Holy Thursday 5 April 2007

Kilcornan

This evening we celebrate what Jesus did at the Last Supper, ‘on the same night that he was betrayed’. The account of that night has been passed on from one generation of Christians to another. St Paul says: “This is what I received from the Lord and in turn passed on to you”.

The story is so familiar that it we could easily get so used to it that we fail to look at it with the wonder and amazement that it deserves. Jesus took bread and said, ‘this is my body’; he took a cup of wine and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood’. Then he said: “Do this as a memorial of me”. That is why we are here this evening. That is why generations of Christ’s followers have gathered to celebrate the Eucharist in the Church.

In his recent document on the Eucharist, Pope Benedict reflects on what Jesus did when he told us to celebrate his memorial in the Eucharist. In Christ’s death and resurrection all the hopes of all the generations of history were fulfilled. God began to gather his scattered children and to lead them as members of his family into his home.

When he tells us celebrate his memorial, he is doing more than telling us that we should repeat the events of the Last Supper. The remembrance of Jesus is not simply a repetition of a past event, the Last Supper. It draws us into something entirely new, “which renews history and the entire cosmos” ( SC 10 ). The Eucharist is not just a memorial which reminds us of a past event. It draws us into the offering of Jesus and into his passing over into a life beyond all weakness and fear and evil and death ( Cf. SC 11 ). He gives us the task of being the sign and the instrument of this gathering of God’s People into the new life that he entered by his death and resurrection ( Cf BENEDICT XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, [SC] 30 ) .

The world is being transformed from within by Christ’s death and resurrection present to us in the Eucharist. Pope Benedict likes to use the image of a nuclear chain reaction spreading through the universe, bringing not destruction but renewal:

… this is like inducing nuclear fission in the very heart of being - the victory of love over hatred, the victory of love over death. Only this intimate explosion of good conquering evil can then trigger off the series of transformations that little by little will change the world.

… The Body and Blood of Christ are given to us so that we ourselves will be transformed in our turn. God… is within us, and we are in him. His (energy) enters into us and then seeks to spread outwards to others until it fills the world… ( BENEDICT XVI, Homily at Marienfeld, World Youth Day 2005, cf also SC 11 ).

“Do this as a memorial of me” means that we are meant to be a sign and instrument of this transformation of the world. We remember him by being part what he began on Calvary – the victory of love over hatred and death. We are proclaiming his death, not just as a fact, but as the hour which introduced this new reality, and as the meaning of our own lives.

That is why he gives the Apostles another instruction to copy his example of washing his disciples’ feet. It is not a different instruction at all. It is telling us to behave with a love which goes beyond expectations which is not limited by our selfishness or even by what we think is expected of us.

The ancient chant, often sung on this day, sums it up:

Where charity and love are found, there is God.

The love of Christ has gathered us together into one. Let us rejoice and be glad in him.

Let us fear and love the living God and love each other from the depths of our heart.