The great 4th Century bishop
and father of the Church, Saint Augustine,
in one of
his commentaries on the Sacred Scriptures,
directs our
attention to the Proverbs of Solomon
where there
is a verse that aids us in opening up
the meaning
of this evening’s sacred liturgy…
If you sit
down to eat at the table of a ruler,
observe
carefully what is set before you;
then
stretch out your hand,
knowing
that you must provide the same kind of meal yourself.
Our commemoration of the Lord’s
Supper is an annual reminder
of
the kind of Eucharistic life we are called to live as disciples of Jesus.
Jesus is the ruler of all creation,
the eternal priest and universal king.
As He did long ago in the upper
room,
He prepares
a table before us
and invites
us to join with Him in a banquet of intimate communion.
This is no ordinary table and no
ordinary ruler who extends to us the invitation.
It is the Altar of the Lord.
Augustine continues, saying,
What is this ruler’s table
if not the one at which we receive the body and blood
of Him who laid down His life for us?
This sacred banquet of the Holy Mass
is also the re-presentation of the
sacrifice of Calvary.
As the Last Supper anticipated the passion of the following
day,
so now our
Eucharistic memorial takes us back to the foot of the Cross.
The Cross stands forever as the great sign of the love of God
poured out upon our world.
In the Mass, we commune with the Lord.
We receive the same broken body and poured out blood
that was immolated for love of us on
the Cross.
In the Eucharist worthily received,
our hearts and souls are fused
together with the Heart of Jesus.
The Holy Mass is the source of grace to sustain the life of
the Church
and the summit
of all her teaching, pastoral and sacramental activity.
To taste a glimpse of the love and splendor we will
experience in Heaven,
we need only
to come to Mass.
This Eucharist is the pinnacle of all we do on earth.
And so, as we come to the table of our ruler
and the Altar of Sacrifice of our
great High Priest
let us follow the Proverb and
carefully observe what He has set before us.
Scriptures…
First Reading
Mass is the fulfillment of the Lord’s command
for the Passover to be celebrated as
a perpetual institution,
Where the Passover of old celebrated the deliverance of
Israel
from slavery in Egypt
now the Mass commemorates the freedom
of God’s people
from slavery to sin through the blood
of Jesus.
Christ is true Lamb of God, whose blood can truly and
completely take away sins.
Second Reading
Paul teaches that our celebration of the Mass
is a sharing in the tradition of the
Apostles
who heard the words of the Lord at
the Last Supper
and handed on the mysteries of the
Lord in obedience to His command.
Gospel
Hear the familiar story of Jesus stooping to wash the feet of
the disciples,
which we will
commemorate in ritual form here tonight.
Thus we can see clearly the two commands of the Lord on this
night:
“As I have
washed your feet, so you must do for one another.”
And, having
given them His Body and Blood,
“Do this in
memory of me.”
Having observed carefully what this night is about
and what the Lord has set before us,
again following Augustine’s words,
we stretch out our hands to prepare
such a meal ourselves.
At the end of tonight’s Mass, we will solemnly carry
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to the
place of repose
where we will spend time in adoration
until midnight.
We will obey His pleading to stay awake and keep watch with
Him.
Honoring Jesus Christ in the Eucharist by preparing ourselves
well
with observance of the Communion fast
and regular confession
for a worthy reception of His Body
and Blood
and by spending time in prayer with
our Lord
is the core of learning to prepare
the same kind of meal
the Lord prepared for us.
Our hearts having communed with the Lord in the Eucharist,
then,
we stretch out
our hands and lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters,
just as Jesus
laid down His life for us.
Christ left us an example, an example of self-sacrificing
love,
so that we
night follow in His footsteps.
That example includes the washing of the Apostles’ feet –
the Christian
must be always ready to stoop low, to get his hands dirty,
to serve without
counting the cost to oneself,
in order to
follow Christ’s example of loving service.
Recently, on the news, there was a story of a young man
who was touched by the sight of a
schoolmate who had no lunch.
He began to collect money from his friends in order to buy
lunch for him.
This got the boy thinking…his thinking blossomed into action…
by this month
he has raised $10,000 through different projects
to make sure
every child in his school always has a lunch.
That is the kind of spontaneous and dedicated service,
resulting from our being moved with
compassion for others,
that is the hallmark of a godly,
Christian life.
How often we pretend not to see, or see and ignore, the needs
of the marginalized.
To do so is to neglect the real meaning of the Eucharist –
a sacramental
encounter with Jesus that He gave us
to change us
from within into imitators of His love.
The Holy Eucharist is a communion with the Lord’s own life
and sacrifice
that prepares
and enlivens us to turn to those in need,
stretch out our hand and lay down our
life for them.
This is the Eucharistic life: honoring Christ
by reverently receiving Him in
Communion
and by serving Him in lifting up the
lowly and binding their wounds.
As Christians, we carefully observe all that is before us
tonight
and we commit ourselves to living
what we celebrate.
These are the Lord’s commands. This is the way to eternal life.
No comments:
Post a Comment