No angel appeared to me to call me to the priesthood, but it has been one of the most fulfilling adventures of my life. My dream is not to save the world.
I am seeking only to live my life while serving God and His people in a way that will enable me say to Christ when I see Him one day: “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7).
Jesus asked Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” More than what?
Jesus and his disciples have just finished eating breakfast.
Is Jesus asking Peter if he loves him more than the fish and bread they were eating, more than any material things which exist?
Love more than other disciples?
Love more than feelings of disappointment, brokenness, shame, inadequacy which are probably present in Peter after running on Christ?
What is it that Jesus is asking of Peter?
What is it that Jesus is asking of each one of us?
What is it that might be preventing us from embracing fully his love, forgiveness, the mission of the gospel? From becoming his true friends?
The hurt which we have experienced in our lives?
Dreams and yearnings which contradict dreams and yearnings of Christ?
Fear of suffering or sacrifice?
Fear of being asked too much?
It is not the number of times Christ asks us if we love him that make us his friends and followers, that allow us to experience the gift of his resurrection, but the way we live our lives that let others to experience the gift of his love, forgiveness, and the gospel.
Acts 5:12-16; Revelation 1:9-11a,12-13,17-19; John 20:19-31
Let’s look at disciples from today’s gospel. Are they different from us? There is no doubt about the news they heard and witnessed to. Christ is risen. The women had reported the empty tomb to them. Peter and John had run to the grave and returned with verification of the women’s story.
But the disciples still hide. They are locked away out of fears. Probably petrified by the possibility of persecution. Perhaps they are also incapacitated by the prospect of facing those who reminded faithful.
They ran out on their master. Had Peter not said: “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” Had they not sworn to this statement?
Boldly they had broken ties with their former lives when the master had called them. They had caused miracles when sent on preaching missions. One of them even walked on water. Another had brought a meager meal for multiplication. And yet, when the showdown came they disappeared. Now, as today’s gospel shows us, they seem to be broken and cowering behind closed doors.
However, what today’s gospel also shows us is that… Christ does not give up on them. Suddenly he is in the midst of them saying: “Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I send you!”
In spite of their betrayals and failures, their feelings of helplessness and fear Jeus calls them to leave the room where they are gathered and to go out and to proclaim the good news.
He needs them to become:
-his mouth to speak for him,
-his feet to run upon his errands,
-his hands to do the work of proclaiming the good news to the poor, oppressed and suffering.
Probably most of us here are no different from these disciples. One week after our celebration of Easter we still have our own doubts in faith. We still live our lives facing the same old bitterness and alienations. Probably we are still overwhelmed with the same life’s responsibilities. And perhaps we are embarrassed by our unchristian behaviors and betrayals of Jesus and his good news at different times of our lives.
However; in spite of all of these Jesus directs to us exactly the same message he directed to his disciples two thousand years ago. Through the words of today’s gospel, through the sacraments which we celebrate here as one Christian community he is saying to each one of us: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”
Christ needs us to become his mouth, hands and legs, his loving and compassionate heart. He wants us to proclaim the joyful message of His resurrection to all.
Otherwise this message is going to be lost. The message of the Easter morning will be no more part of our lives.
Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42
There is a lot of violence present in today’s story of the Passion of our Lord Christ, and unlike in many of the movies and television programs we see today, there is nothing glamorous about it. The passion account of Christ is a stark reminder that violence is evil regardless of ways we might try to explain it. From the story of Cain slaying Able his brother to the present day, evil has worn the face of violence. Every act of evil serves to violate us or someone else, whether it is slander, act of sexual abuse in our church, war in Iraq or Afghanistan, 9-11 or April 16, or recent killings in Nigeria. Those who worship at the shrine of violence by unjustly inflicting violence or by covering it up, or by being driven by revenge or hatred cannot worship a true God of life, the father of Jesus Christ.
Tonight we will come to the cross, an ancient instrument of violence, not to worship the violence it represents but:
·to worship Christ who willingly died for us on the cross to overcome violence and evil;
·to search for strength and courage to face violence which has been done to us in our own lives;
·to search for the power of healing and peace which only God can offer to us through Christ;
·And to ask for forgiveness for these times when our words and actions were a cause of suffering and violence.
Behold; behold the wood of the cross, on which is hung our salvation. O come, let us adore.
This is the wood of the cross on which hung the Savior of the World. Come, let us worship.
