Christian communion:
to belong to the one only community
which is Christ
April 1st, 2021
Holy Thursday
Meditation of the day of Pontiff Samuel
(Draft)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and dear sisters, on this Holy Thursday we meditate on the sharing and the Christian brotherhood: that brotherhood established by Jesus at the Last Supper, to bring everyone to live the value of the Christian communion and the belonging to the one Community which is Christ. Jesus lived the communion and the sharing with his friends, to ensure that this teaching would become, over time for all the Christians, a constant practice, which finds fulfilment in the fraternal communion, in the daily activities, in words and in deeds.
This was the last teaching given by the Master Jesus to His friends and brothers at the Last Supper, so that they could continue to devote themselves to that teaching so to make it grow in the hearts of many. Jesus well knew that the brotherhood and Christian communion would be attacked over time by the enemy of God. For this reason, Jesus wanted to strengthen the spirit of those first Apostles by leaving this spiritual testament to them, assuring thus that this teaching would not be dispersed over time but handed down and infused in the hearts of all those who want to bring Christianity to completion.
In this spirit of sharing and brotherhood, every Christian is called today to join the Master’s Heart, leaving what has led over time to disunion and division, even among Christians.
We are all called today to take example from Jesus and Mary, who are sign of communion and sharing for all and not of division and intolerance. Jesus is united with Mary. The Son is united with the Mother. What is in the Son is in the Mother as well and what is in the Mother is in the Son. Let us take example from Saint Joseph, who had well understood the unbreakable bond between the Son and the Mother and lived this union with a true spirit of adoration.
Mary was spiritually united to Her Son Jesus even on that Holy Thursday; and She was physically in union and in sharing also with the other women disciples of Jesus, and spiritually in prayer and at the service of Her Son and Her sons. On one side, Jesus gave the last instructions to those who, as ministers of God, would have brought Christ to everyone, dispensing His word and His salvation; on the other side, Mary was united with Her Son, in prayer and in sharing in what Her Son was doing. This was the moment during which the Father wanted to put man and woman on the same level, in the distinction of roles and tasks characterizing man and woman and in that deep union willed by the Father since the creation of the world, when He created them “male and female”. Jesus and the Apostles were united in sharing brotherhood and their priestly ministry to which they were called and designated, while Mary and the women were gathered in prayer, in that lively Christian solicitude that is at the service of the brothers. No one can either transcend or exploit this teaching, nor divide the service of men from the service of women. These two services, although different, are joined together. One cannot exist without the other. Here is the maternal love and paternal love which, in union, give life to the Church of Christ. Prayer and fraternal union.
This means putting ourselves at the service of God, without distorting and humanizing His will. Therefore, no one can teach that women should take the role of minister of God, in the name of a declaimed equality of roles between man and woman. This is not the point: we must understand the will of God and accept it with docility and humility, in the knowledge that all this does not mean putting women aside or submitting Mary and women to men. In God’s economy, men and women have equal dignity, on the example of Christ and Mary; and, by the will of the Father, men and women are called to be united in the same spirit of service, but with different tasks and roles.
The supper of Holy Thursday is characterized for the love and the gift that Jesus made to His brothers, which is evidenced by the sign of the washing of the feet. Jesus washes the feet of the Apostles, of those who were ministers, called to be ministers and brothers, those who had recognized Him as Master and Messiah, those who believed in Him, those who were willing to give their life for the Man God, those who, called to be ministers of God, would have done the same thing towards their brothers, of that time and those of the future, with the same spirit of service. Here is that sign that Jesus wanted to pass on in order to give and transmit His infinite love to all the Apostles by a concrete gesture, the gesture of the servant that whoever wants to be first must repeat, making himself a servant of his brothers.
Jesus came to serve, not to be served and this must be for all those who, following the example of Jesus, want to put themselves at the service of their brothers.
Jesus washed the feet of all the Apostles, including Judas, who despite that act of love, had equally decided to persevere in his diabolical will to betray the Master and to betray his brothers, by virtue of the freedom granted him by the Father, thus failing to that sharing and that brotherhood that Jesus established at the Last Supper: Judas, despite this, betrayed.
This is why brotherhood and sharing must always be manifested by Christians. Where there is no brotherhood, there neither is Christ, nor the Church of Christ, nor the communion with the Heart of Christ. This must be well understood so that everyone can clearly see where there is brotherhood and where there isn’t. Where brotherhood is only in appearance and does not bear fruit, the Church of Christ is not there, not any longer. Those who want to belong to the Church of Christ must place brotherhood and sharing at the centre of their life and their daily existence, that same brotherhood and sharing that Jesus taught and instituted at the last Supper of Holy Thursday. This is the testament of Jesus, which every Christian must necessarily put into practice and spread to all, so that Jesus may be loved more and more and so that, on the example of those who love Jesus, all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. And so be it.
Prayer to the Almighty Father
Consecration to the Father’s Heart
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.