Holy Thursday 2015
Robert VerEecke, S.J.
What Wondrous Love is this, o my soul, o my soul? What wondrous love is
this, o my soul? What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of Bliss to
give his life in love for my soul, for my soul? To give his life in love for my
soul?
This folk tune has been my constant companion throughout the Lenten
Season. I’m not sure where it came from but one morning in prayer it was
there, in my head, an invitation to enter into and contemplate the mystery of
God’s wondrous love. When it began I didn’t know that it would be my
heart-song through my mother’s death, nor that it would it be our heart-song
for these three days.
Three days. What are three days compared with the 99 years or 36,135 days
of my mother’s life? What are three days compared with the 33 years or
12,045 days and then some of the life of Jesus of Nazareth? How do we sum
up, capture, encapsulate the life of Jesus in three days, or rather in three
rituals that are woven seamlessly together, beginning tonight and
ending/beginning again with the great Alleluia and missioning that send us
forth at the Easter Vigil?
When my family gathered to remember my mother’s life a week ago tonight,
we told stories and shared memories. We brought to the table the
“highlights” of mom, the funny stories, the sparkle of her existence. Do you
remember when mom…? Do you remember the time when…? Do you
remember what mom said when…? Do you remember what mom did on the
night…..?
Yes, we did remember and we broke bread and shared glasses of wine (or
scotch) around a table and we gave thanks for a life of 99 years. Hmm, not
unlike what we are doing tonight here at this table. We remember the words
and actions of Jesus. We break bread and share a cup and we give thanks.
Our ancestors in faith, the Jewish people, will do the same this Saturday
night as they begin their Passover, remembering how God delivered them
from the hands of their enemies, sharing a meal of roasted lamb and bitter
herbs and unleavened bread and giving thanks. Giving thanks for this
wondrous love.
My family gathered to remember and give thanks for my mother’s life for
her wondrous love. We remembered and shared the “highlights”, the most
memorable moments. But what about the “ordinary” days of her life as the
world was turning on it axis 36,135 times. We did not remember how many
meals she prepared, how many times she changed diapers, how many times
she set up the ironing board in the living room and watched her favorite
soaps, “Days of Our Lives” and “As the World Turns”. We did not
remember how many songs she sang or how many dances she danced. We
did not remember how many tables she waited on as a waitress at Stouffer’s
in Garden City. We did not remember how many times she and my father
made love. We did not remember how many times she washed not just our
feet but bathed us and anointed us with her love. We did remember how my
mother bathed and anointed my father with healing oil when he was unable
to respond to her love. We remembered the highlights, not so much the
ordinary, everyday “stuff” of life.
During these three days we remember the highlight of Jesus’ earthly life; the
night on which he was betrayed, the day on which he was nailed to a Cross,
the very early on the morning after the Sabbath when God raised him from
the dead. We try to remember three of the 12,045 days of his life when the
world was turning on its axis 12,045 times. These three days are certainly
the most dramatic of his life. Betrayal, Denial, Arrest, Torture, Crucifixion,
Entombment. We do not remember the ordinary stuff of his life, the
everydayness of his life, when his feet were washed by a loving mother or
faithful friend. We do not remember all the meals he shared with disciples
and tax collectors and sinners. Or do we? In the ordinary gesture of washing
feet, he gives us an example of how to live as servant, rather than as master.
In the ordinary gesture of washing the feet of his disciples, he overturns the
established order as he overturned the table of the money-changers in the
temple. This ordinary, every day action of washing tired, odiferous, dusty
feet sums up three years of being servant, of healing the broken in body,
mind, spirit.
And this ordinary action of breaking bread and sharing a cup of wine; this
everyday action of gathering for a meal on the night before he died, sums up
a life time of blessing God, of Berakah. How many times had the Berakah
Prayer, “Blessed are you Lord God of the Universe” been uttered by Jesus in
his lifetime, a prayer that he would have learned first from his mother and
father’s lips?
Friends, we gather together tonight to say that the ordinariness of Jesus’ life,
the everydayness of a human life is all there. In bread broken, in wine
poured out, in feet washed. His body, his blood, his service, given for us.
And that means, I believe, that the days of our lives, the world’s turning on
its axis while we live is all captured through him and with him and in him,
so that our lives can be a Song of Praise, a heart-song of love.
What wondrous love is this o my soul, o my soul, What wondrous love is this
o my soul, What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to live
his life in love for my soul, for my soul, to live his life in love for my soul.