[stephenkhoo]

05 April, 2012, Holy Thursday


THE EUCHARIST AS THE SOURCE OF RECONCILIATION, UNITY AND SERVICE

SCRIPTURE READINGS: EX 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 COR 11:23-26; JN 13:1-15

This evening’s gospel sums up the whole mission of Jesus. The text from John chapter 13 is the beginning of the Book of Glory. This preface to the Book of Glory (John 13-21) is very significant because we are celebrating the Hour of Jesus’ glory, which paradoxically is identified with His death on the cross! Hence, it is appropriate for us to reflect on the connection between the cross and the Eucharist; the cross and reconciliation with the Father and with each other.

How then does the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross reveal His Glory, and by so doing reveal the glory of the Father? It is the revelation of ultimate love. Throughout His life, Jesus’ purpose was to reveal to us the Father’s unconditional and forgiving love. He has done this through His preaching, in the way He welcomed sinners and forgave them their sins and most of all, through His healing miracles and works of deliverance. But perhaps, even after seeing all His works and hearing Him preach, we might still not understand the depth of His Father’s total and humble love for us. Otherwise, we would have been moved and responded to Jesus’ appeal to each of us to be reconciled with God and with each other.

Thus, the passion of Christ on the cross is the climax of this revelation of the Father’s merciful love for us all. In the symbolic act of the washing of the feet of His disciples, Jesus was anticipating His passion on the cross. He wants to show that He has not only always loved those in the world who were his own but that “he loved them to the very end.”

In His act of lowering Himself in the posture of a slave by washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus expressed the self-emptying love of Himself and that of His Father. Indeed, as what St Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, God stooped so low as to empty Himself of His divinity and assumed our humanity, and as if that was not enough, He became a slave for us and even suffered death on the cross. Such is the greatness of our God. And this greatness of our God paradoxically is not manifested in worldly glory and triumph and power but in humble service. Such love is rightly called the Sacrifice of Love.

Indeed, to love is to empty oneself for God and for others. Without emptying oneself, one cannot truly love. It would be a figment of our imagination to think that we can love without first emptying our ego, our preoccupations with our survival and vested interests. To love is to be freed from ourselves so that we can be free for others, so that they can have a place in our hearts. We call this an act of sacrifice for others. It is this availability for the other that love attains its true meaning. The Father, who emptied Himself of Jesus, His only Son and his priceless treasure, had emptied Himself completely for us at the death of His Son. The Son likewise behaved exactly like the Father in emptying Himself for us.

In this act of humble service, especially in His death on the cross, the Father and the Son mutually identified with each other. The Father showed Himself as unconditional love by not sparing His only Son; Christ showed Himself as the love of the Father by not sparing Himself in uniting Himself freely with the love of the Father for sinful humanity. Hence, the Father who is the source of Love, the Son who is His servant of love and the Spirit of love that binds them together even at the cross when Jesus was separated from His Father, manifest that God is truly Love in the fullest sense of the term. Thus, the lifting of Jesus on the cross reveals both the glory of the Father and the glory of Jesus. Anyone who contemplates on this cross will understand the depth of God’s love for us.

And the truth is that only the kind of love that is seen as a sacrifice can transform and reconcile us with each other. This is also brought out in the actual act of the washing of the feet itself. When the washing of feet is done with sincerity and love, in itself it washes away guilt, anger, resentment and truly every sin in our lives. That is why Jesus told Peter who refused to have his feet washed that “If I do not wash your feet you will no longer be my disciple.” That is to say that if Peter does not experience His unconditional, healing and forgiving love, he would not be able to find the strength to follow Him, especially in His passion on the cross.

It is clear therefore that the experience of God’s forgiveness and love in Jesus is the basis for discipleship and mission. Without this experience, we cannot find strength to humble ourselves and love like Jesus as a servant and even unto death, especially when we have to serve those who are ingrates, those who persecute us even when we do good. For unless we know that our master has gone through this journey Himself, dying not for His friends but for His enemies, then and only then can we find strength to reach out not to good people only but especially to sinners and our enemies who continue to slander and taunt us. Truly, until we have been loved and reconciled with God we cannot extend this same reconciliation and love to others.

This explains why Jesus, after washing the feet of His disciples commanded them saying, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and it is right that you do so, because that is what I am. I, your Lord and Teacher, have just washed your feet. You, then, should wash one another’s feet. I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you.” Of course, the obvious meaning is to literally wash each other’s feet. But the deeper meaning is to follow Him by serving each other with humility and without counting the cost even at the expense of one’s life. For only through humble love and service, can true communion be achieved.

However, besides love and service, it is an invitation to forgive each other as well. We are called to wash each other’s feet. To perform this act means that we are willing to forgive each other’s sins. It means that we must be humble enough to ask forgiveness for our sins and also to render forgiveness to those who have sinned against us. To do this in memory of Jesus therefore, is to continue to forgive and be forgiven because we are all sinners.

This act of service and forgiveness is most appropriately summed up in the celebration of the Eucharist. Hence, to do this in memory of Him is to celebrate the Eucharist with fervour and love. That is why Christians are called to celebrate the Eucharist, as St Paul tells us in the second reading.

If the celebration of the Eucharist is the summit of our faith and worship, it is because “every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” That is to say, by celebrating the Eucharist, we celebrate His death for us and also receive the same power and strength to celebrate His death in our daily life. This is possible only because His death on the cross 2000 years ago becomes present to us at every Eucharist we celebrate, due to the fact that Jesus now lives in the power of His resurrection.

In celebrating the Eucharist, we are reminded of His life, passion, death and resurrection. It is this contemplation of His sacrificial love for us on the Cross that will give us the strength to love like Him unto death and in turn make ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. As we contemplate on His love and mercy for us in the Eucharist, we cannot but be moved and be empowered to act accordingly. Hence, it is always the exhortation of the Church and all the Popes that the secret to a deeper relationship with the Lord, with each other, is to spend time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, for this where we are called to draw strength by basking ourselves in His love.

Yes, in just a few days’ time, we will renew our baptismal vow, which is yet another symbol of the washing of feet. That is why the washing of feet really is an invitation to die with Christ in His passion and to share in His resurrection. Let us consider whom we wish to ask forgiveness from and whom we should forgive as we celebrate this Passover. Let us also ask ourselves how we can concretely give ourselves more and more to God and His people whom we are called to serve. Finally, let us implore Jesus for the gift of forgiveness as we confess our sins and be liberated from all that bind us from giving ourselves to God and to others. Otherwise, Jesus would have died for us in vain.

To find strength to live out His death so that the resurrection can be ours, especially when our pride and selfishness prevent us from letting go, we should spend time to contemplate on the love and mercy of God in Jesus’ death on the cross, commemorated and made present in the Eucharist. We must intensify our fervour in adoring and loving the Lord in the Eucharist so that we can be inspired by His passion and His resurrection. In this way, we will always find strength and be moved to become like Jesus in the way He lived and loved. This strength comes from knowing that He loves us and always forgives us and that He is with us always.