HOLY THURSDAY HOMILIES

April 14, 2022

REFLECTION 1
I quote from the rubrical instruction from the 2011 Third Edition of the
Roman Missal: “After the proclamation of the Gospel, the Priest gives a
homily in which light is shed on the principal mysteries that are
commemorated in this Mass, namely the institution of the Holy Eucharist,
and of the priestly order, and the commandment of the Lord concerning
fraternal charity.”

Often in a parish setting, these two reasons for celebrating Holy Thursday
are often overlooked or, at least, very much downplayed. The key moment
for this day is seen by many in parochial ministry as a rather vague notion of
service, the justification being that the Gospel narrative, taken from the
Evangelist John, does not explicitly mention the institution of the Eucharist
or of the priesthood. The big event in many parishes is the symbolic action
of the washing of the feet, an event which is commemorated in many
religious communities with the Superior washing the feet of her subjects in
a private ceremony.

I can assure you that this is not the case in many parishes, where I have seen
this simple, beautiful act, re-presenting the Lord’s humility in John 13, done
in many different ways, the vast majority designed to be emotive and to
maximize inclusivity. I have witnessed the washing of the hands of each
member of the congregation; I have seen the congregation wash each other’s
feet; I have seen the Pastor wash three sets of feet, the Parochial Vicar wash
another three sets of feet, the Deacon wash three sets of feet, and the Sister
who was pastoral associate wash another three sets of feet. My dear readers,
I have seen it all when it comes to this symbolic event.

The reason I think we see this tremendous cleavage between the symbolic
gesture of the washing of the feet and the institution of the priesthood and
the Holy Eucharist is that, in many views, the priesthood is seen as a prestige,
an opportunity for power, part of a patriarchy that dominates and that has
come to be served, not to serve. Nothing, of course, could be further from the
reality. All three aspects of this holy night are intrinsically joined.

And so, a brief homily then on three things — the Eucharist, the Priesthood,
and service — and please note that I used the word brief. I pray that this is
possible. I believe that the key to understanding all three mysteries as one is
to be found in a phrase from Saint John Paul II, namely “gift and mystery.”

First, the priesthood:

As you know, Pope John Paul II’s reflection on the occasion of his fiftieth
anniversary of his priestly ordination was called Gift and Mystery, and this
is appropriate. The priesthood is a gift, a tremendous gift and every day, in
the course of my living out of the ordained life, I realize just what a gift it is.
I really thought about being a priest in high school because I adored the
priests who taught me. They were my heroes and I wanted to be just like
them when I grew up. It’s really as simple as that. It really was a case of what
the French philosopher Rene Girard called mimetic desire. They had
something I wanted and so I knew the only way that I could get it was to
become like them.

And what was it that they had that I wanted? It was pretty simple — it was
the ability to celebrate Mass. It is Jesus Christ in the Eucharist — he is the
sole reason. And what a mystery this gift of a vocation is. I never thought my
priesthood, my life, would be what it is. Surely there are holier men, smarter
men, than me and yet, knowing my weaknesses even more than I do, the Lord
called me to be his priest, and has given me this great gift of the Eucharist.
To receive the Eucharist is an awesome thing, but to consecrate it, to be the
bridge between God and man, to be the one who, through no power of my
own, transcends time and eternity on the altar, that place where Heaven and
Earth kiss, it is indescribable. There is nothing like the Eucharist because
there is no one like Jesus.

Now, on to the Eucharist:

Saint Thomas Aquinas, toward the end of his life, was asked to write a
treatise, a compendium, on Eucharistic theology, to encapsulate all that we
as Catholics believe about the Eucharist. He wrote and he wrote and he
wrote, until he could write no more, and in a rare moment of frustration, he
took the manuscript that he was writing and threw it at the foot of the
crucifix. The story is that the corpus, the figure of Christ on the Cross, came
to life and spoke to St. Thomas Aquinas. Jesus spoke to Thomas and said:
“Thomas Aquinas, no one has written as well as you have concerning my
Eucharistic body and blood. Whatever it is that you want the most, I will
grant you.”

Imagine if Jesus spoke to you, right here, right now, and said to you,
“Whatever it is you want most in the world, I will grant to you.” What would
you say? What would I say? What would I really say? Thomas Aquinas looked
at the Lord squarely in the eyes and said three little words, and, of course,
they were in Latin, because that’s what they were speaking then, three little
words: NIL NISI TE, which means NOTHING BUT YOU. What do you want
most in the world? Nothing but you.

Thomas Aquinas knew that if he has Jesus in the Eucharist, he has everything.
Padre Pio once said: “It would be easier for the world to survive without the
sun, than to do without Holy Mass.” The Eucharist is the single most
important thing in the universe, the most precious gift that God has given to
man. It is not just a sign, not just a symbol. It is Christ, true God, true man,
sacramentally present to us in the form of bread and wine that is, after
consecration, truly, substantially changed into Christ’s body and blood. The
Eucharist is not just a “nice thing,” not merely a symbolic sign of sharing and
community, it is Christ’s true Body and true Blood.

