Holy Thursday 2012
Holy Thursday 2012
People thrive on contact. We shake hands, embrace, give each other the occasional high-five or fist bump. The sense of touch is something that brings joy or pain, unity or division. Tonight, we hear that the Son of God, who loves us even to the end, touches us. We might even boldly claim that one of the reasons God become man was so that he could physically touch us. He desires not only to shape our minds and hearts, but our bodies as well.
St. John tells us that the Day before Passover, when Israel remembers its liberation from slavery in Egypt by the hand of God, Jesus gathers his disciples and does a very simple thing. He washes their feet. He performs in person what the touch of God is created to do. It reconnects us, heals us, forgives us, and makes us holy. One of his disciples, Peter, does want to be washed, but then allows it when Jesus tells him that it is the only way he can have communion with him. Judas Iscariot, another disciple, accepts the humble gift from the Lord but later returns to offer not the kiss of love, but of betrayal.
Since the beginning God has been offering us the freedom to love, to reach out and to touch, but we have responded many times by falling prey to the slavery of sin, to close ourselves inward and push others away. We tell Jesus we will follow him, but then we deny him. We call Jesus teacher, but then we betray him by our selfish sins.
Tonight, we remember the institution of two Sacraments of the Church: the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the Holy Eucharist. Jesus chose twelve men to be witnesses to his life and make present sacramentally his unending love for us. Through the laying on of hands, the priest becomes in the person of Christ one who is consecrated to touch others with the touch of Christ. He does this by absolving sins, anointing the sick, baptism and many other ways. Priests connect people to God and are sent to serve by loving those entrusted to them to the end. By their self-emptying love and service, they provide in Christ through the sacraments of the Church the path to holiness, knowledge and goodness. They grow in holiness through their prayer and their ministry of charity that the Lord has entrusted to them. They become the ones who carry out the unending sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the whole world.
It is from the priesthood of Christ that they pass on to us what they have received. It is not a memory, thought or philosophy, but the Body and Blood of a divine Person, Jesus Christ the Son of God. Through the sacrament of Holy Orders, priests are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit not to pass on themselves, but HIM. In Jesus’ own body and blood, God humbles himself to touch us through the Holy Eucharist. In the gift of his body and blood, Jesus Christ gives us the strength to walk the journey of faith, courage to be his witnesses to the Truth, healing from sin and peace in our hearts.
This encounter with God is truly a Holy Communion. It is a mysterious and wonderful way that Jesus gives himself completely even now. Everywhere the Mass is offered, sins are forgiven, peace is bestowed and healing brought about. Just as God touched Adam and made him a living being, so now God touches us by giving us his Body and Blood, so this night we share in this saving gift and be freed from sin and death.
Lord Jesus Christ, you offered Body and Blood that we may have an abundant life. As we receive this divine gift, cleanse our hearts and help us to reach out to you so that your touch will never be far from us and that we may share it in our love for each other. Amen.
