“Do you realize what I have done for you?”
Have you ever noticed that often the most important things
of life are the things that take the most time to really sink in?
How many years I lived as a
baptized Christian, unaware of the meaning of that baptism. How many times did
I receive Holy Communion unaware of the gift God had given of Himself? How many
times had I gone to Confession and been offered forgiveness but not actually
realized it? Many times indeed.
After my ordination to the
priesthood, I distinctly remember sitting in the Adoration Chapel at Our Lady
of Mercy just staring at my hands. I would look at my hands and look at the
Eucharist, over and over again wondering ‘God, what did you do to me?’ I had
been preparing for years for ordination and understood intellectually the
meaning of every ritual action and the abilities and responsibilities of the
priest, but actually living it was different. Staring at my hands, I wondered
at how I was able to bless people and objects in the name of God Himself. How
my hands would be used to brings about forgiveness of sins, the Eucharistic
Presence, the Anointing of Sick, and much more. To this day I still find myself
from time to time staring at my hands wondering what God did to me on that day.
The Gospel we just heard told of
the Twelve sitting around the table of the Passover Meal with the Lord Jesus
and having Him come around to each of them to wash their feet. Doing so, He
tells them, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand
later.” As He performed this humble act of service to His chosen leaders of the
future Church, the disciples surely could not have expected what came next.
They couldn’t have expected the Lord to ordain them His priests. They couldn’t’
have expected Him to give them His Body and Blood, commissioning them to do
them same in the future. They couldn’t have expected the brutality their humble
shepherd would soon receive from their religious and secular leaders. They
didn’t understand, but later they would. It took time to grasp what the Lord
really did in their midst and it is true of us today.
So we come here each and every
year to this most Holy of Weeks and listen to the account once more, permitting
us not just to hear it but to enter into it. Tonight we sit around the table
with Jesus and receive the Eucharist as at that Blessed Night and watch the
Twelve have their feet washed once more by one acting in the Person of Christ
the Head. Tomorrow we will honor the Holy Cross and the death of Jesus for us.
Saturday we will wit in sacred silence anticipating the Resurrection and at the
Vigil will proclaim it with every light, bell, and voice in the house. We don’t
come expecting a new story. We come expecting to hear the same story, trusting
that our God wants to draw us deeper into it, helping us to understand better
the gifts we are to receive.
“Do you realize what I have done
for you?’
No comments:
Post a Comment