Thursday April 9 – Holy Thursday
Readings: Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15
Today marks the beginning of the “high holy days” of the Christian faith. It encompasses the time from Holy Thursday evening to the Easter Vigil/Easter Sunday services and is referred to as the “Easter Triduum” (meaning three) due to the great importance of these three days. The readings and services of these days also strive to give us a blueprint or summary, if you will, of our faith tradition.
The founder of Hasidism, the great Baal Shem Tov, is credited with saying, “Forgetfulness leads to exile; remembering is the key to redemption.”
These are such profound words and, for me, are an essential part of the Holy Thursday observance.
In our first reading, God instructs the community of Israel on how to celebrate and commemorate the momentous event of their freedom and liberation. This celebration came to be known as Passover and continues to be celebrated the Jews throughout our world. Passover actually started last night (April 8) and continues through April 16. It often has 2 “seder” meals at the beginning (the word seder means “order” because the meal follows an ordered ritual) and a meal at the end. I have been fortunate to have been invited to be part of numerous seders throughout the years, and they are really deep and meaningful experiences.
And that’s where our gospel picks up today. Jesus is celebrating the seder meal with his friends. They are remembering together the story of their collective freedom and reflecting on what it meant for them in their context. And while most of us have seen and been influenced by DaVinci’s “The Last Supper” (which contained only men), it’s very unlikely that a seder meal would not have included all genders and ages. So picture something more like this:
And in my reading of the story, Jesus does two really important things.
First he infuses the ritual with a new meaning. He knew his friends would keep celebrating Passover – year after year – and he likely knew that he would not be there to join them. So he said, when you do this, remember me. Remember what I taught. Remember what our people were taught in the wilderness. Remember who you are. Remember what God has done for you. Remember how much I loved you. Remember that we were liberated and now it’s our job to liberate others. Remember how to be good to each other.
Forgetting all this is a form of exile, and so Jesus tried to incorporate it into something familiar and ordinary that would keep waking up his friends to the divine reality. He tried to do the same by telling us to look at sparrows and consider lilies.
Secondly Jesus uses his own body to be of service to others and washes the feet of his friends. I don’t know about you, but this part of the Holy Thursday service every year just moves me so deeply. Watching my trusted and esteemed faith leaders – Rev. Myra, Fr. Jim and Rev. Mary – all people I hold in such high esteem and teacher status – get on their hands and knees and wash and kiss the feet of the “ordinary” adults and young people of our church community just brings me to tears – year after year.
Jesus says, “I want you to remember this,” and he says he’s giving us an example so that we might do this also. What does he want us to remember though? What’s the example?
For so long I have heard (and repeated!), “Be of service to each other.” And at a fundamental level I believe that’s true. But why didn’t he just cook them dinner? Why did he wash feet?
I think that Jesus offers us this tender, intimate example on Holy Thursday because he wanted us to remember that bodies – our bodies – are important. Our faith is not just a head trip or a set of beliefs. Faith is about what happens in and to our bodies, the bodies of other people and the bodies of other creatures. We have bodies that feel. We have bodies that move. We have bodies that get hurt. We have bodies that smell and get dirty. We have bodies that love and experience pleasure. We have bodies that will be broken as we move through life. And all of it is holy.
In short, the joy, pleasure, pain and condition of our bodies is of primary importance to God, and we will witness Jesus’ body going through a lot over the next few days. And it is important for us to honor what our bodies are going through over the next few days (and beyond!).
Holy Thursday invites us to remember so much – about our own lives, about the life of Jesus, about what liberation means and about how we live out our faith in this present moment. For today, just say the phrase, “forgetfulness leads to exile; remembering is the key to redemption.” What do you want to remember today?