On this Holy Thursday my thoughts and memories are taken back to an exceptional and very beautiful Mass I attended many years ago when I was a seminarian. A year before my ordination to the priesthood, I had the opportunity to spend a few months in Ghana, West Africa. While there, I was blessed to spend most of my time in a tiny village called Ahotokurom where there were some friars, sisters and others serving people who had been stricken with the terrible disease of leprosy. In that place, the friars had established a clinic, a school, a farming project, a home for orphaned children and a nursing home for elderly people; all of the residents of the village were people who had leprosy. Because of their disease and the great stigma attached to it, those people, both the young and the old, had been essentially and even completely abandoned in Ahotokurom by their families.
On one of the evenings while I was in Ahotokurom, the residents of the nursing home, and those from the home for orphaned children, were gathered together for a special outdoor Mass; it took place in a small and humble garden that was located between their two homes. Everyone had assembled there, and together we formed a circle around a small wooden table which served as the altar.
Just as the sun was beginning to set over a beautiful sky, we started the celebration with a very enthusiastic song of praise. As the Mass progressed, I found myself reflecting deeply on what was happening there and at that moment. As I looked around at the collection of people gathered together there, I found myself overwhelmed with emotion. I was struck by the fact that those people, perhaps the poorest and the most “undesirable” of people, were so devoted to what was going on in the celebration of that Mass. In the “eyes of the world,” I knew that those people were considered to be at the lowest level of any social scale. No one wanted to be like those people, or to have been condemned to their fate; very few desired even to associate with them. By those same standards, it seemed to me that those people with leprosy had no reason to live with any kind of hope. By Western, materialistic standards, those people had absolutely nothing for which to live, nor did they have any reason for which they could esteem themselves. Yet, notwithstanding their very real illnesses and the conditions of their lives, they had come together in that place in order to celebrate the Eucharist.
It seemed awesome to me that those people were so guilelessly celebrating that Mass with such fervor, with deep devotion, and with great joy and happiness! I found myself thinking: “Isn’t it true that the Eucharist, truly a focal point of the Roman Catholic community, abounds in hope?” And: “Isn’t it our belief as Catholics, and as Christians, that in the Eucharist we find the true meaning of our existence?”
Even to this day, I count that Mass in that little village of Ahotokurom as perhaps one of the most profound faith experiences of my entire life; for the first time ever, and with those people in that place, I was able to truly understand what a great gift the Eucharist was and is for every human being. The celebration of that Mass with those people opened my eyes! We believe that through the Eucharist Jesus serves us, and that he gives himself to each one of us, without regard to who we are, or are not. At the table of the Eucharist there is no inequality among people; we are all equal, and we are all members of one community, as we share in the one body and blood of Jesus. Regardless of our faults, our failures, our weaknesses, our disabilities and/or our shortcomings, each of us is invited to the same table of the Eucharist. In the Eucharist we are all promised a future glory with our loving Father who is in heaven. This is more than simply a reminder of the dignity that each one of us has as a child of God–at the table of the Eucharist, heaven meets earth and our human dignity as truly spiritual beings is made crystal clear.
On this Holy Thursday we recall the “Last Supper” and the night when Jesus instituted the great gift of the Eucharist. The Gospel today tells us that in the middle of that same Passover meal, Jesus rose from the table and he washed the feet of his disciples, and he then told them: “What I have done, so you must do” (see John 13:1-15). His actions and his words firmly demand that we too place ourselves in service to others, especially to those who are most in need; this call to service is mandated by Jesus and it is rooted symbolically and actually in the Eucharist we share together.
Like those people in Ahotokurom, may we always understand our true dignity, and like them may we approach our Eucharistic altar with gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who always and forever serves us and loves us without distinction.
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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