Homily for Holy Thursday March 29, 2018
Fr. Albert St. Peter’s, New Iberia
“I give you a new commandment… love one another as I have loved you.” This is a dangerous commandment. It led to the death of the one who gave it. It has lead to the deaths of countless millions throughout history. And if you follow it, it will lead you to your death. But I’m here tonight to say to you… you are here tonight to say to the world that this deadly new commandment is the only thing worth living for.
And to prove it, I will in a few minutes wash the feet of twelve men because 2000 years ago God himself washed the feet of twelve men – a model of that love. But that kind of debasing act – stooping down to the dirty feet of another man – is not what makes this commandment dangerous and deadly. What makes this commandment deadly comes from the very meaning of the words themselves, one word in particular. What makes this commandment deadly is the meaning of the word “love.”
I don’t know if the study of words and their meanings was ever a popular practice, but it has always been an important one. Words allow us to cross the inexplicable gulf between human minds. Each person seems to be a whole world unto themselves, yet words allow so much to pass between my mind and yours. Since our entire civilization… the entire human race so depends on the use of words, how can we not see the importance of knowing what words are, how they work, and what they mean? And still more amazing is the fact that so little thought is given to that most important word “love.”
Is it desire? Is it a feeling? Is it blind? Our greatest clue is the way that Jesus uses this word “to love as I have loved you.” If you look back at all that Jesus said and did, how did he love us? There were healings and exorcisms, advice and meals, yes, but there were also strong rebukes and calls to repentance, the cleansing of the temple and the denunciation of hypocrites.
What sort of love is this? It is love that wants – and actively works for – whatever is truly best for the one it loves. And expressions of love are nearly as diverse as the people being loved. Yet, there is one thing that ties all of them together. As human beings, all of us are made in the image of God. What is best for that divinely crafted human nature, what ultimately makes it happy is eternity with the creator.
But that eternity is also an infinity and a perfection, two concepts we can’t even really understand. But Jesus loved us and loves us still, so he toils to help us understand… even when we hate him for it. “Love one another as I have loved you.” He loved us by telling us the truth… the truth about God and the truth about ourselves because it is only when we understand who we are and who God is that we can understand what it means to be with God.
That means recognizing our sin, the dirtiness of our souls. Jesus washes us clean in baptism, but our journey through life tends to track dirt back in, to get the mud and dust of evil upon the feet of our souls. So he stoops to wash those feet in confession because he loves us and sin is always bad for us, even the small and hidden sins that we enjoy.
That means recognizing that everything we have and are and do belongs to God. We owe him a debt we can never repay. This dilemma is expressed in the psalm we just sang, “How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me?” And Christ gives us the answer “The cup” – the chalice – “of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.” And he goes even beyond that, for what is in that cup, that chalice is no mere symbolic act of gratitude, but the actual blood, the very life of Jesus Christ himself poured out in love and in a desire to pay the infinite debt that man owes to God.
Learning who God is and who we are means recognizing how poorly we love our neighbor. This deadly commandment of God is new not because it tells us to love our fellow man. It is new because it tells us how to love them. We love how Christ loves us… and he loves us unto the point of handing his own flesh and blood into the hands of a man he knew would betray him. He loves us unto the point of praying for our forgiveness even while we drive nails into his hands and his feet. So, we must love our friends, our families, our neighbors, and even our enemies.
This is the divine brilliance of tonight. In the same night Jesus gives us the Mass and the Washing of the Feet. The Mass gives us the Eucharist – God’s love to us. But the Mass requires that there be a Priesthood – men charged to serve others and to be a continual reminder of that service. The Mass is the supreme act of worship where we offer to God His Own Son’s sacrifice on the Cross and the Washing of the Feet reminds us that that same God, that same Son waited on and served his own creatures and servants.
Like him, we wash feet and serve those in the world. But, also like him, we must turn our backs on the world and worldly things to turn toward God because we must know his Love in order to share it.
But to worship God as he wants to be worshipped will anger the world – they will accuse us of superstition. To love your fellow man as God loves us will annoy them, for not everyone wants to be freed of their sins, not everyone actually wants what is best for them. So, they will accuse us of being judgmental. When we insist on giving God his due, they will accuse us of waste. When we insist on the dignity of human life, the rights of the poor, and the true meaning of our bodies and families, they will accuse us of bigotry and stubbornness.
“Love one another as I have loved you.” If you obey this command, they will accuse you. If you follow this command, you will accuse yourself. And sooner or later those accusations will lead to trial and trial will lead to death, if not in body then at least in spirit. So yes, this new commandment is dangerous. But, quite frankly, if the God who is Love commanding us to Love isn’t worth dying for – then is there anything worth living for?