09-Apr-2017 Dear Friend, >From ancient times the Church has set apart Holy Thursday as the day to >consider what Jesus did and taught during his last meal on earth. Holy >Thursday has been called ‘Maundy’ Thursday, to remind us of the new >Mandate/Commandment of the Lord: “Love one another as I have loved you.” This >evening’s readings from Exodus, First Corinthians and the Gospel are about >remembering that command: “Do this in remembrance of me.” How often do we >remember what Jesus has done for us? May we have a love-filled Holy Thursday! >–Fr. Jude Reflections: Holy Thursday “Make me like you! You were a servant! Make me one too!” 13-Apr-2017Exodus 12; 1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor. 11: 23-26; John 13: 1-15;
The Book of Exodus tells us how the Lord ordered the Israelites to keep the Paschal meal. Each family had to kill a lamb, smear the doorpost with the lamb’s blood, and eat the meal standing to signify their readiness to pass to the land of freedom. It would also signify the passing of the angel over the Israelites houses marked by the blood. To remember this, God ordered the Israelites to keep the ‘Passover’ Feast. The lamb sacrificed was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs and the father of the family would explain the meal meaning. Our Eucharistic celebration is a commemoration of the Paschal meal, reminding us that we are called to pass from the slavery to freedom. It recalls that God has passed over our sins, thanks to the blood of Jesus Christ through whose death we are given life. Faith is remembering what matters! Don’t forget what really mattersCarl Coleman was driving to work one morning when he bumped fenders with another motorist. Both cars stopped, and the woman driving the other car got out to survey the damage. She was distraught. It was her fault she admitted, and hers was a new car, less than two days from the show room. She dreaded facing her husband. Coleman was sympathetic; but he had to pursue the exchange of license and registration data. She reached into her glove compartment to retrieve the documents in an envelope. On the first paper to tumble out, written in her husband’s distinctive hand, were the words: “In case of accident, remember, Honey, it’s you I love, not the car.”Paul Harvey in ‘Stories of the Heart’ While the focus of the celebration is on the Eucharist, John’s Gospel is that of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and commanding the disciples to wash one another’s feet. John wrote his gospel more than fifty years after the last supper had taken place; however he does not narrate the institution of the Holy Eucharist, since Matthew, Mark and Luke had already done it. His Christians not only knew about the Last Supper but they celebrated the Eucharist every Sunday. But John wanted to remind the Christians of the central point of Jesus’ teaching, his new commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.” John was very keen that all Christians should learn that the celebration of the Eucharist should lead us to practice Jesus’ command of loving service. To drive home this message he tells us how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples during the Last Supper. No other Gospel narrates this event. The setting for Jesus’ symbolic action is his last Passover meal. Jesus’ self emptying love urges him to offer his disciples the cleansing touch of water and the loving touch of his hands. The Gospel themes of water and washing will be taken up again during the Easter vigil and linked with the baptismal themes of regeneration and new life. Today’s gospel invites us to be like Jesus in deeds of service. Do you know where your towel is?Several years ago, the bishop and leadership of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference handed dishtowels to annual conference members at closing worship. We were instructed to bring them back at a later date and to tell the story of how they had been used in service. When the time comes for the report, the joke circulated, how many of us will know where our towels are? Several years removed from that experience, I must confess that, for a while, I ended up enshrining that dishtowel with other holy relics and never used it. It continues to shout to me about service from its current home in the dishtowel drawer — though still seldom used. How does Christ continue to speak to you or your congregation about service through everyday symbols of service?-Sermon Notes Make me like Joe!Joe was a drunk who was miraculously converted at the Bowery mission. Prior to his conversion, he had gained the reputation of being a dirty wino for whom there was no hope, only a miserable existence in a ghetto. But following his conversion to a new life with God everything changed. Joe became the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever known. Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever was needed to be done. There was never anything he was asked to do that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left by some violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing toilets after careless men had left the men’s room filthy, Joe did what was asked with a smile on his face and a seeming gratitude for the chance to help. He could be counted on to feed feeble men who wandered off the street and into the mission, and to undress and tuck into bed men who were too out of it to take care of themselves. One evening, when the director of the mission was delivering his evening evangelistic message to the usual crowd of still and sullen men with drooped heads, there was one man who looked up, came down the aisle to the altar, and knelt to pray, crying out for God to help him to change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, “Oh God! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man, “Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, ‘Make me like Jesus.’” The man looked up at the director with a quizzical expression on his face and asked, “Is he like Joe?”Tony Campolo –from ‘Everything You Heard Is Wrong’ Praying hands –MemorialTwo young friends in Germany, Albrecht Durer and Franz Konigstein, were struggling to become artists. Since their funds were too meager for attending the university, they decided that one of them should find employment and support the other until he had completed school. Then he could sell his paintings and finance the other’s education. They drew lots and Durer went to school and Konigstein went to work. Durer turned out to be a genius. After he had made a good deal of money from the sale of his paintings, he returned home to keep his part of the bargain. Only then did he painfully realize the great price his friend had paid. Franz’s delicate and sensitive fingers had been ruined by years of rugged manual labour. Although he had to abandon his artistic dream, he had no regrets, but rejoiced in his friend’s success. One day Durer saw Franz Konigstein kneeling with his gnarled hands intertwined in prayer. The artist quickly sketched the praying hands. Today’s art galleries feature many of the works of the famous Albrecht Durer, but the people’s favourite is the ‘Praying hands’. That painting has been copied millions of times the world over, telling its tender eloquent story of sacrifice, and gratitude.-Love demands sacrifice! Where there is no sacrifice, there can hardly be genuine love. The story of these two friends is a reminder to all of us that sacrifices made because of genuine love will never be a waste!Percival Fernandez in ‘100 Inspiring Anecdotes’ May our lives be patterned on Jesus who loved to serve! Fr. Jude Botelho botelhoj...@gmail.com PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
