Homily for Holy Thursday

Homily for Holy Thursday

April 18, 2019

Collect
Salesian Community, College Park, Md.

“Grant, we pray, that we may draw from so great a mystery, the fullness of charity and of life” (Collect). 

Our prayer this evening emphasizes the “new sacrifice” which Christ instituted at his last supper with the 12.  A “new sacrifice” implies a new priesthood, but the priestly aspect of this nite’s “great mystery” receives only that passing allusion and a mention in the preface.  What is emphasized is the Lord’s triple self-giving, his triple form of service to the Church, and thru the Church to all of humanity.  The 1st self-giving is “handing himself over to death.”  The 2d is giving himself in this “new sacrifice … the banquet of his love.”  The 3d self-giving is his example of humble service.

by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret

From the “great mystery” expressed in these forms of self-giving, we pray “that we may draw the fullness of charity and of life.”  That is, we pray that we may be fully conformed to our Lord Jesus, completing the divine work that began with our Baptism.  Our being conformed to Christ is God’s work.  We can’t effect it ourselves; we can only be open to divine grace, willing to “draw from the mystery,” from the Lord’s passion and resurrection, from the Eucharist.

What we aspire to draw from the mystery is a twofold conformity to Christ:  the fullness of charity and the fullness of life.

Jesus gives us the example of the fullness of charity thru his self-giving and his service.  He gives us his own body and blood, not only in the sacrifice he offered upon the cross for our redemption, but also in this “banquet of his love” whereby we share in his “new and eternal” sacrifice, whereby he becomes our food and nourishment, whereby he subtly, mysteriously, and ever so gradually transforms us into images of himself.

As images of him we don’t pose like icons on a wall.  We try to act as Jesus did—to be icons in action, if you will.  “What would Jesus do?” isn’t just a pious slogan but a plan of life.  If we don’t literally wash one another’s feet, there are countless ways every day in which we do so figuratively by how we serve others.  We speak of ourselves as “servants of the young,” and inasmuch as we live that ideal thru service directly to the young or to their parents, to school staff, to the poor, or to parishioners, we imitate Christ’s charity and we are conformed to his Person.

In this service we die to ourselves sometimes, “hand ourselves over to death” figuratively, thru availability for the mission:  in the classroom, in meetings, in planning, in school or parish functions, in sacramental ministry, in long and stressful days, in travel, in meeting province requirements, in accepting obediences, and more.

At home we practice humble service in ways that sometimes are noticed, sometimes not, which mark our care for one another and are imitations of Jesus’ footwashing:  shopping, washing dishes, writing minutes, preparing meals, setting the table, making calendars, tending to the chapel, taking out the trash, cleaning up the yard, caring for guests, etc.

By God’s grace, we’re doing a lot to be conformed to Christ in our self-giving and our humble service.  All of us have ways to grow more like our Master, as well.  We pray that thru the “great mystery” of the life, death, and resurrection of the Master we may be drawn ever more to “the fullness of his charity.”

We pray also to “be drawn to the fullness of life.”  We look to the eternal life promised in the Lord’s resurrection and in the Eucharist.  This faith and this hope fill us whenever we mourn the loss of a confrere, a relative, a collaborator like Rob Smith, or a friend.  This faith and this hope enable us to comfort others who mourn.  Most of all, however, we pray that our participation in the Eucharist may be life-giving for ourselves, may fill us with the life of our Risen Savior; may be an anticipation of “the banquet of his love” that he has set for us in our Father’s house.