The Holy and The Good

As we begin the solemn Easter Triduum, a small but mighty season of the Church year, we center on the words holy and good. Today, Thursday, is the day of a meal which commemorates the Lord’s Last Supper – Holy Thursday. Tomorrow is a solemn day of the Church year. We fast, pray, and keep vigil; a day of sadness, grief, and disillusionment but a Friday unlike any other. A day made Good by a God of great love. These power filled days of holiness and goodness have an unbroken connection with ancient history, long before Jesus appeared on the scene.

Last Tuesday evening I had the privilege of joining with our local Jewish community at Temple Beth Shalom located about two miles from our parish. I had been invited there by the Rabbi and I was very much looking forward to the celebration of Passover and the Seder meal. I was not disappointed. The meal began rich with traditions, song in Hebrew of course, and filled with the story of oppression, captivity, liberation (a favorite expression of our Jewish brethren), haste, and hope for the future. It all began with the foundational story of the Jewish people – Moses, the Hebrews, bad-boy Pharaoh Rameses, the rush out of Egypt with the Egyptian army in hasty pursuit, and the age old hope for ultimate liberation in Messianic times. I could not help but imagine what that night must have been like for Jesus and his gathered inner circle of trusted friends.

Of all the symbolism in that ancient meal, the four cups of wine drunk at specific points in the meal are commemorations of bondage and deliverance: The Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks. The current exile from Jerusalem and the Promised Land and the rebuilding of The Temple is a hope to be restored by the coming of Elijah, the messianic figure in the fourth cup. It is that last cup in particular that should touch our hearts as a Christian people.

That fourth cup, our tradition holds, was not drunk by Jesus at the last supper. In the Garden of Gethsemane, not long after this unprecedented Passover meal, Jesus knelt upon the ground and prayed as blood broke from his face in deep anguish: “Father let this cup pass from me. But not as I will, as you will.” We hear these painful words in Matthew, Mark and Luke. The final cup, that of Elijah who pre-figures the coming of the Messiah and ultimate liberation from oppression, was drunk in the Garden that night by the one who would bring that final freedom. The cup of suffering and bitterness became the cup of victory three days later.

The word holy means essentially to be set apart, to be marked, to be viewed as somehow different from all others. “Why is this night different from all others?” a child asks. For us, it is different, made holy from all others because on this night we not only see the beginning of our Eucharistic celebrations but also the foundation of the Priesthood, through which come our sacraments, through which come the transformation of our lives and the grace to be conformed more and more to Christ himself. This is the moment of great transition in the life of Jesus, the Hour as St. John puts it, and the beginning of God’s final act of liberation for humankind. It is a great and Holy Thursday.

In our Eucharistic celebrations, we have stripped away most elements of the Jewish Passover meal but maintain the full sign which replaces all others – the bread, which becomes his flesh and one cup of wine, his blood, the sign of his ultimate sacrifice. As Jesus said, “I came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.”– in Christ, and Christ alone, all else falls by the wayside. We maintain his Word and we raise that one Bread and one Cup which has brought salvation.

The washing of the Apostles feet, the work of a slave, that night must have stunned this inner circle of Jesus' friends who would shortly scatter in fear. “As I have done so you must do.” John 13: 1-15 relates this moving event which made this night, this Passover meal, forever made holy by the Holy One.

We know the further events which unfolded in their tragic darkness and lead to Good Friday. Good is like the word love – we through it around haphazardly without much thought. I always smile when I ask a child, “How are you doing?” They inevitably respond, “Good.” In their simple world, “good” is uncomplicated and sufficient. In our adult world, “good” may be packed with fuller implications: well, secure, satisfied, fulfilled, at peace, grateful. For our Elijah, Jesus our liberator, good became this day the ultimate triumph over the power of darkness as he submitted himself to ultimate injustice, identified with our personal darkness and original weakness (aka: Adam and Eve), and leads all of us into the promised land of eternal life. Yet, if it were not for the resurrection, this day might have been called - “Pitiful” Friday or “Sad” Friday or “Hopeless” Friday. It is the Grand Feast we look forward to on Sunday that has made all the difference.

So, today, as we receive Our Lord in the Eucharist and we recall the tragic and triumphant passion, cross, and burial tomorrow, let us pray to become a holy and good people. Pray for priests especially today. In this time in which the Church continues to undergo great scrutiny which has lead directly to Peter himself, we need the support and prayers of the holy and good people of God. Pray for Pope Benedict in a special way. There is great injustice and distortion of the true facts. May the price paid by the Lamb of Sacrifice lead us to holy and good lives.