What are the voices in your life that help you to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd?

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER B  2021

 

 

The Gospels for the eight Sundays of the Easter Season from Easter to Pentecost form a wonderfully cohesive progression from Jesus’ resurrection to our taking up Jesus’ mission to preach the Gospel.  The first three Sundays of Easter always feature appearance accounts of the Risen Lord.

 

This fourth Sunday is termed as Good Shepherd Sunday.  We are invited to reflect on Jesus’ great love and care for us and be assured that we will not be abandoned. Jesus will be with us always.  On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we begin our mission of discipleship as we move us into the second half of the Easter season and our preparation for the celebration of the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost.

 

Today, we hear the words of the Good Shepherd.  “I am the good Shepherd.  I know mine and mine know me.  I will lay down my life for the sheep.” 

 

They will know and recognize my voice.

 

The Shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  The sheep follow him because they do not follow the voice of a stranger.

 

Who speaks the voices in your life in which you feel that you are safe and very much loved?  A second important question:  How well do we recognize the voice of Jesus in our life?

 

Who in your family speaks words of unconditional love to you?  Who in our faith community speak words to you to assure you that you are safe and very much loved?  Who is the first person who spoke to you the words: “I love you?”  Who is the last person to speak those words to you?  When was the last time you spoke the words “I love you” to someone?

 

Our challenge is how to discern the voice of the Good Shepherd among all the voices in our society that want to demand our attention.  VOICES – We hear them all the time, from our first conscious moment till the day we die.  Voices hurt us, heal us, form our self-concept, encourage, or diminish us.   What voices do our youth listen to in the video games and the music and the culture that fantasizes and celebrates violence in all forms of our media?

 

We live in a country that has always been proud of its willingness to use force – sometimes legitimately, sometimes illegitimately – to get its way. 

 

We need to face to the reality that we are a nation that is addicted to violence.  It sustains us and entertains us.  And every now and then when it erupts in a place where we think it shouldn’t   -- we throw us our hands and wonder what went wrong.

 

Just as with person who is addicted to alcohol or drugs, nothing happens until you admit you have a problem.  Our problem as a society stems from the voices we are listening to that mold and shape us.

 

 

 

 

It is not the voice of the Good Shepherd, the Prince of Peace that molded and fashioned the violence that happens far too often in the streets of our cities.  Perhaps it is the voices of the video games and the music and the culture that fantasizes and celebrates violence in all forms of our media.

 

What would it take for the voice of the Good Shepherd to be the dominant voice that we hear in our society?  Perhaps a better advertising firm?  An improved website?  More money? 

 

Surely, it is much deeper than that.  There is a critical need for moral leadership in our society and in our church. We need to be able to hear the stirrings of God’s love that is within – our inner voice.

 

For the voice of the Good Shepherd to be our dominant voice, we need to tap into the inner resources of the mystery of God’s love that is within each one of us.  There is a longing in the hearts of each of us to hear and to know the voice of the Good Shepherd.

 

Today is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  Vocation comes from the Latin word vocare “to call.”  Our vocation is our response to the call of God in our lives.  Usually when we think of prayer for vocations, we are talking about prayer for vocations to the ordained ministry and religious life.  And I wish to speak to the importance of ordained ministry vocations in a moment or two, but first I wish to speak of vocation in the sense that we all have a God-given vocation. 

 

By Baptism, God calls the entire community of the baptized to be disciples, to be witnesses of His presence in our world.  All of us have a vocational story to share.  Your vocational story is to be found in the way you share the giftedness you have been given in the relationships, in the work, in the ways you live your life.  Your vocational story is your continuous response to God’s call.  To be aware of your vocation is to be aware of the voice of God in your life on this day.

 

You who are moms and dads, grandmothers and grandfathers, you have an awesome God-given vocation in your family life to witness to the mystery of God’s love in your family life.  My question for you is there prayer in your home family life?   Do you as a family give thanks to God in prayer for the blessings of your family life? If your prayer is unspoken in the hearing of your family, may I suggest that you think about how as a family you could pray together in your home?

 

Family life is a precious opportunity to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd in your life.  My sister Jean shares that it was her son that was the voice of the Good Shepherd in their family life inviting his mom and dad and his siblings to pray together as a family.

