Church of the Nativity

Good evening everyone, it’s Fr. Andy here at Nativity, bringing you my Holy Thursday Mass homily.  It assumes you have just read the readings, particularly the Gospel, John 13:1-15, but you should also have read Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 11:23-26, and supplementally the other 3 Gospel accounts and John Chapter 6.  Just kidding, kind of. Okay. Here we go. 

Well, for those of you that aren’t regulars at Nativity, you should know that I am just a baby priest, I have only been ordained for a little less than two years so I am considered a baby priest yet, and this was my first time being the main celebrant and preaching at this particular Mass. 

I had never noticed before that in the big red book which tells me everything I am supposed to do to celebrate Mass there is a little note which tells me what I am supposed to preach about on this particular day, Holy Thursday. It says: 

After the proclamation of the Gospel, the Priest gives a homily in which light is shed on the principal mysteries that are commemorated in this Mass, namely, the institution of the Holy Eucharist and of the priestly order, and the commandment of the Lord concerning fraternal charity. 

That is unusual that there would be a note telling the priests what to preach on, but it speaks to how important this day is, how important these aspects are, so the Church wants us to emphasize these three things.  

But that is fine with me because I love to preach about these three things since they are so important in my own life! 

So the first thing, the institution of the Holy Eucharist. We heard about that from Paul in our second reading, but interestingly, our Gospel seems to be silent about it.  

You might remember that in our four gospels, on the night of the last supper, three of them talk about the institution of the Eucharist, and the fourth, this one we just heard from John, focuses instead on the washing of the feet. 

Why is John seemingly silent here on the Eucharist, when the others put such an emphasis on it?  The reason is because John focused on the Eucharist on the Passover the year before, in John Chapter 6.   

At that time, in John 6 verse 55, Jesus said to his disciples, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” And then he said, “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 

So, in the Gospel of John, Jesus said this all the year before the last supper in order to prepare them.  Some of the disciples left Him at that point, but many of the others stayed, and these twelve Apostles got to be present on the night He began what he foreshadowed the year before. 

In that reading from Paul we heard, “the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” 

This command from Jesus, to “do this in remembrance of me” is why we celebrate the Eucharist at every Mass, but it isn’t just a command, it is a great gift from God that we get to receive His Body and Blood at every Mass, much like the gift of His very life. 

It was through His profound gift of self that Jesus came to enter the human experience, to know our joys and sorrows, and ultimately to suffer and die to save us from the effects of sin. We continue to receive that gift and to respond in kind when we meet Him, body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the Eucharist. 

This is the way that Jesus has chosen to be present to His disciples still today, and it is really the reason that I became a priest in order that I could consecrate the Eucharist for people, so they could encounter Jesus through this way He instituted, the way that He left for us to encounter Him.

And that brings me to the second thing that the Church wants me to talk about, the institution of the priestly order.  In a typical year, priests all over the world would renew their priestly promises today or at least sometime this week.  

This year, for us here in Dubuque, we are waiting until we can all get together again to renew our promises, but the reason we do that this week is because this was the night that Jesus instituted the priestly order. 

He knew he was about to die, so He gave the reins over to His apostles to carry on the mission and do the priestly tasks He had been doing, praying, preaching, healing, etc. 

Jesus, in His wisdom, gave the reins over to sinful men who would betray him and deny him that same night.  

Nevertheless, He washed their feet and gave them a model to follow, letting them know very clearly that their priesthood would not be one of special privilege and places of honor like the Pharisees, rather, their priesthood would be one of service and self-sacrifice, self-gift for the life of the world. 

For me, this often happens in little ways, for instance, on Tuesday night when it was warm out, I went outside and picked up a garbage bag full of litter out of the lot where our school used to sit.  That’s not very priestly, picking up trash, but just like the model Jesus left us, it needed to be done, and it isn’t beneath me to do. 

Another example, remember last year, on the coldest day of the year during that Polar Vortex?  I got a call from the Hospital in the middle of the night, so I went in to anoint someone in the emergency room.  

When I am comforting those who are dying, or comforting the family and friends after a death, I feel like I am living out the priesthood in a self-giving way. 

A final example, when we have scheduled confessions and I have to sit in the confessional for an hour or more, in that stuffy little box, it is totally worth it to hear someone’s confession and help them to be reconciled with God, and it is out of priestly, self-sacrificing love that I am able to do that, that all priests do that. 

That brings me to the third thing, the commandment of the Lord concerning fraternal charity. 

Fraternal charity is this ideal that we should serve each other out of our love for God and for our neighbor.  It was powerfully demonstrated here by Jesus towards His disciples in washing their feet. 

I still remember the first time a priest washed my feet, it was about ten years ago.  It wasn’t on Holy Thursday so it was a surprise of sorts. It was very humbling to have this priest, this man whom I really looked up to and respected, down on his knees washing my gross feet. 

It had to be even worse at the time of Jesus, they only wore sandals and the people shared the roads with the animals if you know what I mean, people’s feet were gross, and typically only the slaves would be tasked with washing their master’s feet. 

But perhaps even more powerful than seeing this act of fraternal charity on Holy Thursday was when I saw it done at a wedding.  The couple, in the middle of their wedding ceremony, in proper wedding attire, took turns washing each other's feet. 

It was shocking. It was beautiful. It was love. 

And it is still shocking and beautiful, even today, to hear about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, but we have to understand, if He was still here today, He would do that for us, that is why our priests still do it, well, most years, because they act in the person of Christ, they act out of love. 

That is the key, the most important thing, is the love that Jesus has for us, each one of us personally.  He loves us so much He will endure suffering and torture so that our sins will be forgiven. 

It is out of love that he gives us His body and blood for food in the Eucharist.  It is out of love that He gives us the priesthood to help us encounter Him. And it is out of love that He asks us to serve one another, even to the point of washing each other’s feet. 

So that is my message for Holy Thursday, hope you take it to heart.  You might remember at this Mass we would typically move the Blessed Sacrament to an Altar of repose to pray with Jesus like Jesus asked his apostles to go and pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane.   

It is interesting that Jesus’ first request to his new priests wasn’t to go and preach, or go and heal, it was to go and pray with Him, so that is my plan for this evening, and I hope that you will also take some time to pray this evening with Jesus.  May God bless you...