At Holy Mass, we come to celebrate the single greatest gift. God, the second
Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, the Son of God, comes to us, to feed, to
strengthen, to nourish us in the simplest of accidents, the simplest of food,
the staple of the diet of the Palestinian culture of Jesus’ day, bread and wine.
He who created the stars of the universe, who fashioned the heavens, who
singlehandedly harrowed the halls of hell, freeing all of humanity from the
snares of Satan by his death and resurrection, he comes to us in this simple,
humble way. Jesus, ever meek and humble of heart, the Sacred Heart whom
we honor and adore, this Jesus comes to us as food; he enters us, becomes
one with us, and, unlike earthly food which becomes integrated into us, this
heavenly food makes us becomes more and more like him whom we receive.
I have to say that I love Mass. I really, truly do. It’s the main reason I’m a
priest. When I was a high school student, every single day we had to attend
Mass as part of the school day, and I thank God that we did. I would look up
at the altar and see those priests who were teaching me in classes, reverently
celebrating Mass, and I wanted to do that, too. I wanted to be like them,
because they had this great gift, this great ability. I have been so blessed as
in my life as a priest because every single day in my life (except for one,
actually the day Pope Benedict XVI came to Yankee Stadium in New York and
we were not permitted to concelebrate, only to distribute Holy Communion),
and sometimes, due to pastoral circumstances, several times a day, I have
been able to offer Holy Mass. I know how unworthy I am to do this; I know I
am sinner, but I know that this is why I was born. In spite of me, through my
hands and the hands of my brother priests, at this altar, heaven and earth
meet, time and eternity kiss, God and man are once again reconciled. What
we do here at this altar is nothing less than the unbloodied sacrifice of
Calvary. What we celebrate at this altar is the nothing less than the entire
paschal mystery. And you and I get to receive him, Jesus, our Lord.

In the tabernacle, the Living God dwells; when we reverently receive his
Body and Blood in the Eucharist, we too become tabernacles, living, walking,
breathing tabernacles, shrines in the flesh of the Living God.

And finally on service:

There are moral implications of our reception of Holy Communion? How is
our day different because we have received Holy Communion? Is my day
different because I have celebrated Mass? Do I recognize the Christ who lives
in you and transforms you more and more by the Communion that you had
received? Do we strive to see Christ in each other and then to be Christ to
each other, recognizing that everyone whom we meet, especially the people
that God has placed in our daily lives, whom we see every single day and
whom we sometimes don’t appreciate as much as we should?

Thomas Merton, the twentieth-century Trappist spiritual writer, in his book,

Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, describes the experience of how each of
us must treat each other after reception of Holy Communion. His epiphanic
moment, granted, is not overtly Eucharistic, but I believe that we can
transpose what he describes to our Eucharistic life:
“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping
district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those
people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one
another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream
of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of
renunciation and supposed holiness . . . This sense of liberation from an illusory
difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud
. . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God
Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human
condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only
everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of
telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” And he
adds: “Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the
depths of their hearts, where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can
reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only
they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other
that way all the time.”

Today, filled with love incarnate, the Eucharistic Jesus, shine like the sun, and
let everyone whom you encounter know, by your love, that they are shining
like the sun, too.
-REV. JOHN P. CUSH, STD

REFLECTION 2
HOW TO JOIN IN THE LAST SUPPER
When Jesus says, “Do this in memory of me!” clearly he means us to
understand what “This” was and is. What exactly had he in mind through the
symbols of the broken bread and the shared cup of wine? We need to get
behind the formal Catechism answer about the “holy sacrifice of the Mass,”
and think anew about the meaning of that paschal meal. The Last Supper was
celebrated in the context of the Jewish Passover meal and tonight’s first
reading explains the meaning of this feast. In words and symbols it recalled
the greatest saving act of God in the Old Testament, the exodus from Egypt,
setting God’s people free from slavery. It opens us up to the idea that God
enters our lives to save us and set us free from whatever oppresses us. So
“opened up,” we are prepared for the good news that the definitive saving
work of God is done in and by Jesus Christ. We reflect on what St John calls
the “hour” of Jesus, the high point of his saving work, the new exodus, his
passing from this world to the Father through which he brought into being a
new relationship between God and us human beings. Sharing in this new
exodus is our ultimate liberation, freeing us from enslavement to material
things and petty self-interest and setting us free to love generously, the very
purpose for which we were originally created in the image of God. Through
his love-without-limit, in his own utterly unselfish heart Jesus overcame all
human selfishness and with it, human sin. Precisely this love, which the
Father wants us all to have and to share, is the very heart of Jesus’ exodus. It
is just this self-giving kind of love which Jesus wants to be kept alive among
us. With his disciples in the Last Supper he anticipated his death for us on
the cross, giving himself in the sacramental symbols of bread and wine. From
then on the celebration of our Eucharist is the living memorial through
which we are joined to Our Lord’s saving act of love. It is our way to share in
the new exodus, to be freed from the isolation of self-concern so that they
become fully human as God wants us to be. St John implies that we are united
with Jesus by letting him wash our feet, accepting his great act of loving
service. Having accepted the gift we must embrace it as a value to practice in
our lives. What Jesus does for us in his Passion shows us how to live. In some
real sense, we must live like Jesus, “for” God and others. There is a close link
between Jesus washing their feet and then their going on to wash the feet of
others in the future. If the Eucharist is the place where the Lord washes our
feet, daily life is the place where we can wash the feet of others. Eucharist
leads to life leads to Eucharist. True Eucharist piety must lead to service of
others. Jesus who broke the bread of the Eucharist also washed the feet of
his disciples. We must follow his example both at the altar of the Eucharist
and at the altar of life.
https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/

