29-Mar-2012 Dear Friend,
All of us enjoy a meal, but a meal tastes different if it is eaten alone or in the company of family and friends! We invite people to share our table only if we are close to them or wish to build a relationship with them. Meal times are meant not only to fill our stomachs but to share our lives with others. Meals time can be sacred time. But we cannot experience the sacred if we have not served our brothers and sisters! Have a sacred celebration, a shared meal at home, with God for company! Fr. Jude Sunday Reflections: Maundy Thursday 'As I have done, you too must wash each other’s feet!' 4-Apr-2012 Readings: Exodus 12: 1-8; 11-14 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 John 13: 1-15 The Book of Exodus tells us how the Lord ordered the Israelites to keep the Paschal meal. To remember this Passover from generation to generation, God ordered the Israelites to keep a feast, the Feast of the Passover. The lamb sacrificed was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs and the father of the family would explain to the children, year after year, what the meal and the feast meant. Our Eucharistic celebration is a commemoration of the same Paschal meal, reminding us that we are called to pass from the land of slavery to sin to the land of freedom of the children of God; we are called to pass over from wherever we are to where the Lord wants us to be. It recalls to mind the fact the God has passed over our sins thanks to the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ through whose death we are given life. Remembering A man made a dramatic turnaround in his life. When asked how he did it, he pulled out a snapshot from his wallet. It was a picture of a caseworker who had helped him years ago. "Whenever I am tempted to fall back into my old ways," the man said, "I remember what this caseworker did for me, and I draw strength from his memory." That story illustrates an important biblical truth. For ancient Jews remembering a religious event meant far more than calling to mind something that had happened centuries before. On the contrary, remembering the event meant bringing it into the present and reliving it by faith. Thus when the Jews remembered the Passover each year, they did far more than recall to mind the event that freed their ancestors from Egypt. Rather, by remembering, they brought that event into the present and relived it again. In this way they received the same blessing from it that their ancestors did. Mark Link in 'Journey' St. John was well aware that the Eucharist was the greatest gift of the Lord to his disciples and to the Church. He could have given a detailed description of the institution of the Eucharist like the other evangelists had done. Yet he preferred to describe a ritual that Jesus performed that night, which would highlight the true meaning of "Do this in memory of me!" The celebration of the Eucharist becomes relevant and meaningful only when we have got down on our knees and washed one another's feet. Just as his disciples did not comprehend what he was doing at that moment, we also do not understand the full implications of the linking of the Eucharist with the washing of the feet. "Master are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered and said to Peter, "What I am doing now you do not understand now, but you will understand later." After years of participating in the Eucharist, after years of listening to His challenging words, have we understood what the Lord is asking of us? "Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me 'teacher' and 'master' and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you an example to follow, so that as I have done to you, you should also do." Unfortunately, we have made of the Eucharist a ritual to be observed with meticulous detail in the Church but with no bearing on our daily lives. We can participate in the Eucharist daily and yet not let it affect our lives in any way. To celebrate the Eucharist we have to live it. To live as a follower of Jesus Christ we have to wash one another's feet, we have to be servants; we have to live lives of humble service. Eucharistic Meal In most cultures a meal is a special ceremony, time and occasion. We divide our day by mealtimes. A meal implies being together as a family -perhaps the only time of the day. It implies being one. Divorce is called "separation of bed and board." Tearing up a table cloth is a sign of disunity in a family. Soldiers unstrap their bayonet belt before entering a mess hall -no fighting in a dining room. At the dining table enemies, especially chiefs of clans, seal their agreements by eating one another's food. All eating is meant to be sharing. You cannot have a feast without a meal. Every big occasion has one. Farewell as well as welcome. When a businessman wants to discuss something important or a friend wants to tell you something unpleasant or a man has a special message for a woman -they get together over a meal. All this is implied in the Eucharist. Fred Mechalic in '1000 Stories you can use' Invited to the Family Table An orthodox Jewish father came to my university office to discuss a serious problem. His son was becoming romantically involved with a young Catholic woman. The old patriarch was well-disposed to