Holy Thursday 2019

Post date: Apr 23, 2019 2:22:5 AM

Holy Thursday 2019 Homily by Fr. Joe Robinson, given by Fr. Karl Schray

A 5-year-old and his mother were on their way to McDonald’s

and on the way, they passed a car accident. The mother and son

would usually say a prayer for whoever might be hurt

whenever they passed an accident or saw an ambulance. The mother

pointed out the accident and said that they should say a prayer.

So, her son offered his prayer: “dear God,

please don’t let those cars block the entrance to McDonald’s.”

Eating is an important priority in most people’s lives.

We don’t like anything to get in the way when we are ready to eat.

For almost all of us, eating has become more than just a way to stay alive.

It is often a way to celebrate, a way to enjoy friends, a way to remember

important occasions, like a birthday or anniversary, a holy day or holiday.

God made the eating of a special meal a way for the Jews to

remember that he led them to freedom, made them his chosen people and

expected them to live lives of holiness.

Without special ways to remember, we can easily forget and

so, in our first reading we heard the story of how the Passover came about.

It was this celebration of remembrance that Jesus and his disciples

were commemorating at the Last Supper.

Then Jesus surprised his apostles by revealing a new way

in which God was about to extend his love to all people.

“This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

And “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”

What a shock it must have been for them.

Our second reading which describes this event, is very important

because it is the earliest description of the Eucharist that we have,

written 15 years before the first Gospel was written.

In our Gospel, we see there is one more thing Jesus asks of us—

not just our faith but also for our love for him and for one another.

“As I have washed your feet; you ought to wash one another’s feet.”

He who came to serve and not to be served,

asks us to serve one another in love.

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us

a lesson on food that applies to the Eucharist.

He says when we eat something, it is turned into who we are.

That bowl of spaghetti we ate has now become our human flesh and

muscle, brain and bone. It has become us.

However, when we receive Christ in the Eucharist,

we do not turn him into ourselves, but we become part of him;

we are raised up to share in his nature, to be more like him.

The more we feed on him, the more we become like him.

Amen, meaning: I believe, It is true.