The proper place is charity

Dear brothers and sisters, we are gathered here to solemnly celebrate the Paschal Triduum of the passion, death, and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The liturgy of this Holy Thursday makes us plunge our gaze into the mystery of what happens after the last supper: Jesus is arrested and taken to suffer the passion and die on the cross. Thus, these are not facts that remained in a historical moment and that we bring to our memory. The Christ event was not restricted to a moment, but flooded all of history, communicating the gift of salvation and redemption to all of us; we will also witness, on Holy Saturday, this same gift being granted to the catechumens who approached Jesus, welcomed his Word, and desire to follow him with true charity.

The first reading brings the institution of the Jewish Passover.1 Moses is the mediator of this passover, the one who must go before the people to lead them to freedom. But the one who prepares and accomplishes this passover is God himself, leading the people, with his strength and power, from Egypt toward the promised land. The lamb sacrificed in haste marks the departure from the land of slavery, and its blood on the door is the mark that preserves from death. Those who ate the passover were marked for life and preserved from death. The lamb is a figure of Christ, who is the true lamb sacrificed for the liberation and salvation of all humanity.2

The sick need a physician, the healthy do not.3 In the same way, the slave, the prisoner needs liberation; whoever is already free does not need to be liberated. The perception of oneself is important so that each person can situate themselves and recognize the condition in which they find themselves. Whoever does not perceive themselves as a slave and a prisoner does not realize that they need liberation. Their heart has as its horizon the limit of the bars. For those who live like this, what is slavery is taken as life.

It is God himself who liberates his people, but humanity needs to prepare the passover. The human offering reflects the awareness of the condition of humanity itself which, enslaved, desires liberation and true life. Jesus acts in the power of God and, at the same time, makes the offering of himself for sinful humanity. His offering is full of charity; it is fulfilled by the love of God. He makes his self-surrender freely: no one takes his life from him, it is He who gives it in the exercise of his freedom.4 The power of God that leads to freedom is his love. And this now dwells in human flesh itself in the person of Jesus, and from Him it radiates to all those who are in communion with Him. Our freedom is a gift from God, and it is also a call to remain in the love with which we were loved and received the gift of new life.5 Free, we are called to live in charity, after the model of Our Lord and Master, who bends down to purify what is impure.

In the Gospel, Jesus performs the washing of the feet during the last supper, washing the feet of his disciples so that they might have a part with Him.6 A beautiful gesture and one of service, which can also be scandalous. Peter does not want to accept it, because he does not want to see his Lord and Master in the position of one who serves — a position reserved for servants and slaves. Peter does not yet understand the charity that leads Jesus to perform such a gesture and perceives only the Master lowering himself to a function that was not worthy of Him. But the true place in which He places himself is charity. His divinity is full of it, and his humanity is completely immersed in it, with all that is proper to it. The holy action of Jesus accomplishes the completion of his sanctifying work in his disciples, who were sanctified in the Word.7 The gesture of washing the feet is an example of humility for all his disciples. Since humility does not have an end in itself, going beyond the example, charity — which flooded and sanctified the humanity of Jesus — is the proper place where his disciples must live.

Saint Paul, in the first letter to the Corinthians, which we have just heard, speaks of the tradition he received and handed on.8 Continuing, he brings the very account of the institution of the Eucharist, not as a fact narrated in the third person, but in the first person and with the words of Christ himself. The redemptive work consummated on the cross continues to be participated in by his disciples. He himself anticipated it at the last supper, instituting the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood. The priesthood is always at the service of communicating the merciful work of Christ to all humanity, in all times and places. In the Eucharist we sit at the table with Jesus to participate in his supper and his sacrifice. Time and space do not disappear, but are elevated and fulfilled by the eternity of God.

Today, around this altar, we celebrate the mystery of the Passover of Our Lord. It is a memorial that is realized before us. We do not simply bring to memory the past events of our salvation: they are truly happening in our today. In this “real and present memory-participation” we become witnesses of the work of Jesus.9

The sacrifice of the Lord has freed us. Therefore, to remain in his mystery, we are called to make of our life a holy and pleasing sacrifice to God, through our communion with the Lord himself.10 To live charity is to make of one's own life a spiritual sacrifice. Thus we are here, celebrating this holy Eucharist — because the work of Jesus has freed us, molded us, and enriched us with his grace. To be a community of faith, that is, a community of the disciples of Jesus, is to live from the things of heaven even during the earthly pilgrimage, pointing our lives toward the mystery of God, which is a real presence in us. While we are on pilgrimage, we do not live solely among what is passing, for the eternal already enriches us with its gifts and leads us gradually in the growth in his grace, until we can reach fullness.

The path of the Christian is made, like that of Jesus, with pain, suffering, joy, and life. We are called to journey in hope and persevere in following Christ. Therefore, let us not be afraid to bend down like Jesus for humble service, for charity is in us. We will not lose ourselves in this gesture: we will be living in charity and in freedom. To love according to the heart of God is to be truly free. With our roots founded in the saving mystery of Christ, we can exercise the freedom of the children of God.

Today is the beginning of the Paschal Triduum. Let us remain with Jesus during these three days, traversing the passion and death of the Lord to witness his resurrection. Also in our life let us remain with Him, with fidelity, on the way of the cross, so that we may rise on the last day to eternal life, and thus experience in our own flesh, in fullness, the fruits of the resurrection of Our Lord.

Praised be Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Notes

Readings of the Mass of the Lord's Supper — the same every year: Ex 12:1-8.11-14; Ps 115(116); 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15.

Ex 12:1-14: the lamb without blemish, the blood on the doorposts, the meal eaten in haste, with loins girt and sandals on the feet. ↩

Christ as the true paschal lamb: 1 Cor 5:7 (“Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed”); Jn 1:29; 1 Pet 1:18-19; Rev 5:6. ↩

Mt 9:12 (cf. Mk 2:17; Lk 5:31): “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” ↩

Jn 10:18 — the only passage expressly cited in the preached text: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” ↩

Jn 15:9: “Abide in my love.” ↩

Jn 13:1-15, the Gospel of the day. The answer to Peter is in 13:8: “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.” ↩

Jn 17:17.19: “Sanctify them in the truth: your word is truth.” ↩

1 Cor 11:23-26, the second reading of the day: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.” ↩

The liturgy calls this “today” a memorial (in Greek, anamnesis): not the remembrance of an absent fact, but the presence of the celebrated mystery itself. ↩

Rom 12:1: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”. ↩

Text revised for publication. The revision corrected agreement, government, punctuation, and repetitions, without altering the content of the preaching. The notes were added in this edition and were not part of the preached text: they indicate the passages cited or alluded to in the homily and, when the liturgy of the day is fixed, the proper readings of the celebration.