Maundy Thursday

Abbot Brendan Thomas • April 18, 2025

Homily by Abbot Brendan

If you knew that tonight would be your last night on earth, how would you mark it? What would you say, and what would you do? 

Jesus does two things and they both have to do with saying that his love is real, his love is total, and his love is not going end. He loves us “to the end.”


First, he gives us the Eucharist. Our heavenly Manna. Our food for the journey. He knew we wouldn’t be satisfied just thinking about him. We would want to be with him. So he leaves himself with us in a new way. This is my body. Here am I present with you.


He takes bread and wine and says: “Do this in memory of me.” But the Greek word is anamnesis, which doesn’t just mean memory—it means making present. The Second Vatican Council helped us renew our understanding of what we are doing these days by recovering the Jewish understanding of memory. They understood the Passover as a making present of God’s saving action. It underlies the whole of sacramental theology.


That’s what happens at Mass. This is no pageant. We are not spectators of a past event—we are drawn into a mystery. Christ’s Paschal Mystery – in other the words his Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. The Passover of God, from death to life. He is present in the power of his Passover, his Paschal Mystery.


Our liturgy this Triduum is not a passion play, and we are no mere spectators. Christ is present, his saving love is present. And as St Thomas Aquinas said, at every Mass “The memory of his Passion is told again, grace fills the heart, and there is given to us an assurance of the glory that will be ours.” Past and present and future coalesce.


“Were You There when they crucified my Lord?” asks the spiritual. Yes—but rather we are there, not in history, but in mystery. Or rather Christ is here, present in his power. His salvation is made present as we celebrate.


As the Franciscan priest Alban McCoy puts beautifully: “We’re brought into his presence not as spectators, but participants: we’re with him at table, with him on the Cross, and with him as he rises from the tomb. That’s why, by participating in the Mass, we’re consciously committing ourselves to the unity expressed in this banquet, to the love proven on the Cross, and to the glory manifested in the resurrection. But, above all else, we’re consciously committing ourselves to making real in our own lives the selfless act of love and generosity that is at the heart of all the events we celebrate over the next three days. We’re committing ourselves to nothing less than turning the world and its ways upside down.”


Which brings me to the second thing that Jesus does on that night before he died to say that his love is real, his love is total, and his love is not going end. He gives us a new commandment. He says “love one another, as I have loved you” and in washing the feet of his disciples he is indeed ‘turning the world upside down.”


The old Passover was easy to keep, you fulfilled the commandments, you kept the law. But now Jesus challenges us. The love that has no end is to have no end in us. “How wide is your heart?” He asks me and he asks you.


If you want to know how you are doing with God, you look at the person next to you. If you want to see where you are with God, you look at the people in your life, the flesh and blood people he has put alongside you on this earth.


So St John asks us: “How can you say you love the God you do not see if you do not love the brother or sister that you do see?” And rather than giving us an account of the Last Supper in his Gospel he simply gives us the sign of the Lord washing feet.


To love as Christ loves is not easy. It means humbling ourselves. It means forgiving those who hurt us. It means reaching out to the forgotten, the broken, the unloved. It means washing feet—not always literally, but in every act of hidden service, every moment we put another’s good before our own self-satisfaction.


Tonight, Jesus is telling us that his presence is real – we know it in the Eucharist. And his love is real, and we know that we are to share it. That is what he is about, and what we are to be about. Lest we say we cannot do it  he comes to us in the Eucharist with his grace and power to love as he loved.



So tonight, as we watch and pray in the silence of Gethsemane, as we receive again the bread of heaven and the call to love, let us ask for the courage to respond. To become people who kneel to serve, who forgive with mercy, who carry Christ’s love into a world so desperately in need.

He invites us to stoop low in love, and when we do we will rise with Him in glory.

