Holy Thurday: Mass of the Lord's Supper

Here is my Holy Thursday Homily.  If you would like to see the commercial that I refer to, click the following link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flThllGVZEw

Readings:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041714-evening-mass.cfm

          There's a TV commercial that you may have seen, unless of course you are one of those lucky people who have successfully disconnected yourself from watching any television.  This commercial talks about various companies and inventions and other innovations that all started out in garages.  As they list these they show various pictures and videos of garages.  I don't know enough about the history of these various innovations to know whether they are the actual garages where these events took place, but the images help set the tone of what they are trying to get at. 

          It starts out with a man's voice saying “The Write Brothers started in a garage”.  And they show a large garage with a windsock and an empty field.  The voice continues that “Amazon started in a garage” and we see a garage attached to a nice suburban home with a basketball hoop.  The voice continues to list how Hewlett-Packard, Disney, Mattel, and the musical group The Ramones all started in garages.  Their point, they explain, is that “You never know what kind of greatness can come out of an American garage”.  As the voice over says this, a brand new Cadillac pulls out of a rather futuristic looking garage.  Not only does the commercial try to play off of the viewers' patriotism by mentioning “America”, but they try to entice people to buy a Cadillac by suggesting that they too can share in greatness because this car came from a garage as well. 

          Whether or not you like Cadillac or agree with what they are saying in their commercial, the company is trying to play off a popular idea that small and humble beginnings can result in huge success.  This seems especially popular in this country as the media loves to talk about people who have a “Cinderella Story” or about people who go from rags to riches seemingly overnight.  It might not always turn out that way, but there are certainly plenty of examples of people or groups starting out small and growing into something big.

          Every year, in the evening of Holy Thursday, the Church celebrates the Mass of the Lord's Supper, commemorating the night of the Last Supper.  I had an opportunity a couple years ago to take a trip to the Holy Land.  One day the group I traveled with visited the “Upper Room” where this Last Supper took place.  Many artists have tried to depict this event.  Many of them, including the famous work by Leonardo da Vinci, make it appear as though this took place is a rather large room with beautiful view of the countryside in the background.  In reality the Upper Room is larger than a typical dinning room, but it isn't quite as spacious as Renaissance painters would have us believe.  If you do a search on the Internet for “the Upper Room in Jerusalem”, you can see what it looks like.  In my opinion, the look is not all that impressive.  Several Christian and Islamic groups had control the space at different times in history, so now it has an odd mix of different types of pillars and arches and architectural styles.  The color in the room is mainly gray, white, and brown except for a couple of blue and yellow stain-glass windows that are left over from when it was a mosque.  The room itself is nothing fancy to look at.  It's what happened in there that is really amazing. 

          Today, the Church encourages us to focus on three things about this day: The institution of the Eucharist; the institution of the Priesthood; and the call by Christ to brotherly love.  We remember that first point every time we come to Mass and the priest says aloud the words of Christ, “This is my Body … This is my Blood.”  Today the priesthood and call to brotherly love are added, making this truly a solemn day of celebration.  We remember how it all started from a simple room is the middle of the old city of Jerusalem.

          In looking deeper at the Institution of the Priesthood, we can consider it in a couple of different ways.  On one hand we can look at the starting of the Ministerial Priesthood.  Christ tells the Twelve Apostles to “Do this in memory of me”, commanding them to continue celebrating this most Holy Eucharist as a memorial of how He died for all of us.  So He establishes the Eucharist and the Priesthood to celebrate this sacrament on the same night.  On the other hand we can look at the starting to the priesthood of the baptized.  In a few minutes from now I will wash the feet of six individuals; just as Christ washed His Apostles' feet.  Christ said, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”  This was not directed only to the Apostles but to all of us.  We are to show an example of love by serving each other.  So a priesthood of all believers is established to continue Christ's work of showing God's love to the world. 

          No matter how you want to look at it, however, Christ established the Eucharist, the Priesthood, and the call to love and serve on the same night for a very good reason: all three work together.  There is no Eucharist without the Priesthood.  One could also add that there can be no Priesthood without love and a willingness to serve.  The Eucharist is about love; the love Christ has for us and as we receive the Eucharist from the priest, we learn to love. 

          The Eucharist, the Priesthood, and our call to love are some of greatest things about our Faith.  They weren't started is some dingy garage like an expensive car or a billion dollar company.  But they did all start is a single room in Palestine.  And they are still helping us to grow in holiness.  Let us not forget that we are truly called to love and serve for Christ.