Homily – Holy Thursday – April 8, 2004

 

Back in 1991, there was an article in The New York Times Magazine concerning a group of more than one hundred women who reside in Long Beach, California.  These women, Cambodian refugees who witnessed the “killing fields” horror of the Pol Pot regime, are certifiably blind even though doctors say their eyes function perfectly well.  These sightless women suffer from psychosomatic, or hysterical, blindness.  They are blind, but their blindness stems not from damage to their bodies but damage to their minds.

 

Scientists really do not understand this phenomenon, only that it shows the power of the mind over the body.  As one researcher explained it: “losing eyesight makes sense if you are trying to escape the stress of a situation… At the movie theater you don’t cover your ears when grotesque violence comes on the screen.  You’ll always cover your eyes.”  These women have eyes that function normally – still they cannot see.  They are blind even though they should be able to see clearly.

 

We celebrate this feast – we enter into this Holy Triduum once again. This is our focusing time. This is the time to correct our vision. This is when we would realize what we are about.

 

We can wonder a bit why this all had to take place – the drama of this week – the suffering, the death, the tears, the fears. I guess we could wonder if a few more dramatic miracles would have done it   - would have established the reign of God and opened the eyes and overcome the evil forces!

 

But of course that’s what Satan had offered Jesus at the beginning of these forty days – just do some tricks and you’ll win. And Herod, evidently would have changed the plot if only Jesus had performed. You know there is that wonderful scene in Jesus Christ Superstar – the other Passion drama – pre Mel Gibson – when Herod is just begging Jesus to show that he is no fool – just “walk across my swimming pool.”

 

But of course God did not invest into the whole story of salvation for some cheap tricks. The story was transformation – and vision – and the ability to beyond the self and the ego and the easy and the obvious. These three days and the facts that are behind them – not the story or drama but the facts of this God we believe in – are to move us and convert us.

That is why we have to look so closely.

 

The disciples – our prototypes – they stand in for us in a way in what we read about in our scripture – we can imagine ourselves in the dialogue I think – this disciple had witnessed so much and yet they don’t see things too clearly. When Jesus is talking about the reign of God they try to figure out who among them is first, best, favored, fair-haired. Their eyesight isn’t too good! When the crowd is hungry on the hill they think Jesus should just dismiss the grumblers.  They don’t see too clearly! When the guards come to arrest Jesus they cut off someone’s ear. They’re blind to what is happening! When the servant girl asks Peter isn’t he close to this one they are arresting he asks her who she’s talking about.  He doesn’t see! When he hangs on the cross there’s hardly anyone there. They don’t want to see what is going on!

 

And so Jesus surprises them/us. Jesus acts out of the norm and different from how others would expect him to act. Jesus would do the different thing to get his whole point across.  He takes his simple garment and ties it around his waist and gets down on his knees and washes their feet!

 

This would hopefully undo and eliminate all the talk about power and victory and dominance and winning and self.  This would aim at opening their/our eyes to what is real – to what is whole – to what the reign of God is about.

 

The disciples did not want to see things the way Jesus would have them see them.

It was a jolt to their comfort.

We too would prefer not to see things according to the reign of God.

We would rather be blinded to that Way.

 

And so the disciples would see the opportunities to power and getting even and dominance and they’d prefer not to see things Jesus’ Way.

And when they see the Cross coming they would pick up weapons to change the course because they’d prefer not to see things according to Jesus’ Way.

 

And when we see the poor homeless person in the street we’d prefer to see her or him as an addict who self-inflicted this life upon themselves – we’d prefer not to see Jesus’ way.

 

And when we see the enemy – those we are supposed to see as enemy – we prefer to see them as the other/the stranger/the different/the bad/ the ugly – we don’t want to see them in Jesus’ way.

 

And when we see the thief, the outcast, the hostile person, the obnoxious we do so want to dismiss and remove them – we don’t want to take the Jesus approach.

 

And with of those people in our lives who are different – not like us – the old or the young the gay or the straight –the rich or the poor – the tall or the short – the educated or those not we’d much prefer to see them as we want to see them – just different or not worthy or outside of what is important or valid or good – we don’t want to see them as Jesus does.

 

And so Jesus gets down on his knees and washes their feet. I wonder if Jesus thought for a long time about how to get our attention- how to open our eyes to see what he was all about – to challenge our attitudes and assumptions and narrowness?

 

We enter this Holy Triduum not to look at the Cross or the feet or the tomb or the rock. We enter these three days to be jolted into the reign of God.

 

Jesus acted up the way he did for us – to un-blind us in a way – to brighten us – to save us.

Let us embrace these days with hope for salvation.