd gotten to the top, stay on top or go even higher.
But here was Jesus, a man already on top,
rabbi, teacher master and what did he do?
He took off his outer garments
and bent down to wash the feet of his followers.
In that one act of humility,
Jesus symbolically overturned the whole social order.
His disciples were horrified.
It was a shocking thing to do.
They didn't understand it.
They wanted no part of it.
You see in the Holy Land the environment is dry and dusty.
In Jesus' time, people wore sandals - not Florsheims or Nikes.
The streets were mostly unpaved
and traveled by beasts of burden - not Buicks.
There were no street cleaners or garbage pickups.
Feet were grossly covered with dust and dung.
When it rained, feet and toes were caked with mud.
It was a common sense thing to keep a pitcher of water by the door of every house to wash the feet of those who entered.
It was the task of a slave or a servant to do this and always before one reclined to eat.
That way, everyone would enjoy their meal much more.
There was no servant in the upper room that night - except Jesus.
The disciples certainly weren't going to wash each other's feet.
So Jesus did what needed to be done,
and in that one decisive act
he taught us that Christian greatness is not determined by position, or prerogatives or education or title or visibility…

Christian greatness is measured by a willingness to meet the need of the moment with a deed of service.
The Lord, Jesus Christ showed us the true nature of glory by washing the mud off the feet of common, ordinary, laboring people.
He did it out of love.
He was telling his disciples how much he loved them
cherished them
cared for them.
He washed their feet gently, tenderly
as a loving mother would wash the feet of her children at bedtime.
We must never forget the occasion.
The occasion was the Last Supper,
the first Eucharist,
which speaks volumes about what the Mass is
and is not.

We are not there just to remember,
for if the love of God is not somehow manifested to the world by what we do here then it is not an authentic Eucharist.
The food we receive here is food for action
not just contemplation or adoration.

For almost 35 years of priesthood,
I have heard the complaint again and again from some Catholics "Father I don't get anything out of mass!"
I'll tell you what we get here.

We get Jesus
and we get to BE Jesus for others.

We get his body
and get to become his body and his church.
We get to be bread for the world's hunger.
and Jesus gets us.
And if we give him half a chance,
He will transform our lives.
He will become our hearts.

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