 

It is beautiful when our prayer life invites us to be aware of the voice of the Good Shepherd in our lives.  May we also be aware of the ways we can recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd in the ways we are with each other.  In the actions of kindness, forgiveness, and service in which we receive from others and in the ways that we share our love and service with others are golden opportunities for us to discern the voice of the Good Shepherd in our lives.

 

Message here is that while moms and dads have a precious vocation, all of us without exception need to be aware of the call  of God in our lives in which we are to witness to the mystery of God’s love in our world. 

 

If all of us were to affirm that we have a vocational story to share, this faith community has the potential to transforming the communities in which we live to be place in which the dignity and life of each person would be loved and highly valued.

 

 

In the context of celebrating all the ways we hear and respond to the voice of the Good Shepherd in our lives, may we encourage and pray that some of the young men from our faith community will consider the call of God to the ordained priesthood and diaconate.   For me, the vocation of my ministry as a priest has been a source of grace, considerable joy, and a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.  It has given me the opportunity to get to know you and for us together to celebrate the mystery of God’s love in our midst.  Without any doubt, the Church needs people to respond to the call to the ordained ministry as a deacon and as a priest. 

 

 

Each of us is called to lead others to the gracious mercy of God.  Like the Good Shepherd, we do not do this by herding or forcing people along.  We seek to live lives of such self-evident joy that others can trust that we are leading them in the path of life eternal.

 

Jesus, our Good Shepherd, give us the grace to gently lead others to become more aware of our love and of God’s love.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

Catholics aren't perfect; they are forgiven.

 

Third Sunday of Easter  B  2021

 

The New Testament contains many accounts describing for us the experience of the original disciples of Jesus as they found faith through their encounter with their Risen Lord.  The writers of the New Testament pass on these stories in order to share the wonder of finding faith and new purpose through an encounter with the Risen Lord.

Last Sunday we heard the Resurrection appearances of the Risen Lord as it was recalled by the community of John’s Gospel.  Today, we hear Luke’s account of the disciples’ meeting with the Risen Savior.

What is common to all of these stories is the coherent description of how the disciples came to a deeper faith in the Risen Lord:  First, the disciples are confused and frightened; when Jesus comes in their midst, finding faith in him is not easy and immediate; his greeting, however, and his loving acceptance of them into his abiding friendship brings them a great joy, and they find full faith in him; he instructs – all that has taken place is according to the designs of God set forth in the Scriptures; he charges them with the mission of bringing to the whole world the good news of their Resurrection faith and the forgiveness of sins it brings; he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Picking up on the beginning of today’s Gospel, I invite all of us to see our spiritual journey as our Road to Emmaus.  In the challenges and the fears and the hopes of our lives on this day, the Risen Savior is present as he was with those first disciples on their Road to Emmaus.

Our challenge is to recognize how Jesus is present in the challenges and the relationships of our lives.

My question for your prayer is:  Who are the strangers in your midst?  What startles and terrifies you recently?  Why are you troubled?  As you wrestle with these questions, perhaps you too will discover the presence of the Risen Christ.

In the Gospel account, Jesus showed his disciples his hands and his wounded side and said: “Touch Me.”  As with the apostle Thomas, Jesus showed his hands and his side.  For Thomas, he did not understand the meaning of resurrection faith until he touched the wounds of Christ.  I would suggest we are more like Thomas than we might think.  For us to come to an in-depth intimacy with the Risen Lord in our hearts and in our spirit, we must first touch the wounds of Christ. How do we do that?  Simply look to our life experiences.  The wounds of Christ can be found in our dealing with this pandemic crisis, in the instability of our economy, un  the violence we live with in our society,  in our broken hearts when we haven’t experienced mutuality in the love  we have given, in the illnesses in our lives, and in the experience of death in our family life.

 

As we know, what often keeps us from a resurrection faith and hope in the presence of the Risen Lord are the struggles and the messiness of life.  The questions of life often lead to more questions than faith.  Sometimes, we do not experience inner peace as we wrestle with the struggles of brokenness in relationship, with our health, and the disillusionment we experience with failed leadership in the Church, on Wall Street, and in our nation’s leaders.

