LENTEN REFLECTION

We had the Chrism Mass in the Morning, to bless the three sacramental oils used over the Liturgical Year. When applied, oils make real and present what they symbolise: God’s action in humankind’s salvation history, making it God’ history, and in our personal lives as individuals. We are claimed by God, He puts His Holy Spirit in Us, He makes us Kings or better still Shepherds of each other, prophets or teachers or evangelisers to the remotest ends of the world to all creatures, and priests who bless and heal each other and all creation and offer ourselves as self-less self-emptying sacrifices to God; for we all share in the three-fold office of Christ as King, Prophet and Priest. Our anointing is for the good of all humankind; we are to heal the world from social economic privations, physical and emotional burdens and all sorts of mental illnesses, ignorance and narrowmindedness, and all oppression, proclaiming God’s salvation. The readings set out our pivotal role in the world, namely, being as and doing what Jesus did:  

• “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,         to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Lk 4:18-19, citing Isa 61:1-9)

Then in the evening, we gather to make present that most sacred event when Jesus instituted the Eucharist. Though true God, Jesus performs the most-lowliest and despised of roles: washing the dirty feet of his apostles. As the Gospel of John recounts: 

And during supper ³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴ got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.  

And afterwards, Jesus explains the significance of what He has done:

Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

He gives the mandatum, that is, order or command: “³⁴ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (Jn 13:34). We are to love everyone as Jesus loved: in humble, selfless, self-emptying service. He did not hold anything back; He loved with His very life, by His suffering and death. We are to be prepared to love God and everyone with everything we are.

The Gospel of John does not recount the narrative and formulae for the institution of the Eucharist: At the last supper, Jesus took bread, blessed it, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them; and the cup of wine; saying take this and eat, and drink; for this is my body, my blood; do this in memory of me; which we find in Mark (14:22-25), Matthew (26:2628), Luke (22:19-20), and St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11:23-26). When John’s Gospel was written around the year 90 AD, the other Gospels had already been written and circulating, and St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians of 53 AD shows that this Eucharistic celebration was already Tradition that the early Christians celebrated in homes. John therefore presupposed knowledge of this most foundational liturgical practice and worship, and sought only to explain further by recounting what else Jesus did at the Last Supper. He was keen that the Eucharist is seen as a call to humble, loving service. Also, in chapter 6, the Gospel of John already extensively underscores that Jesus is the bread from heaven, and we must eat His flesh and drink His blood, literally not just symbolically (Jn 6:52-59), and though this scandalised many of His disciples and they stopped following Him, Jesus insisted that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood (Jn 6:66-69). Unlike the disciples who leave because they do not believe that the Eucharist is true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, here is where we can join Peter in praying, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:68).  

At Communion, we receive our Lord Jesus Christ, who is true God, into our bodies, soul and mind. At adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, we are before our Creator, who became flesh (Jn 1:14), and humbly dwells among us. That is God’s love.