Thursday, March 28, 2024

Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

(Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15)

Newcomers to Catholicism should be surprised by the selection of today’s gospel.  On this evening when the Church celebrates the institution of the Eucharist, the gospel says nothing about it.  Or so it seems.  However, the Church intuits that the Gospel of John has substituted Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet for the Eucharist as an explanation of Eucharist’s meaning.

Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet is an act of servitude.  Slaves wash their masters’ feet.  By his taking on the role, Jesus indicates that his disciples must serve one another.  This is not to say that there are masters among them.  Quite the contrary, Jesus alone is master.  The rest serve one another in obedience to Jesus’ command.  On the following day Jesus will die on the cross as a sign of the master’s supreme servitude. 

In the end we will find ourselves freed, not enslaved, as a result of serving one another.  The first reading gives account of the Hebrews’ being politically freed from slavery in Egypt.  On the night remembering that event, Jesus indicates that by following his command, we will find ourselves spiritually free.  Sin will no longer control our hearts.  We will be ready to enter the Promised Land of heaven.  

Thursday, April 6, 2023

Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the lord’s Supper

(Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15)

There is a profound relationship between the first reading and the gospel that we must explore.  After doing this, we can better appreciate the gist of the second reading.

The reading from the Book of Exodus describes how God has liberated Israel from slavery in Egypt.  It tells of the annual meal that sons and daughters of Israel gather to this very day to celebrate their liberation.  Later in the book Exodus shows the purpose of Israel’s liberation.  The people are freed from bondage to Pharaoh so that they may serve the one, true God.  Out of Egypt less than two months the Israelites arrive at Sinai where God presents the Law to Moses.  The Law will stipulate exactly how they  are to serve.

In the gospel Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.  This is no ordinary purification rite.  Jesus washes his disciples’ feet as an example of the Law that he is imposing on the New Israel.  Like with God’s instruction about how to eat the Passover meal, the purpose of the foot washing is not clear at first.  Jesus tells Peter that what he is doing will be understood later.  After he is risen from the dead and the Holy Spirit is sent, his disciples will understand that washing the feet of one another symbolizes mutual, loving service.  The disciples are to humbly help one another live like Christ in the world.

Doing that is no easy task.  We have plenty of concerns in our own homes to worry about what happens in others.  We need Christ’s own help to love as he loved.  He provides this help in the Eucharist which St. Paul describes in the reading from his First Letter to the Corinthians.  Jesus himself nourishes us with his body and blood so that we might lovingly assist our neighbors. 

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Holy Thursday

(Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15)

All three readings this evening refer to a symbolic meal which people eat to this very day.  The first reading indicates the origin of this meal.  As the nation of Israel is about to flee Egypt, God mandates the people to sacrifice a lamb and to eat its meat.  Furthermore, they are to spread the lamb’s blood on their doorposts to save them from the punishment He will inflict on sinful Egypt.  The lamb symbolizes the very lives of the people offered to God, and its blood represents their obedience to His commands.

In the second reading St. Paul recalls how Christ, a faithful Jew, celebrated the meal but appropriated its meaning to himself.  This had to be done because the people of Israel could not live in obedience to God’s law.  Jesus, who was obedient to the Father’s command from day one, is declaring himself the lamb sacrificed to God.  His blood, shed on cross of sacrifice, will save the people from the death caused by their sins.  Furthermore, followers of Jesus are to recall their deliverance from sin and death in a simple meal of bread and wine.  In the bread they will eat of Christ’s body, the Lamb of God.  In the wine they will drink of his blood shed for the forgiveness of their sins.

The gospel passage sheds light on the meaning of the symbolic meal.  Christ’s offering of himself as the Lamb of God is a service of love for his followers as demonstrated by his washing their feet.  Being cleansed from their sins by his blood, they will imitate his love with similar works of service.  They are to perform daily such works of love for one another.  These works are as easy as a friendly greeting and as difficult as taking time to visit the sick when we are busy.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

(Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15)

The word remember literally means to put the pieces (or members) back together. When we remember something, our minds restore the image that has been dispersed through time.  We remember a story by calling to mind its basic elements; for example, a man had two sons: one left to spend his inheritance foolishly while the other begrudged his brother a welcome upon returning.  Today’s readings are all about remembering and assigning new meaning to what is recalled.

