Holy Thursday
April 21, 2011
To see the readings, click here:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/042111a.shtml
I can hardly believe that we are here, at Holy Thursday, the start of the Triduum!! The long Lenten journey is coming to an end, as we take the last few steps that lead us to Easter.
I always forget from one year to the next what amazing readings we get for Holy Thursday. Any one of the three would be fodder for a week of meditaitions, and on this day, we get them all together!
In the Old Testament reading we get the story of the Passover, still a central celebration of the faith of our Jewish brethren. I have been so blessed as to share a Seder meal with a Jewish family who are close friends of ours a few years ago, and I wish everyone could have that experience. It is no wonder that we see our later reading tying our faith to this observance, because it marks another time when God dramatically saved his people.
Then we have the second reading, in which Paul repeats the words of consecration, the words Jesus used as he instituted the Eucharist. It feels slightly unseemly to talk about a "favorite" sacrament, but let's just say the Eucharist has always been a sacrament that I feel I understand better than some, and for which I have a special appreciation. It seems to me that I can actually feel that real presence in me, strengthening and supporting me. I am so grateful that God chose this method of providing this grace, and that I am blessed to receive it regularly.
Finally, the Gospel reading is the beautiful story of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples and commissioning them to follow his example. Again, I have been blessed to participate in the ritual footwashing at a Holy Thursday service in the past. Even though it is just a symbolic foot washing, where one takes one shoe off and gets that foot washed by a priest or deacon, it is still very moving. I found that it felt very intimate, awkward, and not at all comfortable. Then to imagine that my foot wasn't just being pulled out of my clean leather dress shoe and washed, but coming out of a sandal, filthy with road dirt...being scrubbed, really, by Jesus himself. How humbling...and what an amazing example. And THEN Jesus actually says that we are to follow his example, making ourselves subserviant to each other just like this. There's a commandment I think makes us all fall short
I started to say that the theme that runs through all three of these beautiful readings, and the Psalm, is a picture of a God who loves us -- aggressively, passionately, demonstrably. And that is certainly true. But one other thing that just hit me is how all these beautiful images took place at the dinner table. There's this whole movement in youth work in our country to try to encourage more families to share a meal together every day, because they have found that families that eat a meal together are more communicative, the parents have more influence on their children's lives, and the kids are less susceptible to risk factors like drugs, teen sex, and violence. And here God was millenia ahead of us: he set some of his most important interactions, the stories his people would hear thorughout their lives, at the dinner table. He knew how to reach his people.
Father, thank you for pouring your love out on us again and again. Thank you for sparing the people of Israel at the Passover, and for using the Passover in Jesus' day to create the Eucharist and to set a perfect example of service. Touch our hearts and humble us that we might set aside our egos and willingly serve others, as you have taught. Lead us on these final steps of our Lenten journey and open our hearts so that we can share in the fullness of joy at your resurrection. Amen
