Maundy Thursday 2010
Faith tells us that these three days demonstrate the love of God for us.
Is there any way to capture what this means? Can we truly comprehend the Mystery we are celebrating? Obviously, that is beyond the capacity of any one human being. To grasp completely the meaning of God's love would be to grasp God Himself because, as St. John tells us, God is love.
These three days are so visible and so rich there is plenty for all regardless of quantity or capacity. The Holy Spirit moves strongly through these days. He instructs our hearts as we need and draws us into the many different aspects of each day. Trust Him to do precisely that. Rely on Him more than any reflection or words of wisdom you may hear. The love of God urges us on in this pilgrimage and is also our great reward.
Maundy Thursday
Tonight we celebrate the love of God in the privacy of the Upper Room. We do not have many accounts like we do today of Jesus and His disciples in such an intimate setting. We imagine the scene as a dimly lit room of friends celebrating the Passover. Their faith and friendship has brought them together. Even Judas, with his misguided reasons and failure to understand, is there. And in the Upper Room, we mark the institution of three essentials in the Christian faith.
The first is the establishment of the sacrament of the priesthood for the life of the church. In this Year of the Priest, it holds special significance. Even with the centuries of theology and reflection, we can say simply that Jesus entrusted this to friends who were not the most trustworthy. They were not bad; they were human. And in case no one has read the papers recently, they still are.
They were not worthy of it or even realized how they had been changed. They would spend the rest of their lives reflecting on it even as they, with a singular exception, gave their lives for it. They had become the chosen vessels of indescribable grace.
We often describe a good friend as someone who “we would put our lives into their hands." The bonds of friendship are so strong even if the skills are weak. Isn't this precisely what Jesus did tonight?
But what was entrusted to them was not for themselves. In the peaceful dimness of this night, Jesus instituted a second gift for the infant Church. In the remarkable gesture of washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus instituted the grace of holy service.
No longer would the good deeds of people trying to be good merely count to their credit. Instead, these good deeds became acts of worship. Jesus entrusted to His friends His own position of being the Son of God. And in doing so, He passed on by the power of His own example the extraordinary ability to be the answer to one another's prayers. Service to our neighbor now became a divine action.
And what does the servant ask? Only the opportunity to act like God. Jesus asks Peter to allow Him to wash his feet. The servant continues to plead for that opportunity. "Please permit me to help not because it makes me feel good but because it is who God has called me to be."
We see in the life of St. Jeanne Jugan that very same desire. We see her struggling to find the opportunities to serve even when ostensibly prevented from doing so. This holy service is natural among friends who do not count the cost or consider the reason. This holy service is made supernatural among the members of the Church who follow the example of One whose humility gave us everything even as He lost everything.
Human weakness sadly fails the high privilege of friendship. Familiarity is muted by distance and affection dampened by time. We're just not that good at being friends. Our first friendship in the Garden of Eden was with God and look what we did with that. Our second friendship was with one another. While we have no evidence of the ‘domestic tranquility’ of Adam and Eve, we know with Cain and Abel, family life didn't work out so well. And the examples could go on and on right up to our own histories of friendships past.
But God is faithful. Age after age "He made a covenant with us into the prophets taught us to hope for salvation." If we define friendship - as people do today -as ‘standing beside’ or ‘being there’ for each other, we have a third great Mystery of this evening.
Among the many aspects of the Eucharist, friendship is clearly tangible. The body and blood, soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ is in the Eucharist for us. The Friend who wouldn't leave us alone hasn't; the Friend who would always be there for us, is. "I no longer call you servants; I call you friends." No longer would these be only affectionate words or warm sentiments. It would be as real as the food we eat.
And even so, this would be the night when His friends would desert him. In silent shame, the Church recalls this all-too human part of friendship as we keep The Watch while others did not. And even though they -- and we -- easily fail the demands of so wondrous a love, Jesus does not.
A friendship without fault is a failure. Clearly, any fault does not lie with the Lord. He anticipated the humanity of His friends and loved them even so. Tonight, we celebrate the intimate grace of God so much greater than our capacity to receive it. We passionately claim the intimacy of this evening as we see the holy service we all share in, nourished by the heavenly food of God’s own presence, carried through the ages to the Ministry of the sacred priesthood. Tonight is our night. "I pray for them, not for the world, because they have known me.”
And by the grace of this evening, we also know what this friendship means.