REFLECTION 3
FREEDOM TO CAPTIVES
Fr Dominic White reflects on the streams of grace that come from Christ’s
washing of feet both in our imitation of his actions in liturgical ritual, and
moreover, in our lives.
I spent a month on placement in prison chaplaincy when I was training for
the priesthood. One thing that struck me about prison is the sameness of
every day. Yes, there are changes in timetable at the weekends (in reality,
that often means the prisoners are longer in their cells), but other than that
it’s isolation from the change and variety of the outside world. For good
reasons, of course.

But a few years ago in a prison in Rome something extraordinary happened,

when Pope Francis came and celebrated the Maundy Thursday Mass, and
washed the feet of twelve prisoners, among them a Muslim woman. He
brought not just a bit of variety from the outside world, but a complete
overturning of the social norms of criminal and innocent, insider and
outsider, and indeed conformity and rebellion. The Pope showed a creativity
borne of a profound understanding of the deep meaning of the Maundy
Thursday ritual of the washing of the feet.

You see, sometimes we can feel prisoners of the sameness of our parish
liturgies. Why not replace them with something different, experiment a bit?
The trouble is that people have different tastes, and you can guarantee that
if we try something new, half the congregation will feel that a minority have
imposed their agenda. Which is why we have things called liturgical norms.
Boring term, I know. But they structure the liturgy. They do not stop the
creativity in its celebration which comes from a deep understanding. What
Pope Francis understood is that every human being is called by God.
Everyone, potentially, can become a member of God’s Chosen People. The
Passover Ritual from today’s first reading is the origin of the Last Supper, the
First Mass, but Jesus has opened it up so it can include everyone. And to
prove the point, Jesus takes the place of the lowliest servant and washes the
disciples’ feet. Not because they are worthy, but because they are dirty –
dirty with the dust and muck of the road, which is a symbol of the sin which
tarnishes us. Both our personal sin, and the sin of the world which has hurt
us – sometimes in very concrete ways.

So Jesus tells the Twelve to copy him – to wash the feet of their brothers and
sisters from the sin of the world. And we have copied him, more or less well,
down the ages. As I prepare to celebrate the Liturgy of Maundy Thursday, I
reflect with a sense both of profound gratitude and deep unworthiness on
the trust of my brothers and sisters who will come up to have me wash their
feet as God himself washed the feet of his friends. Since then clergy,
successors of the apostles, have abused the bodies, souls and minds of our
people. I pray that as we celebrate this ritual in brokenness, in the prison of
trauma; as we celebrate a ritual so simple and so challenging, there may be
an end to abuse and a beginning of healing for the countless victims, which
includes those who have been so scandalised as to have left the Church.

Because this ritual comes not from mortals but from God made man, it still
has the power to point to the grace of baptism, through the element of water.
I wonder where that Muslim woman is whose feet Pope washed, how she
reflects on that extraordinary moment of surprise. What stream of grace is
coursing through her, maybe in the depths of her unconscious, to emerge at
we know not what point in her life? Let’s pray for her, and who knows how
many like her – maybe even others who didn’t have their feet washed but
were there, prisoners confronted with the law of freedom, the law of love?
Perhaps at some unlikely moment they will seek baptism into Christ.

For those who will receive the gift of faith by the inscrutable grace of the
Holy Spirit, baptism is their cleansing from the original sin of the world, a
washing from personal sin, and the gateway to Communion. Because on
Maundy Thursday we also celebrate the Last Supper, the first Mass. Jesus
takes the old ritual of the Passover and makes of it something extraordinarily
new. He transforms bread and wine into his Body and Blood, so that we may
eat and drink it, becoming part of Christ, part of his sacrifice. To this day the
Sacrifice of the Mass incorporates us into Christ’s Cross and Resurrection,
his dying for us to all that is false and evil and ugly and rising to all that is
true and good and beautiful. A Communion that, when by God’s grace we
fully realise it in our lives, is just that – a communion, a being one with God
which is beyond giving and receiving. Ourselves, our relationships, our
Church, being made divine. In spite of everything.
-FR DOMINIC WHITE.

