April 1: Day by Day with Father Bill
HOLY THURSDAY
-from Pope Francis’ Holy Thursday homily last year
This is what we experience in tonight’s celebration: the Lord who wants to remain with us in the Eucharist. And we become the Lord’s tabernacles, carrying the Lord with us; to the point that he himself tells us: If we do not eat his body and drink his blood, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven. This is a mystery, bread and wine, the Lord with us, within us, inside us. The gesture of service is the condition to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, to serve . . . everyone. But the Lord, in the words he exchanged with Peter (John 13:6-9) makes him realize that to enter the kingdom of heaven we must let the Lord serve us, that the servant of God be our servant. And this is hard to understand. If I do not let the Lord be my servant, do not let the Lord wash me, help me to grow, forgive me, then I will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Father Bill +