Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Lectionary: 282

I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.
Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.
If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.

 M any commentators on the Gospels have expressed surprise that there is no "institution narrative" in the Fourth Gospel, as there is in each of the synoptic Gospels, and 1 Corinthians. John's sixth chapter spells out the most significant and quotable teachings of Jesus about the Eucharist. So why doesn't that miraculous work of Institution appear amid the several chapters of his Last Supper? 

A clue, I believe, is found in the passage above, John 13:15-17. (Readers might notice today's reading from the Gospel begins with verse 16.) Three times in three verses the Lord uses the word do or done. I hear an echo of Saint Luke's and Saint Paul's. "Do this in memory of me." John's done is a link to the parallel passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 

Within the word do or done, you hear the command of the Lord: Eat this; drink this; love one another as I have loved you; wash one another's feet; the greatest among you must be the servant of all. All of these mean the same. 

His two greatest commandments appear also, for if you don't love one another, don't even think you're loving God. And don't think you're loving others if you're not wholly in love with God. The two commands and the several dos are inseparable. Nor should you suppose you're loving either God or others if you do not eat his flesh and drink his blood. It's what we do! and if you do it, you're one of us. 

A fellow in the VA hospital, baptized Catholic but not practicing, once asked me, "Why should I go to Mass every Sunday." 
I replied, "We have never missed a Sunday Mass since the day the Lord was raised from the dead. It's what we do; and if you're one of us, you do that. If you don't, you're not one of us." 
A year or two later, his sister was ecstatic to learn from me that, when he returned to the VA and died there, he had received the Last Rites of Anointing and Viaticum. 

On another occasion, a woman explained to me that she'd been baptized and received the Eucharist after attending OCIA. But she had fallen away from the practices of our faith. She then assured me that she prayed everyday and many times a day. 
I asked, "What prayers do you say everyday?" 

She replied that she didn't use a formal, recited prayer, but only "talked to God." 

I suggested that she recite The Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, the Rosary, the Act of Contrition, Anima Christi, and other familiar Catholic prayers.... "because that's how we pray!"

Certainly, there is a place for unscripted prayers that describe one's immediate needs or feelings. But they cannot be the entirety of one's prayerful appeals. Sometimes, if we're speechless with intense desolation, we might even have to enter a church, sit within a congregation, and be silent as their prayers flow over, around, and through us. 

Catholics do not pray alone, neither do we do good works alone. We're always in the company of the Saints, and they are always walking with us. We're assured of salvation because we heed and do the Lord's command to eat his body, drink his blood, and love one another regardless of the sins, faults, and failings which are our common heritage.