Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday
9 April 2020

On this holy night that begins the Sacred Triduum, the sacred three days that celebrate how Christ accomplished our salvation, the Church reflects on three principal mysteries from the Last Supper.  Our attention is drawn to our Blessed Lord’s example of humble charity.  Charity is love, and it is modeled for us in the washing of the apostles’ feet together with the Lord’s explicit command that our lives too must be marked by humble charity and service of others.  Our attention is drawn to the institution of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, that greatest, most august sacrament that makes present truly and really the Lord’s sacrifice for our salvation, the offering of the gift of his whole self.  Our attention is also drawn to the institution of the Sacrament of the Priestly Order.  We believe that our Lord’s command to the apostles, “Do this in memory of me,” conferred upon them a real authority from the Lord to continue his mission in this world through his Church.  If that command did not confer upon them the priestly office and authority then his words would be meaningless, rendering what the apostles would go on to do in his name little more than re-enactment or religious theatre.  But no, our faith tells us that the Lord in his divine love and mercy for us made his offering of self on this night at the Last Supper.  Having a love that knows no bounds, our Lord also established the way that his offering could be and would be made present in every time and place in this world.  With such a focus on the priesthood I am delighted to acknowledge here with us a few priests.  Of course, my assistant, Fr. Bali whose presence is a source of great blessing and comfort to our parish.  We welcome back Fr. Stanley who, together with seminarian Martin Parizek, is here to form a small choir to add beauty to this Mass.  A happy day of the priesthood to you, my brothers!  I am grateful to you Fr. Stanley and Martin for your initiative in providing chant at this Mass.

In the course of the Last Supper, gathered for the expected Passover meal, Jesus did something new in the presence of his apostles.  He fulfilled the Passover and transformed it to refer to himself.  At the Last Supper the Lord truly and really offered himself under the appearance of unleavened bread and wine.  And he did that in view of what he would accomplish the next day on the Cross.  Before he even died on the Cross Jesus offered himself at the Last Supper.  That can perhaps seem a bit mysterious to us, right?  What does it mean and how do we understand the Lord offering himself in Holy Communion at the Last Supper when in fact he had not yet died on the Cross?  Is there something inauthentic or, at worst, fraudulent and empty in that first Holy Communion at the Last Supper?  How can we understand what took place this evening so long ago?

I suggest to you there is nothing at all in conflict, or inauthentic, or hollow in the sacramental offering the Lord made of himself at the Last Supper.  And I think you know this already and you understand it in a different context.  So, let’s switch to that other context.

We have all been to weddings.  A couple who has grown in relationship, in trust, and in love for one another determines they desire to commit to one another permanently.  They desire to publicly express their love and to embark on a new mission as spouses who are called to make their love enfleshed and complete in sacrificial self-giving and in openness to the gift of children.  When you attend such a wedding and witness such a couple’s offering of their love to one another, is there anything unusual, inauthentic, or hollow in their offering in that moment at the wedding?  I bet you would say, “No, there isn’t.”  That newly married couple must still enflesh and consummate their vowed love later after forming their spousal relationship at the wedding.  But you easily recognize that simply because they have not yet consummated their vowed love there is nothing inauthentic or out of place or somehow less than true about their love when a couple exchanges their vows on their wedding day.  It is true and real and meaningful on that very day and in that very moment of the wedding when they profess: “I promise to be faithful to you, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life.”  The same can easily be understood then of the self-offering Jesus makes in his divine love at the Last Supper.  In the course of that meal, taking bread and wine, Jesus offered himself sacramentally, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.  He did so in view of what he would accomplish the following day on the Cross.  Yet by virtue of still awaiting the Cross, there was nothing inauthentic or hollow in that first Holy Communion received by the Apostles.  This is how we understand what the Lord did on this evening.

This evening is about the Lord’s offering of himself in sacramental form, a form that is so familiar to us as Catholics.  It would be easy for us to focus this year on what we are not “getting” or not “receiving” this evening, namely distribution of Holy Communion.  But I want to encourage you to not miss the opportunity that history and pandemic affords this Holy Thursday, an opportunity to re-orient our thoughts so that when we arrive at our longed-for return to normal, we will arrive changed and strengthened in faith.  St. Augustine, the son of our parish patroness, in a homily on St. John’s Gospel remarked on the type of expected return of favor when you are invited by someone to a dinner.  Reflecting upon St. John’s account of the Last Supper, St. Augustine remarked that at the Last Supper there follows a consequence for those who ate (cf. Tractate 84).  What Jesus was serving was not merely the type of fare you would find on an ordinary menu and certainly not at an ordinary Passover.  Rather, our Lord was serving divine love, a love that has nothing greater, because he was laying down his life.  Like the Apostles, if we receive and eat the offering of that love then the consequence is that we likewise must return the favor, so to speak.  In other words, as St. John writes elsewhere, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn. 3:16).  St. Augustine connects this consequence to what is found in the Book of Proverbs, “When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you;” knowing that you are bound to make similar preparations (cf. Proverbs 23:1, the text has difficulties and interpretations beyond the words often published in bibles).  Rather than focusing on what we are not receiving this year, and making Holy Thursday 2020 wasted on lament, might we focus on what we have received so very often before pandemic upended everything?  Might we focus that we have come to the sacred table of our great King – the altar – so many times to receive what is set before us and that the consequence for us is that we likewise are supposed to offer ourselves in imitation of the Lord?  St. Augustine refers to the words of St. Peter who highlights the same consequence: “Christ … suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Pt. 2:21).  If Jesus makes an offering that is the sacrifice of his life for us, and if we have received that offering in Holy Communion so many times, have we returned the favor?  Have we made similar preparations by offering ourselves for him?  Have we laid down our lives to be his disciples?  Have we laid down our tendency to sin and to choose our own plans?  Have we laid down our selfish focus on my time and my wants in order to hear and respond to the vocation God gives us?  Have we laid down our egos and pride in order to fufill the mission we have to be public witnesses to the Lord in this world?  Or do we hide our faith?  Do we take up our own pursuits?  Do we refuse to seriously address and change our sins?  In other words, have we eaten of this offering before // but not yet returned the favor?

As you are encouraged to accept the grace of a spiritual communion this Holy Thursday, perhaps the call to lay down our selfish pursuits and follow the example of the Lord can be our focus.  In other words, perhaps our focus this year can be more on what we ourselves are supposed to give and what we ourselves are supposed to offer, rather than on what we are not receiving this year.  In this way, like the Lord, may we embrace our crosses and be prepared to accomplish in our flesh the offering we speak and we desire by our presence at the sacrificial banquet of our great King and Eternal High Priest!