Holy Thursday 2017
Originally published in my parish bulletin on the fourth Sunday of Easter, 2016 ... I wrote this piece following the Jewish-Catholic Interfaith Passover Seder shared by Brith Shalom Synagogue and St. Theresa Catholic Church in Houston, Texas on March 31, 2016.
Easter joy! In Christ we have journeyed through the darkness and bitterness of Lent, have been freed from the slavery of our sins, and raised to new life with the promise of eternal joy as God’s people. This is our story. It is the universal story of salvation when the Word of God breaks into history to free God’s people – Jew and Greek, slave and free person, male and female – “so that they may be one.”
Beginning this Friday Jews around the world will tell their own story of salvation at Passover. On March 31, one week after the Church celebrated Holy Thursday, St. Theresa parishioners joined members of Congregation Brith Shalom for a model Passover seder and the retelling of the Pesach story when God saved the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. The evening was led by Rabbi Ranon Teller and Cantor Mark Levine, with reflections by Fr. Phil Lloyd. The planning committee was itself an exercise in interfaith dialogue and collaboration. I was fortunate to serve on the Programming/Education sub-committee with the clergy. The theological conversations and discussions about our respective religious experiences were some of the most meaningful dialogues in which I’ve ever participated.
In Judaism it is commanded that in every generation it is the individual’s duty to regard himself as though they personally had come out of Egypt; for we, too, were redeemed with the ancient Hebrews. As Jewish tradition teaches, Rabbi Gamliel said, “anyone who has not discussed these three things on Passover has not fulfilled his duty, namely: Pesach (the Passover offering), Matzah (the unleavened bread), and Maror (the bitter herbs).” During our Jewish-Catholic seder we were reminded of the lamb that was sacrificed and whose blood marked the doorposts of God’s people. As we broke bread together, the pace of the evening felt rushed with so much ritual to cover in only two hours. But this hurried tone recalled for us how the Hebrews put their full trust in God, escaping Egypt without delay, not even having time to ferment their dough or prepare provisions for the journey. Together, we tasted the bitter herbs on our seder plates and united ourselves with those who have been enslaved throughout history and those who are enslaved today. We opened the door in welcome to the prophet Elijah as a sign of the world to come when all people will be free and all will be one as God in Heaven is One.
Rabbi Teller and Cantor Levine leading Jews and Catholics in song. - Uploaded by Jewish Herald-Voice on 2016-04-06.
But perhaps the most memorable moment of the evening was a ritual foot washing – a Christian tradition that Rabbi Teller was eager to include in our Jewish-Catholic seder. As we planned the seder, he was moved by the Christian ritual that John’s Gospel tells us was performed by Jesus at the Last Supper and that tradition tells us was also his final Passover meal. Following the first handwashing ritual of the seder, both clergy took turns kneeling at the other’s feet and performed this humble act of love for one another. It was a powerful moment that brought tears to the eyes of us witnesses. For nearly two thousand years the season of Easter and Passover had been wrought with hatred between our two communities. For centuries Christians condemned the “perfidious” Jews during their Good Friday services, too often inciting pogroms against Jewish communities. The “blood libel” that anti-Semitic Christians spread well into the 20th century told the lie of Jews sacrificing Christian children to use their blood in making matzah.
So many have suffered because of the sin of anti-Semitism; leading Saint John Paul II to meditate on the First Station of the Cross, Good Friday 1998. “Oh no, not the Jewish people, crucified by us for so long, not the crowd which will always prefer Barabbas because he repays evil with evil, not them, but all of us, each one of us, because we are all murderers of love.” With this gesture of love shared between Fr. Phil and Rabbi Teller, the darkness of the past was once again conquered by God’s saving power and I witnessed the Resurrection for myself. I am forever grateful to the clergy and congregants of Brith Shalom synagogue for this gift and the gift of their friendship.
Pope Francis washing the feet of Syrian refugees on Holy Thursday, 2016.