Thursday 17 April 2025

Maundy Thursday – Year C

Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

1st reading: Ex 12,1-8.11-14

Psaume : 115 (116b),12-13,15-16ac,17-18

2rd Reading: 1 Cor 11,23:26-13,1 Gospel: Jn 15:XNUMX-XNUMX

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This year, the celebration of the Paschal Mystery takes place in a Holy Year that takes place every 25 years. The approach proposed to us in the Holy Year is that of the plenary indulgence. It consists of going to a place of pilgrimage designated by the bishops in their diocese — such as this basilica — and there, to experience a process of conversion: to allow ourselves to be reconciled with God and with the Church in the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, then to manifest our communion with the Church, on the one hand, by proclaiming the symbol of faith — the Credo —and then by praying for the intentions of the Pope, that is, by joining the one who is in charge of all the churches and uniting ourselves in his prayer. Then it is a matter of sealing this rediscovered communion with the Church in the mystery of the Eucharist, by celebrating the Eucharist and receiving communion in it… Then, having prayed the prayer that the Lord taught us, it is still a matter of performing an act of mercy. In a certain way, it is this act of mercy that expresses the whole meaning and approach of the plenary indulgence and the Jubilee Year. For the purpose of our life and the purpose of Jesus' mission is to make man capable of loving as God loves: our vocation is to love as God loves. This process of plenary indulgence helps us to take the means to allow ourselves to be profoundly renewed in the mystery of charity, that is to say, to resume the path of love for God and love of neighbor, to resume with fervor and determination the path by which we learn to love God more than anything and to love our neighbor as Christ loved us. This is the goal of our life. This is the goal of every process of piety and especially of this process of the Holy Year. Today, in this celebration of Holy Thursday, we hear the story of the memorial of Passover with the Hebrews, then the story of the institution of the Eucharist, then the story of the washing of the feet. This memorial of Passover and this memorial of the Eucharist constantly remind us of God's initiative. God's initiative is one of the keys to understanding Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. If we really want to understand what Thérèse is experiencing, we must listen to her and try to see how she constantly describes the initiatives that God takes in her life, which she knows how to identify and to which she responds with her own life.

God takes the initiative to save his people from Egypt. And Jesus takes the initiative to give his life: "No one takes my life, said Jesus, I'm the one who gives it" (Jn 10,8:XNUMX). When we read the Gospel or the four Gospels together carefully, we see clearly how, in this last week, it is Jesus who is in charge of things and who allows himself to be taken at the moment he has decided, because it is he who gives himself. This initiative of God is always for our salvation, it is the expression of his mercy. And the Lord teaches us to enter into this mercy, not only by receiving it, but also by exercising it towards our brothers and sisters. We could say that mercy is a movement that starts from God and goes to our neighbor, through us. It is a matter of letting ourselves be traversed by mercy by receiving it in order to give it, by giving it in order to be able to receive it. And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who trespass against us.(Mt 6,12:XNUMX).

In the washing of the feet, Jesus explains a fundamental aspect of the mystery of the Eucharist: the Eucharist is Jesus giving himself up, Jesus giving himself up to destroy death from within, to free us from the power of sin and death and thus, to save us. The presence he leaves us is a dynamic presence. The Blessed Sacrament is Jesus giving himself up, it is the presence among us of Jesus in an act of self-giving. When we come to receive communion, we become ONE with Jesus giving himself up. We are as if drawn into his act of self-giving, drawn into his act of self-giving. The washing of the feet tells us that this act of self-giving in which Jesus draws us consists in particular in making ourselves servants of our brothers and sisters. To give one's life is very concretely, in one's body, to place oneself at the service of one's brothers and sisters, in the most humble way possible.

When Thérèse contemplates the washing of the feet, she speaks of it only in one place, and that is in the prayer for humility. And what she tells us about it is precisely:

O Mighty Monarch of Heaven, yes, my soul finds rest in seeing you clothed in the form and nature of a slave, humble yourself to the point of washing the feet of your apostles. I then remember these words that you spoke to teach me to practice humility: "I have given you an example so that you also do what I have done, the disciple is not greater than the Master..." (Pri 20 – Prayer to ask for humility)

We can only become servants of our brothers and sisters in humility. We can only live the mystery of the Eucharist in humility, that is, in the attitude of Jesus who is gentle and humble of heartIn the mystery of the Eucharist, Jesus shares with us in a certain way this gentleness and humility of heart so that we can live it. But there is never anything magical, as you well know, in the spiritual life; what God gives us, it is up to us to put into practice by and in the grace of God.

But the old man in us is always quick to rear his ugly head. So when we make ourselves servants to our brothers, we are tempted to look for a thank you. I did all that and I didn't even get a thank you... Thérèse knows this temptation. We find this in the yellow notebook, Mother Agnes writes: "Regarding the feelings that one cannot sometimes defend oneself against, when after having rendered a service one receives no token of gratitude." Therese:

I too, I assure you, experience the feeling you are talking about; but I am never caught, because I do not expect any reward on earth: I do everything for the good Lord, so I can lose nothing and I am always very well paid for the trouble I take to serve my neighbor.

If, by some impossible chance, the good Lord himself did not see my good deeds, I would not be at all distressed. I love him so much that I would like to be able to please him without him even knowing that it is me. Knowing and seeing him, he is as if obliged "to repay me", I would not want to give him that trouble...

This childlike side of Thérèse, which disconcerts many people, is in fact a profound attitude of filiation: she takes seriously the fact of being a child of God and of behaving towards God the Father like a child, with the audacity of a child and the joy of a child in giving pleasure.

Let us ask for this grace, in celebrating the Eucharist, to know how to make ourselves servants of our brothers, without expecting any other reward than the thanks that Jesus will pronounce in Heaven when he welcomes us.

Amen

Father Emmanuel Schwab, Rector of the Shrine