Holy Thursday Joh 13,1-15

The Liturgy of Holy Thursday is not just about memories.
Jesus is alive. We believe and confess that not only in the Word of God but also in the Eucharist and the sacrament of the priesthood, Jesus shows us his love in a tangible way. Jesus desires that we show love to one another, and then Jesus lives and acts in us too.

When Jesus washed the feet of the apostles and Peter, John wrote about it: “I have given you an example that you also should do as I have done to you.” (Jn. 13:15).

On that evening, Jesus knows that his hour has come to depart from this world to the Father, and because he loved his own, “loved them to the uttermost” (Jn. 13:1), he does so and does what man would never think of doing. Jesus acts to the exhaustion of his divine and human capacities. In humility, Jesus’ divine greatness becomes visible. He not only washed the disciples’ feet but his crucifixion, his death on the cross; Jesus wanted to make present through the apostles and their successors, the priests, to all men until the end of time.
Jesus must go, but he will remain just the same. Jesus has chosen to undertake what will be both a mystery and a gift. The miracle that Jesus performs at the Last Supper is something unheard of: it is the sacraments of the priesthood and the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, under the species of bread and wine, Jesus remains as God among those who believe in his divinity. God Himself chose to make this gift to humanity. At the Last Supper, Jesus takes the bread in his hands, blesses it, and with an almighty gesture of God, breaks it and gives it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat: this is my body” (Mt 26:26). Then He takes the cup of wine in His hands, gives thanks, and gives it to the disciples, saying, “Drink from it, all of you: this is My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for all for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:27-28). “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19).
What does it mean to give someone your body and your blood? It means giving yourself to him whole with all he is and all he has. In this way, Jesus gives himself to the disciples so that they may always have him among them and love him. When Jesus offers Himself in the forms of bread and wine, He gives Himself to humanity until the end of time. It is the giving of Jesus as a gift to humanity. The Church’s command to Jesus, “do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19), has accepted its duty and power to make Jesus Christ present under the species of bread and wine. It is not only the remembrance of the supper with the disciples, the remembrance of Maundy Thursday, but under these manners, Jesus is wholly present until the moment when the forms of bread and wine cease to exist. Thus, under the ways of bread and wine, Jesus is present as God and as a man. We are also reminded of this because some of our brethren understand this command of the Lord Jesus to mean that it is only a remembrance or that Jesus is present only for a time.
We realize the greatness of God’s love in the Eucharist that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to be present with us always, even in this way. Jesus loves all people. He wants to be near and available to every person. Whoever comes to the Eucharistic Christ comes to the natural and authentic Jesus Christ. So he is present everywhere on our altars. This is how each one of us can personally encounter Jesus. This does not detract from the fact that we do not see Jesus with our eyes as the God-man, as the people of Palestine saw him until his ascension, and as we will see him face to face when we meet him at the end of our lives. We accept Jesus under ways as true God. He, God and Lord, is with us with his election; it is his desire. Jesus wishes it for each one of us to receive him, approach him, and live with him in this way.

Tonight’s liturgy brings before us the miracle of love. A new era of God’s relationship with human beings began at the Last Supper. In his humility and simplicity, God entered into another relationship with human beings, which would last until the world’s end. The gift of the Eucharist is God himself. When the priest pronounces over the bread and wine the words that Jesus pronounced in the Upper Room, the manner of the bread and wine cause the real presence of Christ among us, we can receive him after due preparation.

The priest narrates such an event. A little boy was sitting in church with his family. The priest at catechesis asks him, “Who do you like best in the world?” The boy thought for a moment. At the time, Grandma and Grandpa were also in church and were good to the boy, though he would point to them. The boy’s parents thought he would tell them because they were his parents. And meanwhile, the boy, about three years old, surprised everyone when he said: “I like my dog best.” The priest asks in surprise, “You like your dog best?” – “Yes, very much. So much,” and the boy spread his hands. The priest pointed to the wooden cross on which the Lord Jesus was hanging and asked, “Do you love your dog as much as this man’s arms are outstretched?” – “Yes. That’s how much I love him,” said the boy. The priest continued, “Imagine I have a magic wand in my hand, and if you love your dog so much, I will turn you into a dog. You will play together, talk together, live together…” Hearing this, the boy looks around and whispers to the priest, “I don’t love him that much. I don’t want to be a dog.” – “I have a better idea,” the priest continued. “I’d better turn you into a big bone for the dog. Then you could go inside your friend to get to know him better.”

The boy looked around in fright and ran to his father in the pew. Then the priest looked at the people in the church and said: “This may seem funny to you, but God did give us His Son.” (Cf. McKenna, B.: Jesus is my Savior. 

Jesus became one of us. He lived among us as the son of Joseph, the carpenter, just like any other human being. We crucified him. But he loved us so much that he did not leave us alone. He did what we remember tonight. He gave himself to us in the Eucharist. Would any of us like to become a wafer…? And yet, the Son of God made Himself lowly, so He made Himself easily accessible to each of us.

Let us approach the Eucharist and take and eat with such a renewed heart. Let us accept and eat so that more and more, with love, faith, and hope, we may receive what Jesus and only Jesus can give. This is a work of love, hidden by man’s senses under the ways of the signs devised by the loving Heart of Jesus Christ, which gives us his wisdom. This is what the Church teaches and does today, which thus offers a bridge by which we can pass from historical to eternal life, from pilgrims on this earth to participants in the glorified Church in the Kingdom of Jesus. Today’s liturgy reinforces in us the hope of living according to the will of Jesus Christ, who loved us even to death, to the point that by his will, he is truly present among us.

Let us not be afraid of questions tonight, and let us joyfully embrace what the Church teaches and reminds us today. Let us rejoice and give thanks for the gifts of Jesus God that we commemorate today.