During the Passover,
a sacrificial lamb is offered and when Israel was to be delivered from the
bondage in Egypt, the people were told to smear the blood of the sacrificed
lamb on the lintel and doorposts. That way, the scourge of the angel of death
will pass over them. Tonight, the blood of Jesus will replace the blood of the
sacrificial lamb—His blood is poured out not just for a few but for the many.
Jesus is the new Moses. Instead of sending manna from heaven, Jesus is the true
Manna—He is the bread that will satisfy our deepest hunger.
The 5th
Luminous Mystery reminds us that Maundy Thursday is dedicated to the
Institution of the Eucharist. Interestingly, whilst the Gospel chosen this
evening is set within the Last Supper, we hear nothing of the Institution Narrative.
In its place, Jesus washes the feet of His disciples and He gives them the
commandment to love as He has loved them.
One of the points of convergence between the Passover and the Last Supper is the cloak of darkness. Both the house of the Jewish people on the night of the Passover and the Cenacle during the Last Supper provided shelter—albeit temporary shelters. They were not meant to remain there. The Jews escaped from Egypt whereas right after the Supper, Jesus left the security of the Cenacle and ventured into the darkness of the night. There He faced the forces of evil. This darkness is instructive for us today. Jesus was surely conscious of the betrayal that was set in place by Judas and yet He was not daunted. In the Garden and in the face of His destruction, Jesus was armed with no weapon except love. The love for His Father and the love for His disciples.
One of the points of convergence between the Passover and the Last Supper is the cloak of darkness. Both the house of the Jewish people on the night of the Passover and the Cenacle during the Last Supper provided shelter—albeit temporary shelters. They were not meant to remain there. The Jews escaped from Egypt whereas right after the Supper, Jesus left the security of the Cenacle and ventured into the darkness of the night. There He faced the forces of evil. This darkness is instructive for us today. Jesus was surely conscious of the betrayal that was set in place by Judas and yet He was not daunted. In the Garden and in the face of His destruction, Jesus was armed with no weapon except love. The love for His Father and the love for His disciples.
This love
put on the apron, stooped low and washed the feet of every one of His
disciples, including Judas. Since there is no Institution Narrative in the
Gospel today, this is the Eucharist at work. The same love of Jesus that washes
the disciples’ feet then goes out to enlighten the darkness.
Where there is darkness, light is all the more needed. I am reminded of the type of fire that gives light and heat. One is the candle. It burns and it gives out light, but it is vulnerable to the winds. A candle’s flame needs to be shielded from the buffeting wind. The other is the charcoal. We need an external fire to light a charcoal but once it is lit, the wind does not put it out. In fact, it glows when the wind blows. Love can be like the flame of a candle; it wavers and is easily put off. Or, love can be the flame glowing from within the charcoal. The stronger the resistance, the redder it glows.
Where there is darkness, light is all the more needed. I am reminded of the type of fire that gives light and heat. One is the candle. It burns and it gives out light, but it is vulnerable to the winds. A candle’s flame needs to be shielded from the buffeting wind. The other is the charcoal. We need an external fire to light a charcoal but once it is lit, the wind does not put it out. In fact, it glows when the wind blows. Love can be like the flame of a candle; it wavers and is easily put off. Or, love can be the flame glowing from within the charcoal. The stronger the resistance, the redder it glows.
The fiery charcoal
is a reminder of what Holy Thursday is about. Christ gave us a mandate through
the Eucharist. We love and our love is made stronger when we are fed with His
Body. This love is so strong that it must go out from the Church into the
darkness of the world to shed the Light of Christ. It is meant to meet with
resistance for with trials and tribulations, it grows even hotter. Sadly, many
of us flicker like the flame of a candle.
Today is
also called the birthday of the Priesthood. The is no Eucharist without the Priesthood
and there is no Priesthood without the Eucharist. Yet, this relationship between
the Eucharist and the Priesthood must be set within the context of the love and
the light that is shed by Christ. We are reminded often that there is a
sickness in the Church. It is called clericalism. It is often associated with a
particular bent of some priests, meaning that it is linked to those who like
bells and whistles. Those who wear the cassock or clerical garb. Those who are
liturgically correct and those who are conscious that they are hierarchy etc.
Well, the
emptiness of the Church just proved one thing about the priesthood. It is
useless when it does not serve. These days of the pandemic, this fact is definitely
staring so many priests in the face. We can play pretend with livestream Masses
but still what is a priest if he is only celebrating Mass for himself and one
helper?
