Thursday of the Holy Pascha – for the late Father Bishoy Kamel

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one God, Amen.

How great is this day, my beloved, on which our Lord has made for us all these great goods. Does man deserve all that the Lord has done on this day? Does man deserve for the Lord to condescend and wash his feet? Does man deserve this boundless love that our Lord offers him in which He gives His body and blood? Who among us is worthy?! Who among us deserves all that has been done for us? It is more, O Lord, than we can bear. Who can endure what You have done for us? Peter cried out, saying, “O Lord, do not wash my feet,” for he could not bear Your surpassing humility or Your divine humility. And if it were not for You, O Lord, warning him and saying to him, “If I do not wash your feet, you have no part with me,” he would not have allowed it. Who can bear all this?

The truth, my dear ones, is that this Thursday of the Covenant is the pinnacle of the glory of the church and of the kingdom. And although all the events of today will repeat themselves tomorrow on the cross, where it seems to people that Jesus was seized, even though He is the one who surrendered Himself, as the Evangelist John records for us that they fell on their faces. Today, the Lord Jesus offers Himself willingly. Moreover, our Lord Jesus, on this day, does not only offer Himself for us to eat, but by breaking Himself, tomorrow they will crucify Him on the cross and present Him, unaware that they are offering the Passover for all humanity, as the apostle says, “For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us.” Today, Christ offers Himself with all His freedom, all His love, and all His humility.

You remember, O my beloved, on Sunday the church taught us and we all shouted saying, “Hosanna to the king of Israel.Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”.” The Christ must reign over my heart and your heart. He must have, as the book says, a holy kingdom, and as the book also says, “And He will make you kings and priests.” He must reign, but we have never heard and will never hear that this is the way a king reigns over the hearts of people.

How does a king reign? He reigns with the sword and the spear? Is there a religion or doctrine in the world that has spread except by the sword, tricks, treachery, and hypocrisy? But today, Christ reigns in our hearts, and we cried and said, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna to the kingdom of David, King David,” and we have completely surrendered to the king who is coming to reign over our hearts due to the depth and power of His humility. Due to the depth and power of His love, we have been conquered, as the book of Songs says, “Turn your eyes away from me for they have overcome me.” This is a new kind of conquest. People thought they could only conquer with the sword, the spear, cunning, deceit, wealth, and betrayal, but today He says, “Turn your eyes away for they have overcome me.” You have conquered us, O Lord; today in the church we are overwhelmed… overwhelmed by what You have done with us today.

No one of us canTop of Form N    open our mouths or even show our faces or lift our eyes up; we are defeated, defeated. We spend our whole lives and eternity serving You and saying “Yours is the kingdom, the power, the glory, and the honor forever, Amen.” We have been conquered, O Jesus, by Your unlimited love. He entered to reign, and that day we all responded saying, “The one who sits above the cherubim today appeared in Jerusalem riding on a donkey and a colt, the foal of a donkey, the one who sits above the cherubim.” Who can bear this? The Jews, whose eyes were touched, did not realize the secret of the greatness of the Savior and mocked Him because of His humility. But we, His faithful children, when we see the One sitting above the cherubim riding on a donkey for the Economy, whose cherubim cover their faces in awe of the glory of His majesty, the sons of the Hebrews stood up  cheering instead of the cherubim and welcoming the meek and humble King, and the prophecy of Zechariah was fulfilled:  “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Do not be afraid, do not be afraid, O Church of Christ, for your King will come to you gentle and victorious, riding in all His humility on a donkey and a colt, the foal of a donkey.

This was the dangerous divine plan that the divine power devised to seize the children of God and abduct them from the ownership of the devil and join them to the kingdom of Christ. This was the plan devised by the divine mind to take over human hearts in a way that had never been seen before, except through simple symbolic signs. Moses stood before our Lord and said to Him: Are You going to destroy the people? He replied: I will destroy them, for they are unfaithful. I have done many great things for them; I opened the Red Sea… I led them across… I provided them with manna from heaven… I opened a spring of water from the rock, and the rock followed them, and that rock was Christ.

I was next to a rock that was pouring out water, and then they went and brought a statue, and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Do they deserve that? Do they deserve the rock that followed them? Do they deserve to drink from the side of Christ? And the rock was Christ… He was watering them from His side, but, my beloved, Moses dared to stand before God – Moses is a man – and the prophets also prophesy things inspired by the Holy Spirit. He said to Him, “Blot out my name from the Book of Life.” He said to him, “Moses, you are my symbol. How can I blot your name out from the Book of Life? You cannot be blotted out… I am life, O Moses, and you are my servant. How can your name be blotted out from the Book of Life? I will comfort you, O Moses… A prophet like Me will the Lord raise up for you from among your brothers; the Lord will raise up for you… There will be another one coming from among your brothers like you who will say to Him, ‘Kill me or do not kill all these people.’”

“This is the aspect of comparison between the Prophet or between Christ and the Prophet Moses. He said to him, ‘A prophet from among your brethren,’ and the people of the Children of Israel are the sons of Jacob and the sisters of Jacob. So Esau is not Ishmael, as they falsely claim in the newspapers. The brothers of Jacob are Esau, and Esau is the one who lived in the area of East Jordan, from whom the Edomites came, and Herod and those people. So the brothers of Jacob are the Edomites, who are the sons of Esau. Ishmael would be a brother to their grandfather, not to them, but let’s leave this silly debate aside.”

