March 28/Holy Thursday
What shall I return to the LORD for all his benefits to me?
The cup of salvation I will raise, and on the name of the Lord will I call. ~ Ps 116.12-13
At the day’s end, I spend a few moments reflecting on the gifts that God has given me. They can be large — decent health, a safe home, the love of my family and the everlasting patience of my husband — or small, from the morning’s freshly-brewed cup of coffee to the Pink Perfection camellias still blooming in the garden. Despite the social divisions and political disagreements that dominate the news, despite illness and aging and death and loss, there is much to be grateful for. On this Holy Thursday, as we commemorate Jesus’s complete self-giving in the institution of the Eucharist, the psalmist shows us how to “make a return to” God for his gifts: by offering ourselves as vessels of grace. This means giving God the simple gift of our hearts, and asking him to use us as he will. It means, perhaps, surrendering our own particular ambitions and plans, and putting ourselves at his disposal. It means undertaking quotidian acts of love and service: making that long-postponed call to a lonely relative, trudging to the laundry room to tackle the pile of dirty clothes, or pausing long enough to listen, really listen, to a worried child. A treasured possession that I have carried with me for decades is a quotation from the Danish diplomat Dag Hammarskjold, handwritten on a tattered sheet of paper by an Episcopal priest who was a mentor to me as a teenager. It summarizes the kind of self-giving that Jesus embodied and that we, too, are called to practice: “Each day the first day; each day a life. Each day you must hold out the chalice of your being, to hold, to carry, and to give back. It must be held out empty, your reflection only in its polish, its shape, its capacity . . .And those things which for our blindness we cannot ask, give us for the sake of your love. . .”
O Lord of all creatures great and small, May I become a vessel of your grace in the world by offering myself to you freely and fully. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032824.cfm
To hear Archangel Voices sing “I will Receive the Cup of Salvation,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8z0psEpscI
And to hear the Mississippi Mass Choir sing, “What Shall I Render,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEil6ZoLyD8