REFLECTION 4
Thanks be to God for the gift of Priesthood! As we celebrate this Mass of the
Lord’s Supper we give thanks to God for the Priesthood and the Eucharist.
The Priesthood was born during the Last Supper, as Pope John Paul II
reminded us. There were many priests in the Old Covenant but there is one
Priest, Christ, in the New Covenant and he has extended his priestly ministry
to us his ordained priests. While some find it difficult to talk of Jesus as Priest,
Scripture is very clear that Jesus is the Priest of the New Covenant. A priest
is someone who offers sacrifice. There were many animals sacrificed in the
Old Covenant by the Jewish priests, but there is one sacrifice offered in the
New Covenant, the sacrifice of Jesus in his priestly offering of himself on the
cross. Scripture talks of Christ’s death as a sacrifice because he is the Priest
of the New Covenant; “Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a
sacrificial offering to God” (Eph 5:2) “you were ransomed…with the precious
blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.” (1 Pet 1:18-19) During
Mass that one sacrifice of Jesus as the Priest of the New Covenant is extended
to us through time and made present to us. There is not a new sacrifice of
Jesus on the cross during every Mass; it is the same one sacrificial offering of
Jesus as Priest on Calvary but extended through time - as in a time warp in a
movie - and made present to us now.

We have just listened to an excerpt of the account of the Last Supper in John’s
Gospel. It described Jesus washing the feet of his apostles (John 13:1-15).
That is only part of John’s account of the Last Supper; John’s account
concludes with Jesus’ Priestly Prayer in John 17. During that prayer to the
Father, Jesus prays for the apostles, “Consecrate them in the truth.” (John
17:17) Jesus is praying that they be interiorly changed by the truth, that they
become like Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). Jesus is
praying that they become sanctified, transformed by the truth. It really
carries the connotation that they are being ordained by Christ as his priests.

The name of God, Yahweh, was so holy for the Jews that they could not even
pronounce it when reading the Scriptures. Instead they said “Adonai.” But
the high priest could pronounce the divine name Yahweh once a year during
the Jewish feast Yom Kippur. Jesus, during his prayer for the apostles at the
end of the Last Supper in John, prays, “Holy Father, keep them in your
name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. When
I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me…” (John
17:10-11) There is now some newness in the relationship between the
apostles and the name of God. In the Old Covenant the high priest could
pronounce Yahweh’s name once yearly and now in the New Covenant
priesthood there is innovation in the relationship between the apostles and
the name of God.

Part of the ordination rite of priests in the Old Covenant involved washing.
(Ex 29:4; Lev 8:6). During the Last Supper, during which the priesthood was
born and Jesus consecrated his apostles as the priests of the New Covenant,
he washed their feet. While Jesus performs this action to teach his apostles
to serve rather than be served (John 13:13-15), could we not say that it also
resembles and calls to the mind the washing that preceded the rite of
ordination of priests of the Old Covenant? Jesus said to Peter, “What I am
doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later” (John
13:7) and I wonder if later they saw the footwashing in a new sense, calling
to mind the washing that was part of the rite of ordination of the Old
Covenant. I think we can say that John’s account of the Last Supper contains
many hints that Jesus ordained the apostles as priests during the Last Supper
(consecration in truth, a new relationship with the name of God, washing. On
Easter Sunday evening Jesus concludes giving his apostles the priesthood).

Thanks be to God for the gift of the Priesthood! The priests of the New
Covenant continue the mission of Jesus the Priest. Please pray for more
vocations to the priesthood and support vocations to the priesthood. If a
family and parish is one that shows its love for and support for priests can
we not expect priests to arise from that family and parish?

Jesus gives us priests so that we may have the Eucharist. Jesus does not want
our celebration of the Eucharist to be cut off and separated or divorced from
the rest of our lives. Our celebration of the Eucharist is to affect our entire
lives. What kind of an effect is it to have on our lives? Jesus washing his
disciples’ feet in the context of the Last Supper surely teaches us that the
Eucharist is linked with service. Our celebration of the Eucharist should lead
us to love all our brothers and sisters in a sacrificial way. Our celebration of
the Eucharist sends us out from here to love and serve the Lord in others.
Our meeting with the Lord here continues as we love and serve the Lord in
others after our celebration here. That is also why it is during the Last Supper
that Jesus gave his new love commandment, “I give you a new
commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should
love one another.” (John 13:34) St. Augustine, writing about the Eucharist,
said that if we receive Holy Communion worthily we are what we receive
(Sermon 227) i.e. Christ was sacrificed that you might receive him in the
Eucharist and in like manner, Augustine was saying, when you receive Christ
in the Eucharist you too are to sacrifice yourself, and in that sense you
become what you eat. Just as Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it and
gave it, when we receive the Eucharist we are to allow ourselves to be taken
by Jesus, blessed, broken and given in love for others. In that sense the words
of Paul in our second reading tonight become true, “For as often as you eat
this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he
comes” (1 Cor 11:26)

