LITURGY: The Eucharistic Renewal

Continuing our series on the Eucharistic Renewal being celebrated this year in the United States, we offer this homily from Abbot Matthew Stark from the Mass of Holy Thursday, 2022.

Preparations for Washing of Feet

There are many aspects of this gospel and today’s feast that one could comment on, and it is two that I will try to comment on now.

The first is the washing of the feet. To wash someone’s feet in the Jewish culture of that time was considered a very low, base thing that
a person would do. It was so low that if you were a Jewish man with a Jewish slave, you could not force that Jewish slave to do that, to wash somebody’s feet, your own or anybody else’s. If you had a Gentile slave, yes, you could do it. So what Jesus is doing here is putting himself in the lowest possible position, you might say. He was doing what would be despised by other Jewish men. And that is why Peter is so upset: “You’re not going to wash my feet.” But Jesus is trying to make a point. The point is that these are the future leaders of his church. And their attitude to one another and to other people is to be one of service. They are not to get big-headed, to become haughty or proud: they are to become servants. That is a difficult thing to learn. Probably that lesson is difficult for all of us in this church, if we want to call ourselves followers of Jesus. But especially it is for Father Abbot, for me, for the priests and the monks, for the teachers – all the so-called leaders of the school. And it applies also to you students. If you want to be followers of Jesus, it means you will treat other people with respect, with honor. You will not hurt them. You will not do mean things to them. You will not say mean things behind their backs. You will not be the sort of person who judges and condemns other people.

In a few minutes, the choir will be singing an ancient hymn, “Ubi Caritas et Amor” – “Where charity and love dwell, God is there. Where there are true purity and love, there is God.” This is how it goes in translation: “Where true love is dwelling, God is present there. By the love of Christ, we have been brought together.” Notice that it is by the love of Christ that we are here in church. “Let us find in him our gladness and our pleasure. May we love him and revere him, God the living. And in love, respect each other with sincere hearts. So, when we are gathered all together, let us strive to keep our minds free of division. May there be an end to malice, strife, quarrels, and let Christ our God be dwelling here among us. May Your face thus be our vision, Christ our God, bright in glory. With all the blessed saints in heaven such delight is pure and faultless joy unbounded which endures through countless ages, world without end.” A friend on the staff here told me, some years ago, that he saw in the dining hall a student drop something on the floor and walk away from it. And this man said to the boy, “Aren’t you going to pick that up?” And the boy said, “No, that’s not for me to do.” And my friend said to the boy, “What would you do at home?” “Well, the maid would pick it up.” Well, that is not the attitude of a follower of Christ. It is the opposite of what our Lord is trying to tell us in today’s gospel.

The second aspect I would like to comment on concerning today’s Mass is found in Saint Paul’s teaching about the origin of the Mass at the Last Supper: Jesus took bread, gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my body.“ He took a cup of wine, and said, “This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the covenant.“ Both remarks have to do with sacrifice, His sacrifice. His sacrifice on the cross. He was to have his body tortured and his blood poured out, in sacrifice for our sins. That important idea is behind what Saint Paul says. The bread at Mass, when the priest says, “This is my body,” becomes the body of Christ. The wine in the cup, when he says, “This is the chalice of my blood”: it is the blood of Christ. It is not a symbol. It is truly the body of Christ, although it looks the same, like bread and like wine.

The Blessed Sacrament Altar

Some years ago, not too long ago, a certain monk was teaching a theology class and he began to expand upon this teaching in the church about the transformation of the bread and wine at Mass. And a girl in the class, presumably I guess a Protestant, said, “Well, only Catholics believe that.” That monk, with other things to teach, did not respond immediately, but upon more reflection later said, “No, that is not true. All of the apostolic churches, all of the churches that trace their origin back to Jesus and the apostles, all teach the same thing – that the bread becomes Christ’s body, the wine becomes his blood. The Greek Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox, the Ukrainian Orthodox, the Syrian Orthodox, the Coptic Christians in Egypt, the Church of Ethiopia, and others as well. These churches that look to the apostles as their founders, they all teach this: in communion, you receive not bread and wine, but the body and blood Christ.

Here are two prayers I will end with, both from the Byzantine rite, that is the rite of Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic church. “O Christ, grant that I may now, without condemnation, become a partaker of the heavenly, terrible, and holy mystery, of Thy divine and mystical supper, O God my Savior...” That is what we are doing, that mystical divine and holy supper. “…Seeking refuge in thy loving kindness, O blessed one, I cry to thee with fear. Stay with me, O Savior, and let me also, as Thou didst say, stay in Thee. But look, trusting in Thy mercy, I eat Thy body and thy blood.” When you come up to communion, what are you thinking about? Are you thinking, “I am approaching the gift of God himself, his body and blood, and have mercy on me a sinner?” Well, that is sort of what you should be thinking. The prayer goes on: “I tremble in taking this fire, lest I should be consumed as wax or as grass. O, Fearful Mystery! O, the loving kindness of God! How is it that I, being but dust, partake of the divine body and blood and am made incorruptible?” Another prayer: “O Lord Jesus, born of the Virgin, take not account of my sins and cleanse my heart, making it a temple for Thy Most Pure Body and Blood. And drive me not away from Thy presence, O Thou, who showest mercy without measure.”

 

Abbot Matthew Stark, O.S.B. is abbot emeritus of Portsmouth, having served as its first abbot.