Homily for Holy Thursday 2006

We gather tonight in a special way with those preparing for Full communion on Saturday evening at the Vigil. We gather with special prayer in our hearts as well for the children in our midst some of whom just celebrated First Reconciliation and will soon be called to the Table of the Lord. We gather as a people who desire to "show" to these our newest and youngest members, who we are, and who we desire to be. So we act out the meaning of the Eucharist in the washing of feet.

Where is Jesus to be found? He is to be found washing his disciples feet! He is not to be found in the palaces of kings. He is found in the homes of the ordinary people. To imitate him washing feet as he has directed in the gospel tonight is not just about doing good deeds for someone. He took on the condition of a slave as St Paul said last week. But even more than a slave. He was not just debasing himself in a gesture of self disgust inviting people to walk all over him. His was a positive act of love for disciples who had shown all the faults and failings that we all know so well in ourselves. He does not ask permission to wash their feet. He must wash their feet. We share Peter's reluctance that our Lord would do such a thing.

Jesus says, however, that unless he does so the disciples can have no part with him! He was showing what kind of God we have amongst us. If God has such a deep reverence for us, how can we do anything less for each other if we claim to be Jesus' disciples?

I watched a documentary about James Nachtwey, a war photographer, on ABC last Sunday. He believed his job was to be involved, not to be a voyeur of other people's suffering. In one war zone he pleaded on his knees with a man with gun not to execute another. The lasting impression of the documentary that I was left with was that the photographs were an expression of compassion. They were not trying to make one feel guilty about the plight of others but to learn from their experience so that we might change.

I mention this just to ask the question again, “Where is Jesus to be found?” He is to be found wherever people are giving themselves in service to another.

To break bread with another is to be a companion. That is what “companion” means, “to break bread with” another. That is what Jesus did at the last Supper and at all his meals with disciples, tax collectors, and prostitutes alike. That is what he does with us. We are here not because we are perfect, far from it. We are here because Jesus, who knows our need, has invited us.

The Eucharist we celebrate is not an object we talk about. The Eucharist is an encounter with Christ in his self-sacrificing love. It is an encounter he longed to share with his disciples before he died. As such it is his last will and testament to his disciples. This encounter is his parting gift to us.

This sounds all too good to be true? God doing that for us! But what makes it difficult, very difficult, is that we have to go and do likewise. This is no easy love. Then, neither was it for Jesus. It led him to the cross.

Really, the only evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus is the life of the Body of Christ here and now. That resurrection is celebrated at every Eucharist and lived each day in the service we render to the world.

Now at the end of this Mass the Sacrament which remains, in which we have share is taken to a special place, the Eucharist Chapel, so that we might continue to be nourished on Good Friday. Then our liturgy engages us in a simple ritual. The altar and the whole sanctuary are stripped bare. With this solemn gesture, we ritualize what we as a community are doing to prepare for Good Friday. We strip our focus down to Jesus alone. All the signs and symbols are put aside. We are left with the taste of the Eucharist and the gratitude in our hearts. We leave in focused silence. We leave with the image of Jesus, as servant for us, our hearts ready to celebrate the mystery of his passion and death for us.

Fr Graham