TODAY'S LENTEN MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS

Love, in concern and  compassion for all, is the highest expression of our faith and hope.

Do I demonstrate love as Christ did at the washing of the feet?


TODAY'S WORD

By


Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

1 Corinthians: 11:26 "For as often as you eat this Bread and drink the Cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes."


TODAY'S REFLECTION

We can learn a lot from the way that children express their faith. 

Those of us who are adults tend to think of ourselves as the children’s teachers. 

Yet, they can teach us a lot, especially when it comes to our relationship with God. 

Their spontaneous openness to the Lord when they are very young can touch our own faith and help to deepen it.

On one occasion in the gospel story the disciples of Jesus were trying to block parents from bringing their children to Jesus. 

They were clearly of the view that children should be neither seen nor heard. 

The evangelist tells us that Jesus was indignant with his disciples and said to them, 

‘Let the children come to me; do not stop them… Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it’. 

Jesus was saying to his disciples – ‘Look at the children and learn from them. 

They have a lot to teach you about receiving the gift of the kingdom of God’. 

Children know how to receive the gift of God. Their openness to the gift of God can help to open up all of our hearts to the Lord’s presence and call in our own lives.

The meaning of Holy Thursday could be summed up in the word ‘gift’. 

At the last supper Jesus gave his disciples the gift of himself in loving service. 

He did this in two ways. Firstly, he washed their feet. This was a menial task that servants in a household usually performed. In washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus was showing that he was their servant, our servant. 

We usually think of Jesus as Lord. ‘Jesus is Lord’ is one of the great Christian confessions. 

How can a Lord do the work of a servant? 

This was why Peter objected to what Jesus was doing – ‘you will never wash my feet’. Peter, unlike children, could not receive the gift of Jesus’ service. 

However, Jesus was showing by this gesture that he exercises his lordship not by ruling and dominating but by serving, by giving the gift of himself. 

It was by giving the gift of himself to us that he became our Lord. 

In laying down his garments to wash the feet of his disciples, Jesus was anticipating the greater gift he would give them the following day, when he would lay down his life for them and for us on the cross.

The second way that Jesus gave the gift of himself to his disciples at that last supper was when he gave himself to them under the form of bread and wine.

Taking bread, he blessed it and gave it to them saying, ‘Take and eat’. 

Taking a cup of wine, he blessed it and gave it to them and said, ‘Take and drink’. 

Like the washing of their feet, that gift of himself under the form of bread and wine anticipated the gift of himself that he would make to them and to all of us the following day on the cross. 

In allowing Jesus to wash their feet and in taking the bread and the cup, the disciples were receiving the gift of himself that Jesus would give them from the cross. 

In receiving that gift they would never be the same again. They would now have to give as they had received.

Jesus intended that what happened at the last supper would be the shape of the church forever, the shape of our own lives. 

The last supper was not just a once off event. 

When he had washed feet of his disciples, he said to them, ‘Do as I have done… love one another as I have loved you’. 

As he has served us, we are to serve one another, and in serving one another, the Lord continues to serve us in and through each other. 

In giving the bread and cup to his disciples he said to them, ‘Do this in memory of me’. 

We are to repeat the words and actions over the bread and cup, and in doing that the Lord will continue to give himself to us under the form of bread and wine. 

This is what we do when we celebrate the Eucharist. 


Both of those commands that Jesus gave at the last supper are important: ‘Love one another as I have loved you’, and ‘Do this in memory of me’. 


A life of service and the celebration of the Eucharist are both at the heart of what it means to be the Lord’s followers. 


At the Eucharist we receive again the Lord’s gift of himself that he made to us on the cross, and in receiving that gift we find the strength to live faithfully the call to love one another as he has loved us.


RESOLUTION

Let's resolve to make our service and our lives also be a reflection of the salvation that Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour is offering to the world.

GOD BLESS YOU

Good morning. Have a nice & safe day. 

HAPPY TRIDUUM

Pray for all your Priests so that they become Christ in service: Servant Leadership.