Holy Thursday -- Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper

Lectionary: 39

I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Yesterday I reflected on that cardinal doctrine of the gospels, “the fullness of time.” There are several events in Jesus’ life that are introduced with that phrase: his conception, birth, the ministry of John the Baptist, the Last Supper, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

All these things were preordained to occur, as was Judas’ betrayal, which is embedded like a thorn in the flesh of the Gospel. The evangelists and other New Testament writers insist on that.

This evening we reenter that preordained night when Jesus broke bread with his disciples and said "This is my body that is for you." The moment and the memory will never be lost because the Holy Spirit raises up in every generation people who are eager to know the Truth that only God can speak. They join us in prayer at the altar and the One Mass which Jesus celebrated continues into the next millennium.

On this evening we also witness the priest's washing the feet of the congregation. Ours is a carnal religion. We are not enamored of ideas; we understand our doctrines only as mysteries; but we readily embrace the carnality, the very fleshiness of the Body of Christ. We must baptize in the water that flowed from his side; we must eat his flesh and drink his blood. We cannot do virtual demonstrations. 

And so the priest imitates the Savior who washed the feet of his disciples. The Lord could not be satisfied with telling his disciples to love one another. He could not hope they might understand his passion and death as demonstrations of his intense love. He had to show them by a powerful gesture, one both ennobling and humbling. He got down on his knees and he washed their feet, as if he were a common slave. 

They had seen the gesture before, not only as the work of a slave but as a demonstration of intense love. A woman known to be a sinner had washed Jesus' feet. She could find no other way to express her love. Words would not suffice; money could not say it; sex would not be accepted; she bathed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. At the time Jesus had remarked to Simon the Pharisee, 

“Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. 

And now, during the Last Supper Jesus shows his disciples what they will witness on the morrow. He explains the gesture to them precisely, I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. And then he concludes: If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.

During the past year, we have seen a new revelation "in the fullness of time." Our Pope Francis prefers to take public transportation. He chooses to live in the simplicity of the Vatican guest house. He demonstrates what the Church has intended to say for the past fifty years, that we will serve the poor. We must also recognize the astonishing humility of Pope Benedict XVI who confessed he could not handle the job anymore. The pomp and privilege of the Church's highest office meant nothing to him. They were, in the words of Saint Paul, so much rubbish, that he might gain Christ

Both of these men show us what it means to be Catholic. We must rededicate our lives to the service of the least among us, whether they are the unborn or feeble, the poor or despised, the sick or the imprisoned. Words of piety mean nothing to our contemporaries. It seems they have little effect on God.