As I have done to you

Homily for the Mass of the Lord's Supper

I have set you an example

My dear friends, we have begun the liturgy of the Easter Triduum. The liturgy we celebrate tonight is the first part of one liturgical celebration that will include not only our gathering with the disciples and Jesus in the Upper Room, but also with Mary and John at the foot of the cross on Good Friday.  This same liturgy will continue into the evening hours of Saturday to include the Easter Vigil, as we wait in faith for the celebration of the Resurrection.  All three of these moments are seen as one liturgical action; each of them draws its meaning from the other.

Our participation in this mystery allows us to be present across time, at the moment when God made a promise to his people, the Israelites. He instructed them then to slaughter a lamb and to use its blood to mark the houses where they live. Blood is messy stuff. It leaves an indelible mark on whatever it touches: once it stains, it’s not easily removed. The sign of blood was used to save the Israelites from God’s vengeance, and it was used as well as a sign of salvation for us when the blood of Jesus stained the wood of the cross.

Some who are here tonight might remember Bishop Fulton Sheen. He once described the Eucharist as the un-bloodied sacrifice. Ever since I read that description, I’ve always celebrated this evening liturgy of Holy Thursday with a different understanding. Bishop Sheen explained that Jesus knew that he was about to die, and he wanted to leave his disciples with a way to remember the sacrifice, not as moments of suffering, but as moments during which the ultimate gift of life was being handed over. When Jesus broke bread and shared the cup with his disciples in the Upper Room, he was giving them a way to enter into and commemorate the sacrifice that he would endure. Because we enter into that sacrifice each time we gather around this altar of sacrifice, we too receive the gifts of his body and blood, but Jesus didn’t stop with the gifts of bread and wine; he commanded his disciples to enact this gift in service to others.

The liturgy of Holy Thursday also includes the action of washing feet, just as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. This is not done so that we might ensure that all the dirt is removed from between our toes; it’s done as a symbolic reminder that if we are to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, we must be willing to serve as he did, even to the point of willingly performing even the most menial of tasks. If I your Lord and master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

The world around us is sorely in need of people who are willing to wash one another’s feet. Even though we may have the best of intentions, too often are the occasions when we become caught up in our own worlds, concerned with our own preoccupations, and neglect the needs of others. At times these calls for help are easily answered, requiring little of us, and sometimes they are more demanding. Jesus commands us to see each call as an opportunity to wash the feet of another. No task is too difficult for us to undertake, and no task should ever be beneath our dignity because every response of our God is born out of love, and he asks us only to do what he himself has first done for us.

The Eucharist that Jesus gives to his disciples is broken before it can be shared because he asks us to allow ourselves to be broken out of love for him and out of love for our brothers and sisters. Only the heart that is broken in love will know how to love as Jesus loves. Only the hands that allow themselves to be guided in love will know how to reach out in service to the poor, the neglected, the lonely and the marginalized. Only the soul that is nourished with the bread of life will be able to share this gift of life with souls who hunger for compassion, and only those who have tasted the blood of Christ’s sacrifice will know how to bind up the wounds of those who suffer the indignities of injustice.

I have set you an example, says the Lord, that you also should do as I have done to you.