THE PASSOVER OF THE LORD, WHAT THE LORD PASSED OVER.

Holy Thursday
Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper - B.

Readings: Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15.

A Congolese proverb says, “A leader is he who tells his people what they must hear, not what they want to hear.” And a Latin proverb adds, “Leadership is by example.”

We are opening today a very special moment, three days of great impact on our life of faith. We must mind our life, our unique real business with God. Distractions and temptations may come our way, we should be focused on the Lord who offers today his Passover. And besides, the goal of the Christian life is to find our glory in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. That is not only the central mystery of our faith but also the reason for our being. This evening, through the celebration of the Lord's Supper, we open the mysterious book of God's love. Actually, that book was opened since last Sunday's celebration but it reaches its epic from tonight.

Today's Mass is, first of all, a memorial. It is the memorial of the institution of the Holy Eucharist, that is of the memorial of the Lord's Passover, by which under sacramental signs of the bread and wine, he perpetuated among us the sacrifice of the New Law. It is a commandment to always renew the Holy celebration of the Eucharist as a Sacrament of service and love. For, it is the sacrament that opens to the Passion.

St. Paul in his address to the Galatians from where is taken our entrance antiphon says it clearly. As Christians, “We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered.” Cf. Gal 6: 14. We are therefore celebrating in this night the reason of all glory, the “Passover of the Lord”. This becomes a call for our own Passover. For, we are urged, exiting this celebration to walk in the footsteps of the Lord, expressed in this sentence: “do this in memorial of me.”

While the first and the second reading present both, different specificities of the Holy Eucharist, as bread for the road, the sacrifice of pilgrimage, and as a divine institution to be passed on from generations to generations and continual renewal of the sacrifice of Christ, the Gospel puts a strong emphasis on the dimension of service as an act of love. The Holy Eucharist is a sacramental sacrifice of love. The Lord's Supper is a banquet of himself offered out of love for his followers. And that is one of the greatest lessons we can draw from this night, what the Lord passed over to his followers: Leadership as service.

Something that calls more to my attention on Maundy Thursday is the act of humility and service Jesus gave as an example to his disciples, the washing of the feet. He says, “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” Before inviting us to perpetuate the instituted bread as a sacrament of his continual presence, the Lord exhorts us to perpetuate the service. We are invited to serve. And that does not break from the Eucharist which by itself is also par excellence, the sacrament of service and humility, for genuine love leads to serving. In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus, out of love humbles himself to feed us and make us strong enough to feed others in their needs.

The image of the washing of the feet should draw all our attention today and teach us leadership. The leader, in the vocabulary of Jesus, is not the one who must be served but the one ready and eager to serve. Leadership is by example: to lower oneself until the feet of others, take on ourselves their dirt and have them clean.

I like to see the image of priests and bishops who mimetically, tonight take in their hands the feet of selected people and wash them and some even kiss them. But, could we go farther than the mimetics. Would we be always ready to kneel, as leaders in front of our sheep and care for their need and clean them?

Unless we reach the understanding of authority as service and leadership as great responsibility toward others, our gestures of washing of the feet are just cinemas of one night. Sadly, true leadership is lonely today. Many people, politicians as well as community and church leaders as well, once in a position of authority fall into the trap of authoritarianism. They become leaders who think that all must pass through them, others must bend at their power and worship them. Jesus taught his disciples to lead by example, by serving. That is what he passed over to them and recommended to perpetuate. he did not institute them to dominate and subdue by the power of coercion but by the power of love. Position of authority, once it leads to oppression and subdues loses its humanity. The Pope would speak of the heartless clericalism, people who boast of their position. Let us never forget that we are in a position of authority because of others and that without them our authority or power serves as nothing.

A question to finish, as a leader, pastor, politician, will you be always ready to kneel and wash others’ feet? If not, do not do it on one cinematographic night.