Following God is counter cultural, said Bishop Iffert at Holy Thursday Mass

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

The Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper was held at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, where celebrant and homilist Bishop John Iffert shared a message of salvation through Christ, and the counter cultural worship of the Lord.

In the first reading, the Lord passes a commandment to Moses that all households should procure an unblemished lamb for slaughter. The blood of this lamb shall be sacrificed in the name of the Lord, its blood applied to the doorposts and its flesh roasted for eating.

This worship of God, Bishop Iffert said, would be “abhorrent,” to the Egyptians. “You see, in the land of Egypt, these young creatures, especially the more perfect they were, would have been considered a reflection of the divine.” By participating in this sacrificial worship, the Israelites “reject the worship of the land of Egypt, and instead they will worship the one true God. This is testimony to their neighbors that they do not fit in,” said Bishop Iffert. Their worship of the Lord would have been deemed countercultural, and “enraged” their neighbors, said Bishop Iffert.

In the second reading, Jesus shares the words which are echoed at every celebration of the Eucharist, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

“Jesus taught his disciples that this was his body and his blood. He was anticipating his own sacrifice on the cross, which would come in the following hours. He anticipated his own gift of himself and instead of lamb, he places his own, divine, human self at the center of the sacrifice,” said Bishop Iffert.

In his own sacrifice, Jesus acts as the sacrificial lamb from the time of Moses, and during the Last Supper he casts aside any status he might have and washes the feet of his disciples.

“He rises from the meal, and he puts aside his outer cloak, the outer cloak that for so many in the society would have represented their social standing,” said Bishop Iffert. And wrapping a towel around his waist, “he proceeded to wash the feet of the disciples. And he taught us again to reject the weight of the world, he taught us again to reject that kind of culture of empire where the only one right and wrong is what you have the power and wealth to get away with,” said Bishop Iffert.

The readings at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, represent a counter cultural way to live. To know one’s own weakness, and in the way of the disciples, have our feet washed by the Lord in the course of salvation.

Bishop Iffert said, “We need to know that our feet are filthy and that they must be washed by the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be sustained in the way. We need to be saved. It’s counter cultural to know that you’re needy and to embrace it.”

“Being a follower of Jesus, is always counter cultural, to be true to the worship of God has always been a different way to live. Jesus asks not that we be successful but that you love one another in everything you do. We pray to be worthy of the teaching of the God of Man, the one who loves us and who loves us to the end” he said.