Holy Thursday – Year A

Fr. Mark Gatto

Preached: April 2, 2026

Education is very important.  But, the most important education needed for a better world, is an education in love.  We need schools of love.  If there is someone who has many years of education, many doctorates, but lack love, then they will probably do more harm than good.  In our world, enormous damage is done today by very educated people, for instance, by brilliant individuals made rich in the tech industry.

Each family is called to be a domestic church and should be the first place where we learn to love. The family is to be a school of love.  On Holy Thursday, at this Mass of the Lord’s Supper, you could say that we also have a school of love.  The Eucharist, the Mass, is really meant to be a encounter with love and a school of love.

At the Consecration of each Mass we hear those words of Jesus at the Last Supper, “this is my body given up for you.”  Jesus models for us true love.  Love as self-gift, a self-giving act.

At the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday we also have another ritual, the Washing of the Feet.  Jesus, the Lord and God, the Master, gets down low and washes the feet of his disciples. He is teaching his disciples to love.  Love is not self-serving, it is self-giving.  It is not about control or domination, it is about service.  In true love, the focus is not on me, it is on the other.

In this act, Jesus is offering us the model of love for all priests and deacons, for all married couples, for all friends.  It would also be a great model for political leaders in our world today. Imagine leaders who really knew how to love and whose leadership was rooted in service rather than control and domination.

Our Baptism is not a reward, it is a gift.  It is not something that I receive for myself, it is a call to go out into the world in service.  If you are baptized then you are to be an instrument of love in the world.  The life of others should be better off because you are here.

The goal of Christianity is not to dominate and take over the world, it is to serve the world.  The world should be a better place because of Christians.  Unfortunately, the church, and we Christians, have often given in to forms of pride and worldly strength.  At times we even see the temptation to forms of Christian nationalism.  It even encourages and supports the military/industrial complex that leads to war again and again.  Today, every country in the world seems to be increasing their military spending.  Do you feel safer because of this extra money spent on weapons and militaries?

Our world today needs a humble and servant church, it needs Christians who have learned to love. A school of love that is taught in the heart of the Eucharist.  “This is my body given up for you.”  This model of self-giving love, the love revealed in the washing of the feet, this alone can make our world a better place that reflects the face of the Creator.

At the Mass, do not just receive communion, the body of Christ.  Become the body of Christ.

Do not just want something from the church, be the church.  Go out and serve, go out and love.