Holy Thursday reflection by José Enrique Galarreta

St. Ignatius Church - Mumbai

Holy Thursday

José Enrique Galarreta S.J.

 It is the final summary of John: “For this I came into the world”. The fact that the fourth Gospel omits the account of the bread and wine and puts in the place it should have had the washing of the feet, seems to me very important. It helps to understand better the intention of this evangelist: the words and deeds of Jesus were already widespread for perhaps twenty years. The fourth evangelist wants to lay stress on what is most meaningful, to bring out the meaning of and interpret theologically what Christians already knew. In the instance of the washing of the feet, it gives the deepest meaning of the Eucharist: to put oneself at the feet of all, to offer oneself totally, to be bread for all.

REFLECTION

  The celebration should be therefore focused on the farewell supper and on our supper. The tendency of the Christian faithful to reduce the sacraments to physical actions which should have the power to produce effects of themselves, “by their own power”, and for the individual’s benefit, is really worrying. In the Eucharist we hardly lay stress on the gathering, on prayer, on forgiveness, on the meeting with the Church...we tend to lay stress on the personal union with the Body and Blood of Christ. We even tend to understand the “real” presence of Christ in the Eucharist as an almost “physical” presence of the Body of Christ in the Host and the blood of Christ in the Wine... which requires, above all, adoration.

 A beautiful phrase of Panikkar summarizes it well: “It is not that in the Eucharist the bread is changed into Christ, but that Christ is bread, and he is recognized as such in the liturgical Eucharist. Applying this to the celebration we could say it is not a matter of us eating that bread, but that we accept to be bread, grain ground and handed over for the life of the world. Without this dimension of commitment, of dedication to service, neither the life nor the passion of Jesus, or of our lives or the celebration of the Eucharist would have any meaning.

 For this reason the readings turn out to be so meaningful. They remind us above all of the celebration, the gathering, the Supper of the Lord, which is what we celebrate every Sunday. And over and above all that, the spirit of this celebration, the community of the Church with her Head, in what precisely defines Christ, to be bread and wine, service provided to give life.

 Today is a day to be full of joy. God is so much “for us” that what best represents him is bread. Never has anyone been so daring as Jesus. Never has anyone risked undertaking so much. Jesus bread ground on the cross, Jesus our nourishment, Jesus leaven in our tasteless dough, God our bread. Now we understand much better what we say when we pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

 It is worrying that the laws of the Church should have insisted so much on attendance at Mass and so little on receiving Holy Communion: “to hear the whole Mass every Sunday and feast days of obligation. To receive Holy Communion at Easter...” the two commandments of the Church we learnt as children.

 For ordinary catechesis some years ago, the Mass was above all “The Holy Sacrifice”, and its peak event was the Consecration. Official present day theology continues to strongly insist on the sacrificial aspect of the Mass, and adds, generally by way of a real addition, the “convivial” aspect. But it is not enough: the aspect they pompously call “convivial” is the essential aspect of our Eucharistic meeting. The sacrificial aspect is the essence of the entire life of Jesus, and this is perfectly symbolized in bread and wine. In the Mass we are not offering God the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. We are uniting ourselves to the complete offering of the whole life of Jesus.

 After the celebration of the Eucharist, there are two traditional, very beautiful customs of Christians: the veneration of the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist and the Holy Hour.

 To keep the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist for the sick, the absent...was a custom the Church kept encouraging. It was reasonable to venerate it with the utmost respect. From there we have gone too far, so far that at times some Christians resemble a lot those pagans who believed they had their gods kept at home. We do not have God held in a little box, nor does Jesus need company. Jesus is risen at the right hand of God, and God is everywhere. Let’s not forget this. Our veneration of the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist should redo those images, which could be valid, but are insufficient. The centre of our attention is the Celebration of the Supper of the Lord, and the message: God is the Bread and Wine of life, and we have discovered this in Jesus. The incredible newness of this message is far superior to all the rest. The veneration of the Eucharistic Bread and Wine has little meaning if we disassociate it from the very meaning of the Eucharistic celebration.

 Sometimes in the “Holy Hour” excessively subjective and imaginative sentimental aspects prevail. “Let us accompany Jesus in his abandonment.” It’s all very well as an application of our senses, and if it helps us to identify with him, but we must go further; that is only the atmosphere; we are offered a magnificent opportunity of assimilating the profound message of the abandonment of Jesus, of his anguished prayer, of the dark night of the man... And it is a magnificent preparation to live intensely the celebration of Good Friday.

 Traditionally part of this “Holy Hour”, is dedicated to the meditation on the washing of the feet. And it is clear that in this story of the fourth gospel one finds an admirable synthesis. So admirable that, as we have seen, for the evangelist it can displace even the very account of the Eucharist. It has been pointed out quite correctly that the contemplation of Jesus does not end in sentimentality, nor in an emotional accompaniment: it ends in the Mission. “I have set an example for you, so you will do just what I have done for you.”

 That is why the veneration of the Most Holy Sacrament and the Holy Hours ought to be directed to uniting Holy Thursday and Good Friday. We receive Jesus in communion, the one who gives himself up unto death, who serves unto death, the one who places himself at the feet of all even though it costs him his life.

Special thanks to Rev. Fr. Valentine De Souza Sj.

BBN