Passed Over to service

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to act on the many challenges from the Triduum celebration that begins with the Lord’s Supper tonight and continues uninterrupted through the Easter vigil celebration on Saturday evening.

Reminder to serve

The passage from the Book of Exodus prescribes the Passover Ritual.

 * [12:1–20] This section, which interrupts the narrative of the exodus, contains later legislation concerning the celebration of Passover.1

Psalm 116 responds to divine rescue from mortal danger.

 * [Psalm 116] A thanksgiving in which the psalmist responds to divine rescue from mortal danger (Ps 116:3–4) and from near despair (Ps 116:10–11) with vows and Temple sacrifices (Ps 116:13–14, 17–19). The Greek and Latin versions divide the Psalm into two parts: Ps 116:1–9 and Ps 116:10–19, corresponding to its two major divisions.2

The reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians shares the tradition of the Institution of the Eucharist.

* [11:23–25] This is the earliest written account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper in the New Testament. The narrative emphasizes Jesus’ action of self-giving (expressed in the words over the bread and the cup) and his double command to repeat his own action.3 

In the Gospel from John we witness Jesus washing of the disciples’ feet.

 * [13:5] The act of washing another’s feet was one that could not be required of the lowliest Jewish slave. It is an allusion to the humiliating death of the crucifixion.4

Tamora Whitney sees in the Gospel that even though he is teacher and master and God, Jesus still serves.

 But Jesus is turning things around. The greatest will be the least, and the least will be the greatest. He is the greatest, but he performs a very lowly, but very intimate act by washing the feet of his friends. And by this example, tells them what it means to “love each other as I loved you.”  They must serve, not stand above or apart. Not pontificate or set themselves up as authorities, but be there in the trenches with others. Jesus gave his body and blood, gave his life, and washed their feet. Rinsed their dirty, smelly, feet, then wiped them with a towel. Touched them. Jesus loved us by being born a baby, a human baby, growing up, healing people, helping people, knowing people. And then dying for us all. Through his life, through the Eucharist, through his death he showed his love for us in his intimacy, in becoming man, and in dying. We can show our love for him by showing our love for each other. We can heal people, help people, know people, and through that, know and love God.5

Don Schwager quotes “Christ chose to be a servant who offered himself for us,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

 "Even though the man Christ Jesus, in the form of God together with the Father with whom He is one God, accepts our sacrifice, nonetheless He has chosen in the form of a servant to be the sacrifice rather than accept it. Therefore, He is the priest Himself Who presents the offering, and He Himself is what is offered." (excerpt from City of God, 10,20) 6

The Word Among Us Meditation on John 13:1-15 invites us to look at the contrast. The apostles were arguing with each other at the Last Supper, while Jesus was on his knees washing their feet.

 He told them, “I have given you a model to follow” (John 13:15). He wants all of us to imitate him—especially in the area of offering love, forgiveness, and service. Just as there is no sin too large to be forgiven, there is no task too menial for us to do—especially if it’s in the service of someone in need. If Jesus is willing to humble himself and serve us in such a lowly task, we should do what we can for everyone around us. We should be willing to perform even the most unpleasant tasks for the glory of Jesus and the healing of his people.7

Gemma Simmonds CJ, Director of the Religious Life Institute and a lecturer in Pastoral Theology at Heythrop College, shares her Thinking Faith article “Let it begin with me.” Jesus understands peace to stem not from an absence of trouble, or a flight from the complexities of the world, but from sharing in the unbreakable union between himself and the Father.

 The Principle and Foundation of Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises tells us that this is the very ground of our being and the reason for which we were created.  Any move away from that union, experienced and expressed in intimacy both with God and with one another, will draw us inexorably away from our core purpose and into attitudes and patterns of thought, speech and behaviour that lead to conflict. The creation story in Genesis tells us that it’s in our DNA, as it were, to be in union with one another and with our fundamental context for living: the natural environment and our natural partners in life of every species, so prayer for peace begins with prayer to have healed within ourselves everything that brings us into disharmony with them.8

The Companions of Saint Anthony share a comment on the recent Notre Dame de Paris “miracle.”

Friar Jude Winkler links the experience of participating in the Passover in the Jewish tradition to the participation in the Eucharist by Christians. The horizontal dimension of the Eucharist is a revelation of divinity. God is the one who serves. Friar Jude recognizes the attitude of being vulnerable as modelled by Jesus as key to our growth in relationships of mutual service and love.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, invites us to consider the perspective of theologians Marcus Borg (1942-2015) and John Dominic Crossan (b. 1934), on Jesus’ death on the cross. They see it as the domination system’s “no” to Jesus (and God), as the defeat of the powers that rule this world by disclosing their moral bankruptcy, as revelation of the path of transformation [dying and rising], and as disclosure of the depth of God’s love for us.

 Mark tells us that Jesus was crucified between two “bandits.” The Greek word translated “bandits” is commonly used for guerilla fighters against Rome, who were either “terrorists” or “freedom fighters,” depending upon one’s point of view. Their presence in the story reminds us that crucifixion was used specifically for people who systematically refused to accept Roman imperial authority. Ordinary criminals were not crucified. Jesus is executed as a rebel against Rome between two other rebels against Rome. . . .
[When Jesus died,] “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Mark 15:38). As with the darkness from noon to 3 PM, this event is best understood symbolically and not as history remembered. . . .
To say. . . that the curtain was torn in two has a twofold meaning. On the one hand, it is a judgment upon the temple and the temple authorities . . . who colluded with imperial Rome to condemn Jesus to death. On the other hand, . . . [it] is to affirm that the execution of Jesus means that access to God is now open. This affirmation underlines Mark’s presentation of Jesus earlier in the gospel: Jesus mediated access to God apart from the temple and the domination system that it had come to represent in the first century.9

The transformation of our life by Jesus example of service, death and rising is the Triduum invitation.

References

1	(n.d.). Exodus, chapter 12 - usccb. Retrieved April 18, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/exodus/12
2	(n.d.). Psalms, chapter 116 - usccb. Retrieved April 18, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/116
3	(n.d.). 1 Corinthians, chapter 11 - usccb. Retrieved April 18, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians11:2
4	(n.d.). John 13:34 - usccb. Retrieved April 18, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/john13.htm
5	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections - OnlineMinistries - Creighton University. Retrieved April 18, 2019, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
6	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 18, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
7	(n.d.). Holy Thursday: Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper - Mass Readings .... Retrieved April 18, 2019, from https://wau.org/meditations/2019/04/18/
8	(2018, March 22). Let it begin with me | Thinking Faith: The online journal of the Jesuits .... Retrieved April 18, 2019, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/let-it-begin-me
9	(2019, April 7). Daily Meditations Archive: April 2019 - Center for Action and .... Retrieved April 18, 2019, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/page/2/