The first reading gives the mandate to all the children of Israel to remember God’s liberation of their ancestors from slavery.  They are to recall the gracious act by reenacting the meal eaten on the eve of its occurrence.  The second reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians itself remembers how Jesus gave new meaning to the mandate when faithfully fulfilling it.  For his followers the meal to be shared will no longer remember God’s deliverance of the Israelites from political oppression.  From that moment it will remember Jesus’ offering of himself as the means of their liberation from sin.

The reading from the Gospel according to John presents a new dimension of Jesus’ anticipated paschal supper with his disciples.  The meal is replaced by the symbolic washing of his followers’ feet.  Typical of John’s gospel Jesus interprets the meaning of his action.  As he serves his disciples by both washing their feet and dying for them the following day, they must serve one another.  In other words, Christians are to love one another to the point of dying on her or his behalf.

We are entering into the mysteries of our salvation.  More than mandates of self-sacrifice they include the graces of the Holy Spirit.  We go forward to celebrate them with solemn joy.  We will be challenged unto death but at the same time renewed for eternal life.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Holy Thursday

(Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15)

The man telephoned the priest.  He said he needed help.  Then he told a pitiable story of being seduced by his mother as a boy and repeatedly victimized by men as an adult.  The priest listened to the man at length but knew that his situation was beyond any help the priest could offer.  Indeed, through consultation it became evident that the call was probably a ruse to inveigle the priest in sexual perversion.  This abysmal situation – child abuse, sexual predation, and manipulation -- describes the vortex of sin from which God liberates humanity.

Israel’s liberation from bondage in Egypt, catalyzed by the dramatic event related in the reading from Exodus this evening, serves as a prototype for God’s liberation of humanity from sin.  The blood of the lamb sprinkled on the doorposts of their houses saves the Israelites from the plague that forces the Egyptians to let them go free.  Similarly the blood of Christ saves Christians by forgiving their sins as the reading from First Corinthians signals.  But Christian liberation, of course, is by definition not a license to do what one wishes.  Just as Jesus in the gospel, Christians are freed from sin in order to serve one another in love.

The Holy Thursday liturgy packs together the great themes of the Paschal mystery.  These will be drawn out and meditated upon at length during the next three days.  Friday, in the reading of the passion according to John, Christ is presented as the liberating Lamb of God.  Saturday the story of human sin is delineated through a series of Old Testament readings.  Then the victory is proclaimed with the gospel of the Easter Vigil service and all the readings of Sunday’s masses.  We should note the seriousness of these liturgies.  They are hardly meant to be sanctimonious acts.  Rather, they re-create the events that have spared us of that vortex of sin.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Holy Thursday

(Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15)

Tomorrow evening Jewish families will gather in their homes to celebrate Passover. Many will eat the traditional foods and have their children ask the four famous questions leading to a retelling of Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. Such a supper comprises the context of today’s gospel.

Although it is taken in the customary way, Jesus gives the meal a new significance for his followers. It is to commemorate not just Israel’s release from forced servitude but humanity’s deliverance from spiritual bondage. By identifying the bread that is blessed, broken, and shared with his body and the wine which is likewise blessed and drunk with his blood, Jesus points to his imminent death and resurrection as humanity’s emancipation from sin.

What proof do we have that this liberation has taken place? This is a legitimate question in the face of widespread maliciousness, even among Christians. It should not be answered by invoking the cover of a “mystery of faith.” We see ample evidence of liberation in the saints who through two millennia have happily followed Jesus’ example of washing the feet of others. That is, they did not literally pour water over the feet of the needy, but they patiently cared for their well-being. Such a person died in Dallas just a week ago. Fr. Matt Robinson would graciously assist all callers at the door and, until his religious community installed voice mail, the telephone. He was always available for confession and for the last half of his life worked tirelessly for the unborn.