Maundy Thursday/Holy Thursday/The Last Supper: Reading - John 13:1-15
(Last Supper: Jesus and his disciples)
Grace and peace to you my dear brothers and sisters,
Today we celebrate a very beautiful day of our Christian faith that is Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday. It’s a day when Jesus ate the last meal with his 12 disciples. It’s the day when Jesus celebrated the feast of Passover, commemorating the passing of Israelites from the clutches of Pharaoh of Egypt and passed though the red sea, thus saving themselves. It’s also the day when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples whom he loved so much and asked them to do the same to others.
On this day, Jesus instituted Eucharist, where he gave his own body and blood as food and drink and asked every one of us to do the same. The catechism of the Catholic Church says that the Eucharist is "the source and summit of Christian life.” The divine-human communion is realized in the person of Jesus Christ and as tangible evidence is seen in the Eucharist. Thus, through the eucharist we are called to be the Eucharist to others.
Even though, the Maundy Thursday gives us a lot of material to speak but we have to do the otherwise. We need to listen and see and finally touch and taste what is going on in that upper room as the reading of today John 13:1-15 speaks. We need to immerse our whole being to see and to open our mind and heart, imagination and senses. What is happening in the upper room with Jesus and other 12 apostles is an intimate experience of communion among themselves and the rest of the world. Before Jesus could institute the Eucharist by sharing the bread and wine with his disciples, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples as a symbol of service and equality. The Gospel puts it so touchingly John 13: 1, “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved to the end.”
Firstly, Love is the center of Jesus’ public ministry until the end. No one is excluded, no one is left out, everyone is part of God’s life, everyone has a significant place in the mission of Jesus Christ. Our hearts should experience this love of Christ as he washes the feet of his disciples, as he takes the bread and wine gives it others as his body and blood. This breath-taking event continues to take place in our world today when we do the works Jesus did, the kind of path he tread, the nature of truth and justice he preached and practiced. When we feed the hungry, cloth the naked, shelter the homeless we too partake Christ’s love centered public ministry of Jesus. A gracious God poured life and love incessantly on the Hebrew people, till at the end He had only His only Son to give.
Secondly, Eucharist becomes the source of faith and hope: The last Passover meal of Jesus with his loved one’s is an endless supper. This solemn ritual that we have been doing since the last of day of Jesus’s public ministry continues to do so until he comes again in glory, until the Parousia. This endless supper is the source of our faith.
The faith community is built upon this source and summit of our Christian existence. Jesus’ passionate desire to eat with his disciples Passover meal in the words of St Luke 22: 15 “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” continues to strengthen every Christian in his or her trials and temptations, in suffering and death, in passions and tribulations, in limited choices of life and hypocrisies of this world.
And especially, my dear brothers, sisters and dear children during this time of the great temptation of letting ourselves drawn by the fear of loss of job, food, education, finances, dreams and future, temptation to be desperate, ill health and death at the wake of Corona virus infection, Jesus, this Eucharist should be the source of our faith, source of our healing, source of our strength, source of joy and peace, source of courage, source of belief.
In fact, the Last Supper of Jesus is only the first supper! As “you eat this bread and drink this cup” St Paul insists in his first letter to the Corinthians chapter 11: 26 “you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” Each Eucharist boldly trumpets two tremendous truths: By his death Jesus gave us life, and this Jesus who died for us is the Lord, in Greek Kyrios. Therefore, let us hang on this Jesus and put our whole trust, faith and hope because he is the Lord, he is the master, he is our friend, he is our life and resurrection. He is the way, the truth and life. He is the way to the Father.
Thirdly: Celebrating the Eucharist is celebrating our life in Jesus’ ministry of priesthood. By our baptism we are called to partake in Jesus’ ministry of priestly, kingly and prophetic. Today we celebrate in a very special way priesthood of Jesus and all those who committed themselves in a particular way to this ministry. From our birth until we say good bye to this earthly life priestly ministry plays a vital role.
A priest is not for himself but for others. God is the center and focus of his life. A priest is chosen and blessed and broken are given to a whole little world for its life. He no longer belongs to himself. The profound meaning of our priesthood is that you are “given”, given to others for their life.
Finally, my dear friends, Eucharist is not a private party of anyone. Eucharistic meal makes sense only if it is linked to a passion, to redemption – our own and others. It bears fruit when we become Eucharist for the life of the world, when we become “really present” to someone’s Calvary, when we become people filled with Christ’s life that the eyes of the desperate light up with hope, the bellies of the starving are fed with bread, the hearts of the loveless beat with love, and if someone who has no reason for living discovers it in Christ. This is what I wish each one of you today. Amen.
- Olvin Veigas, SJ
Maundy Thursday (09 April 2020)
2 comments:
Thank you
Father your message for the day is very meaningful,Godly and down to earth.Inspired.
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