HOLY THURSDAY
April 1, 2010Reflections on Exodus 12: 1-8, 11-14
I Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13: 1-15
by SisterPatricia Crowley, OSB
|
|
I. Introduction
We emerge today from the Lenten desert and the experience of exploring the value of emptiness in our lives.
Tonight we celebrate the fullness of blessing that is our human life in Christ. We grandly enter into this sacramental ritual that invites us to a deeper sense of the events we commemorate and into a more profound awareness of God’s presence in our world.
This is the night when Christians throughout the world gather to remember that simple things like bread and oil and wine and water can be bearers of divine grace.
This is the night we liturgically commemorate Jesus’ actions of taking bread, breaking it, blessing it and sharing it and of drinking wine from the blessing cup.
This is the night we recognize that it is we who embody Christ. We, the followers of Christ, are the body of Christ in the world today.
II. The Eucharist
As we enter more fully into the sacred mysteries of this Holy Week:
• We know that the body of Christ today, as Jesus’ physical body some two centuries ago, is scarred and bleeding. Our news media brings us photos of Haiti, Honduras, and the Sudan, let alone the images of children and young people killed in our own city by gunfire and in the countries with whom our nation is at war – this is the body of Christ today.
• We know that the body of Christ today, as the followers of Christ at that Last Supper table, is faced with internal struggles and has a deep awareness of harm done to those who are vulnerable.
• We know that the body of Christ today knows accusation, betrayal, desertion, isolation, and fear – just as Jesus did as a man.
This is the night when our rich remembering calls us to a broader and broader awareness of the Body of Christ celebrated today in this gathering.
In this sacramental ritual, we become the body of Christ. This is symbolized through the bread broken and through the blessing cup filled with wine. In this action our world can be transformed. In Christ’s body and blood, given for us, all humanity is given that power to be transformed.
This night is about what we do at this table, in this chapel, with this group of people, and it is about so much more.
III. Symbolic layers
Tonight we celebrate all of this and more. The rich layers of symbol and meaning unfold before us:
• The symbol of this meal is powerful as we recall the Exodus account of the first Passover and John’s account of the Last Supper, as we remember the meals Jesus’ shared with his friends during his lifetime on earth, as we think about the meals we have shared with others in our own lives etc.
• The power of story surrounding this feast is strong – the journey of the people through the sea and into the desert wandering, Jesus journey to Jerusalem, the disciples’ journey to grasp the meaning Jesus tried to explain to them, the journey of our own lives, both individually and as community.
• The amazing invitation to serve one another, to love one another in new ways is demonstrated in the story of Jesus washing the feet of his friends.
• The account of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and the disciples seeming ignorance of this reality astounds us until we become aware of the betrayal we each are responsible for in our inability to transform our world, our lives, our selves in the reality of this incarnate transformation of our lives.
IV. Conclusion
These are rich but they are only the backdrop. The high drama of this liturgy is not a show to be watched. It is a mystery to be lived.
Into this scene, wondrously packed with symbol and action and story, we come.
As Jesus in John’s gospel, we, too, are given the power to transform our world.
St. Augustine recognized this in the fourth century:
If you are his body and members of Christ, then, you will find set on the Lord’s table - your own life.
In that human life that is ours, each of us is called to transform the world in Christ
Close window