Christ is the love of God made naked for us...

Photo by anxiousdog

Homily for Holy Thursday 2010

Jesus rose from supper and took off his outer garments…

At this last supper with his closest friends,
friends who, within a few hours:
would fall sleep in his hour of need;
flee his company in fear;
and finally deny even knowing him…

At this last supper Jesus took off his outer garments
lest anything encumber his bending and kneeling as a servant,
to wash the day’s dirt from his friends’ feet...

This partial disrobing would be but a hint
of how the next day he would be stripped and fully exposed
as the servant he makes of himself in every age
for the sake of those he loves.

In revealing how truly human he is
Jesus exposes his divinity,
laying bare a love more exquisite
than any we might hope to share with one another
and yet precisely the love that each of us,
in our heart of hearts,
most desires.

The mystery of Jesus, fully human, fully divine
is revealed in his laying aside whatever might encumber his desire
- to empty himself out for us as our servant,
- to hand himself over to us as who he truly is, in sacrifice,
- to sanctify, to make us holy in our receiving the love he,
in his heart of hearts,
desires to share with us.

And as he has done for us, so are we also to do...

So are we to remove whatever hides or betrays
the beauty of God’s divine image within each of us:
the sins, the habits, the selfishness, the self-doubt -
whatever conceals and constricts
the person God made each of us to be.

So are we to strip off the ways
we disparage or deny God’s beauty within us,
that divine image in which every one of us is uniquely made.

And as he has done for us, so are we also to do
by offering our selves to others in loving service;
emptying our selves in sacrifice for others;
and finding in our emptied selves
what always remains and is never exhausted:
the reflection of God’s beauty within us.

Christ is the love of God made naked for us
that we might see in Jesus what God never fails to see in us:
a clear reflection of the beauty of the Holy.

As the Passover lamb was stripped of life and its blood poured out,
marking the homes of those to be delivered
and set free to be God’s people,
so is Jesus, the Lamb of God, our Passover sacrifice,
stripped of dignity,
his blood poured out on the Cross, shared with us,
marking us as those to be delivered and set free
to be the people of God.

As Jesus gathered with his closest friends,
friends who, within a few hours,
would fall sleep in his hour of need,
flee his company in fear
and finally deny even knowing him,
so he gathers with us this night
as we, the people of the Covenant in his blood,
celebrate the Passover which is ours in Christ.

As Jesus has done for us, so are we also to do…

(If this homily's theme is helpful for you, read more in the same vein from Ron Rolheiser)


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