Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor
St. William Roman Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
April 13, 2006
Holy Thursday
Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed for he is clean all over. So you are clean but not all. For He knew who would betray Him. For this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
Please pick up your guide to the evening Mass of Our Lord’s Supper if you would. At every Mass, at every Sacrifice of the Mass, the Heavenly Host, the Heavenly Court is present. You can see in this picture on the front of your guide, the priest elevating the Consecrated Host. Above the Crucifix is God the Father and above God the Father and Jesus is the Holy Spirit, the Most Blessed Trinity.
At every Sacrifice of the Mass the Lord is given His due adoration and glory. This is why you see the angels at the top of that painting. There is a Heavenly Host crowding in and below them you can see some of the saints. You can see that on the right side of Jesus is St. Therese’, who is right behind the Blessed Mother. Just down to the right of St. Therese’ is St. John Vianney. On the left side you can see below the left hand of Jesus, St. Joseph and to his left is St. Paul the Apostle. Above St. Paul and to his left is St. Anthony, the Desert Father.
This of course is an artist’s rendering but shows us the Heavenly Court, which will give God praise at every single Mass. We forget their presence at every Mass because for so many of us, as time goes on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is nothing more than a “communal” meal or it is about us and the familiarity with the language. We have to admit that there have been many people who can appreciate the Mass because the Mass is in the vernacular. The downside of that is that anything we have in the vernacular can be more easily taken for granted. So, for many reasons Our Lord cannot be appreciated the way He should be in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Flip to the next page and you can see the beautiful simplicity of that lamb, which reverberates in that First Reading about the Passover Lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God. If you go to the very back page you see a depiction of the mystical winepress. Look above the Cross of Jesus and you see a large board and above that there is something that looks like a large screw. It is a screw because that is a winepress. The people around the Cross are the Apostles, who are filling their jars with wine. The winepress is squeezing out the vintage. Very much like what we hear in the Battle Hymn of the Republic,
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
Jesus is the grape that has been led to the winepress. There is no wine without the winepress just as there is no wheat without the death of the seed that is planted. On the inside page you can see a picture of Christ washing the feet of Simon Peter.
Today is the first of three installments and it really goes beyond the three installments into the great Feast of Easter. The Easter Season stretches out from Easter Sunday to Pentecost, which is fifty days after Easter. We are in a sense starting over. The Church in Her wisdom draws everything to a close with the death of the Savior and then everything begins again. The fire is lit on Holy Saturday night and from that fire, which is blessed, the Easter candle is lit and the Easter Vigil unfolds from that point.
In our work-a-day world, in our “get to it” or ‘get it over and done with and lets go” attitude, we see in these three days a tug at our hearts because the Lord has done something so profound that we pause, reflect, and meditate. In a sense we are carried forward by the events of Our Lord. As He leaves the table at the Last Supper, after having given His Apostles His Body and Blood as their food and drink, He goes out to the Mount of Olives. Again, olive oil doesn’t hop off the tree into a nice jar; it has to be pressed in an olive press. How fitting that Jesus would go to the Mount of Olives often to pray. The Mount of Olives is the scene of the beginning of His Passion. The Last Supper where Jesus gave us the Eucharist and the means to receive the Eucharist, He instituted the priesthood on this night.
Jesus gave us the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to sustain us until He comes to Judge the living and the dead. He gives us the Mass so that we may be fed every day. Every time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated, our redemption unfolds before our very eyes. Just as every Jew celebrated the Passover once a year after having left Egypt years and years before, every one of them understood that in the celebration of that Passover meal, every Jew was included, whoever had lived and whoever would live. Ever since God led them out of Egypt all of Israel was present at the Passover meal because they were present in the loins of their forefathers, as the Jews say, and that uninterrupted, the Jews would bare children and this would be to fulfill the promise that God made to Abraham. God promised to make him a great nation with children more numerous than stars in the Heaven or the sand on the shore of the sea. That promise was made after Abraham was ready to sacrifice his own son on Mount Mariah. God would not allow him to do that. The Jews understood that, in the Jewish tradition Mount Mariah is Jerusalem.
