Six interwoven ideas: Silence, prayer, faith, love, service, peace.
Helen Weber-McReynolds
April 6, 2023
Holy Thursday
Ex 12: 1-8, 11-14; Ps 116; 1 Cor 11: 23-26; John 13: 1-17, 31-35
I would like to briefly share a quotation from Mother Teresa, which I think encapsulates pretty well the interwoven ideas in our readings for this Holy Thursday. Mother Teresa said, “The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace.” Silence, prayer, faith, love, service, and peace-- it could be that she gleaned this progression from meditation on Jesus’ life. If we think about the events recorded in the Gospels, we can certainly see how vital these six ideas were to Jesus. We can recall how important silence was to Jesus, and that silence was conducive to prayer for him. Jesus knew the wisdom of silencing himself, going away to a quiet place, so that he could hear God’s word for his life. We see in tonight’s second reading how Paul recounted an example of the importance of prayer to Jesus, to gathering with community in prayer, and in communing with God and one another through prayer, and indeed, through Eucharist, the source and summit of all our prayer. Jesus knew our first reading tonight, testifying to the faith of his Jewish ancestors, and how God liberated them through their faithful participation in God’s plan. The majority of Jesus’ preaching seems focused on love based on faith in God, and in fact, tonight’s gospel concludes with Jesus’ new commandment to us: to love one another, as he has loved us. To me, the strongest of all these elements, however, is demonstrated by Jesus’ example of service in tonight’s gospel. “I have given you an example,” he said. “If I, your teacher and leader, have washed your feet, you must wash one another’s feet.” The way to bring God’s love to life in our lives, Jesus was saying, to create lasting peace amongst ourselves, is to learn to unselfishly offer our service to one another. We must open ourselves to one another’s needs and learn to meet those needs. We must be sensitive to the injustices our human family members are suffering and figure out how to correct those injustices. We must become the least servants to one another, in order to create the shared peace for which God created the earth and everyone in it.
So, as we prepare to enter into the next three days, and Jesus’ death and resurrection, let us keep working on following Jesus, as echoed by Teresa, by listening to God in silence, by gathering ourselves in prayer, and growing in faith, in order to love more deeply. Most of all, let us serve one another with humility, so that we may rise with Jesus in the peace God has envisioned for us all.
Helen Weber-McReynolds
April 6, 2023
Holy Thursday
Ex 12: 1-8, 11-14; Ps 116; 1 Cor 11: 23-26; John 13: 1-17, 31-35
I would like to briefly share a quotation from Mother Teresa, which I think encapsulates pretty well the interwoven ideas in our readings for this Holy Thursday. Mother Teresa said, “The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace.” Silence, prayer, faith, love, service, and peace-- it could be that she gleaned this progression from meditation on Jesus’ life. If we think about the events recorded in the Gospels, we can certainly see how vital these six ideas were to Jesus. We can recall how important silence was to Jesus, and that silence was conducive to prayer for him. Jesus knew the wisdom of silencing himself, going away to a quiet place, so that he could hear God’s word for his life. We see in tonight’s second reading how Paul recounted an example of the importance of prayer to Jesus, to gathering with community in prayer, and in communing with God and one another through prayer, and indeed, through Eucharist, the source and summit of all our prayer. Jesus knew our first reading tonight, testifying to the faith of his Jewish ancestors, and how God liberated them through their faithful participation in God’s plan. The majority of Jesus’ preaching seems focused on love based on faith in God, and in fact, tonight’s gospel concludes with Jesus’ new commandment to us: to love one another, as he has loved us. To me, the strongest of all these elements, however, is demonstrated by Jesus’ example of service in tonight’s gospel. “I have given you an example,” he said. “If I, your teacher and leader, have washed your feet, you must wash one another’s feet.” The way to bring God’s love to life in our lives, Jesus was saying, to create lasting peace amongst ourselves, is to learn to unselfishly offer our service to one another. We must open ourselves to one another’s needs and learn to meet those needs. We must be sensitive to the injustices our human family members are suffering and figure out how to correct those injustices. We must become the least servants to one another, in order to create the shared peace for which God created the earth and everyone in it.
So, as we prepare to enter into the next three days, and Jesus’ death and resurrection, let us keep working on following Jesus, as echoed by Teresa, by listening to God in silence, by gathering ourselves in prayer, and growing in faith, in order to love more deeply. Most of all, let us serve one another with humility, so that we may rise with Jesus in the peace God has envisioned for us all.
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