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_{Holy Thursday
March 20, 2008}

       Before entering the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, visitors pass by a prominent sign that reads, "THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU SAW."  Far from being a merely catchy slogan, the sign is a call to action.  "Think about what you saw" calls visitors to remember the past and let it shape the future.  In that way, the Holocaust Museum remains a living memorial...a means to preserve the memory of the victims, while calling this and future generations out of passivity and into action.

       Tonight we gather as Christians to share in the Supper of the Lord, a living memorial that Jesus commanded we celebrate in remembrance of him.  In the reading from First Corinthians, which is the earliest account of the Eucharist, we hear Jesus say that as often as we celebrate the Eucharist we "proclaim the death of the Lord."  But this remembrance of Jesus’ death must be a remembrance that calls us to action in service of our brothers and sisters here and now.  The Mass is a living memorial only inasmuch as our sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ moves us to serve others.  To drive home this point, the evangelist John tells us something really amazing about the Last Supper.

       In the Gospel of John, perhaps the latest scriptural account of the Eucharist, we come to a Last Supper in which the bread and wine are only alluded to.  Instead, John holds a sign before us that visually says, "Think about what you saw."  What do we see? We see Jesus taking the place of a humble servant, washing his disciples feet.  Recall that Jesus is "fully aware" of what will happen in the hours ahead, fully aware that his hour was near.  To be certain that his broken body and flowing blood would be a living sacrifice, Jesus uses words sparingly and teaches by example: a towel, a basin of water, a foot washing.  The Son of God gives us a "model to follow, so that as he has done for us, we should also do."  Because on Holy Thursday we ritually enact the washing of the feet, it is a very good time for us to "think about what we saw."  More important, it is a time for us to think about who we are and what we receive:  the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

       Tonight we remember that Jesus instituted a living memorial at the Last Supper, a memorial of God's love poured out in Jesus' Body and Blood.  Tonight we remember that we are sent from each and every Eucharist "to love and serve the Lord."  Tonight we remember we are nourished in Word and Sacrament to love in great and small ways.  And what does love look like?  To that very question St. Augustine responded, "Love has the hands to help others.  It has feet to hasten to the poor and needy.  It has eyes to see misery and want.  It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of people.  That is what love looks like!"

       My brothers and sisters in Christ, on this most holy night and always, think about what love looks like.  Think about what you saw and think about who you are!