Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday.  One of my favorite days of the whole year.  Because it is at the Last Supper that we as Catholics receive two of the most important things we could possibly receive from Jesus Christ: The Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood.  First, the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith.  It is what separates us from any other faith, what makes us holy, what draws us into the heart of Christ.  When we receive the Eucharist, we are receiving, into our very being, the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord.  What an incredible gift.  God did not just send His Son to the world to be with the people who lived from 0-33 AD.  No, Christ gives us Himself, in a very real way, to be with His Church forever.  God is physically present in that thing that used to be just a piece of bread.  And God's love for us is so incredible that we get to RECEIVE HIM every day.  He truly wants to dwell within us and draw us into a deeper relationship with Him.  And that is why we need to treat the Eucharist with great reverence, because it is God.  It isn't just a piece of bread that we like to look at.  It is God.  And it is pure gift.  We don't deserve to receive Him, but we do.  And it is solely because God desires to be with us and transform our hearts in the Sacred Heart of His Son.  So often, people just go up and receive the Eucharist at Mass because it is the "thing to do."  But we must realize that we should be different after every time we go to Mass.  Because if you think about it in a very simple way, when you eat something, usually the food changes a bit and you change a bit.  For example, I had some pizza for lunch.  The pizza was converted into energy for my body, and I may gave gained a bit more body mass because of it.  But when we consume God, God doesn't change.  So we are the ones who have to do all of the changing.  God wants to change us, to give us new hearts, to draw us closer to Himself.  And this is all through the power of the Eucharist.  He is truly present and that is why we commemorate the Last Supper tonight   It is the night that Christ gave Himself to the Church for ever.          

The second thing we receive at the Last Supper is the Holy Priesthood.  And while I can rant for quite a while, I will focus on just one aspect of the priesthood: the call to humble service.  We hear in the Gospel that Christ got down on His knees and washed the feet of His apostles.  And while Peter at first rejected His service, he immediately let Christ wash his feet because he realized the gravity of what He was doing.  A master never served his followers.  That is just absurd.  That would be a complete contradiction of being a master.  But as we have already seen, Christ's kingdom is a complete contradiction of the idea of the world's kingdom.  Christ came to serve.  And He gives this commission to all, but in a very special way, He gives it to His Priests.  He tells them that they must do the same thing for the people that will become their followers.   You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am.  If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. - John 13:13-15.  Christ calls His priests to serve.  As the teachers and masters of their parish, they must learn that their leadership must be based on service.  At the Mass of the Last Supper, the priest gets down on his knees and washes the feet of 12 of his parishioners.  After renewing his priestly promises at the Chrism Mass earlier that week, he goes, in a very real way, to act upon those promises.  He washes the feet of his parishioners.  And while some may say "O, I don't want Father to wash my feet.  I don't need to be served" or "Everyone should wash people's feet, because everyone is called to serve," we need to be like Peter and accept this act of humble service.  Christ gave this command to His priests.  While this doesn't limit the call to service to just priests, it does, however, mean their their primary vocation is to serve the people of God.  And that is why the washing of the feet is so important in this Mass.  A priest publicly reminds his parish, and himself, why he is at that parish.  He is there to serve the people and, through his service, draw them closer to God.  A priest needs to be a man molded closely to Christ, specifically Christ the Servant.  And it is only through serving others that He fulfills the noble vocation of the Priesthood.              

I close with my favorite Eucharistic hymn, Pange Lingua, a hymn sung in honor of the Eucharist, as the Eucharist is moved from the tabernacle to the altar of repose for the rest of the night.  Written by St. Thomas Aquinas, it is one of the most beautiful hymns of praise in the Church.  Have a holy Triduum!