Thanks be to God for the gift of the Priesthood and thanks be to God for the
Eucharist!
- FR. TOMMY LANE

REFLECTION 5
HOMILY STARTER ANECDOTES
# 1: Communion on the moon: The Lord’s Supper ensures that we can
remember Jesus from any place. Apollo 11 landed on the moon on Sunday,
July 20, 1969. Most remember astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first words as he
stepped onto the moon’s surface: “That’s one small step for man, one giant
leap for mankind.” But few know about the first meal eaten on the moon.
Dennis Fisher reports that Buzz Aldrin, the NASA astronaut, had taken
aboard the spacecraft a tiny pyx provided by his Catholic pastor. (Aldrin was
Catholic, probably until his second marriage, when he became a
Presbyterian. See the Snopes citation given below). Aldrin sent a radio
broadcast to Earth asking listeners to contemplate the events of the day and
give thanks. Then, blacking out the broadcast for privacy, Aldrin read, “I am
the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much
fruit.” Then, silently, he gave thanks for their successful journey to the moon
and received Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, surrendering the moon to Jesus.
Next, he descended on the moon and walked on it with Neil Armstrong [Dan
Gulley, “Communion on the Moon,” Our Daily Bread (June/July/August,
2007)]. His actions remind us that in the Lord’s Supper, God’s children can
share the life of Jesus from any place on Earth — and even from the moon.
God is everywhere, and our worship should reflect this reality. In Psalm 139
we are told that wherever we go, God is intimately present with us. Buzz
Aldrin celebrated that experience on the surface of the moon. Thousands of
miles from earth, he took time to commune with the One who created,
redeemed, and established fellowship with him. (Dennis Fisher)

# 2: Why is the other side empty? Have you ever noticed that in Leonardo
da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper everybody is on one side of the table?
The other side is empty. “Why’s that?” someone asked the great artist. His
answer was simple. “So that there may be plenty of room for us to join them.”
Want to let Jesus do his thing on earth through you? Then pull up a chair and
receive Him into your heart, especially in Holy Week (Fr. Jack Dorsel).

# 3 The Stole and the Towel is the title of a book, which sums up the
message of the Italian bishop, Tony Bello, who died of cancer at the age of
58. On Maundy Thursday of 1993, while on his deathbed, he dictated a
pastoral letter to the priests of his diocese. He called upon them to be bound
by “the stole and the towel.” The stole symbolizes union with Christ in the
Eucharist, and the towel symbolizes union with humanity by service. The
priest is called upon to be united with the Lord in the Eucharist and with the
people as their servant. Today we celebrate the institution of both the
Eucharist and the priesthood: the feast of “the stole and the towel,” the feast
of love and service.

# 4: Man in the International Space Station: Astronaut Mike Hopkins is

one of the select few who spent six months on the International Space Station
(ISS) in 2013. And though he was thrilled when he was chosen for a space
mission, there was one Person he didn’t want to leave behind: Jesus in the
Eucharist. Hopkins had been received into the Church less than a year before
his launch. After a long wait, he was finally able to receive Our Lord at each
Mass. Facing the prospect of being off the planet for half a year, he decided
he had to find out if Jesus could travel with him. It turns out Jesus could —
and He did. Hopkins says, “In 2011, I got assigned to a mission to the
International Space Station. I was going to go up and spend six months in
space, starting in 2013. So I started asking the question, ‘Is there any chance
I can take the Eucharist up with me into space?’ The weekend before I left
for Russia — we launched on a Russian rocket from Kazakhstan — I went to
Mass one last time, and the priest [with permission from his bishop]
consecrated the wafers into the Body of Christ, and I was able to take the pyx
with me. NASA has been great. … They didn’t have any reservations about
me taking the Eucharist up or to practicing my Faith on orbit. The Russians
were amazing. I went in with all my personal items, and I explained what the
pyx was and the meaning of it to me — because for them, they, of course, saw
it just as bread, if you will, the wafers — and yet for me [I knew] it was the
Body of Christ. And they completely understood and said, ‘Okay, we’ll
estimate it weighs this much, and no problem. You can keep it with you.’ All
these doors opened up, and I was able to take the Eucharist up — and I was
able to have Communion, basically, every week. There were a couple of times
when I received Communion on, I’ll say, special occasions: I did two
spacewalks; so on the morning of both of those days, when I went out for the
spacewalk, I had Communion. It was really helpful for me to know that Jesus
was with me when I went out the hatch into the vacuum of space. And then I
received my last Communion on my last day on orbit in the “Cupola,” which
is this large window that looks down at the Earth, and that was a very special
moment before I came home.”

