| Readings: |
Exodus 12:1-8,11-14 |
| Date: |
April 17, 2003, Holy Thursday |
Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet, wrote a very unusual cookbook called The Frugal Gourmet on Food and Theology: The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast. In it, Jeff, who is also an ordained Methodist minister, tells a story he learned from a shepherd about how the shedding of Christ’s blood saves us. It is not unusual during the birthing season for a shepherd to have a lamb be born stillborn or to die very soon after birth, and at the same time, have another mother sheep die while giving birth to a lamb that survives. Now it would seem like the simple solution would be to take the orphan lamb and give it to the mother sheep that lost her lamb for her to nurture. But a sheep will not take care of a lamb that is not her own. So what the shepherds have learned to do is to take the blood from the dead lamb and use it to wash the orphan lamb. Then the mother lamb smells her own, and takes the lamb and cares for it. The shepherds call this the blood of adoption.
Tonight we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. It is easy to think of this, then, as recalling the Last Supper, as if we were admiring DaVinci’s painting. But as Fr. Butler reminded us on Palm Sunday, the Triduum is not a pageant to watch from the sidelines, but a celebration that is meant to draw us all into participate. When we listen to the various accounts of the last supper, as related this year in the passion according to Mark and tomorrow night, of John, we realize that this was anything but the calm idyllic picture DaVinci painted. There was the confusion of the disciples in general about what was going on; there were the perplexing statement Jesus made about leaving them and going back to the Father; there was the tension surrounding the betrayal by Judas. In the midst of all this, Jesus is trying to convey one last time what his whole life has been about. He is trying to leave them with even the smallest understanding of what it means to repent and believe that the kingdom of God is at hand.
So before he tries to sooth their fears, or to explain that he is the vine and they are the branches, or to warn them that the world will hate them because of their connection to Jesus, or to tell them that he is sending an another advocate, or even before he makes that beautiful prayer for their protection and unity, he acts. He takes off his outer garment, and wraps a towel around his waist and gets down on his knees and washes their feet. Unless we read this part of John’s Gospel as a whole we miss the fact that he washes the feet of all twelve, including Judas. Only after he has given us an example of how we are to follow him, does Jesus announce that Judas will betray him.
So tonight we remember that last supper, the institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the sacramental priesthood, and the mandate to love one another by serving one another. But this is not a remembering that is just a recalling of what has happened in the past. The Greek word that we heard translated as remembrance in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians has strong implications of creative movement in it. As we listen to Paul’s letter, we hear the play on the words “hand over”. Our word tradition comes from the same root. We are celebrating the Eucharist as part of our handing over what we have been given. But if we are to hand over what Jesus commands us, then we must participate in it. Only those who have become the body and blood of Christ can truly hand this over to the next generation. Eucharist is one of the sacraments of initiation. We continually gather to celebrate this Eucharist because we are always in the process of becoming more fully the body and blood of Christ. The initiation is taking place on all kinds of levels: those who have gone before us in this journey handing it over to us; each of us trying to enter more fully into Jesus’ mandate; and our handing what we have been given over to the next generation.
Let us be drawn into this ongoing act of Christ’s paschal mystery. By participating in the washing of the feet, we indicate that, as Peter before us, we put away our feelings of false humility and let Christ serve us as he came to serve all. And then as we come forward to the table of the Eucharist and partake of the body and blood of Christ, let us see that this body is broken and this blood shed for the whole world. In this Eucharist we become more fully the Blood of Christ. When we leave the celebration tonight or at the end of the Triduum or any time we celebrate Eucharist, we go into the world to wash those we meet with this blood of adoption. And then smelling our own, we take them in and care for them.