HOLY THURSDAY

1. Marty Haugen has written a beautiful hymn which kind of sticks in your mind “We remember, We celebrate, We believe.” and those three phrases sum up our three readings and the theme of our liturgy today.

WE REMEMBER: Remembering is usual done rather quietly in the silence of your room, away from he madding crowd. And yet remembering also invites a re telling of our experiences, sharing our memories with those of like minds and like hearts.

The Jewish community gathered together at the time of the Pasch to remember how God led them out of Egypt into the promised land. It was a God who promised, through his prophets, long after the Exodus, that God wold be their God and they would be God’s people.

1b WE REMEMBE R the Jewish community as being our ancestors and the promise made to them continues to be made to us today. But we go beyond the exodus to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob - our fathers in faith.

WE REMEMBER how these ancestors of ours reflect our own stories in our lives today. Abraham was called from Ur in the Caldees... the present day Iraq. Our father in faith, Abraham was an Iraqi ! He was asked to leave his comfort Zone. He and his wife Sara and all their possessions. He left for a land promised to him by God. A land that was rich. It was expressed in terms of being rich in milk and honey. He came to a foreign land. He must have felt afraid. There were no friends and no family. How often he must have been tempted: “I want to go home.”

1c WE REMEMBER that this is our own story too. Unless we are Native Indian, all of us were like Abraham, a wandering Aramean. Either our parents, grandparents or great parents came from The Caribbean or Africa, from Ireland or Europe, from the Philippines or Sri Lanka. And when the first winter came, how many of us did not ask ourselves, “What I am doing in this cold country - freezing my tootsies.” I want to go home. What would I give for a Rum and Coke on Annotto Bay or at Soufriere in St. Lucia. What would I give for some Lumpia or Adobo in Viscaya or Ilo-Ilo. How wonderful the Idli Sambar would taste on the beaches of Kandy or Colombo. After some years we did go home and we could not take the heat or the mosquitoes, Canada was our home, as Canaan was the home to Abraham.

1d WE REMEMBER Isaac and how he was taken to be sacrificed. Isaac asked Abraham, “Father, we have the fire and we have the wood, but where is the Sacrifice?” and Abraham replied, “God will provide.” As we struggled through life and when we wanted to give up, there was always an Abraham who has come to tell us, “God will provide” And we have managed to muddle through our problems with our deep faith in “God will provide” and indeed God has done so.

1e WE REMEMBER Jacob who wrestled with an angel all through the night. Jacob would not release the angel until he gave Jacob his name. How many of us can tell stories of how we wrestled through the night.

A marriage that breaks up,

a family member who is an alcoholic,

children who no longer practice the faith.

We have wrestled through racial discrimination, intolerance because we are gay, intolerance because we are single parents, intolerance because we are teenagers who love to dance to the tune of a different drummer. And yet I have seen you as a community and as individual not loosing heart because you have been called by name and you have been made holy by the waters of Baptism.

2. And so WE CELEBRATE. Paul invites us to celebrate because Christ took bread and wine and blessed and broke and gave it to his disciples. Before the changes in the liturgy WE CELEBRATE was the main theme of our Holy Thursday Solemnity. We celebrated the memory of the First Communion and the Priesthood. We celebrated our Priests and their ministry especially in the Sacraments. They baptised, they celebrated marriages, they buried our dead.

2a I can recall in a parish in Madhia in Guyana. I would receive a whole bagful of gifts, as if it were Christmas time. I fly into that Jungle Parish only once a year. The Parishioners were grateful for the sacraments they could receive. They were grateful and celebrated the Sacramental ministry of the Priesthood.

WE CELEBRATE is easy to understand and requires no explanation. But this Celebration is only possible because WE REMEMBER and because WE BELIEVE.

3. WE BELIEVE: John is the only one who gives us the most radical and symbolic act of Jesus. Jesus first acknowledges that He is Lord. Then he puts aside his tunic, girds himself with a towel and washes his disciples feet. It is the most degrading and demeaning service. The Lord makes himself our slave. It is so awful, that Peter recoils, “You will never wash my feet.”

So many of you do the same today. Our Filipino tradition is the mano tradition. You touch the priest’s hand to your head because my hands are anointed. And yet when I try to touch your hand to my head because you wash the dishes, you washes the clothes, you bathe your little children, you scrub the floors - you like Peter recoil “Never will I allow you do this.” Jesus came to SERVE not to be served. And so too we who are in leadership should show this by serving.

3a People will say WE BELIEVE when they can see IN their priests their bishop and their Pope - a Jesus who serves, a Jesus who is at the feet of his disciples. They want to see this not in a token ceremony once a year, but in reality 365 days a year, and 366 day this year.

Until our people can see this our “WE BELIEVE” will be like singing O Canada at a Ball Game. It stirs up the emotions and nothing more. Thank God our community is rich in service. This witness is seen in (to name a few)

our work in the Food bank

our ministry to the sick

our welcomers at each service... being welcomed with a smile makes a greater impact than a string of words well put together.

in our altar servers who are faithful each Sunday in their service

in our St. Vincent de Paul society.

And so my friends, We remember, We celebrate, We believe.