Our Lord, the very Son of God was allowed to lay down His life for his friends. Our Lord is the very Son of God. What God would not ask of Abraham God asks of His Son and on Mount Mariah in Jerusalem, He is sacrificed. The Sacrifice of Christ begins with this night, unfolding tomorrow in the Sacrifice on the Cross. What is given tonight is enacted again upon the Cross. Every time I have attended Mass in forty-six years of life on this earth, the Mystery of Calvary has been represented to me in an unbloody manner. So often I have heard people say that they can grow bored with the Mass. Sure, when the Mass is something overly familiar, when the Mass is something that I manufacture, then the Mass can easily become boring. But, that is not the Mass that our Catholic faith understands.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the proper name for the Mass, is our Lord Himself serving us. He is the Divine Prisoner. In the convent, little St. Therese’ was cleaning in the chapel one day and no one was around. She was near the Tabernacle so she tapped on the door of it. Of course, she was struck dead. Oh, I am sorry, that was someone else. She tapped on the door and said,
Jesus, are You in there?
This was her way of affirming that she knew that Our Lord so humbles Himself as to make Himself our Divine Prisoner. He has made Himself our slave.
“Well Father, this sounds good; prove it!”
Take a look at the last page of your booklet and you see Christ washing the feet of St. Peter. This is the position of a slave; the Master has taken the position of a slave and then He tells the Apostles who remain, Judas was on his way to the bank, that they must go and do likewise and wash each other’s feet. The mandate of Christ, who voluntarily lays down His life for His friends, wretched though we are. He expects us to go and do likewise in the priesthood, the home, the workplace and the classroom, with friends, relatives, and strangers; but just until we draw our last breath. This is a mandate that He has given to us verbally, which we heard in the Gospel. He has given it to us in his example of humility. Why in the world would He so humble Himself for us? He humbled Himself for us so that we will humble ourselves for others. This all takes a lot out of us.
It is a very difficult thing to be a disciple of Christ. It calls for much sacrifice. What is worse than being a Disciple of Christ? What is worse is not being a Disciple of Christ. What is worse than being in his service? What is worse is not being in his service. For someone Who has loved us so much, the response from us has to be love in return as well as sacrifice in return for His great Sacrifice.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was instituted at the Last Supper and so many Christians today believe that the institution of His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, His institution of the Eucharist, His institution of the Blessed Sacrament, His institution of Holy Communion was merely symbolic. The washing of the feet is not symbolic; He washed real feet just the way He expects priests to wash real children in the waters of Baptism or to wash clean in Confirmation those who are marred by sin. He expects us to go and do likewise. He did not symbolically wash their feet nor does He want us to be His symbolic Disciples.
Once there was a woman during the 60s here in the south and her name was Flannery O’Connor. Someone once told her that the Eucharist was a symbol and very quickly she responded,
Well, if it is just a symbol then to heck with it.
She didn’t say ‘heck” but something else. There are children present.
If you believe that the Eucharist, under the appearance of bread and wine are mere symbols then we worship idols, which would be the bread and wine. I came into the Sanctuary tonight with the Deacon and we bowed to the Altar. Normally we bend the knee in the presence of our Divine Lord reserved in the Tabernacle. The absence of the two lamps burning and these two lamps above and the door to the Tabernacle being open show that He is not there. His Presence is not in this Church tonight. He will come to us at the Mass, He will come to us at the Eucharistic prayer and will be in reserve for Holy Communion tomorrow. So His presence is not symbolic; it is a True and Real Presence.
If we say that His Presence is merely symbolic then we merely worship idols and we condemn ourselves. He gives us His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity because it is really hard living with people. It really is! We say things, we do things, we promise not to say or do them again and what do you know, we repeat the same kinds of things over and over again and people have to live with us. It is very hard to live alone; it is very hard either way you go, but He gives us His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity as an abiding Presence and we need to reflect every day on His abiding Presence that has not left us. People are waiting for the Second Coming with anticipation but His Real Presence is overlooked often. He has allowed Himself to be milled as wheat that is crushed to produce bread. He has allowed Himself to be placed in the Divine Winepress where He is Crucified and from His wounded side pours forth blood and water, the fruit of the Divine Grape, Jesus Christ.
