Holy Thursday

April 17, 2003

by Rev. Edward Correia

 

I would like to welcome you to this very sacred night and the beginning of our Triduum. This is the night that we celebrate the institution of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. I would like to welcome you Fr. Mick McCullough and Deacon Larry. Your living out of the Sacrament of Holy Orders with me has been a great source of joy and comfort. Thank you for what you do for me and what you do for the parish.

Tonight in Jewish homes throughout the world the youngest son will ask the Father, "Why is this night different from other nights?"

The father will then explain the wonderful event of the Jewish people being freed from slavery in Egypt and brought to the Promised Land. The Passover is not just retelling what happened thousands of years ago for the Jewish people. Passover is the experience of the Jewish people now.

Why is this night different from all other nights for us? We are not telling what happened hundreds of years ago in an upper room in Jerusalem, on a hill outside of the city and at an empty tomb. We are not re-enacting the event. We are entering into the power and mystery of that eternal event of Christ’s Passion Death and Resurrection in these next three days.

The Risen Christ is here with us in our gathering. He wants to draw us into this great life of who he is. He wants to draw us deeper into the life of baptism.

Many Catholic Christians are very content to do the things that Jesus did in his life. They are happy to imitate Jesus.

Tonight is the night of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the center of what it means to be a Catholic Christian. Without the Eucharist we would no longer be Catholic.

The Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ. When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we become what we receive. We become the Body of Christ!

We call our receiving the Body and Blood of Christ Holy Communion. We are in union with Jesus and all the members of the Church, the Body of Christ.

That is the only way that the washing of the feet tonight will make any sense. Even today washing the feet of another person is very humiliating, kind of ridiculous, and certainly very uncomfortable. That is why Jesus chose this example to teach us how to love one another. We are called to love as Jesus loved. We are called to be Christ and to reach out to others who are the Body of Christ.

As the city of Baghdad tries to recover from all the bombings and invasion, CNN showed a group Iraqi men speaking. One man had been a member of Sadam Hussein’s army. The man admitted that he joined the army so that he might get more money and give more to his family. In the presence of the TV cameras and that large group of men he confessed that he had done a lot of wrong things against his own people. He wanted to make up for them now.

What are the ways that we have to wash the feet of one another?

We are washing the feet of Christ.

Although it will be most difficult, are we willing to die on the cross for Christ and for His Body? The Risen Christ promises us a new resurrection.