Holy Thursday Mass homily 2011
Holy Thursday 2011
It seems that the one constant in the world is change. We know that all things in this world pass, and that this world is not our final destination, but a stop along the way. We are always looking for ways to improve things and make things better, faster and easier. We even have a word for that today- “Upgrade.”
Every couple of years we may get a new phone because it is faster and has better gadgets. We may try to get an upgrade when we travel from coach to first class, or even a better hotel room. Unfortunately, some people think that they can upgrade relationships. Some may try to upgrade to “better” friends or better spouses. Many are always in search of something better, smarter, prettier, but they are never satisfied. They are simply waiting for a new model.
If anyone ought to have seriously been considering an upgrade, it should have been God. This human model 1.0 is far from perfect. Human beings can be selfish, greedy, needy, ungrateful and even evil. But in the midst of this, John tells us that Jesus loves them to the end as they are. He loves Judas who betrayed him. He loves Peter who is constantly second-guessing him. He loves those apostles who fled when he was arrested. He loves those who nailed him to the cross.
This night which begins the Sacred Triduum is all about the love of God for his people. He does not just speak about love though. John puts the love of God into action in the action of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet. God’s love not only desires our happiness, but God also wishes to give us all that he can so that we can receive that love in true freedom of heart. Loving is the most exalted and humbling thing we can do. We can choose another and allow ourselves to be chosen. We can give to another and at the same time be vulnerable enough to receive what another person has to give us.
God shows the greatness and power of his love through the lowliness and humility of his action. God has created us in love and through the action of his Son chosen us to become his children. He has done this by humbling himself to take on our humanity and emptying himself, stripping himself of all pretense to cover himself with our sins.
In the presence of his disciples, Jesus Christ takes humble gifts of bread and wine and exalts them through his Words and the Holy Spirit to become his Body and Blood. That action that we recall is what we truly celebrate every time we gather for this Holy Sacrifice. It is not the desire of God to upgrade the human race, but rather sanctify it. He teaches us tonight how to be human beings and he gives us the grace now to carry it out. He teaches us tonight the true meaning of love. To love, one must strip themselves of all ego and pretense and present themselves as they are, sinners in need of the mercy of God, a lost race in the need of direction, people who feel unloved, yet seek the fullness of love. We do not need to upgrade to something new. In fact, we need to return to something very ancient- God so loved the world and he has given us his only Son, that we might be saved from death and experience life.
In this gift of the Holy Eucharist, Jesus gives us his Body broken on the cross, yet glorified in the resurrection to put us back together when life pulls us apart. He pours out his blood to make us clean and fill us with gifts of healing, peace, courage, and the ability to let his love become our love.
In a world that speaks of love as taking and possessing, Jesus teaches us in this Sacred action of the Eucharist that the core of being who we are created to be consists of giving and receiving, of loving and sacrificing, of thanking and serving God and one another. Let us thank the Lord for this gift of the Holy Eucharist and the priesthood. Let us allow the Lord to wash us so that we can be made holy. Let us spend some time with him tonight and know that he is not going to upgrade this gift, but rather fulfill it by doing he has promised to do for us, give us real life.