 


By Abbot Brendan Thomas May 17, 2025
Bishop Mark Jabalé OSB Bishop Mark died peacefully on 9th May. Reception of Body and Mass of Remembrance Friday 30th May, 11am, St Joseph’s Co-Cathedral, Swansea Requiem Mass & Burial Thursday 5th June, 12 noon, Belmont Abbey John Peter Jabale was born on 16th October 1933 in Alexandria, Egypt of mainly European heritage. His father was Lebanese/French, and his mother British/Greek/French. He attended the Lycée Français in Alexandria until 1948, when he was sent to England, having expressed a desire to join the Navy. He enrolled at Belmont Abbey School and, upon leaving school, joined the Abbey, taking the religious name Mark. He was ordained to the priesthood on 13 July 1958. He was then sent to the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, where he obtained a Licentiate in French Literature, writing his thesis on Joseph de Maistre, the French counter-revolutionary. He later completed a Diploma in Education at St Mary’s, Strawberry Hill, where he also played rugby for the University. From 1964, he taught sport and served as a housemaster at the school. In 1969, he was appointed Headmaster of Alderwasley School in Derbyshire, though he held that post for only half a term before being recalled to Belmont to serve as Headmaster there, a role he held—apart from a sabbatical—until 1983. From 1964 he was teaching sport and then was a housemaster in the School. In 1969 he was appointed Headmaster of Alderwasley School, Derbyshire, but filled that post for only half a term. He was called back to Belmont to be Headmaster where he served, apart from a sabbatical, until 1983. Fr Mark was a rowing coach of considerable repute. During his sabbatical in 1979, he assisted Dan Topolski in coaching the Oxford crew for the Boat Race. His greatest coaching triumph came when he led a lightweight coxless four to a gold medal at the World Rowing Championships in Bled, Yugoslavia — the only gold medal won by Great Britain that year. The following year, he was invited to coach for the Olympics, but he declined in order to remain committed to Belmont. He was a steward of Henley Royal Regatta and was responsible for setting up and programming its first computerised systems. He was ahead of may in seeing the potential of new technology. In 1983, he was sent to Peru to purchase land and build a new monastery, which included raising funds in the UK. The new monastery was blessed, and the first Mass was celebrated there by the Archbishop of Piura, Oscar Cantuarias Pastor, in June 1986 together with Abbot Jerome, Fr Paul, Fr Luke, Fr David as well as Fr Mark. Dom Mark returned to Belmont as Prior and was elected the 10th Abbot of Belmont in 1993. He later wrote: “My first and most painful task proved to be the overseeing of the closure of the school.” Together with the bursar, John Hubert, he negotiated with the local NHS for the 4 houses to be leased to them. In 2000, he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Menevia by Pope John Paul II and was ordained bishop in St Joseph’s Cathedral, Swansea, on 7 December 2000. He succeeded Bishop Daniel Mullins as the 10th Bishop of Menevia on 12 June 2001. During his episcopate, he held several important offices: Chairman of the Department for Christian Life and Worship, Trustee and Visitator of the three foreign seminaries — the Venerable English College (Rome), the Beda College (Rome), and the Royal English College (Valladolid). He was also Bishop-in-Charge of on-going formation for diocesan priests. Upon reaching the age of 75, Bishop Jabale submitted his resignation to the Holy Father on 16 October 2008 and was succeeded by Bishop Tom Burns. He then moved to Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and was inducted as Parish Priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in March 2009, a post he held until 2014. At the age of 81, he retired to Hendon in London, where he celebrated daily Mass at a local convent, assisted in various parishes, and continued to help with confirmations in the diocese. In October 2019, he moved to Archbishop’s House, Westminster, for nine months. Finally, he returned to Belmont in 2020 as a much-cherished member of the community. He described himself as “very happy.” He remained there until his death in Hereford County Hospital on 9 May 2025, aged 91. He had been a monk of Belmont for 73 years, a priest for 67 years and a bishop for 24 years. Please pray for the eternal happiness of Rt. Rev. Dom Mark Jabalé 10th Bishop of Menevia 10th Abbot of Belmont who died 9th May 2025 in the 92nd year of his age, the 73rd year of his monastic life and the 67th year of his priesthood. May he rest in peace
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