Thursday, 4/17/14
As followers of Jesus let’s look
at the love he had for his followers on Holy Thursday. In Luke’s Gospel we read
where Jesus said, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer.” But if we translate literally when Luke quoted Jesus as saying, it
is much stronger. Jesus actually said, “With desire have I desired to eat this
Passover with you.”
When we receive Jesus in Holy
Communion we love him as much as we can. In his saying that he eagerly desired
to be with us, Jesus was saying that he longed for the intimacy he would feel
when he came to you and me in Communion. It was like a future groom longing to
be one with his beloved.
What might Jesus have been feeling
as he washed the feet of each of his disciples? St. John described how Jesus
felt as he was taking off his outer robe, preparing to wash their feet. John
wrote, “Having loved his disciples, he loved them to the end.” He handled each
man’s feet lovingly.
Then, after the meal he gave his
disciples the special commandment of loving one another: “This is my commandment, that you love one another.”
How much did he want them to love
one another? You know the answer to that. They had t love one another as
much as he loved them. That should tell us that at that moment Our Lord’s heart
was bursting with love for them.
Then, how much deep disappointment
did he feel when he asked, “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”
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