Holy Spirit Catholic Church
Homilies
Archive
Holy Thursday
April 9, 2009
At this Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper we recall and renew the first time Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Eucharist. We should be surprised, however, that our gospel reading tonight makes no mention of the Eucharist. Instead John's Gospel describes Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and telling them to do the same for each other. Strange, isn't it?
The Church is well aware of the absence of a gospel account of the changing of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus at the Last Supper. To assure us that there is no intention to ignore this fact, tonight the Church gives us in our Second Reading the very earliest account of that Last Supper by the apostle Paul.
Since this is the Year of Paul, it is fitting that we briefly reflect on these four short verses in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians: "I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night that he was handed over, took bread, and after he had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes."
Paul, in his context, situates the Last Supper in the setting of a serious problem of the Corinthian community. When the Christians of Corinth came together to celebrate the Eucharist, there were divisions in the community. Does that sound like our Catholic community in the U.S., in the world today? Paul describes the situation: "When you meet in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper, for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk."
The Corinthians celebrated the Eucharist on the occasion of a community meal, probably like our "pot-luck covered dish" meals today. Divisions arose when the better-off Christians brought abundant food and drink whereas the poor brought little or nothing. Some overindulged while others went hungry.
What kind of unity in a community is this? Paul has no praise for such obvious discrimination. The Eucharist is the sacrament, the sign, the celebration of the union of Jesus with his followers and their union with one another. Jesus' Last Supper prayer had been forgotten: "That they may be one, as we, Father, are, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one."
By placing the Last Supper in the setting of a community problem of disunity, Paul gives his readers a powerful reminder that the Eucharist is meant to create and promote unity in the community, especially between the wealthy and the poor, the well fed and the hungry, the haves and the have-nots, the conservatives and the liberals. All of this still applies today!
In a similar way, this is what John does when he situates the Last Supper in the setting of the washing of the disciples' feet as we just heard in the Gospel Reading. Jesus makes his lesson clear when he says, "If I, 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."
Both John in his Gospel and Paul in his Letter have given us a powerful lesson on the meaning of the Eucharist. We believe that when we receive the consecrated bread and wine of the Mass we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus. We also believe that we receive Jesus' clear mandate for unity and for service to each other.
The Eucharist, therefore, is not limited to our receiving Holy Communion. The Eucharist is the call of Jesus to live in unity and service to each other. The Eucharist prepares us, challenges us to feed the hungry and to serve others in all of the messy, foot-washing business of bringing the immense love of Jesus into our weary, divided, war-torn world.
When it comes to our family, our church, our country, our world are we trying to unify or divide? Satan is trying his hardest to divide and conquer. Don't doubt that for a minute! It is only through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, in the receiving of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, does the grace of God enter into us in order for us to become unifiers. This week President Obama announced to the world that the United States is not a Christian nation! I beg to differ. The time has come for Christians to stand together, to stand for God and His Truth! Only by the grace of God can our country and this world be saved!