Holy Thursday - March 29, 2018 (Thoman)

March 29, 2018

Exodus 12:1-8 | I Cor 11:23-26 | Jn 13:1-15

I. One time when I was a kid, I recall a store in town was offering a special sale on
tables…

  • trade in your old table and get a new one at a reduced price; so my parents
    arranged for a new table
  • but I vividly recall the night before they were to deliver the new table, none
    of us wanted to get rid of that table – not even my parents! What was our
    problem?!
  • in retrospect, I now know what our hang up was….shared the day…talked,
    listened…disciplined…taught about family life…
  • this is where we took on our family identity. Our identity was formed
    around that table.

II. We, the Catholic Community, also gathers around a table

  • table of the word…here we listen….
  • table of the Eucharist
  • here, around this table, our Catholic identity is formed
  • identity is centered in the Eucharist – our belief in the Real Presence of Christ
  • St. Paul hands on this tradition….
  • bread and wine are presented – and they are transformed – into the Body
    and Blood of Christ: Christ is truly present here…
  • we also come to realize our family is more than the people here in this church…

III. We belong to a universal Church – a Church with Pope Francis as our shepherd,
a ministry he shares with priests and deacons around the world.

  • the Eucharist and priesthood are intimately connected; priests are ordained
    for the celebration of the Eucharist: their ministry links us to the Eucharist
    and back to Christ
  • our priests and deacons help to build our Catholic identity

IV. Here at the Eucharist we are taught we are stewards of our Catholic identity.

  • St. John doesn’t tell us about bread and wine at the Last Supper…he tells us
    about washing feet: a very dramatic event
  • we are to be men and women of service: not as a extra…not as something
    good to do – but because it is bound up with our identity
  • the 1971 World Synod of Bishops taught that justice is constitutive of the
    Church’s mission.
  • this theme has been brought forward with Pope Benedict nuancing it to
    “charity” is constitutive of love
  • just as we come to know God’s love for us, so then our response is love
    towards others
  • love is not an option, not an “add-on,” but essential to who we are as disciples
    of Jesus
  • this is what Jesus says this evening: as I have done for you, so you must do
    for one another

V. Our gospel ends with Jesus’ question: “Do you realize what I have just 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.”

Do you understand what I have just done for you?
Do we understand that our gathering together to share in the Eucharist
means that we are to go out and live that Eucharist?
Do we understand that as Jesus has done for us, so too must we do for one
another?
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Fr. Dwayne Thoman