Being here on the sideline tonight on Holy Thursday is a great honor for each one of us. It is very difficult being a Disciple of Christ. Too often we have fallen into the temptation of making up a whole set of rules that He never intended. The things we look at on TV or computers…you may think He doesn’t mind. Well, He does! There are the things we say to each other or omit…we know better. All of these things He has set before us and there is nothing greater than to serve Christ. Judas walked away from the Last Supper because he said what Satan said when He was created.
”Non serviam! I will not serve!
Despite what the unauthenticated Gospel of Judas, bag of lies says, Judas went out and hanged himself and was not a witness to the Resurrection! Jesus said that it would have been better if he, Judas, had never been born. It is the greatest thing to be in the service of Christ and this Sacrament, one which He gave to the church 2000 years ago on this night, gives us the energy to serve Him as well as our brothers and sisters; to go and do likewise.
You mothers and fathers know what I am talking about. The alarm rings at 5am and you drag yourselves out of bed and have that big smile on your faces, right? You are excited and think,
“Another day; another day to go to work! Great!”
[Laughter]
The baby starts to cry in the middle of the night and mom gets up and sweetly tells the child she will be right there. Then she drags herself out of bed and with a large smile walks over…. well, some people probably do! I am not that way in the early morning. How do you do it? How do you do it without the Blessed Sacrament? That is the question I have. There are people who are attempting this without the Real Presence of Christ. How does one manage to stay strong without being close to Christ; without making Him a Divine Prisoner in their soul?
When we take Jesus into our bodies, He passes through us and His grace enters our souls. Gottcha! He is a Divine Prisoner. We are so incredibly busy whirling in a million different directions we barely say a word to Him about the needs of our family and friends. We could say,
”Jesus I know You are a Divine Prisoner”
Or like St. Therese’ said,
Are You in there?
We should say this and ask everything of God the Father that we need. How can we do this? How is it possible to ask so much from God the Father? We have Jesus, His son as our “ hostage.”
He worked it out that way – God the Father’s Plan for our salvation. God the Father allowed His Son to fall into our hands on this night two thousand years ago so that we, like terrorists, could hold Him hostage and ask Him for all the good things we need for our lives, families, friends, nations and struggles if we have the sense to direct our attention to the Divine Prisoner now trapped somewhere in our souls. Jesus allowed Himself to be our Divine Prisoner. He poured Himself out for us and for our Salvation. His humility was complete – perfect – total submission to the Will of God the Father for us.
That is why our souls always need to be clean when we approach and receive Our Lord in Holy Communion. That is why regular Confession is at work cleaning out the cell for the Divine Prisoner. You may say you don’t like Confession, but then again, you are not the one who has to live in your soul do you? Jesus does! If we could only hear Him as He enters souls.
What kind of a dump is this?
It is not as if He hasn’t given us the means to clean out our souls; He has given us Confession. The very first gift that Christ gives to His Bride, the Church, on Easter Sunday is Confession. He breathed on them!
Receive the Holy Spirit. The sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven. The sins you hold bound, they are held bound.
The first gift that He gave to the Church on Easter Sunday morning was the power to forgive sins.
For our part, let us welcome this Divine Prisoner tonight and every day in the same way that these people seem to be so attentive on the cover of this booklet tonight in this artistic rendering, welcoming him so that we can be in his service and not turn on our heel and go out the door only to turn Jesus over for a trade as Judas did for the things of the world. There is nothing greater than to be in His service; let us affirm this everyday. Let us do it, not symbolically but actually, in the way we treat each other or strangers out of love for Him. Let us show our service to Him by carrying our crosses out of love for Him. He has given us everything and after being crushed there was no more He could give. He did indeed give us a Presence that will not go away; an abiding Presence that is still with us and is one we ache for when we are away from this abiding Presence.
Once we really get it and we give ourselves over to Christ, we want more. We want more and He needs more.
Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed; for he is clean all over. So you are clean but not all. For He knew who would betray Him. For this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen