Thank you for coming to join us and to enter this great mystery of God= s saving action on our lives.

It is not easy for a human being to really believe because it= s an act of surrender and trust. It’s an act of opening ones self of risk. But if the risk is taken then there is a tremendous transformation that begins so that the person begins to unfold. For instance right now God has always been loving the human race. He’s always been loving you from the time even before you came into this world and he has never abandoned you at any moment.

So God= s intention for the human race is deep in his own heart and it becomes manifested in history. That= s why the church places the Passover ritual as the first reading for today= s Mass. To remind us that God= s action has powerfully begun long time ago. One of its most significant moments was God= s liberating the people out of Egypt which is celebrated in the Passover ritual. It left such a deep impression on people, God= s power liberating the Jewish community from Pharaoh and his armies with the plagues, with the walking through the Red Sea, with the pillar of Fire by night and cloud by day, so that they even began to realize that in some way it reflected God= s work even in creation to bring us out of nothing, out of chaos. So they began to realize the God that was dealing with them, to deliver them into freedom from slavery, was the same God who created them out of nothingness. It’s the same God that led them out of darkness into light. To be a people that began to realize there= s more to the world then what meets your eyes, more than what you think is important, and not only that, if you pay attention to it you have a tremendous treasure.

So the community deepened in that particular experience so that when Joshua brought the people into the Holy Land and had the Passover meal he was thinking also of God= s fulfilling his promises to his people and leading them to the Promised Land. Then when the Prophets had to deal with the disorder in the community to remind them of their sinfulness again it was the Passover that reminded them that God was a God of holiness and was drawing them to himself. So much so that in the exile when they did the Passover meal they were expecting a whole new creation from God in a gift of a Messiah. So when Jesus and the Apostles and the other disciples gathered, some say about 120 people in the upper room, or where ever they gathered, they were deeply aware that the God they worshiped was their saving God. It must have been very powerful for the Apostles as Jesus leading them in this Passover meal took the blood of the lamb and placed it on the doorposts, knowing that this was the sign that God was watching over and protecting his people from death. That God was leading them from darkness to light. That God was leading them and delivering them from all slavery and that he would come and send a Messiah to them.

Yet Jesus had to stand in their midst as John tells us, A much more aware of greater things then they could comprehend.@ He even had to tell Peter that he would not understand what= s going on fully. He obviously understood something because when he saw Jesus at his feet he felt that he was totally unworthy that Jesus should be bending down before him. But there is much more to it then that because Jesus knew this was his last hour. Jesus knew this was his last chance to really show the world what he was all about. So it was for Jesus a rather rich, intense, and highly definitive moment. He chose to fulfill what he already promised that he would offer his Body and Blood to his new kingdom, to his new covenanted people. But because he knew that his apostles and disciples would not understand this he also decided to interpret it for them as John tells us, A he acted the part of a slave. Took a jar of water, and a basin, and knelt before each apostle and washed their feet. @

It is an image that we must meditate on deeply because this is God who bows down before us, to cleanse us redeem us, to offer us the fulness of life. And of course the apostles would not fully understand this until Pentecost when they received the Spirit then they really began to catch on. So how many of us have been Catholics for 25, 30, 50, 70 years or better and still have not discovered what a profound mystery we stand in and before every time we celebrate the Eucharist? This is the gift of God for our salvation. It is so rich that the church has endless titles for this mystery. It is so rich that Jesus gives us his life. That Jesus becomes for us and the Eucharist becomes for us what makes us. What transforms us. What fulfills us. What empowers us. Yet it can be easily misunderstood and trivialized because of our human weakness and our limited faith.

The Passover meal had its own ritual and Jesus was leading it and praying. There= s a place in the ritual where you take the bread and you say, A Blessed are you Lord God of all creation for this gift of bread of affliction@ that your people use when they went out of Egypt but Jesus changed the words and the apostles certainly must have noticed because they were faithful, practicing Jews and therefore knew the saying of the ritual. And Jesus said, "This is my body which will be given up for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Then later the cup. "This is the cup of the new covenant which will be poured out. Do this in remembrance of me.@

Too often we think immediately that Jesus by using the word A body@ he is isolating the rest of himself. He’s just talking about his body. But this is a Jew speaking. Body means your whole person. Jesus is giving us his life from birth to death. And this is my blood means of course that he= s giving us his death. The whole of his being is a gift to us. And for a two fold manner not only for our salvation but also that we may have the most powerful prayer and worship of God the Father that we can worship him in Spirit and in truth. For just as Jesus lives by the Father those who feed on him live from him.

So we have the most powerful prayer in the world. We the Catholic community that believes and is in some way the Eucharist. When it offers this sacrifice it calls forth God= s mercy upon the whole world because it is Jesus who is our high priest and it is Jesus who is the sacrifice and we unite ourselves with him and this is totally acceptable to the Father, so acceptable that the Father rejoices to receive this gift and wants to respond to it with countless blessings. But its not just the gift of the Father it= s done for us Jesus says, namely that we would have life. That the physical life we have we get older, we have the blessings of the golden years, and we die. But we have a life that= s deeper than that the life of Jesus himself which is his relationship with the Father in the Spirit.

So this is the food of the faith community that sustains, empowers, transforms us, and enables us then to be instruments of God= s work in the world. So Paul can say to us: A My brothers in Christ, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual sacrifice.@ Meaning that since we are united with Christ everything we do can be done for the glory of God and the salvation of souls and it will be acceptable and effective as our unfolding continues until the Lord calls us home.

We have in this evening a rather incomprehensible mystery, so rich and so deep, so filled with God= s presence that it= s difficult for us to be open to it. We need to really ask ourselves how much do I really appreciate the gift of faith I have been given? Do I ask the Lord to deepen my appreciation for and my receptivity of the great graces that this sacrament brings to those who believe and to those who put into practice what Jesus says: A You call me Master and Teacher and so I am. So do what I did. Become a servant to all out of love for them. As I have loved you. Because as I live from the Father, those who feed on me live from Me@