The celebration of Holy Thursday

Around the world today the Mass of the Last Supper is being celebrated. These days afford Christians the opportunity to give time and thought to the central tenet of their belief - the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For many of us the church has trundled along. In Ireland it has been part of the establishment. There has been little or no theology discussed. The church was/is the priests and then there were the few who were close to the priest. The Vatican Council never worked its way into the life of the church in any sort of real or significant manner.

All the current scandal and upheaval may force the church, the people of God, to give a second thought to what it means to be Christian and part of the Christian community.

When John XXIII spoke about opening the windows of the church was he aware of what was hidden behind? We need to pray for the transparency he preached.

There has to be great hope in the Christian message. It has to be about the salvation of humankind.

The Christian message is about the grace of God working in and through human beings.

When we say Christ is risen we actually believe, in spite of our own weariness, our own crazy servility to tradition and fashion, Jesus Christ rises from the dead and in so doing conquers sin and turn death into life. It sounds a crazy contradiction but we believe it.

The rings, red slippers and all the obfuscation can never be part of the true meaning of what we celebrate on Holy Thursday.