5) “What did you have for breakfast today?” President Nelson Mandela of
South Africa (d. December 5, 2013), was one of those rare politicians who
had the common touch even when the cameras were not rolling. When he
spoke at banquets, he made a point of going into the kitchen and shaking
hands with every dishwasher and busboy. When out in public, he often
worried his bodyguards because he was prone to stop to talk with a little
child. Typically, he would ask, “How old are you son?” Then his next question
is, “What did you have for breakfast today?” — In that strange, wonderful
company called the Kingdom of God, even the bosses wash feet. Have you
allowed Jesus to give you a servant’s heart and servant’s hands? Be servant
leaders in a serving community! (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).

6) Jesus has no desire to be cloned: That night in the upper room Jesus
knew what it would take to change the world — not strife and revolution,
not warfare and bloodshed, but love — sincere, self-sacrificing love on the
part of his people. Last November, Dr. Avi Ben-Abraham, head resident of the
American Cryogenics Society, told an audience in Washington, D.C., that
several high-ranking Roman Catholic Church leaders had privately told him
that despite the Church’s public stance against research in genetics and gene
reproduction and experimentation in artificial life production, they
personally supported his way-out research. According to Ben-Abraham,
those Church leaders hope to reproduce Jesus Christ from DNA fibers found
on the Shroud of Turin. — If Dr. Ben-Abraham is right, somebody’d better
tell those venerable church leaders that Jesus has no desire to be cloned,
except in the lives of those who love him and follow him. That’s why He takes
bread and wine and gives us Himself in Holy Communion, to bring us
forgiveness and to strengthen us to love one another. “This is My will, this is
My commandment for you, love one another” (Jn 13:34).

7)“Jesus Christ gave a lasting memorial”: One of his Catholic disciples

asked the controversial god-man Osho Rajneesh about the difference
between Buddha the founder of Buddhism and Jesus Christ. Rajneesh told a
story to distinguish between Buddha and Christ. When Buddha was on his
deathbed, his disciple Anand asked him for a memorial and Buddha gave him
a Jasmine flower. However, as the flower dried up, the memory of Buddha
also dwindled. But Jesus Christ instituted a lasting memorial without
anybody’s asking for it by offering his Body and Blood under the
appearances of bread and wine and commanding his disciples to share his
Divinity by repeating the ceremony. So Jesus continues to live in his
followers while Buddha lives only in history books. — On Holy Thursday we
are reflecting on the importance of the institution of the Holy Eucharist and
the ministerial priesthood. [Osho Rajneesh claimed himself to be another
incarnation of God who attained “enlightenment” at 29 when he was a
professor of Hindu philosophy in Jabalpur University in India. He had
thousands of followers for his controversial “liberation through sex
theology,” based on Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian theology.]

INTRODUCTION:
On Holy Thursday, we celebrate three anniversaries: 1) the anniversary of
the first Holy Mass; 2) the anniversary of the institution of the ministerial
priesthood in order to perpetuate the Holy Mass, convey God’s forgiveness
to repentant sinners, and preach the Good News of salvation; 3) the
anniversary of the promulgation of Jesus’ new commandment of love: “Love
one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). Today we remember how Jesus
transformed the Jewish Passover into the New Testament Passover. In its
origins, the Jewish Passover was, in fact, a joint celebration of two ancient
thanksgiving celebrations. The descendants of Abel, who were shepherds,
used to lead their sheep from the winter pastures to the summer pastures
after the sacrificial offering to God of a lamb. They called this celebration the
“Pass over.” The descendants of Cain, who were farmers, held a harvest
festival called the Massoth in which they offered unleavened bread to God as
an act of thanksgiving. The Passover feast of the Israelites (Ex 12:26-37), was
a harmonious combination of these two ancient feasts of thanksgiving. It was
instituted by the Lord God, Who commanded all Israelites to celebrate the
Feast yearly as their thanksgiving to Him for His miraculous liberation of
their ancestors from Egyptian slavery, their exodus from Egypt, and their
final arrival in the Promised Land.

SCRIPTURE LESSONS EXPLAINED

Introduction: The Jewish Passover was an eight-day celebration during
which unleavened bread was eaten. The Passover meal began with the
singing of the first part of the “Hallel” Psalms (Ps 113 & 114), followed by the
first cup of wine. Then those gathered at table ate bitter herbs, sang the
second part of the “Hallel” Psalms (Ps 115-116), drank the second cup of
wine and listened as the oldest man in the family explained the significance
of the event in answer to the question raised by a child. This was followed by
the eating of a lamb (the blood of which had previously been offered to God
in sacrifice), roasted in fire. The participants divided and ate the roasted
lamb and unleavened Massoth bread, drank the third cup of wine and sang
the major “Hallel” psalms (117-118). In later years, Jews celebrated a
miniature form of the Passover every Sabbath day and called it the “Love
Feast.”