 

Yet, the mystery of the faith journey of each of us is that we need to look at the messiness and the questions and the disappointments of life; we need to look at this life experiences with faith-filled eyes.  Yes. God accompanies in the struggles of life.  For us to encounter the joy of the Risen Lord, we first need to encounter the crucified Lord in the struggles.

Nancy Veronesi in today’s bulletin calls this experience our sharing in the paschal mystery of the dying and rising of Jesus.  Strange, as it seems, we need to die before we die.  We need to die to our sinfulness, our demons, all that is within that does not witness to the love of Jesus for one and all.

It is the law of spiritual gravity that we need to experience and to trust in Jesus in the wounds of our life so that we may be reborn in trusting and hoping in new life that is God’s Easter promise to us.

Yes, we all struggle in one way or another.  All of us are confronted with touching the wounds of Christ in the struggles of our lives.  In the midst of these struggles, the Risen Jesus speaks these words to us: “Peace be with you.”  Can we experience the love of the Risen Lord in the midst of the struggles of life? 

Will we be any better able to recognize him than those first disciples?  Jesus showed his first disciples his wounded hands and feet and spoke “peace” to them.  Could it be that Jesus is showing us his wounded body in the sick and the homeless who need our care, in the immigrants or prisoners who need to be rekindled by our Easter zeal?

This is a bit of challenge at times because the Church can be compared to the New York City subway.  It’s uncomfortable at times; it’s too crowded at times; it’s often broke; but it gets where you want to go

As we reflect on the Gospel, I would highlight two other components of the Gospel story that are also two movements in our spiritual journey.

1.      We are a Eucharistic people.  “While they were still incredulous, Jesus asked them: “have you anything here to eat?”  As for those first disciples, and so too for us, our own privileged encounter with the Risen Jesus is at table on the Lord’s day, in the context of the community’s meal.

As it was true for the disciples on the way to Emmaus, the Risen Lord is made known in the breaking of the bread.  And so, we gather for the Eucharistic Breaking of the Bread.  We gather to give thanks to the Lord our God for what God has done for us.  We gather to give thanks for the longing that is within us to experience the presence of the Risen Lord in the Eucharist and in the people of our lives

 

2.      The first disciples were to be a missionary people.  Jesus commissioned them “to be witnesses of these things.”  Jesus sends forth the disciples to bear witness.  How often Pope Francis reminds us that we “touch the flesh of Christ” in the wounds of our suffering brothers and sisters to whom we are sent forth from every Eucharist as witnesses of Jesus’ self-sacrificing love.

We seek the grace to be a Eucharistic people who glorify the Lord by the way we witness to God’s love in all that we say and do in the service of one another.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.

 

Easter 2021

 

In these days of the Easter Triduum which climax with this celebration of the Lord’s resurrection, we have encountered the Lord in different ways.

 

In the Liturgy of the Lord’s supper on Holy Thursday, we encountered the Lord with a towel around his waist washing the feet of his disciples giving us an example of service that his rooted in the Lord’s radical love for us, and we also encountered the Lord in this Sacrament of the Eucharist.

 

In the liturgy of Good Friday, we encounter the crucified Lord on the cross focusing not even so much on the suffering that Jesus endured but rather focusing on his unconditional love for us.

Now on this Easter day, the first disciples did not exactly experience the Resurrection event with the magnificence of Easter music and Easter flowers and a wonderful sense of celebration.  The first disciples did not immediately proclaim:  We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.

For the first disciples, their Easter faith was much more gradual.  The first disciples encountered the empty tomb before experiencing the Risen Lord.  The Easter Gospel speaks of the empty tomb experiences of Mary Magdalene and the apostles Peter and John.  They only gradually came to an Easter faith.

An important truth of our lives is that we discover important things about our lives at the empty tomb.  Our dealing with this pandemic for many of us is an empty tomb experience as we have been confined to our homes, and we haven’t been able to gather as we would like.

 

This brutal virus makes us feel that we are locked up in a dark tomb for an impossibly long duration, as though the darkness of “Good Friday” might go on forever with little hope in sight.  COVID-19 is virtually the Way of the Cross for all of humanity.

Yet today, as we celebrate Easter morning, may the grace of this Easter Day take on a transformed meaning for us.  For we have been living in the darkness of this pandemic, confined to a kind of tomb-like existence. 

