With the busyness of the Sacred Triduum, I did not have a chance to post anything. The next few posts should bring things up to date
Homily on Holy Thursday
We spend so much of our time eating, dieting, reading about diets, being told to diet, that the importance of a shared meal is forgotten. Our schedules, our drive to do and keep busy, earn money, etc. have led to fast foods, families not sharing a table, and people eating at their desk at work. The myth of the perfect look, weight, stature, etc. has created so many emotional issues that it is sad. And we wonder why people do not see a value in this sacred meal we share tonight in memory of the Lord Jesus.
The people of Israel were going to start the greatest journey of the nation, and it began with a meal as simple as it was. In the time of St Paul, when people gathered for the Lord’s Supper it was at someone’s home preceded by a shared meal. The night of the Last Supper, Jesus was sharing the meal of freedom that his ancestors had share so many centuries before: the meal of freedom.
This sacred meal is the memorial of our Passover from sin and death to freedom and forgiveness. In this meal, in simple elements of bread and wine we share the very presence of Jesus. Unlike our ancestors ate lamb and unleavened bread, our food for the journey is the Lord himself, the Lamb of God. From the table in the Upper Room and the hill of Calvary, God made a new covenant with humanity. The offering was His Son, and it was sealed in the blood of the Lamb of God. Why would anyone miss this meal when this is what we share?
From this sacred table, God shows us who He loves. Everyone! St Paul’s challenge to the Corinthian church was that the Eucharist should never be a division. Since a covered dish supper preceded the liturgy, the rich who brought the good stuff and did not work ate first. The poor who had to work got leftovers. No one is better than another at the Lord’s Table. In God’s eyes, what a person wears, age, if they have tattoos, money in the bank, etc. have no beating. No one is holier, richer, or poorer, adequately dressed, or has a right to a certain place: we are all the Body and Blood of Christ.
From this sacred table, John’s Gospel teaches us the meaning of the Eucharist: it is an active reality that transforms us into His living Body. Jesus is not trapped in this church when we receive. We become him and through his grace, we wash the feet of everyone. Jesus did not dole out salvation on the Cross; neither can we dole out whose feet we wash.
From this sacred table, the ordained priesthood was born. All are called to be the Body of Christ alive, but Jesus appointed those in the Upper Room to lead and tend his Body, not a lord, CEO’s, my way, or the highway people, but by being servants to the community. The ordained priests are stewards of the mysteries of God; we are not owners. The ordained priest is called to show the community how to wash the feet of others by doing it. We called to the priest are to lead in witness and ministry.
On this sacred night, as we celebrate the gift of Jesus himself, may we see its true meaning, beyond what we think it should be, but the very gift of God himself who frees us from the slavery of sin and death.
