Homily for April
13, 2006 Liturgical
Year
B-Cycle II Holy Thursday By Fr. Joshua Nyoni
Topic: Serve one another + + +
Reading II
1 Cor 11:23-26 Brothers and
sisters:I received from
the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on
the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given
thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in
remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper,
saying, “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 death of the Lord until
he comes.
Gospel Jn
13:1-15
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass
from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he
loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of
Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully
aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that
he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from
supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it
around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to
wash the disciples( feet and dry them with the towel around his
waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you
going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am
doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter
said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter
said to him,“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as
well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except
to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are
clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason,
he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and
reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I
have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so,
for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed
your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you
should also do.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jesus
knew that his time had come for him to pass from this
world to the Father. The Gospel of John
puts it so well. He says: “He loved
those who were his own in the world, he loved them to the end.”
To demonstrate that love, to show that love,
what did he do? He instituted the
Eucharist. He instituted the
Priesthood. He gave us the commandment
of love. It is precisely tonight that we
celebrate these three mysteries: the Eucharist, the priesthood, and
that commandment
of love. I call it a mystery because I
think we’re trying to, like the married couple that tries to find the
other and
the other is also trying to find and so it’s all a mystery. Jesus
gave us the commandment of love
precisely today.
To
understand the institution of the Eucharist and the
Priesthood, we have to go to other Gospels.
We have to look at, for instance, the Gospel of Matthew 26 or
the Gospels
of Mark and Luke. However, all that
Jesus said in those Gospels, we find it being spelled out by Paul
himself in
the letter to the Corinthians today. He
says, “that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took
some
bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said “This
is my body which
is for you; do this as a memorial for me.”
He took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new
covenant in
my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this
as a memorial of me.”
St. Paul gives
us a summary of all that you will find in the other Gospels about the
institution of the Eucharist and the Priesthood. We
see clearly that Jesus gave us his body
and his blood: “Take this and eat. Take this cup
and drink.” In that manner, he
simultaneously instituted
the Priesthood: “Do this in memory of me.”
It
is interesting to note here that the Church uses the
Gospel of John to celebrate the institution of the Eucharist with the
washing
of the feet. Why is it like that we ask?
The reason is that the Eucharist itself, the Eucharist itself
entails
service; it is about service. The
Eucharist demonstrates that self-giving of Jesus Christ, giving himself
so that
he could suffer, he could die, and die for us.
For Jesus, the kind of love that binds Christians together, is
self-giving service, spending ourselves for the sake of others.
I
know you parents, you give yourselves, you spend
yourselves for your children. Now the
question is: Do they do the same? We
don’t know. Maybe. If
they do the same then that’s better. It is
right.
Just as Jesus’ life was “poured out,” he was
“broken.” Why was he
broken? Why did he pour himself out? It was for us.
Just
as Jesus was “poured out,” he was
“broken” for us, he invites us, he invites each one of us, to let our
lives be
“broken,” to “pour” our lives for others.
You
realize that after Jesus had washed the feet of his
disciples, he put what I would call. a very good question.
That question, I call it an action oriented
question. He put it this way: “Do you
understand what I have done to you? You
called me master and Lord and rightly so I am.
If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you
should wash
each other’s feet.” That question is not
a question we can answer right off with a few words.
It is a question whose answer requires, I
would put it this way, it requires a lifetime of self-giving, a
lifetime way of
loving, a lifetime of service. If we
do that, when we do that, we will be answering that action-oriented
question.
Now
what does Jesus want us to do? He
wants us to give ourselves to each other,
to serve one another. He wants to kneel.
To kneel before our brothers and sisters and get
ourselves dirty. Have we gone to that
extent? If you haven’t, you are a little
far from Jesus. I challenge you. Think about it. He
wants us to get our hands dirty for each
other. He wants us to be soiled by the
dust and the dirt of other people’s lives.
For instance: If our brother or
our sister is in a mess, and most of the time we are in a mess, you
know that
pretty well, eh? Yes, yes.
Are we ready to move out, to help our brother
or our sister out of that situation?
That is what you call service.
That is what you want others to do, to get our hands dirty.
This
is what it means to be a Eucharistic people. Just
as I said earlier, the Eucharist
entails service. It is about giving
ourselves. It is about serving each
other. It is about going out.
So by doing that we become a Eucharistic
people. We Catholics are very blessed
because we have the Eucharist. What a tremendous gift!
God among us! Not only that, but God coming
into us when we receive Communion. We
believe truly that at the consecration, Jesus is present. He is
there, right there for us.
We
believe in the real presence. Some
Christians don’t see it that way. It is
that real presence that God, that
Jesus, is present at the consecration.
It is that which gives us the energy, which gives us the
strength, to
enable us to see that God is present today in the institution of the
Eucharist
and of the Priesthood. As we get this
commandment of love, may it help us to pour our lives out for others.
In
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.