Holy Thursday: Given for you
On this most sacred night we are taken to the Upper Room and recall the events that occurred there. We can picture ourselves there observing all that the Lord says and does. Our attention is drawn particularly to his words and actions over the bread and the wine.
It is the Jewish Passover meal which has its own ritual given in detail in the Book of Exodus which we read tonight. For a Jew it commemorates the extraordinary events surrounding the liberation from slavery under the Egyptians.
Jesus takes this occasion with all its deep significance and transforms it to become the great Christian ritual – what we call so simply “the Mass”.
St Paul provides the oldest written text outlining the events of the Last Supper and we read it this evening. He reflects the faith and practice of the first Christian communities. I draw your attention to his description of what Jesus did at the Last Supper. We are familiar with the words and actions, but on this night we wish to ponder them afresh.
Imagine yourself there at the table and note carefully what takes place.
After taking the bread and giving thanks, Jesus broke it and said, “This is my body, given for you; do this as a memorial of me”. I wish to focus on the phrase, “given for you”.
This is my body, given for you. It is a remarkable declaration – Jesus says that he offers himself – his body – for us. To grasp the meaning of the words we cannot but go to Calvary on the next day. That is the moment he gave his body for us. He offered himself – his very life – as a perfect sacrifice to the Father. In the torment and pain of the cross Jesus gave himself up as an offering that all of humanity might be redeemed from the dual enemies to the human condition: sin and death.
On the cross Jesus revealed the most profound truth about God and the most profound truth about the human condition. He showed that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son who would offer himself in sacrifice for the redemption of humanity.
He showed us also a profound truth: that we can only truly human by making a sacrifice of ourselves. On the cross he witnessed to what he taught his disciples. He said, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it”. (Mt 16:25)
To be truly human we must enter the path of self-giving, of losing our lives, of sacrifice. Let me say that again: To be truly human we enter the path of self-giving, of losing our lives, of sacrifice. To become truly human we must learn to give away our lives. For if we try to cling to what is ours, we will, the Lord says, lose it. The great mystery of becoming fully human is discovering how to lose ourselves.
This was expressed in the teaching of Vatican II, “Man is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, [and he] cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” (Gaudium et Spes 24) We must learn to give away ourselves so that we might truly find ourselves.
This is, finally, what love is and Jesus has given us the ultimate expression of the pure love. Love is the gift of self for the good of the other. Christ, on Calvary, gave the perfect example of this love and showed the depth of this love that lies in the heart of God.
To love is to embrace the call to sacrifice, to give ourselves away. To love is to make a gift of myself for the other. Thus, I realise that I no longer live for myself but for others. This is truth revealed at the Last Supper when Jesus gave himself completely, totally, to the Apostles and subsequently to each of us: “this is my body, given for you”. In effect Jesus says, I give all I am for you, for you!
In these words we are invited to embrace the personal and unconditional love of Jesus, not only for all humanity, but for each of us. At every celebration of the Eucharist we encounter nothing less than love; pure love, a personal love; the love of Jesus for each of us which is beyond our comprehension.
It also invites us to see that love is both the supreme need and the supreme calling of every human being. Pope St John Paul II expressed this truth in these words,
Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience love and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it.” (Redemptor Hominis 10)
Love is at the heart of all that it means to be human.
My brothers and sisters, let us be humbly aware that every time we approach the altar to receive Holy Communion we encounter love, the love of Jesus who has given himself for us. We encounter a love that redeems and heals. We are drawn into his heart of love. Jesus invites us to be transformed by this experience of love.
As I leave the altar l am enabled then to become a conduit of this love to others, to the world. And the way I am to love is as Jesus has shown. I see my life in the same way that Jesus saw his – my life too is a life given for others.
Archbishop Julian Porteous
Thursday, 14 April 2022