The
Eucharist makes the Church means that the Priesthood confects the Eucharist for
the Church, that is, for the people—for the many. The Body of Christ which the
Holy Eucharist is, is needed as strength for the Body of Christ, which is the
Church. Service is the raison d’être of the Priesthood. It is essential
that there be priests, but this requirement is in view of Christ’s service of
His Body. Thus, it only makes sense for the priest to put on the apron, bend
low and to wash the feet of those whom he has been tasked to serve. Without the
people, the Priesthood is purely clericalism with or without bells and whistles,
clerical cassock or garb etc. Focussing on the anything other than service is
to miss the point of what the Priesthood is about.
Tonight, as
we enter into the Holy Triduum, perhaps, it is an invitation for priests to
truly embrace more fully and humbly the meaning of service. If the analogy of candle
and the charcoal have more to teach us, apart from light and glowing fire, it
is this: both candle and charcoal are useless unless they are burnt. It is only
by burning away that one is useful. Thus, service is the only reason for a
priest’s ordination. No greater love a man has than to lay down his life for
his friends. Here, it is to lay down one’s life, à la Christ, for the Church.
The word “unprecedented”
has been bandied around a lot these days in relation to the pandemic afflicting
us. A little contextualisation might be useful here as it reveals how
trivialising the word “unprecedented” can be. Covid-19 is contagious and can be
deadly. But it is not Ebola. It is not the plague. It is not polio. It is not
the Spanish flu. Let me state categorically that this is not a suicidal wish
that it should be like the mentioned pandemics. But, in the context of the
mandate that we have received from Christ on Holy Thursday, we must reflect on
the current situation which the Church finds herself in.
In her history,
the Church has experienced many a tyrannical government’s attempt to deny her
mission in the work of Christ’s salvation. Perhaps what is “unprecedented” is
the Church almost everywhere caving in to civil authority’s diktat that the
churches be closed and as a corollary, the sacraments be denied. Instead of
fulfilling her mandate from God Himself, the Church now defers to an authority
which should itself also be subjected to God but is often not. What makes our
decision so much more meaningless is that the MCO in place does not make proper
sense. The precautions taken by so many of the essential service are a mockery
to what it means to be “contactless”. Our collusion appears to send the message
that the Church is incapable of taking precautions whereas some “essential
services” are allowed to pay lip service to precautions. You will not get
Covid-19 from the supermarkets or banks or post offices but definitely when you
enter a church.[1]
Covid-19 has
uncovered our priority. Physical well-being has become the only essential
measure for life. Whereas the empty churches are testimonies of the uselessness
of the priesthood because its objective rests on a service while essential to
spiritual health is deemed superfluous to physical health. While it is true
that the birthday of the Priesthood is the birthday of the Church, it is also
true that the Church exists only because she is the instrument of God’s
salvation. Without the Church, how can Christ save the world? If there is anything
to learn on Maundy Thursday it is the necessity of the Priesthood and the
Eucharist for the salvation of the world. The emptiness of the churches is for
us to reflect what the Church is for. For now, the Church is useless and so is
God.
Sounds
depressing, I know but let me quote extensively from an unexpected source. Hulk
Hogan who tweeted recently, ‘In three short months, just like He did with
the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. God said, “You
want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadia. You want to worship
musicians, I will shut down civic centres. You want to worship actors, I will
shut down theatres. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and
collapse the stock market. You do not want to go to church and worship Me, I
will make it where you cannot go to church. If my people who are called by my
name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their
wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will
heal their land”. Maybe we do not need a vaccine. Maybe we need to take this
time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal
revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters:
Jesus’.
As empty and
depressing as the Triduum can be, we can enter into it with a spirit of
penitence. We acknowledge that the Priesthood is useless without God’s people
to serve. Our sin is great but greater is God’s love. We ask Him to take our
sins away and to deliver us from the wrath of judgement so that we may be
restored to His grace and mercy. We beg Him to heal us that we may once again
partake of the Eucharist in a church full of His people.
[1] The missionary gathering of another religion could
have taken the necessary precautionary measures to mitigate contagion. But they
did not. The point here is, if supermarkets et al, which is deemed an essential
service could take precautionary measures, so too can the Church or any other
religious bodies.