As with the first disciples, our empty tomb experiences are the moments of darkness and confusion in life.  As we peer into the empty tombs of the ups and downs of everyday life, we are challenged to see and believe as the apostle John did as he stared into the empty tomb.

There is the story of the man whose dad came home from the II World War; his dad worked in a factory with a very menial job; he had t pay his won way through college.  Frankly he didn’t think too highly of his dad because he didn’t seem to amount to much.

The young got himself a job in an international conglomerate and seemed to be moving up the ladder of success.

His dad died and at his dad’s wake in walk the CEO of this international conglomerate.  The man was as pleased as could be and went to the CEO to thank for coming to the wake.  The CEO then asked:  are you a relative of the deceased Frank.  The man quickly that he was Frank’s son.  The CEO responded:  “So, you’re the son.”  Then he went to say that your dad saved his life during the II World War and pulled him out of harm’s way.  They had kept in touch, exchanged Christmas cards, and the man repeatedly had told Frank that if there is anything I can do for you, please let me know.  After some years, Frank finally did ask for a favor.  He asked if he get his son a job in his international conglomerate.

Immediately the son was filled with shame in not appreciating his dad and what he had done for him.

On this Easter day, may we be thankful for all that our family has done for us.

More than ever on this beautiful Easter day, we need to trust and embrace the grace Jesus offers.  The Risen Jesus calls us by name and offers us the grace to walk away from the empty tombs of the fears and the demons of our lives so that we live with Easter joy and an Easter peace.  This indeed is our journey to an Easter faith.

On this Easter day the Risen Lord wishes to identify with us and to enter into the experience of the people he loves.  Today God is sending this Easter message to us that the Risen Lord showers upon us the joy and peace that accompanies us as an Easter people.

For me, it is an experience of Easter joy to be connected with you -- those of you who are in this Church on this beautiful Easter Day and those of you are who are present to us virtually.   I can see your smiling faces even though your masks and I am blessed with the friendships we share as a community of faith.  Recently I had another birthday, would you believe.  I would like to share with you my very favorite birthday card that I received.  It was from 3-year-old Anna Hickey.  Anna wrote on this home-made card.  Dear Father Jim, I like coming to Church because everyone is really nice.   Love, Anna Hickey.

For me, this was a most touching birthday-Easter Message.   From Anna, she comes to Church not because it is a day of obligation under the pain of mortal sin.  She comes to Church because she experiences the love of this faith community.

May Anna’s birthday greeting to me define who we are as a faith community.  May we be an Easter people who want to be together to give praise and thanks to our God and be a people who enjoy sharing our love with one another.

This virus has not dimmed one iota God’s love for each and everyone one of us.  The Lord’s Easter message is that all are welcome; all are forgiven; and all are loved by the Risen Lord.

 Jesus is present to us in this moment as much as He was present to Mary Magdalene on the first Easter day. Like Mary, we may have difficulty recognizing how the Risen Lord is present during these days. 

This Easter Day we are challenged to think differently about the blessings of our lives. I am a believer that we can find the joy of the Risen Lord in the blessings of life we enjoy on this day.   Yes, we can’t travel to be with extended family, but may our Easter blessing be the gratitude we have for the family we are with.  Social distance does not lead us to social paranoia – fear of my brother and sister.  Instead, may we be led to new forms of solidarity with one another.

May our Easter faith in the presence of the Risen Christ within our hearts fill us with an Easter joy.   Allow yourself to be loved by the God who goes with us in this pandemic crisis.  Yes, we are looking for a vaccine to protect us from this virus, but be assured that with the eyes of faith the vaccine we most need is found in our solidarity with the Risen Lord and in our solidarity with each other as a community of faith.

We are an Easter people.  This means that are not buried in the tomb of our sins, evil habits, dangerous addictions or this pandemic crisis.  Our Resurrection faith gives us the Good News that no tomb can hold us down anymore -- not the tomb of despair, discouragement or doubt, not that of death.  Instead, the joy of the Risen Lord fills our spirit.

May we listen as the Risen Lord calls us by name and welcomes us into the joy of sharing in His Risen life. 

We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.

Have a Blessed Easter Day.