The first reading (Ex 12:1-8, 11-14) explained: This reading,taken from
Exodus, gives us an account of the origins of the Jewish feast of Passover
when the Israelites celebrated God’s breaking the chains of their Egyptian
slavery and leading them to the land He had given to Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. God established a covenant with them, making of them His own
beloved people. God gave the Hebrews two instructions: prepare for the
moment of liberation by a ritual meal [to be held annually in later years] and
make a symbolic mark on your homes to exempt yourselves from the coming
slaughter. This tradition continued in the Church as the Lord’s Supper, with
the Eucharist as its focal point. The Passover feast is celebrated by the Jewish
communities round the world every year; Passover meal is a re-enactment
of that hasty meal the Israelite people had to take before their flight across
the Red Sea from Egypt. — a flight from slavery to freedom and liberation.
The meal is full of symbols – the lamb eaten whole, the blood of the lamb
painted on the door posts, the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, eating the
meal standing and dressed ready for a long journey. It is a sacred
remembering of God’s great act to liberate them from slavery, and the
beginning their long trek to the Promised Land. It was no coincidence that it
was precisely during the celebration of this private Passover meal with his
disciples that Jesus instituted and the Sacrament of the Ministerial
Priesthood (Holy Orders).

The second reading (1 Cor 11:23-26) explained: Paul identifies a source

and purpose for the communal celebration of the Lord’s Supper beyond what
was passed on to him upon his conversion, namely that which he had
received “from the Lord.” This suggests that, from the very beginning of the
Church, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper was an unbroken tradition. Paul
implies that another purpose of this celebration was to “proclaim the death
of the Lord until He comes again.” Paul may simply mean that Christians, by
this ritual act, remind themselves of the death and Resurrection of Jesus; he
may also mean that Christians prepare themselves for the proclamation of
Christ to the world at large. Addressing abuses and misunderstandings
concerning the “breaking of the bread” in the Corinthian Church, Paul gives
us all the warning that if we fail to embrace the spirit of love and servanthood
in which the gift of the Eucharist is given to us, then “Eucharist” becomes a
judgment against us

In the given reading, St. Paul recalls what Jesus did during that Passover
meal, that Last Supper. Jesus transformed his Last Supper into the first
Eucharistic celebration – “While they were eating Jesus took the Bread, said
the blessing, broke it and giving it to his disciples said, ‘Take and eat, this is
my Body.’ Then he took a cup, gave thanks and gave it to them saying, ‘Drink
from it all of you for this is the blood of the covenant which will be shed on
behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.’ ” Jesus thus instituted the Holy
Eucharist as the sign and reality of God’s perpetual presence with His people
as their living, heavenly food, in the form of bread and wine. This was
followed by the institution of the Ministerial Priesthood with the command,
“Do this in memory of me.”Here is the link between the Hebrew and the
Christian Covenants. There is no mention of a lamb because there is a new
lamb: Jesus himself is the Pascal Lamb. He served as both the Host and the
Victim of a sacrifice and became the Lamb of God, who would take away the
sins of the world. He is the sacrificial victim of the New Covenant whose
blood will adorn the wood of the cross. In this meal, the emphasis is on the
unleavened bread and Body, on wine and Blood. This meal becomes now the
sacrament of a new liberation, not just from physical slavery, but from every
kind of slavery, especially that of sin and evil, through the broken Body of
Jesus and his poured-out Blood on the cross, and the basis for the celebration
of the Eucharist, which is at the heart of all our Christian living.

The Gospel explained. Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus transformed the
Jewish Passover into the Eucharistic celebration. First, he washed His
Apostles’ feet – a tender reminder of his undying affection for them. On Good
Friday he washes us again, in the humble flow of his own blood. Then he
commanded them to do the same for each other. The incident reminds us
that our vocation is to take care of one another as Jesus always takes care of
us. Finally, Jesus gave his apostles his own Body and Blood under the
appearances of bread and wine as Food and Drink for their souls, so that, as
long as they lived, they’d never be without the comfort and strength of his
presence. Thus, Jesus washed their feet, fed them, and then went out to die
for us all. This Gospel episode challenges us to become for others Christ the
healer, Christ the compassionate and selfless brother, and Christ the humble
“washer of feet.” The Gospel Reading of today is not off the point or out of
place as it may appear, as the institution of the Eucharist isn’t mentioned at
all. But St. John in his Last Supper account also makes no mention of the
bread being Jesus’ Body and the wine being his Blood. This Gospel is actually
in perfect harmony with the other two Scripture Readings, for Eucharist and
loving service to others go together. There is obviously a clear and important
link here between the two. We cannot choose one over the other. Just as we
are nourished by the body and blood of Jesus, we are also called to nourish
others materially and spiritually. Just as the Body of Jesus is broken up for
us, we are also called to be broken up for others. Our Christian living is a
seamless robe weaving together Gospel, liturgy, daily life, and personal
interaction. There is something lacking if we are devout in our regular
attendance at Mass, but our lives are lived individualistically and selfishly.
There is also something lacking if we are totally committed to caring for
others but never gather in community to remember, give thanks and break
the bread together.

