Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 24, 2016 -
[Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15]"For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes." [1 Cor.]
Holy Thursday is celebrated as the occasion when Jesus established the Eucharist - the sacrament of his Body and Blood. Additional eucharistic bread is "consecrated" to allow for the Good Friday celebration which is not a Mass. At the end of the Holy Thursday celebration there is a procession with the Blessed Sacrament to place it in a side altar or chapel until Holy Saturday. The emphasis is clearly on the continual "real presence" of Christ in the form of the bread. (Consecrated wine is not kept over.) Parishioners sign up for periods of adoration at the location.
However, there is another dimension of "real presence" which takes place at the same liturgy, and that is the "mandatum," (command) the washing of the feet. Pope Francis has recently changed the liturgical law that required the recipients of this gesture to be all male. (That law was widely ignored in the U.S.A.) In the Gospel of John, only this gesture is reported, and not the giving of the Body and Blood. Yet the two teachings are profoundly related. It amounts to "putting skin on" the Lord in two ways: in the form of bread and wine and the form of human mercy and love. We cannot deny either of those ways of "real presence."
I doubt that most folks who follow their neighbors in the pew to "receive communion" have the Exodus in mind or service to one's neighbor, but rather focus on receiving Jesus in the consecrated host (and wine where offered). But I am challenging one and all to broaden their understanding. The Eucharist unites us with the larger plan of God's salvation which is given to us in the Old Testament, as well as with Christ's physical presence in the Blessed Sacrament, and Christ's ministry of love and service in the Mandatum (the Washing of the Feet). We do this "in memory" of Jesus, but it's not about the past but the present and the future. I pray as many of the Beloved Congregation as possible can attend this service and experience all that the Lord has to give. Remember! He did this for us! AMEN
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