The institution of the Eucharist, Priesthood, and Christ’s commandment of love
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15
Christ = the desciples of Christ = the priest and sacrifice in one
The nomadic Semites had a feast that they celebrated the night of the first fool moon of spring, when they were about to lead their flocks to summer pastures. With the unleavened bread of Bedouins, they had no time to let the dough rise, and some herbs, which were found in the desert, they ate a roasted lamb from the flock. This “migration” was a very important occasion, and a very dangerous one. So to ward off these dangerous they adored God, the source and master of life, by marking their tent-pegs with blood of the lamb which they killed. The whole celebration was taking place at night, at the beginning of their journey, before the flock was ready to leave at dawn.
Many centuries later, during the Israelites exodus from Egypt this ritual received a new meaning. The meaning presented to us in today’s first reading from the book of Exodus. The feast was to be celebrated as a memorial of God’s intervention on behalf of His people who were called to leave a land of their slavery in order to migrate to the Promised Land.
As centuries were passing by, that particular celebration has become for the Israelites an occasion to express their yearning for God’s saving power and for His Messiah who was to save them from their current problems and sufferings. This celebration was such an important occasions that it could not be observed alone. It had to be celebrated among family members and neighbors.
This was exactly the meal Jesus celebrated with his disciples on the night before he suffered and died. It was a dark time in the history of the Israel who was occupied by the Romans.
However, that night, one more time, this meal received a new meaning. That night Jesus made clear to his disciples that he was that Messiah everyone was waiting for, the one who was promised to them by God to bring salvation, that this salvation would be offered to people of Israel in its fullness after he willingly allowed for his life to be taken away from him. He was to be a new sacrificial lamb.
Jesus was heading towards that ultimate sacrifice. He had been giving up his life in the service to others for many years:
-by leaving his house, family, and preaching the good news of salvation,
-by bringing forgiveness and peace to sinners,
-by defending the poor and the oppressed
-by healing the sick,
-by challenging inhuman rules and leaders.
He served others anyway he could to bring them closer to God and each other. He served them by building the reign of God in their midst. This was a goal of his life.
However, before he was to pay the ultimate price, on that night we have heard about in today’s gospel, during his Passover meal with his disciples, he reminded them what his ministry with them was about:
“He rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He picked up a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them
with the towel around his waist.”
And as he finished washing their feet he put his garments back on and reclined at table again and simply said to them:
“I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do”
Jesus affirmed and reminded his disciples that salvation of God is offered to God’s people through service and ministry, even through the most humiliating acts of service, as slaves’ work of washing feet, or the ultimate act of giving up the life if necessary.
We are gathered here tonight in our church to pronounce that as Disciples of Christ we understand the legacy Jesus left us. That we have not lost that legacy’s meaning. We are gathered here celebrating our Christian Passover, the Eucharist, knowing that it calls us to service and ministry, to easing the pain and suffering in this world. For this is one of the most important ways God continues offering His salvation to this world and His people.
Tonight our Eucharistic Celebration is to help us to deepen our understanding of our service and ministry to others, to each other, by reliving some of those moments described in today’s gospel.
What we are about to do is not just re-enactment of what happened in the past. This is not just dramatization, or actors’ play, in which the priest and 12 men portray one of the scenes of the Last Supper. We will be using the symbolic action of washing feet to pronounce that Jesus’ legacy is present in the life of each one of us regardless of who we might be:
-a man or a woman
-a parent or a child
-a priest
-a husband or a wife.
We will be kneeling before the one whose feet we will wash, as we do that in the front of the Blessed Sacrament, recognizing God’s presence in them.The mystery of our service and ministry to each other on our journey to God is to be a center of our Christian lives. This is the way we build the God’s reign in our midst. Through the ministry of love, forgiveness, and compassion.
In a couple of minutes some members of our pastoral and finance councils of our church will began washing feet of others. We will have four places in front of the altar. Please, come forward, have your feet washed or if Spirit of God calls you , replace those doing that service and start washing the feet of others, perhaps the feet of your wife or husband, your parent or child, your neighbor, or your classmate.
This is the legacy that Jesus has left to us, to serve one another as he served us. Tonight we just remind ourselves about it in this symbolic action of washing each other’s feet.
We are no longer priests, deacons, layers, doctors, teachers, professors, man or women, children or parents, husbands or wives, but we are servants of God and each other. The servants who through the service of love, forgiveness, and compassion build God’s reign in the midst of this community and world, and make God’s salvation a reality of their and our own lives.
