Homily for April 17, 2003
Year B - Cycle I
Holy Thursday
by Fr. John Carney
 Topic:  Being Christ to One Another
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Gospel Reading: 
John 13:1-15

"...So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, 'Do you realize what I have done for you?  You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am.  If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.'"

Have any of you been in the Upper Room of Jerusalem where this Gospel occurred?  It’s a fabulous place.  It has a long history and I haven’t read up on it recently, but to the best of my memory, it is a large building.  It’s right next to what is today the Church of Dormition where we celebrate the fact Our Lady went to sleep and left us; she was assumed into Heaven.  It’s very close to that church and it’s on the second floor, the Upper Room.  There is no more important place in the history of Christianity.  It is the place where several sacraments were instituted. 

Tonight we celebrate the institution of the Holy Eucharist.  Also tonight, we celebrate the institution of the Priesthood.  It was in that same Upper Room that we believe the apostles were hiding after Good Friday and the place where Jesus appeared to them.  It’s the place where they were hiding behind locked doors in fear, and then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  So it was the place where the Sacrament of Confirmation was instituted as well.  Then after he confirmed them with the Holy Spirit, tongues of fire touched them, then he gave them the power to forgive sins, so the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or of Penance, began all in this room.  From what I remember, there are some Moslem or Islamic writings on it from the time when Jerusalem fell to the hands of Islam.  Before the Crusades, they took it over and used it as a mosque.  That’s Jerusalem, still fighting away.  What I found really interesting was that on the bottom floor, a couple of hundred years ago, they discovered the tomb of King David.  It wasn’t known until relatively recently that King David was buried there and that these events occurred right above it with the Son of David.  Can you imagine?  If that’s not one of those tantalizing proofs, I’m not sure what it is. 

In any case, we’re here tonight as Jesus was gathered with his disciples, and we’re his disciples.  We’re here tonight as he gathers with us once again to celebrate this most holy night.  It’s interesting that as we celebrate the first Eucharist, or Holy Communion, that the Gospel used is not taken from Matthew, Mark or Luke, but from St. John and it’s about washing feet, not about taking bread, blessing it, giving it to His disciples and saying, “Take this and eat.”  That’s heard in the second reading from St. Paul.  The Church uses John’s gospel to celebrate the institution of the Eucharist with the washing of the feet.  There’s a point there.  The point is that the Eucharist entails service.  It’s not a private devotion.  It can be and it is, but it leads to something else.  The Eucharist is certainly the appearance of our Lord, and certainly it is good to adore the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, but the purpose of the Eucharist and what goes hand in hand with that is that we should serve each other.  To demonstrate that most dramatically, we not only use this Gospel for this night, but we actually dramatize the washing of the feet.  It’s the only time in the year when we dramatize a Gospel.  Again underline, exclamation point, bold font, the Eucharist is about service!  And we cannot separate the service the Eucharist calls us to from the Eucharist.  We can’t do it and be legitimate about receiving Holy Communion. 

In the old church, we had the Latin Mass and we used to say at the end, “Ite, Missa est.”  The people would respond, “Deo gratias.”  Now we say, “The Mass has ended”, and you all go, “Thanks be to God!”  Ite, Missa est means “Go, you are sent.”  You have eaten his body and drank his blood.  You have been enlightened by his word, now get out of here.  You are sent to leave this Church and change the world in which you live.  Starting where?  In your family.  It’s crazy to imaging receiving the Holy Eucharist and that same day, having a fight with your spouse.  Now I know that’s never happened to anyone present today.  It calls you to love; to wash each other’s feet.   A lot of times people have relationship troubles and they fight.  A lot of time couples come to see me…and I’m terrible at this - don’t come to see me with marital spats!  Sometimes, I don’t know, I hear both sides, and I don’t know who’s right so I just say, “One of you has to play the Christ.  It would be better, though, if both of you played the Christ.  Just get over it.  Forgive each other.  Wash each other’s feet.”   And that doesn’t mean a week from now saying, “I played the Christ.”  Someone has to play the Christ, and that’s what the Eucharist gives you the power to do.  It’s His grace and His power. 

Jesus couldn’t have been more clear about this teaching.  Remember when Peter denied him three times and when Jesus forgave him, what did he say?  He said, “Feed my sheep.  Tend my lambs.”  Jesus said, “Do you love me Peter?”  “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”  “Feed my sheep.  Do you love me Peter?”  “You know that I love you.”  “Tend my sheep.  Do you love me Peter?”  Peter was hurt because he was asked this three times.  Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.  If you love me, serve my brothers and sisters.”  So serve your brothers and sisters. 

To separate the Eucharist from service is wrong.  It is clearly against the teaching of Christ.  Jesus said it tonight in the Gospel.  “If I, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet.  I have given you a model to follow so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”  Is that clear?  That’s what the Eucharist is, that’s what Holy Communion is.  We do spend time adoring and worshiping the Lord in the Eucharist.  Fr. Ray has been visiting the chapel every day and he comes back and I say, “Anybody show up Ray?”  He says, “Yeah, they just keep coming.”  That gives you strength, but it’s not an end in itself.  It gives you strength and grace to go home and to love each other; to go to work. 

The second biggest complaint is about the boss.  Oh man, every other confession is, “I can’t get along with my boss.”  Jesus, on this night, washed their feet, fed them with his body and blood, and then died for them.  And he asks us to do the same, but he doesn’t ask us to die for each other, he asks us to live for each other…to live for each other by giving our lives, our time, our talents, and our treasures in service to one another.  Too often being a good Catholic has meant only going to church on Sunday, going to confession regularly, supporting the Church, but that’s not enough.  That’s where you get your strength from, but to be a good Catholic to be a good Christian, you’ve got to be a foot washer, and all of us could do better.

So tonight we celebrate the Holy Eucharist.  We believe that Jesus is really present in this Eucharist.  I met with some kids, nine-year-olds, getting ready for their first Holy Communion, and I tricked them all.  I said, “Now this is just a symbol.  This is just a symbol right?  It’s not really the body and blood right?”  And they usually go, “Yeah, just a symbol”, and I say, “Wrong!”  A couple of them said, “No Father.  It’s not a symbol.  It’s really his body and blood.”  And that ‘s what we believe.  He said, “Take and eat.”  He never said, “Take and understand.”  He said, “Take and eat.  This is my body…this is my blood.”  So we worship him in this sacrament, he feeds us in this sacrament.  He gives us strength in this sacrament.  Do you know how blessed we are to have this sacrament? 

Jesus said, “I’ll be with you always, even to the end of the world.”  I think that what he’s talking about is that table, that altar.  Do you know how blessed we are to have this Eucharist?  So we thank God for this gift tonight and we ask him to change us so that every one of us can play the Christ.  Or better, that the Christ in every one of us can lead our lives.  We ask this tonight, through Christ our Lord.