Holy Thursday
Today is Holy Thursday- the celebration of the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist as a central part of our Catholic faith. Jesus takes bread and wine and blesses it to become His Body and Blood. As His disciples, we are also called to become and be the Body of Christ in the world. How can we live out that reality in our daily lives?
In our readings today, the details of that final evening when Jesus and His disciples share their last meal together are presented as a final teaching of Jesus before His passion and death. In St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and shares it with His disciples as “His Body”. The gospel reading describes how Jesus washes the feet of His disciples and then instructs the disciples to “wash one another’s feet” (Jn 13:14) and follow his lead-“So that I have done for you, you should also do.” (Jn 13:15)
As disciples of Christ, we are called to follow Jesus by imitating Him in our thoughts, words and actions. How can we live out these teachings every day? Like Jesus, we can begin with a prayer of thanksgiving. We can wake up every morning and take our lives and the day ahead and give thanks to God for these blessings. We can then ask God for the grace to go forth and take the gifts we have been given to “break and share” them with others. When I reflect on the idea of being broken and given away, I am reminded that it is Jesus’ call to “wash one another’s feet” in service and love where we can put this teaching into action. Every time we make a decision to do something that chooses “other” over “self”, we are “breaking” our need to be first, in control, or regarded as better. In our lives, most of us can recall times when we did something that was not necessarily what we wanted to do, but we did it anyway, since we knew that it was a way to serve another and follow God’s will. In that doing, we break open the gifts and talents that we have received, and we share them in the world. In this selfless act of service and love, we become Christ to those we encounter.
As we reflect on the celebration of the Eucharist and the gift of the Body of Christ that we receive during the Mass, let us ask God to help us recognize the ways that we are being called to be “broken and shared” for others. May the outpouring of God’s Spirit and the participation in the celebration of the Eucharist provide the grace we need to be sent forth as the Body of Christ in our world.
—Marylynn Herchline