Holy Thursday,Apri.1,10

Holy Thursday,10

One of America’s foremost spiritual writers, Thomas Merton, was not a Catholic in his youth. He had no religion. He led a very riotous life. While he was a student at Columbia University, N.Y., he passed by a Catholic Church once, and saw people going in and coming out of the church. Just for curiosity, he went in. He saw the Blessed Sacrament exposed and people, kneeling and praying. He did not understand anything at that time. But he went in and knelt there as others did. But then, he felt something different happening in his life. He was really touched by the grace of God. He felt changed and transformed. When he came out of the church, he wanted to know more about the Catholic faith. He met a Jesuit priest and that led to his conversion and later to his vocation as a priest in a Trappist monastery. His presence before the Eucharist changed the whole course of his life.

Today we are gathered here to celebrate the institution of the Eucharist and to commemorate the sacrifice of love that Jesus accomplished for us.

The Eucharist was instituted at the celebration of the Passover meal, the Jewish celebration of their liberation from Egypt. Jesus, during that Passover meal, changed the bread and wine into his body and blood.

He broke it and shared it in anticipation of the crucifixion that he would undergo. It became a meal as well a sacrifice for our sins.

It is not just a symbolic presence. It is a real presence. Jesus is really present in the Eucharist.

Our Lord wanted to be with us, forever. How consoling it is to know that the Lord of life is always with us. Even if there is no one to support and encourage us in our life, He will be there for us.

Others have come and offered their ideas, thoughts to their disciples to live by. Their advice was: “Take our ideas. Live by them.”

Jesus offered his life: “Take it .Eat it and drink it. This is my life. Live in me.”

In St. John, Jesus says, that He is the living bread that has come down from heaven and that those who eat it will have eternal life.

Some walked away thinking it was strange. He asked the apostles, “Would you go away?” “No”, they said: “You have the eternal life.”

Eucharistic participation should involve change in our lives. Our acts of worship should not consist in external symbols of rituals and traditions, of show and pomp but should involve a real transformation of the heart, a heart touched by the grace of God.

There should be an enactment of the Eucharistic celebration daily in our lives, transforming our selfishness, arrogance, and insensitivity into a life of forgiveness and caring. As our late Holy Father John Paul II said, “we have to return to the Upper Room to feel once again the overwhelming love of Jesus.”

Jesus washed the feet of his apostles to show them what it means to be a disciple of his: “To be at the service of the people, and not to be their masters.”

We are one body in Christ. When we participate in the Eucharist, we affirm our unity in faith and love.

Jesus did not choose thunder and lightning to become present in our midst, but the humble species of bread and wine. It is in the whisper of a comforting word to a colleague, in a kind word of encouragement to a struggling person, in the silent moments spent beside the bed of a sick person and in the love and care that we give to the elderly that we see Jesus becoming present.

Sadly, this Eucharistic transformation does not happen in our lives.

Look at the way the Christians deal with one another and others. There is no compassion or love. We harbor grudges and feelings of hatred, speak abusively about others and indulge even in acts of violence. Can we say that there is a spiritual transformation happening in our lives?

Jesus washed the feet of the apostles before he instituted the Eucharist. He was showing how necessary it was to serve one another if we carry His presence in our lives.

Today as we celebrate the this Great Feast of The Eucharist, let us make a deep resolve in the depths of our hearts to become transformed by the power of the love of Jesus and to reflect this love in our dealings with one another.