April 9, 2020 Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday                                                       

“In the Face of Infidelity, A Response of Love”

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

This evening’s solemn liturgy gives us a window into the intimacy of the Upper Room, the Cenacle. What a mix of emotions in that room! Jesus had with him twelve men—weak, anxious, fearful, often perplexed, insecure and even ambitious. This very night all would flee leaving Jesus alone. One would betray him and another would deny him.
 
Jesus was aware of what would befall him and aware of shortcomings of his apostles. One writer expressed it this way: “Jesus had every right to be outraged and to overturn the table of the Last Supper soiled by betrayal and ingratitude.
 
But here is the awesome mystery we celebrate this evening: the heart of Jesus was not filled with anger but with an intense love and an infinite mercy. We see it in three actions of the Lord.
 
The first was to pronounce over bread and wine words that would transform them into his Body and Blood. He left to his Church his very self, the Holy Eucharist, the means by which Christ would remain with his Church until the end of time. It would be the source of the Church’s life.
 
Deacon Clarence Enzler, in his book My Other Self, reflects on the Eucharist and puts these words on the lips of Jesus:
 

"When you begin to understand the Eucharist...you will begin to comprehend the depths of my love for you. Look at the Host...a wafer of bread. Never were appearances so deceiving! The host is myself...healer of lepers, giver of sight...he who wept at Lazarus' grave, who asked drink of the Samaritan woman...who forgave the adulteress...the Teacher, the Savior...Can you think of a better way for me to give you spiritual sustenance? Do you not see the love that prompts your God...how zealously I work to bring you close to me? To give myself to you...I had to make myself unlike you. I hid myself under the likeness of common food because I did not want you to shrink from coming to me.
 
When I come to you in the Eucharist...I am in you! You are in me! In the Eucharist we become one flesh. You work not...alone, but I work in you. You serve others...not alone...I serve in you. You suffer, not...alone, but I suffer in you. You adore with me; you give thanks with me; you love with me; you live now, not yourself...but I live in you!"

 
The second act of love is Lord’s institution of the Holy Priesthood. When he commanded the apostles to “Do this in memory of me,” Jesus enabled them and every priest who would follow to act “in persona Christi,” to be a bridge ”to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men to bring pardon and hope.” [Lacordaire]
 
It was a gift, a ministry bestowed on men in spite of their foibles and sin. And so it is with every priest. A priest is an ordinary man called to an extraordinary task. Like everyone else he is himself in search for God and in need of redemption. Priests are earthen vessels, inadequate instruments. On this feast day of the priesthood, let us pray that the Lord will sustain in every priest a grateful awareness of the awesome gift he has received.
 
The Lord’s third act of love on this Holy Thursday was washing the feet of the apostles. This expresses that the entire life of Jesus was a “washing of feet” that is to say, one of humble service. For the apostles, it was a model for their priestly life. The one who would act “in persona Christi” must at the same time be the “Servus Christi.” From it, every disciple learns that true greatness lies not in worldly influence or the domination of others, but in humble service.
 
How great, how generous is the Lord who in the face of the betrayal, denial, and cowardice of his apostles, responds with infinite love, a love that is projected through time and space down to us. May we be ever grateful and worthy of it!