Liturgically we light the Easter candle representing the light of the Risen Christ. This Easter candle needs to be lit in the deep recesses of our hearts.

 

EASTER VIGIL  2021

 

Under the cloud of COVID – 19, the great Easter Vigil, the mother of all vigils, is celebrated in a muted fashion this evening.

Muted in the sense we are missing some of the powerful symbols of our Easter celebration, but, without doubt, God is still with us in this joyous celebration of the Easter liturgy.  

We gather in-person and through the gift of livestreaming to express and to celebrate the Easter message:   all are welcome; all are forgiven; and the Lord seeks to fill this world with his love.  May this Easter joy fill our hearts in a way that is beyond the reach of any virus.

From the first Scripture reading, the creation account from the Book of Genesis,  we hear:  "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.

In the beginning, all was a dark void.

And in this empty tomb where Jesus was buried, we find the same reality--it is a dark void.

 How many times will we find ourselves in that dark place? A place where any ray of hope is extinguished in the vacuum of fear, of not knowing, of total emptiness.  Do we sometimes have this feeling when our fears get the best of us in dealing with COVID-19 -- the darkness of this shattering reality that we had no idea was coming our way.

But in that place, somehow through the grace of God, we must be patient. As was true in the Creation account, we must wait for the wind of the Spirit, the "wind from God that sweeps over the face of the waters" to fan the dim embers of our faith.

"Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.... God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day."

You see, both darkness and light are part of the first day. Darkness and light are halves of every day ever since that first day.

Darkness and light are essential parts of our lives. And when we find ourselves in that dark lonely place, we must remind ourselves of this truth. There will always ultimately be light in the midst of the darkness.

Darkness is shorthand for anything that scares me—the darkness of a terrifying diagnosis -- either because I am sure that I do not have the resources to survive it or because I do not want to find out.

Darkness is part of every day. But there will be light. What would our lives with God look like if we trusted this rhythm of darkness and light instead of fighting it?  The Easter message of the Risen Lord to us is that the light of the Risen Christ will overcome any and all darkness we experience.

In the paschal mystery of Jesus, the darkness of suffering and death gives way to the light of the Risen Lord.  Yes, our spiritual journey consists in finding that grace-filled rhythm of light and darkness in the life journey of each one of us.

Liturgically we light the Easter Candle because we believe in the light that comes from the Risen Lord.  Indeed, in the light that comes from the Risen Lord, the darkness of fear and the darkness of sin is no more.  This Easter candle needs to be lit in the deep recesses of our hearts.

Yes, there is uncertainty of how long we are going to be in isolation caused by this pandemic; Yes, we are worried about the health of those we love; yes, we may be dealing with the reality of unemployment; Jesus himself takes on human suffering to draw closer to us; but when the Easter candle is lit in the deep recesses of our hearts, we can proclaim with boldness that we are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.

In this Easter season, may we allow God to fill our hearts with an Easter joy that no one or no situation can take from us.

This night is a night of Easter Joy.   

 

Easter joy can come from unexpected places.  For me, I had another birthday recently, would you believe.  My very favorite birthday was a three-year old Anna Hickey.  It contained for me a most touching birthday/Easter message.  The homemade card read:  Dear Father Jim, I like coming to Church because everyone is really nice.  Love, Anna Hickey.

For me this is an Easter dream, when Anna and everyone else comes to Church to give praise and thanks to God and we enjoy being together as a community who are really nice to each other.  Anna comes to Church not because it is a day of obligation under pain of mortal sin; rather she comes to Church because everyone is really nice.

Jesus worded this message slightly different in his farewell message to his Disciples.  Jesus said: “By this all shall know that you are my disciples, by your love for one another.

In the words of Pope Francis, the grandeur of life lies not in possessions and promotions, but in realizing that we are loved and in experiencing the beauty of loving others.

God desires our Easter friendship.  God desires that we share our friendship with each other. May we allow the Risen Lord to fill this world and our hearts with His love.

Have a Blessed Easter Day.

 

 

 

 

As we venerate the cross today, think about the love God has for you and thank Him.

 

GOOD FRIDAY  2021

 

The last words spoken by Jesus on the cross were: “It is finished.”  Jesus then bowed and gave up His spirit.