Christianity, very tolerant of its beliefs and practices. But it was 'crossing the line' to think of his son marrying a gentile outside the synagogue and perhaps even becoming a Catholic. He was disappointed in the young woman because of the present turn of events. He had readily accepted her as his son's friend, happy that he was broadening his social circles beyond those of the small orthodox community in which the family lived. However, he felt that she should have been more sensitive to the limits of the relationship, to its future implications, especially since he and his wife had so graciously received her into their home and family circle. As he concluded this portion of our conversation, he made a statement that wonderfully summarized a whole set of Old Testament feelings. He leaned over the desk and said dramatically: "And we even invited her to our table." What more could he have done? That said it all. His hospitality was complete. In the best of his Jewish tradition, he had included her as fully as he could. On Holy Thursday, Jesus invites us all to His table. To invite us to his banquet table was the ultimate way that the Jewish carpenter could tell us that he accepted us, no matter how weak and sinful we may be. Jesus invited everyone to dinner to share in all of those rich human experiences which, at that moment, became divine experiences. Eugene Lauer in 'Sunday Morning Insights' The Body of Christ Once I was giving out Holy Communion in a crowded church. Just as I was about to place the host on a lady's tongue, another person jostled her by wedging into a narrow space besides her. She immediately closed her mouth before receiving, turned to the intruder and called her a bitch, then turned back to me, opened her mouth and said "Amen" to the body of Christ! So often we receive the body of Christ in the Eucharist and fail to recognize it in the pew. So often the tongue that receives the Lord in Holy Communion is only too ready to lacerate the body of Christ over a cup of coffee after Mass. James Feeban Film: Entertaining Angels Twenty-year-old Dorothy Day was a reporter and a part of an elite socialist group in New York. Dorothy encounters a homeless man and a friendly nun and follows them to a Church that has opened a soup kitchen for the poor. She often goes to the kitchen to help. She begins to read Catholic books and gets converted. She is urged to start feeding the poor and caring for the sick. During the 1930's Dorothy becomes even more socially active. She opens hospitality houses and tries to improve the lives of the poor. -Dorothy led a very unconventional life by Catholic standards. Her pre-conversion past and abortion, her decision not to marry and remain a single parent are interesting because she used these unusual circumstances to follow Christ by helping the poor and homeless. She is a twentieth century model of lay holiness. Dorothy Day, like the apostles, was someone who did not have faith at first. She gradually accepted the gift of faith and grew in it by serving others. She spent most of her adult life living Jesus' commandment of love. She personally cared for the indigent and homeless people in many ways, from preparing and serving meals to washing their feet. This was the life of Dorothy Day. An exasperated volunteer agreed to go on working when she wanted to quit because Dorothy had said, "You never know you might be entertaining angels." - On this Holy Thursday we are reminded to blend our beliefs and actions into one life lived for God. Peter Malone in 'Lights, Camera, Faith!' Gathering Together in His name A religious persecution in 1980 left a region of Guatemala without priests. But the people continued to meet in various parishes. Once a month they sent a delegate to a part of Guatemala where priests were still functioned. Travelling up to eighteen hours on foot, the delegate celebrated the Lord's Supper in the name of the parish. Describing one of these celebrations, Fernando Bermudez writes in his book, Death and Resurrection in Guatemala: The altar was covered with baskets of bread. After the mass, each participant came up to take his or her basket home again. Now the bread was Holy Communion for the brothers and sisters of each community. In time the authorities closed all churches. But the people refused to stop gathering, recalling Jesus' words, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Mark Link in 'Journey' Life-giving Blood An old African folk tale speaks of a land which was suffering from a famine. Men and beasts starved to death. Everyone was worried just about staying alive. In this country lived a pelican which did not worry about keeping herself alive as much as preserving the life of her young ones. Day after day she scrounged for food. Finally there was no food she could find, the pelican could find no other way out, so in her great need she made a hole in her own breast with her beak and gave her young ones her own blood to drink. When the famine was over her young ones were strong and able to fly away and look after themselves. She had given them her lifeblood to let them live. Willi Hohoffsuemmer in '1000 Stories you can use' In the sharing of a meal and the sharing of our lives may we discover Him! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
