Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, 2023
Previous Years: 2022 || 2021 || 2020 || 2019 || 2018
Preached at the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham, WA
Recording
https://moorejesus.podbean.com/e/in-your-midst-as-one-who-serves/
Transcript
Thank you to R.M. for editing this transcript.
When I go to people’s homes for dinner, a great joy of mine, and I wish I had more time for it, I wish I could get to everybody’s house for dinner, the way I quote, unquote “pay for my dinner” is I do the traditional house blessing. Now the Church is funny, all her rubrics are written in Europe and little hamlets and in an Italian villa. The Church says it is a pastoral responsibility that should be taken seriously, that the priest should go to every home in his parish, particularly during the Easter season. Okay, well, good luck in our parish, right? A thousand families. I couldn’t do it in three years, even if I did it one house every night. But, a pastoral responsibility to be taken seriously. And one of the reasons that’s true is something that the blessing right says, it says by the ministry of the priest, by the presence of the priest in the home, the family is to receive and to know the presence of Christ in their home.
That’s a bold statement. It’s a bold statement that somehow the priest, myself, with all of my faults and failures, with everything that I bring to the table, good and bad, that somehow I am bringing Christ into these homes. It seems incredibly presumptuous to say that. Horrible, even, idolatrous, for me to stand there and say, “I, Father Jeffrey Moore, am Christ to you right now in your home.”
Except that it’s true. The theology of the church is such that the priest is an ordained minister, and he is ordained to stand in the place of Christ.
I tear up every time I think about it. Because I am not worthy of this dignity. No one in the world is worthy of this dignity. It’s impossible for anybody, any human being, to say that he can stand in the place of Christ. And yet, that’s exactly what the Lord called His apostles to do. He called Peter and Andrew, James and John out of their boats, out of their livelihood, out of the world to follow Him. He called Matthew from behind the tax desk. He knew the deep desire of Nathaniel, Bartholomew, and He called him using that desire, as He calls every man to the priesthood, knowing the deepest desires of our hearts and revealing that to us. But He doesn’t do it for us. Again, it would be presumptuous to an extreme, narcissistic in a horrific way, if I were to say that the priesthood was for me. It’s not. The apostles did not know what they were getting into on Holy Thursday. You can tell from the Gospels.
Peter says, Lord, what are you doing? This is stupid. You should not be washing my feet, right? You’re the guy we’re following and yet you are acting like a slave or a servant to us. Why are you doing this? Please stop. It’s making me uncomfortable.
Peter had no idea the gift he was receiving that night, and he really wouldn’t understand it until Pentecost. And he probably didn’t understand it until his death on a cross himself.
But the priesthood was instituted by Christ on Holy Thursday because Jesus intentionally started a church. The church was on purpose. And He knew that His body, all of the baptized, all of the people that He would call to follow Him, that they needed a reminder of His presence. And not just a reminder like a play. I don’t get up here day after day at the altar to reenact something like an actor. I am a horrible actor. I have no creativity in my body at all. The priest stands behind the altar as an ordained minister of Christ, as somebody who, despite himself and despite his flaws and failings, disappears so that Christ can appear in His community. So that Christ can stand at the head of His body. Jesus wants you to know that He has never abandoned you, and He needs to give you a physical reminder. Because human beings are body and soul. We don’t just live in our head. We can’t just convince ourselves that Christ is here. It’s not like I can stand there with my hands folded and “manifest”, as the children say today. I can’t desire it and make it happen. I can’t convince myself that Jesus is here. I’m flesh and blood, I need something that I can touch. And the Lord knew that, knew as a human being, He knew that. And so He gave you the priesthood so that you would know that Christ still stands in your midst. That Christ still offers Himself on the cross for you. You don’t have to go to Jerusalem to see Calvary. You simply have to come to this altar. And you see, every day if you want to, you see Christ sacrifice Himself for you. He makes Himself actually and truly present every day, for you, in the Eucharist.
And He did it intentionally before He went to the cross because He wanted the apostles to know one, He gives himself freely. He wasn’t killed because he was arrested and couldn’t escape jail. He gives himself freely for you. But also, He wants you to know that He is ever present for you. We had priests before He died on the cross. We had men standing in the place of Jesus before He died on the cross, so that even though they abandoned Him, even in their sinfulness, He was still there. So that you would never feel abandoned. So that you would know that Jesus wants to be with you always.
And it is a great mystery that He should ordain His priests in the way that He did, by washing their feet.
In the oculus of our cathedral, there is written, “I am in your midst as one who serves.”
Holy Thursday is about both of those things. Jesus is in your midst, never doubt that. He is in your midst through the sacraments. It is not I who baptize. It’s Christ who baptizes. It’s not I, or the bishop, who confirms. It’s Christ who confirms. It’s not I who celebrate the Eucharist. It’s Christ who celebrates the Eucharist. He is in your midst. And then, of course, in the Eucharist, He persists, and you can pray and be with Him whenever you’d like. He is in your midst. But he is in your midst as one who serves.
It’s not lost on me that these are the words under which I was ordained a priest. They were above my head when I took upon myself this dignity.
It starts at the top. We wash feet on Holy Thursday because the priesthood, the presence of Christ, can easily be corrupted into a power trip if it is not a sacrament of service. And so, on Holy Thursday, the priest gets on his hands and knees, and he washes the feet of his people, as a sign that the presence of Christ is a presence of service.
But what starts at the top is true for the rest of the body as well. The Eucharist is always referred to as the sacrament of service. Those of you who receive the presence of Christ into yourselves week after week in the Eucharist are called to service, just as the priest, by his ordination, is called to service.
Those words that were above my head in ordination, “I am in your midst as one who serves,” might as well be over your head at your baptism, because you bring the presence of Christ into the world. I may stand here behind this altar and bring Christ to you. I might come into your homes and bring the presence of Christ. But I cannot be everywhere in Bellingham or in the Archdiocese of Seattle. But you can. Christ’s body can. When you receive the Eucharist, you receive the presence of Christ in yourself, and you bring that presence out into the world. You are in their midst as one who serves.
None of us. None of us are worthy of this dignity. I did not grow up wanting to be a priest. It’s something that Christ surprised me with. And I went, kicking and screaming I assure you, but it’s a gift I would never trade for anything. I am not worthy of this. None of us are worthy to be the presence of Christ in the world. And yet, my brothers and sisters, we are. And there’s no getting out of it.
But, to live that out, to live the sacraments out, to be body and soul, the presence of Christ in the world, is the most awesome gift you will ever receive. It is unimaginable to be able to say I felt Christ work through me today. I know that what I did today helped somebody touch, hug, receive words of wisdom from Christ Jesus Himself. It is a beautiful faith that we have received. The sacraments are a beautiful gift given to humanity. And today of all days, where we celebrate the institution of two great sacraments, the priesthood and the Eucharist, today of all days is a day for giving thanks. The Eucharist, to give thanks. We give that thanks today so that tomorrow, when we contemplate Christ on His cross, when we contemplate the death of God at our hands, we will not be disappointed or afraid. We will know the promise, the guarantee of Jesus, that He is in our midst as one who serves.
Fr. Moore 