Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday 2024
28 March 2024

Ex. 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Jn. 13:1-15

  The season of Lent has now ended and the Sacred Pascal Triduum has begun with the start of this Mass.  The Gospel selection for this Holy Mass is taken from St. John’s unique account of the Last Supper, at which the Lord Jesus gives an extended Farewell Discourse.  Throughout that discourse it is clear that the apostles did not understand the full import of the Lord’s words, nor what he was doing.  We heard evidence of this in the passage where Jesus responds to Peter’s question by indicating “What I am doing you do not know now, but afterwards you will understand” (Jn. 13:7).  Later on in this passage we hear other words from Jesus, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward” (Jn. 13:36).  Still later in St. John’s final discourse, Thomas asks, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” (Jn. 14:5).  A final example of the lack of understanding on that first Holy Thursday evening: Philip says to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied” (Jn. 14:8).  The Lord responds, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip?” (Jn. 14:9).  Yes, throughout the Farewell Discourse is a contrast between the misunderstanding of the disciples in that present moment and a future time when they will understand what Jesus is saying and doing.

 The twofold sacramental significance of the Last Supper is that the Lord was establishing the apostles as his first priests and, at the same time, entrusting to them the duty to guard the Holy Eucharist, and giving them the sacred power to make that gift present in his Church for future generations.  The Lord was giving this charge to apostles whom he knew to be misunderstanding the significance of what he was doing for them, in them, and through them for the whole Church and the salvation of the world.  Knowledge of their misunderstanding apparently did not phase the Lord, for it did not stop him from doing what we celebrate this evening.  The future understanding would come as a gift of the promised Holy Spirit, sent from God and taking up dwelling in His Church.  For me, looking back over 25 years of ordained priesthood, I can sort of chuckle about these misunderstandings in the Gospel.  I chuckle because I am really chuckling about my own misunderstandings about what the Lord was doing the day I was ordained and given a share in that apostolic charge to guard the Holy Eucharist and to make it for the Church.  To be clear, that comment is not a claim that I have reached a moment of utmost clarity about the Lord’s workings.  No.  Rather, it is simply a comparative observation that the priest today can notice how much was misunderstood by the priest 25 years ago.  And I assume I will be able to say that in 25 more years should God grant me those years.  Indeed, the Gospel plays out again… In time and with growth we come to understand more of what the Lord does for us and in us.  The Holy Spirit helps us marvel at those gifts and helps us have a deeper understanding of these mysteries.

 But to have our misunderstandings clarified and to appreciate what the Lord does for us we have to get to know him and we have to let him do his work in us.  That means we must use our freedom to cooperate with him, to make ourselves available to him, and to beg the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds.  Peter hesitated about letting the Lord wash his feet, and even said, “You will never wash my feet.”  The Lord’s response taught Peter a distinction between bathing and washing (as we heard in the use of language in the passage).  We might consider that an image that serves as a distinction between baptism and confession.  For when Peter thought he might need more of himself bathed, Jesus said, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over.”  Bathing makes one clean.  An image of the bathing of baptism.  Yet, even the one who is clean needs his feet washed from the daily dust of life’s journey.  An image of the washing of confession.

 Let’s stick with that initial protest of Peter: “You will never wash my feet.”  Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”  In this spiritual interpretation of that exchange, we can understand that as the need to be washed in confession and restored there to our baptismal dignity.  Peter was apparently bathed.  He had no need to have more of himself bathed.  According to the Lord, he needed only his feet washed.  It is a model for us in our need to be healed, restored to baptismal dignity, and washed of the daily “dust”, the daily struggles, the daily sins.

 We the baptized have been bathed in the waters that make us clean all over.  Yet, like the apostles, we have misunderstandings.  We can suffer from hardened hearts.  We can refuse the Lord.  Our sins risk our inheritance with him.  As we pray this evening that the grace of the priesthood will be given to sons in your families, to sons of this parish, we know that our own misunderstandings cannot be relieved if we are not healed in confession.  We will be open to the Holy Spirit’s illumination to lift our misunderstandings and to heal our sins if we build our Eucharistic devotion, our devotion to this great gift given on this holy night.  Our resistance to prayer where that comes up in the busyness of our lives, resistance to uprooting sin, our resistance to coming to adoration in our chapel are ways we say to the Lord, “You will never wash my feet.”  We learn from the Gospel this evening, through the slowness and misunderstandings of those first priests, we learn of the ongoing need after being bathed in baptism, to encounter the Lord time and time again.  In the adoration of Holy Mass and worthy reception of Holy Communion, and in responding to the opportunity of adoration in our chapel, we go there to reveal our vulnerabilities and misunderstandings to the Lord.  He enlightens us and heals us.  He sends forth the Holy Spirit to transform us in any age and stage of our life.  By giving us his very self in the Holy Eucharist, through the hands of priests, the Lord holds out before us that inheritance that is the great hope of those who follow where he is going.