Dear brothers and sisters,
We have gathered here tonight, in this beautiful church of our Lady of Grace, as a community of faith, in communion with our brothers and sisters across the globe, to keep the memory, and make present God’s Love for us through His Beloved Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The church is alive and is visibly present whenever we come together as a family of faith in Jesus Christ, around the Altar of sacrifice. Our Lord Himself says, “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” Matthew 18:20. Therefore, the Church at prayer expresses the visible presence of Christ, the supreme intercessor and the link between God and man.
This gift of faith that we gladly profess and fearlessly defend as the standard of our moral life and spiritual life revolves around two very important features, namely, Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Sacred Scripture – the Word of God written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And Tradition – the teachings and the faith of the Apostles of Jesus Christ handed on generation after generation in the life of the Church. Sacred Scripture and Tradition go hand in hand. The life of the Church is informed and nourished by Sacred Scripture.
St. John the Apostle settles the argument with his convincing conclusion, “Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis” – “And the Word was made flesh and lived among us” John 1:14. If the Word does not become flesh, and if Jesus the incarnate Word does not give himself to us in form of bread and wine, then the Church’s Eucharistic celebration is empty – just a pious gathering between men, and not the actual concrete physical encounter with God. The mission and the purpose of the Church is to continue the life of Jesus Christ on earth. And by doing so, the Church continues the saving work of Christ. For this reason, Christ communicated himself, his whole life, to the Church. He himself is present in the Church.
Because Jesus Himself spoke and acted in this way, particularly during the last supper, only then could the Church repeat the same, over the bread and wine as Jesus Himself did on that night he was betrayed. The apostle Paul did not dare to change a single thing about what he received, he preserved it as it was and handed it on. His testimony is this, “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was handed over, took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink in remembrance of me.’” These most sacred words have been preserved and handed on as they were spoken by Christ himself. They form a very important part of our Eucharistic celebration. The Church not only repeats these words, but she does also what Christ did – takes bread, gives thanks, and breaks it.
Here was the institution of a new covenant with new arrangements for the celebration of Passover. Christ did not abolish the Jewish Passover, rather he fulfilled it in a new way that would become the standard for the keeping of the Passover in the life of the Church. If we look closely at the very first Passover celebration in Egypt, we can see its continuity and fulfillment in the Paschal mystery. In the Paschal mystery, Christ is the Lamb of God without blemish – John 1:29. Jesus Christ, after being arrested on the night of the last supper, he is crucified or slaughtered in the evening twilight of Good Friday, which was the designated time for slaughtering lambs for the Jewish Passover celebration. And Jesus the lamb of God is slaughtered in the presence of the whole assembly.
“This is my body that is given for you.” Christ’s whole life is given to you, he lives “for you”, he places himself completely at your service, even to the point of washing your feet. Here is a true lover who places himself at the full service of his beloved. A servant who “humbles himself taking the form of a slave and is obedient to the point of death” – Phil. 2:7-8. Christ then is our model, he teaches us what true service means – we live for others, not for ourselves. The reason we are social beings is that we depend on each other. Just like a mother’s destiny is to live “for the Child”, that is the only true freedom there is – to live for each other. Only then can we discover our true purpose and meaning in life. The holy priesthood then, is an extension of Christ’s sacrificial love to the end. Christ is priest and victim. A victim for our sins. When Christ chooses a man to be a priest, Christ wants to continue his sacrificial love through that man.
It is true that Christ’s action of washing the disciples’ feet also carries another meaning. He said to Peter, “unless I wash you, you have no inheritance with me.” This is a connection to our baptism which washes away our sin and makes us adopted children of God, sharers in Christ’s inheritance. Unless we are baptized into Christ’s death we have no share in his resurrection. It is also significant that it is Christ who makes us clean and fit for the Eucharistic celebration. Christ continues to prepare us to partake of the Eucharist by washing away our sins through the sacrament of Confession. And as Christ has forgiven us our sins, so we forgive others their sins against us. Washing each other’s feet means forgiving each other’s sins. Let us then, my brothers and sisters, follow this way of love that Christ has indicated to us in order to share His inheritance.
Amen
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