EXEGETICAL NOTES:
Jesus’ transformation of his last Seder meal (Last Supper) into the first
Eucharistic celebration is described for us in today’s Second Reading and
Gospel. (John in his account of the Last Supper, makes no mention of the
establishment of the Eucharist because his theology of the Eucharist is
detailed in the “bread of life” discourse following the multiplication of the
loaves and fish at Passover, in Chapter 6 of his Gospel.) Jesus, the Son of God,
began his Passover celebration by washing the feet of his disciples (a service
assigned to household servants), as a lesson in humble service,
demonstrating that he “came to the world not to be served but to serve.” (Mk
10:45). He followed the ritual of the Jewish Passover meal through the
second cup of wine. After serving the roasted lamb as a third step, Jesus
offered his own Body and Blood as food and drink under the appearances of
bread and wine. Thus, he instituted the Holy Eucharist as the sign and reality
of God’s perpetual presence with His people as their living, Heavenly Food.
This was followed by the institution of the ministerial priesthood with the
command, “Do this in memory of me.” Jesus concluded the ceremony with a
long speech incorporating his command of love: “Love one another as I have
loved you” (Jn 13:34). Thus, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist at a private Passover meal with the apostles (Mt 26:17-30; Lk
21:7-23). There, He served as both the Priest and the Victim of His sacrifice.
As John the Baptist had previously predicted (Jn 1:29, 36), Jesus became the
Lamb of God, Who would “take away the sins of the world.”

The transformation of Jesus’ Passover into the Holy Mass: The early Jewish
Christians converted the Jewish “Sabbath Love Feast” of Fridays and
Saturdays (the Sabbath), into the “Memorial Last Supper Meal” of Jesus on
Sundays. The celebration began with the participants praising and
worshipping God by singing Psalms, reading the Old Testament Messianic
prophecies, and listening to the teachings of Jesus as explained by an apostle
or by an ordained minister. This was followed by an offertory procession,
bringing to the altar the bread and wine to be consecrated and the covered
dishes (meals) brought by each family for a shared common meal after the
Eucharistic celebration. Then the ordained minister said the “institution
narrative” over the bread and wine, and all the participants received the
consecrated Bread and Wine, the living Body and Blood, Soul, and Divinity,
of the crucified and risen Jesus. This ritual finally evolved into the present-
day Holy Mass in various rites, incorporating various cultural elements of
worship and rituals.

LIFE MESSAGES:
1) We need to render humble service to others. Our celebration of the
Eucharist requires that we wash one another’s feet, i.e., serve one another
and revere Christ’s presence in other persons. To wash the feet of others is
to love them, especially when they don’t deserve our love, and to do good for
them, even when they don’t return the favor. It is to consider others’ needs
to be as important as our own. It is to forgive others from the heart, even
though they don’t say, “I’m sorry.” It is to serve them, even when the task is
unpleasant. It is to let others know we care when they feel downtrodden or
burdened. It is to be generous with what we have. It is to turn the other cheek
instead of retaliating when we’re treated unfairly. It is to make adjustments
in our plans in order to serve others’ needs without expecting any reward.
In doing and suffering all these things in this way, we love and serve Jesus
Himself, as He has loved and served us and has taught us to do. (Mt 25:31-
ff).

2) We need to practice sacrificial sharing and self-giving love. Let us

imitate the self-giving model of Jesus who shares with us his own Body and
Blood and enriches us with his Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. It is by
sharing our blessings – our talents, time, health and wealth – with others that
we become true disciples of Christ and obey his new commandment: “Love
one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). The Eucharist, if it is to be real,
is essentially the sign of a living, loving, mutually serving community of
brothers and sisters. A living, loving community celebrates and strengthens
what it is through the Eucharist. It is this spirit of love and service of brothers
and sisters which is to be the outstanding characteristic of the Christian
disciple.
3) We need to show our unity in suffering. The Bread we eat is produced
by the pounding of many grains of wheat, and the Wine we drink is the result
of the crushing of many grapes. Both are thus symbols of unity through
suffering. They invite us to help, console, support, and pray for others who
suffer physical or mental illnesses.

4) We need to heed the warning: We need to make Holy Communion an

occasion of Divine grace and blessing by receiving it worthily, rather than
making it an occasion of desecration and sacrilege by receiving Jesus while
we are in grave sin. That is why we pray three times before we receive
Communion, “Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy
on us,” with the final “have mercy on us” replaced by “grant us peace.” That
is also the reason we pray the Centurion’s prayer, “Lord, I am not worthy
that You should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall
be healed” (Mt 8:8). And that is why the priest, just before he receives the
consecrated Host, prays, “May the Body of Christ keep me safe for eternal
life,” while, just before drinking from the Chalice, he prays, “May the Blood
of Christ keep me safe for eternal life.”

5) We need to become Christ-bearers and Christ-conveyers: In the older

English version of the Mass, the final message was, “Go in peace to love and
serve one another,” that is, to carry Jesus to our homes and places of work,
conveying to others around us the love, mercy, forgiveness, and spirit of
humble service of Christ whom we carry with us. That message has not
changed, though the words are different.
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