Maundy Thursday - March 28, 2024

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Josep Martinez-Cubero

Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2024

• Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14
• 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
• Luke 22:14-30

 Click here for an audio of the sermon

The three readings tonight have three common themes: gathering, a common meal and remembrance. In the reading from the Book of Exodus, we hear instructions about gathering for the Passover meal. It ends with the injunction: “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.” In the second reading from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians we hear how, on the night he was betrayed, Jesus gathered his disciples for a meal, offered his body and blood and said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The reading from Saint Luke’s Gospel offers us one of the versions of what happened on that night when Jesus was betrayed. There was gathering and a common meal, and Jesus asking his disciples to continue to do so in remembrance of him.

In this sense remembrance is not simply about recalling or returning or recreating the past. Remembrance is an active process of bringing an event from the past into the present moment, that it may have a continuing effect and impact on our lives. There is something about the human condition that hungers for remembrance because remembrance feeds and nourishes life.

So here we are, at the beginning of these most holy days of remembrance in the Christian tradition. In many ways the stories of these holy days tell themselves. It had felt almost superfluous to say anymore. That is until something caught my attention this last Palm Sunday of the Passion during the Liturgy of the Palms, which here we do in Pilgrim Hall. It was the collect. You know how you can hear something a hundred times, and still, on one occasion, hear something in it you feel you have never heard before. That was my experience this last Sunday. The collect prays: “Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality: through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “That we may enter with joy.” Now, I have often wished people a blessed or a meaningful Holy Week. But it has never occurred to me to wish anyone a joyous Holy Week. So, I’ve been reflecting on that quite a bit ever since. Why are we to enter with joy into a week of fear, betrayal, darkness, emptiness, pain, and violence? The answer is, of course, because the story does not end there.

Judas will betray him. The other disciples will not keep awake and wait with him as he asks them to do. Peter, despite his promises, will deny him. So, Jesus will die because he will be betrayed, deserted, and denied by his followers.

But Jesus will also die because of the scheming of his enemies. His ever-escalating conflict with the powerful will reach its final stage. The chief priests and the scribes have been looking for an opportunity to kill him. His encounter with Pilate will prove that empire is more interested in keeping peace and order, than pursuing justice. So, Jesus will die because his message and his way of being has provoked his powerful enemies.

But Jesus will also die because of his self-giving love. The same Jesus who at the beginning of the gospel account performs remarkable healings, feedings, exorcisms, and authoritative teachings will now be placed under arrest, mocked, beaten and crucified. But Jesus’ life will not be taken from him. Oh no, it will be given by him. That’s the meaning of tonight’s Gospel lesson from Saint Luke. His offering of bread and wine signifies the offering of his own body and blood, and it is firmly stated when he says he came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life in obedience to the one he called “Abba”. So, Jesus died because he chose to give his life for others.

And, so, on these most holy days we are invited to experience the interplay that takes us from celebration to desolation, from joy to sorrow, from affirmation to betrayal. It is the interplay that reminds us of our inability to commit ourselves fully to the will of God, especially when our self-interest is at stake. It is the interplay that reminds us that those who claim to follow Jesus are capable of betrayal. It is the interplay that warns us against the paranoid violence of empire, the greed of corrupt governments, and the dangers of self-interest among the religious elite.

The same crowd who shouted “Hosanna” last Sunday will shout “crucify him” tomorrow, and we are that crowd. We cannot distance ourselves from the shouts of praise or the shouts of insults and rage. And the unfathomable thing is that we, who through our actions shout “Hosanna, and then “Crucify him”, can still come to the table time and time again and in the breaking of bread meet Jesus, who suffered, so that when we are suffering we know God is with us through our suffering. We, who through our actions shout “Hosanna, and then “Crucify him”, can still come to the table time and time again and in the breaking of bread meet Jesus, who was utterly alone toward the end of the story, so that when we feel alone we know God is with us in our aloneness. We, who through our actions shout “Hosanna, and then “Crucify him”, can still come to the table time and time again and in the breaking of bread meet Jesus, who cried out in despair, so that when we feel ready to give up, we know that God holds onto us. We, who through our actions shout “Hosanna, and then “Crucify him”, can still come to the table time and time again and in the breaking of bread meet Jesus, who died, so that we know God understands death, and the fear of death, and reminds us that death does not have the last word. We, who through our actions shout “Hosanna, and then “Crucify him”, can still come to the table time and time again and in the breaking of bread meet Jesus, who meets us exactly where we are, just the way we are, with open arms.

And why? Because we are known by God, whose love is the only unconditional love we will ever have; a love that surpasses all understanding. We are known by God, who came into humanity in the form of Jesus and humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, so that we might live in hope and courage, and love. Can we comprehend it? We don’t have to. All we need to do is enter with joy into the mystery, ponder it, bear witness to it, proclaim it, and submit ourselves to it.

So let us joyfully gather in remembrance and be fed by the stories of those mighty acts of divine love so that they wash over us, break our hearts open, and become our own, because we are people of the resurrection. We know that these coming days will take us into darkness and despair, but on Sunday that Easter fire will be kindled, and we will hear the Exsultet. ¡Que así sea en el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo! ~Amen+