My dear sisters and brothers, we gather together this evening in a liturgy of great solemnity and beauty to begin the Sacred Triduum. Sometimes when I go to Mass and rather than concelebrate I sit with the congregation; I look around at all the people who are there and wonder at the great variety of people I see. Do you ever do that? Because we see a wonderful variety of people: all ages of people, different nationalities, people who are well off, people who are not so well off and people who are somewhere in between. It’s very interesting.
My dear sisters and brothers, we gather together this evening in a liturgy of great solemnity and beauty to begin the Sacred Triduum. Sometimes when I go to Mass and rather than concelebrate I sit with the congregation; I look around at all the people who are there and wonder at the great variety of people I see. Do you ever do that? Because we see a wonderful variety of people: all ages of people, different nationalities, people who are well off, people who are not so well off and people who are somewhere in between. It’s very interesting. Maybe sometimes we wonder: “Who are we who come to church to be with one another in the presence of God?”
The answer is obviously a complex one. However the opening words of the Gospel for this evening’s Mass give us one very deep and reassuring answer to the question: “Who are we really, we Christians, we Catholics?” St. John the Evangelist writes:“Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
We know that John is speaking principally about the disciples who followed Jesus in his earthly ministry. But Jesus held in his heart as well all of those who would become his disciples throughout the ages. For at the Last Supper he prayed: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word…” We who follow Jesus in our lives, we who live out our faith in Jesus, we who gather here this evening are Jesus’ “own who are in the world” today.
When St. John wrote those words about the disciples: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end,” he was writing them also for all who have believed in Jesus throughout the ages. (Jn 17:20) Jesus loves us to the end as he loved his disciples to the end. So this evening we celebrate what the opening prayer of this Mass of the Lord’s Supper calls the Banquet of Jesus’ Love. The one we encounter during these Three Days of the Triduum is the Man of Love beyond all others.
Jesus is God’s love made present and tangible in human flesh. Jesus loved his Abba, his Father: Jesus and his Father are one in everything and Jesus did his Father’s will always, even to his death. Jesus loved his disciples, those who believed in him and trusted in him and followed him. He loved them to the very end. Jesus loves us, for we are his disciples in our world. We too believe not only what he taught us about life but we believe in Him who is our life. His love for us never ends and we trust him and we follow him, the Man of Love beyond all others. Jesus’ love reaches out and enfolds the entire world. (Jn6:51)You and I are caught up in that love, strengthened by that love and nourished by that love.
During the Last Supper Jesus performed an action that dramatically symbolized his love. Jesus assumes the status of a slave and humbly serves his disciples. Jesus empties himself of all dignity, gets down on his knees and washes the feet of his disciples. I don’t think that we can really understand the meaning of Jesus’death on the Cross or the meaning of the Eucharist he has given us unless we see it in the light of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.
Jean Vanier tells of the time a 16 year old young man was welcomed into the L’Arche home. He wrote:“Eric had lived for 12 years in the psychiatric hospital. He was blind, he was deaf, he couldn’t walk, and he couldn’t feed himself. He was a man with an immense amount of anguish — a man who wanted to die.”The community realized that, since he could neither see nor hear, the only way they could save Erick was to make him understand that he was loved. And the only way they could do that was through their hands. And so through hands that touched Eric with deep respect and tenderness he learned that he was loved and that he was beautiful.
In his talk, Jean Vanier then spoke of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. “When you talk with a whole group you don’t have that individual contact with each person. Jesus wants that contact with each one of these people. He wants to touch them — to touch their feet; to touch their bodies; to touch them with tenderness and love. Maybe to each one he says a word; maybe looks each one in the eye. There is a moment of communion.”(Zenit: ZE03041607 – 2003-04-16)
Jesus served his disciples by loving them, by pouring himself out for them, by giving of himself for them. And he did that totally. Having washed their feet, having touched them with his love, he would now die for them.
The way that Jesus loved his own to the end was to offer himself to God even to his last breath on the altar of the Cross for them. The Last Supper brings us into that offering. St. Paul gave us again the teaching on the Lord’s Supper. How Jesus took the bread, broke it and said, “This is my Body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”And he took the cup and said: “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 the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
What Jesus was to accomplish on the next day, Good Friday, he made present for his followers at the Last Supper. His body broken like the bread, his blood poured out like the wine into the cup, the giving of his life so that we might live, this divine act of love is made present in the Eucharist for us.
When we eat the bread and drink the cup we proclaim that death of Jesus until the end of time. When we eat that Bread from heaven and drink the cup of salvation, we enter into that supreme act of completely unselfish love lived out to the end on the cross. We become one with Jesus forever. Truly in the Eucharist we share in the Banquet of Jesus’ Love.
We cannot welcome love without responding in love. We cannot immerse ourselves in communion without giving something on our part. There is communion in the Body and Blood of Christ, where Jesus says “do this in memory of me.And as Jean Vanier said “But there is also this communion as he kneels at their feet. And later he will say “I have done this as an example for you. And what I have done to you, you must do one to another.”
We can leave this Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper filled with gratitude and love for what Jesus has done for us. We can leave this Mass with our lives made beautiful by the commitment to do to one another, in remembrance of this Man of Love beyond all others, what he has done to us. Thus we will draw from this great mystery of love, the fullness of love and life – the gift of God’s love to us.