When Jesus spoke those final words, he wasn’t just saying, "This is the end of me" as if there was nothing else to do but to give in to his enemies and die. His last words weren’t a final surrender to the power of Satan as if to say, "You have won. I’m done for". These words don’t tell us that Jesus was dead now and that’s all there is to it. He is finished and so is everything that he stood for and promised during his earthly life.

Rather, is it most important to understand that Jesus is saying his mission of saving the world has been completed.  He has finished the task that God has given Him to do, and nothing can be added to what has been done.  Jesus' announcement from the cross, "It is finished" is clear and simple. Jesus has completed his mission. The reason why he came as a human has been fulfilled. He came so that you and I can have forgiveness and salvation. He came to give us the victory. He came to ensure that we would enter his kingdom and live forever.

While on Good Friday, we think of the sufferings of Jesus.  As we pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, we reflect on the Agony of the Garden, the Scourging at the pillar, the crowning with thorns, carrying the cross, and finally his crucifixion. Jesus endured pain, soul-wrenching agony, hanging by the nails in his hands for hours, death on a rough wooden cross, for our sakes

But it is not suffering, not even the suffering of Jesus, that makes this day Good Friday.  It is Good Friday because of love, the reconciling love of God that is revealed to us in the person of Jesus.

God did all this for us. He did all this because of his love for us.  Paul writes, "God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us! … We were God's enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son.” That’s how much God loves us – Jesus died for us even though we don’t deserve it. His death has made us God's friends

That’s why we call today "Good Friday". We call today "Good Friday" because the cross is proof of the powerful love that God has for each of us. No one, not even God, would do something like that unless he truly loved us. Here we see a love that was prepared to endure the ultimate in order to rescue us.

The Good Friday liturgy calls to mind what happened historically to Jesus so long ago.  May the Good Friday liturgy also help us to call to mind the ways Jesus still suffers in the hearts of so many refugees, so many people who are hungry for food for their bodies and the food of love for their spirits. 

Today’s celebration must help us realize that Christ continues to suffer in many of our brothers and sisters. There are too many people that suffer hunger, cold, solitude and discriminations. Perhaps, we do not take note of them. So, our Good Friday liturgy must help us see them.

Also, Christ is suffering and dying in each of us because we are still tied to many things that imprison us. We continue to be slaves of our sins, habits, and weaknesses.  This Good Friday, Christ calls us from the cross to a total change, and to be generous with our lives as he was with his for the sake of our salvation.

As we venerate the cross during our liturgy today, pray and ponder what Jesus has done for you through His death on the cross.  In our Good Friday prayer, we ask for the grace even to embrace the cross as we experience how we are called to be the followers of the crucified Christ.  How can we deal with the crosses and the sufferings of life?

We find meaning in the crosses of our life when we know in the depths of our hearts that the cross of Jesus is a symbol of love and a symbol of hope.   The cross brings to mind the sacrificial love of the one who hangs there. It is a clear proof of His love that He laid down His life for us and challenges to do the same for our brothers and sisters. 

As we venerate the cross during our liturgy today, pray and ponder about what Jesus has done for you through his death on the cross.  Think about the love that God has for you and thank him.

The disciples of Jesus are to change the world by getting down on their knees and washing the feet of God's poor.

 

HOLY THURSDAY 2021

 

With this solemn liturgy of the Lord’s Supper, we enter the heart and soul of the entire liturgical year.  We celebrate the paschal mystery – the dying and rising of Christ Jesus.  As the disciples of Jesus, we gather during the Triduum to celebrate the mystery of the ways we encounter the Lord.

In this Holy Thursday liturgy, we encounter the Lord in two significant ways.

In today’s Gospel account, Jesus wraps a towel around his waist, takes a pitcher of water and, on the night before he dies, begins washing the feet of his disciples.  The disciples are stunned.  The washing of feet was usually done by a slave.   It was Jesus who was washing their feet.  Jesus is teaching them that this new life is gained not in presiding over multitudes from royal thrones; it is gained, however, in walking with the humble and in humbly serving this world’s walkers.  When he tells his disciples to do as he has done in washing their feet, he is commissioning them to walk as he has walked and to heal as he has healed.

