Maundy Thursday Homily: “He Knows Everything”

H

e knows everything. My own picture of God who knows what he is doing is through an artist’s work. The 17th century painting, entitled "The Raising of the Cross" by Peter Paul Rubens, is what I give to my retreatants when they enter the Passion of the Lord. The depiction of Jesus by the Flemish artist fits perfectly what was said in the book of Isaiah about the suffering servant. Look at the nailed hand of Jesus. It looks like he is lifting his own cross still with firmness, with arm stretched and fist clenched not with anger but determination.

Look at his raised left leg. It looks like he is climbing uphill with his back bent by the load he is carrying. His gut is inflated as if there is fire inside and is ready to come out to bring warmth. It brings to mind the last two verses from the poem 'God's Grandeur' by Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, I quote: "Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings."

The full weight of God's love belongs to Jesus alone. When we look at Jesus like this He still is the all-knowing God that we know of. A God who is in full control despite severe suffering, opposition, and humiliation. But this God is definitely not a punishing God, he is not a tyrant. Far from it. Will you continue clinging to an image of a punishing God—who is to be feared rather than loved? Isaiah foretold that he will not shrink back from His mission, despite the odds. We heard from the first reading of both Palm Sunday and Holy Wednesday these lines: "The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame." Flint is a very hard kind of dark rock. The expression "Set your face like flint" is understood as a figure of speech in the book of Isaiah. Likewise, Paul Rubens painted a flint-faced Jesus to express both the toughness of the task at hand and Jesus's unwavering determination to face it no matter what it takes.

Now, let us look at the four men in the painting. Each of them is preoccupied with a task. The one to the right is supporting the cross with his two hands, to the left is someone who seems to carry much of the load on his back and in a quite dangerous position to be. There is another guy who is partly hidden. He is farthest away from the cross but he is securing and pushing the ladder underneath as Jesus on the cross is being elevated. The fourth man at the leftmost side is positioned like he is embracing the wood of the cross, he is flint-faced too. One of my 30-day retreatants told me that these four represent different types of persons who carry their own crosses. Yet they are all as determined and as hopeful in helping Jesus because they have never seen anyone like this man before, who is so in control and so selflessly determined to face the impossible. No wonder, there are millions of devotees to the Black Nazarene, for there is so much power when you get near Jesus and his cross. In your contemplation today enter the mind and heart of our Lord in the last 24 hours of his life. He knows everything, he knows we need him as our one and only hope. That is why, he will give his all, for the sake of his children.

Second point: If he knows everything, why do I need to pray? Why do I need to "tell" him anything? This is a wrong question to ask. It is wrong because prayer is more a listening to God and being with God rather than telling God what to do. To be with God is the be-all and end-all of our life on earth. It is possible in one’s retreat that we are just the ones talking a lot and telling God "Do this or do that." God has been too patient but we have relegated him in the corner. We must allow Him to take center stage and be God in our lives. But we need to be humble for that to happen. For the virtue of Christ to increase in our hearts we must decrease.

Maybe today we can be more quiet in order to just listen to his word, and feel his presence. Only then could he be God again. Maundy Thursday commemorates the time when Jesus spent the last precious moment with his disciples, "I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do." That is why it is called also as Commandment Thursday. It is a Solemnity—the most solemn day of the Christian calendar. Why? God was present with us, present today and present whenever we gather for the solemn mass to commemorate the Last Supper.

We now move on to the third point: The Commandment of love, "I give you a new commandment,” Jesus said, “love one another as I have loved you." St Ignatius of Loyola uses the term discreta caritas (discerning love) to refer to Jesus's kind of love. A person with discerning love has the ability to expose the enemy that acts like a 'false lover'. St Ignatius teaches about the rules of the discernment of spirits in the Spiritual Exercises to distinguish the good from the bad. Satan “entered” Judas and Peter in two varied but similar ways. Peter failed many times in cultivating discerning love and so did Judas. But how are they different? Peter allowed Jesus to love him and to forgive him. Peter, having a sense of humor, is an epitome of the cheerful giver, who can laugh at his weaknesses. Most probably he laughed when Jesus chose him. As if reacting to Jesus “What me? Are you sure about that?” But, Peter gave in, he left everything to follow Jesus. Truly, "God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). Discerning love is more on repentance, coupled with a sense of humor and less on perfection.

Sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't. At the last supper Peter bargained with the Lord, he would not allow the Lord to wash his feet because it is demeaning for a master to do. Peter dictates on what is demeaning and what is not, on how to love and how not to love. When were the times I was like that towards God? A killjoy? How can I grow more in discreta caritas?

Again I am repeating this too for my own self: It is not a matter of perfection but repentance. Judas could not reconcile his imperfection with his being a disciple. So he took his own life. Peter during his martyrdom continued haggling to have his own way. He asked his executioners to crucify him upside down because he deemed himself imperfect to be crucified like Jesus. See, Peter never really changed entirely. But during a bonfire when Jesus asked Peter “Do you love me?” not once but three times, we know that our Lord had accepted Peter’s kind of love no matter how imperfect it was. Amen. Fr JM Manzano SJ