What is Holy Thursday for You?

 This holy week found me caught up with preparing homilies and liturgies. I was busy with priestly things but also stressed and anxious. I wanted to get out of that hole, so I asked someone to help me. And that person asked me a great question, “What does Holy Thursday mean for you?”

I could have told him all the things that I usually preach about, but I realize it was not the point. I was preparing other people’s Holy Thursday, and I had forgotten my own… Now, the Church wants me to preach about the three gifts we receive today from Jesus, and I will do that; but the personal note will perhaps help to appreciate and celebrate these gifts. Some of you will probably resonate with my experience.

1.  I entered the church when I was 10 years old (I was baptized Catholic but we didn’t go to mass before that). For some reason, after a few months I started to go to mass every day. One day, the priest called me to serve mass and, since that day, I never again sat in the pew. I wanted to be close to the altar, and I could never stop looking at the host on the altar. The priest taught us frequently and with his personal devotion that Jesus was truly present under the appearances of bread and wine, and so I could not find a better place for me. I wanted to feel safe, perhaps, and closer to Jesus seemed the safest place. I felt that my place was there, serving at the altar, simply because I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to be that close to Jesus. When that person asked me what Holy Thursday meant for me, I realize that my faith had begun with this particular relationship with the Eucharist, and that therefore, Holy Thursday was a day to be thankful to God for this gift, for being so close to us, for being so meek, for making us feel safe.

2.  Then, one day, praying in front of the blessed Sacrament, I felt for the first time the call to priesthood. I did not know very well what it meant at that time, and I keep finding out new aspects here and there. Then, becoming a priest was something like belonging to the Lord, being consecrated to Him, being “sacred,” in a way, like a vessel or a chalice you use for Mass. I could not understand then that being a priest and being consecrated actually go together. A priest is meant to offer sacrifices to God. Jesus is the High Priest and He offers to God no other victim than Himself. A Catholic priest, if he is a priest like Jesus, must offer himself also together with Jesus, must consecrate himself as well, not only the bread and the wine. The priest transforms really and truly bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. But the priest must also transform spiritually himself into Jesus by offering himself, his own sufferings, his own efforts to do God’s will and to avoid sin. How can the priest say, “This is my body,” if he does not live like Jesus lived? Don’t people want to see Jesus in the priest? When we say that we all are one Body with Christ, it is because we receive His Body in Holy Communion, but also because we should act as Jesus’ Body, offering ourselves, our sufferings, our desires to grow spiritually, to the Father, through Jesus, with Him and in Him. This is the priesthood common to all baptized: offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, together with the Host; the sacramental priesthood, the one of the ordained priest, is consecrating and offering that Host so that the faithful can offer themselves together with Jesus.

3.  Jesus is in the Host, but He is there as a Priest, offering Himself to the Father, out of love. When we receive the Eucharist, we receive not only Jesus, not only the possibility of offering ourselves together with Him, but also the strength to do it, His love. The greatest act of love is to offer yourself. Offering ourselves sometimes hurts, because it implies sacrifice, or because our offer is not welcome sometimes; but it is better to die loving than to live alone, and without God. To live is to love. The Eucharist is the incarnation of God’s love, offering Himself for us to eat, offering Himself as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. No greater priest, no greater miracle, no greater love.

May God help us to exercise our priesthood, to offer ourselves in love to God and to our brothers and sisters in need. Not only in need of money, but also in need of our forgiveness, of our compassion, of our company, of our visit, of our consolation. May we not be afraid of offering our lives to God, if he calls us to consecrated life. May we today become truly one Body with Christ, joining Jesus’ offer of Himself to the Father.