The message of Holy Thursday is that his disciples are to change the world by getting down on their knees and washing the feet of God’s poor.

This is the authentic mark of the follower of Jesus Christ:  that he and she wash the feet of the beggar, the leper, the miserable sinner rejected by everyone else.  In the words of Tinamarie Stoltz, the lesson to be drawn from Jesus’ washing of the feet, I do not decide which lives have value and dignity, God does.

Jesus the teacher demonstrated his life-giving message:  foot washing.  He did not ask his friends to die for one another, but to live for one another.  Holy Thursday is a celebration of life, and life together as a people of God.

 

Notice how we encounter the Lord in this liturgy of the Lord’s Supper.  Shockingly, the voice of God speaks to us through Jesus with a towel around his waist asking us to find the towel with our name on it: “As I have done for you, so you also must do.”

Service rooted in love is the example Jesus gives to his disciples.  It is a radical form of service because it is based on a radical form of love.

Where is your towel with your name on it? 

The second way we encounter is in the mystery of the Eucharist.  It was at the Last Supper on the night before he died, that Jesus said over the Bread and Wine:  This is my Body; take and eat.  This is my blood: take and drink.  Do this in memory of me.

When we gather for Sunday Eucharist Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, we are doing what Jesus asked us to do when He said:  Do this in memory.

In this sacred Eucharistic meal, under the form of bread and wine, Jesus is present to us.  We are nourished with the bread of life and the cup of Eucharist.

We encounter the Lord in a most privileged sacramental in the Sacrament of the Eucharist that was instituted at the Last Supper on the night before he died to insure us that Jesus will  be present to us all days until the end of time.

A profound truth of our Holy Thursday liturgy is that these two ways of encountering the Lord are essentially linked together for us as Catholic Christians.  What does this mean?   We will never perceive the Reality beneath the bread and wine unless we first understand the point of the basin and feet; we will never see Christ in the Eucharist we kneel to adore, if we do not first see Christ in those before whom we kneel to serve.

To say it again, we will never see Christ in the Eucharist we kneel to adore if we do not first see Christ in those before whom we kneel to serve.  Where is the towel with your name on it?  That towel is surely found in how you are to love and serve in your family, that towel is around your waist calling you to wash the feet of the person you don’t along with, that towel is to be found for you in one of the ministries of our parish life?

Additionally, in our discipleship of Christ Jesus, may we hold onto a another most important truth.  We are to allow the Lord to wash our feet.

In the Gospel account we find that Peter was uncomfortable with having Jesus wash his feet.  Peter, who was somewhat of an activist, would have preferred to see himself doing the washing, washing the feet of Jesus, and even of the other disciples.  Sometimes it is harder to remain passive and allow someone else to bathe us than it is to bathe someone else. 

Peter’s image of God was more of a king rather than a humble servant.  He was imprisoned by his image of who God is.  Jesus was giving Peter a different image of God and saying the only way to stay close to Jesus was to let him wash you.

The Lord washes our feet in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of Reconciliation.   Sacramentally we are bathed in the mystery of God’s love for us.

In the mystery of the Church, we also stand in need of the love and the service of one another.  We are not meant to be alone.  We are to experience the mystery of God’s love in the love of others.  We need to allow ourselves to be loved and so experience the love of God.

  As Jesus said to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.  First, the Lord washes us clean so that we belong to the Lord.  Only then are we qualified and empowered to wash the feet of our sisters and brothers. When this truth dawned on Peter, he overcame his reluctance and cried out “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head.”  For this to happen all that the Lord needs from us is simply to be there, to present ourselves to him and to let him wash us.

The other side of the coin, which is equally important, is that after our feet have been washed by the Lord, we must go and wash the feet of others.  After Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, he said to them: “Do you know what I have done for you?  You call me Teacher and Lord – and rightly so, for that is what I am.  So, if I, your Lord and Master, wash your feet, you are to wash the feet of one another.  I have given you an example, what I have done, you are to do likewise.

On this holy night, we pledge once again to use our hands and feet for the work of forgiveness, for the work of loving each other.  We pledge to wash each other’s feet, to hand over our lives for each other for the sake of the world.  As we gather to celebrate the Eucharist on this Holy Night, we do this in the memory of the One who gave His life for us.