On Holy Thursday

Barring the fact that I've been gone for months, lets pretend that I'm still that amazing blogger who all 2 of you love even though I'm practically scraping the rust off of my blogging utensils. Since its nearly 10 o'clock and my contact lenses are starting to dry out, I'll make this brief. While the Triduum Services have always held a special beauty to Catholics, there are few more pointed moments than the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday. Even though (at my Parish, anyway) you live with the fear of having the Priest call on you to come up and get your feet washed (hoping you won't have to shout "I'm wearing nylons!" across the sanctuary), there was a specific moment this particular Mass that struck me even while I trembled every time he glanced my way. The sun was setting behind the windows, casting a lovely golden shaft on the large Crucifix that hangs up front. Very picturesque. As I looked towards the feet washing and listened to the Mass, I recalled the fact that I had been recently inspired to do more in my community to help others. Holy Thursday Mass could not have come at a more potent time for me. The Institution of the Eucharist is what most people think of when they go to Mass on this night, but for the first time, perhaps due to my speaking to some wonderful classmates about what we can do to help, it was the servant part that came to me. We are called to be servants, to follow Christ's example, and wash the feet of everyone around us. Seriously, everyone. Wash their feet. This is Christ's example of love, and it is one we are all meant to follow, no matter how many excuses we want to make about being busy. Christ was going to die that night, for goodness sake - and he still washed twelve pairs of men's dusty feet. Your 'busy' excuse is rendered invalid.
But that was not his only example. Since I won't be here tomorrow, I will now say what all of you know but I felt like repeating: The Cross is his example of love as well, and we are called upon to bear it AND serve in love, as he bore the weight of it in his mind while washing the feet. 
Examine yourself about what you actually do for your community. I wrote an email to some classmates of mine recently, and it says basically what I am saying now, so I will copy and paste parts of it here because I don't feel like typing it out again. 

"So the movie Noah came out recently, right? I read a review about it, and among other things they said something that really struck me. They made the point that everyone back then believed in God. Everyone had faith in him.

But Noah was saved because he ACTED on that faith.

I call myself a Catholic because I pray and I trust in God, but doesn't St. Luke say that faith without works is dead? We're in a similar situation as Noah now, where so many people (including Obama) call themselves Christians, but don't act on their faith. I don't, not even close to enough. 

Right now the European population is over half Muslim. What would happen if every single Muslim acted on their religious beliefs and picked up a gun and shot someone who didn't believe in Allah? 

Not good, right?

The majority of the world is still Christian, though. What would happen if, even for one day, every Christian acted on what they believe and did something for the good of others?

I think that, since it has never happened, we wouldn't know. And I know that as a kid in high school with thoughts about future and not full blown maturity we have a hard time really grasping the fact that everything we do is important. I think most of us want to change the world, but the fact it that we don't really believe that we can, or tell ourselves that when we're older we can do it more easily. Well, I think that we're right and wrong. When we're older we are more flexible, with our own cars and our decisions. But we were just studying Hitler and Mussolini and Stalin, weren't we? These men made it a priority to form the youth, not just because the youth can be formed more easily than the old, but because the youth is another generation for good or for evil. I think we have a lot more power over the world than we think, and if we start now it will help us do more in later life. Maybe we can't change the world right now, but we can change the part of the world that we're in. How many of us have actually done something decent for Detroit? It's right on our doorstep, just like the slums were to St. Elizabeth Anne Seton and St. Francis. I know its not safe, but its an example of something we're so used to we don't even think about it. 

This Lent I've been reading a book called 40 Days for Life, and it explains the power of prayer. 4 people say down around a table and prayed for an hour about what to do when a Planned Parenthood moved into their neighborhood, and then they talked about it. Out of this little, informal meeting came 40 Days for Life, which has saved thousands upon thousands of children's lives all over the country. I think that works founded upon prayer can help us do things we never really believed we were capable of."

Time to pick up our cross, guys!

"When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." -John 13:1-17

-Rhian

P.S. I am considering shutting this blog down. To take the words of an old Irish ballad - "Fill to me the parting glass, and drink a health whate'er befall, then gently rise and softly call: 'Goodnight and joy be with you all"'