Holy Thursday

Jesus, the Christ, was a faithful Jew and so it is no surprise that he gathered together his disciples to celebrate the Passover as had been done for generations.

With careful preparation he gathered them and for the most part He followed the long adhered to rituals of telling the story of the Passover, discussing the story, drinking wine, eating matzah, partaking of symbolic foods, and reclining in celebration of freedom. What a surprise it must have been for all gathered when He raised the bread & wine saying THIS IS MY BODY & blood which was to be offered up within the next few hours. Then he asked them to do likewise in His memory. Do this to Remember Me.

How do you handle change ?

We become so used to doing things in a particular way that when that changes we become uncomfortable, cautious, even suspicious. We’ve always done it this way ! How wonderful it is to see Jesus leading the way by calling us to creatively interpreting our faith and greater fidelity. There is more than one way BE Faithful.

 -Maureen Condon, CSJ Associate

Holy Thursday

Today Christians of many faith traditions gather to begin the solemn celebrations of Holy Week – sometimes referred to as the Triduum.  It is the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Many of us who take part in this extended sacred feast, have parts we like and other parts we find difficult to move through - and even that may change for us from year to year.

Of course, the liturgies of these days focus on the Scriptural texts which are both historical and theological and spiritual.  We probably all know the flow of the historical events as recounted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  But these days are more than an historical remembering.  They have application and meaning today for each of us who try to understand how God is acting in us and in our world today. We need to understand that God’s action is still with us as we seek to respond to the woes and agonies of today.

“We need to understand that God’s action is still with us as we seek to respond to the woes and agonies of today.”

Today on Maundy Thursday many begin with a special supper, as Jesus and disciples did around the Seder supper.  I know that in my mind it is easy to slip into an “audience mentality” and watch the story unfold.  But much more is happening here.  I am being invited to see this story unfold with God’s eyes in my life and in our world today.  I am being invited to borrow God’s senses.  Therefore, this is not a forced experience, but a grace that is offered.  So God may offer us in some way, the capacity to see with God’s eyes, hear with God’s ears, and speak with God’s mouth, and love with God’s heart.

As we look around the world, and see the pain and suffering of so many, the deeper meaning is not to despair because of the pain and suffering and loss of so much, but to see it all with the eyes of love – the eyes of God.  This is a radical stance.  It is for me a grace and the invitation is to discover how God is inviting us to learn the meaning of hope.  As we remember together and ask to see this time with God’s eyes.

Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ

HOLY THURSDAY

“Behold a broken world we pray where want and war increase.”

At no other time have the opening lines of this hymn been so profound in meaning. (CBW 538)

I write this blog a few weeks ahead of April 14. I don’t know what the world situation will be on that day, but the particularity of today is concrete: bombings, death, homelessness, displaced children, beauty demolished, apologies being sought. With such a reality how might we approach the church’s liturgy and sing in the Pange Lingua: “Hail the Blood which, shed for sinners, did a broken world restore”, a broken world restore.”

We feast on unleavened bread and wine transformed to be for us total embodiment in Christ. We feast sometimes with wavering hope, wanting oh so much to be confident, that our broken world will be restored in the here and now. In the same liturgy we ritualize the humbling act of foot washing, knowing that we too are called to serve, called to engage in making our broken world whole again. But when O God . . . when? Lament and sorrow are so real. Is not the self-giving of Christ the vessel in which to hold the present moment? The One who is Love itself holding the world in the tragedy of the moment.

The Holy Thursday liturgy is the grounding place to move into the darkness of Good Friday and the silence of Holy Saturday. It invites us to be for others just as Christ: washing feet, sharing the gifts of the earth, seeking a better world where all races, genders, creeds are one. The liturgy teaches us ways of being, that weave the world community together.

“ It invites us to be for others just as Christ: washing feet, sharing the gifts of the earth, seeking a better world where all races, genders, creeds are one. The liturgy teaches us ways of being, that weave the world community together.”

Nations are welcoming, clothing, feeding those fleeing from the violence. Other nations are financing care. In the midst of the tragedy, I heard a Ukrainian woman challenge us not to forget the millions who are fleeing other violent, oppressive regimes. The human heart beats with every breath: love one another.

The hymn I first quoted ends this way:

Bring Lord, your better world to birth, . . . .  Where peace with God, and peace on earth and peace eternal reign.  (Hymn text by Timothy Dudley Smith, Catholic Book of Worship III #538)

At the end of the Holy Thursday liturgy, we pray together in deep silence, so too in this moment . . .

-Sister Loretta Manzara, csj