A prophet like me will the Lord raise up for you in what? He said, I said to our Lord, erase my name from the book of life… I will die and they will be saved. He said, the one who will come is the one who will die because you, O Moses, when you die, will perish… But the one who will come and die is the one who will grant life. What does it mean? Your death, O Moses, will do what? If you, O Moses, say this out of compassion for the people, then you, O Moses, will die and they will die because you cannot redeem them. But the Word of God incarnate is the One who can redeem them and save them by His death. This is the meaning of the verse. Christ placed in His divine plan to redeem humanity with His love and humility, and He was born in a very humble manger that the heavens cannot contain, nor even the heaven of heavens. As Isaiah the prophet says,It is  He who sits upon the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. The waters that are in the oceans are in His palm, and the heavens cannot contain Him.

Luke the Evangelist says about Him that there was no room for Him in the inn (no place in the inn); He found no room… He found no place… He found no spot… under the stairs to stay in, so He was born in the place of animals. What is this humility, O Lord? And who can bear it? The cherubim cover their faces because they cannot bear to look at this sight. How can You, who cannot be contained by the heavens of heavens, be born among the beasts for my sake? Then how do You enter Jerusalem, O You who sit upon the cherubim, to sit on a donkey and a colt, the foal of a donkey, for my sake as well, the lowly human?

If someone came in front of you, even if they had an interest in you, and knelt down to kiss your feet, you would say to them, “Oh, be careful, get up, my brother, don’t kiss my feet, that’s too much.” What about the opposite, when the President of the Republic sees the most despicable person and the biggest criminal and kneels down to kiss his feet… is this reasonable? No, it isn’t. This humility that has been presented to me and to you today is humility at the level of God, not at the level of humans; it is divine humility. People thought they could prove the divinity of Christ, even though He raised the dead, healed the sick, and performed signs and miracles. We will prove the humility of Christ by the extent of His extreme humility. The God before whom the angels fear and tremble bends down today before my feet, I, the sinful, unclean man, to wash them. Is this reasonable?!! A human cannot bear this; you wouldn’t do this for a servant in your house, you wouldn’t do this for an employee in this way… so what about if God does this for sinners?!! And the most serious of all this, my beloved, which we cannot bear to hear or endure, is that Christ, the Lord of glory, knelt down before the feet of Judas, who was about to betray Him… Have you seen anything more than this?!! He knelt down before the feet of the traitor who wanted to stab Him.

Yesterday we said that it was not Judas, nor the woman who poured the fragrant oil… it was Christ who poured Himself… who poured Himself. The matter is not about physical gestures, but it is about bowing to the feet of the man who will stab Him in the back… “He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.” And I bow to the feet of Judas, who ate the morsel in his mouth; what humility this is.

Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot bear all this… because we will become servants to You, so that You may reign, O Lord, completely over our hearts. Lord Jesus, if a king came and tried to rule us with a sword and a spear, we would not submit to him, but because You bow to my feet and wash them, and You bow to our feet, we who betray You so often… You did not come and reject Judas and say to him, “Go away, I will not bow to your feet and wash them.” There has never been a day, O Lord, that You came to me and said, “You have despised My commandments and My sacrifice or despised My Gospel.” There has never been a day, O Lord, that You came and told me to stay away; I will not wash your feet. But every day, O Lord, every day in Your amazing humility… You bow to my feet while I am sinning against You, while I am betraying You, while I am doing evil.

There has never been a day in my life that I haven’t done evil, O Jesus, and There has never been a day, O Lord, that you have ever turned away from me, or been disgusted with me, or tired of me, or told me that I shouldn’t kneel at your feet and wash them. How, after this, O Lord, can I not become a servant to you? And you reign over my heart and my life.

Lord Jesus, your humility shatters my heart.. I cannot bear your humility.. I don’t know what to offer You? What should I do for You, O Lord.. I am the one who denies You and betrays You, doing bad things.. I have fulfilled Your command, and You kneel at my feet every day and wash them.. I don’t know how to tell You for the rest of my life I will sit at Your feet, fulfilling Your command with all faithfulness and precision.. I don’t care about people, nor do I care about my dignity.. I will trample on myself for You are the God.. I have trampled on my feet, I who betray you and defile Your holy temple, no one rules over my heart except You.

My beloved, this topic is left for us to live, not just to hear. I am not an eloquent person to express this humility, or what Jesus does with you? Or what He has done with us today, I don’t know what to tell you, but what happened is that He knelt down to our treacherous feet and washed them… So what do we offer Him after this? Is there power, is there desire in the world, is there temptation in the world, O Lord Jesus, that prevents me from having You as my King? Is there another king that can enter my heart? Is there another desire that will rule my heart after today? Is there, O Lord, a tendency that competes with You in my heart? I tell you… there is nothing in my heart more important than You, O Lord Jesus, let it be. Is there anything that competes with You in my heart? Never…

O my beloved, from today I will be, O Lord, in Your kingdom, and You will be my King and my God. And also, the Lord Jesus has offered us the utmost degree of love, and this humility, my brothers, must be the result of limitless love. If humility is limitless, then love must also be limitless. Today, He breaks Himself and offers to me and to you His body and blood. Because we eat, He does not offer us anything else; He breaks Himself and pours out His blood, My poured-out blood and My broken body I offer to you, my children and my beloved.

Lord Jesus, truly Your goodness towards us is great.. You give us strength, You give us health, You give us wealth, You give us good children, and You give us many blessings.. But can You give us Yourself and break Yourself with all Your freedom, and shed Your blood?! We considered it a great thing that You poured water from the solid rock in the wilderness and quenched Your people.. Today You are quenching us with Your blood and offering us Your body and blood.. The most dangerous thing of all, my beloved Jesus, is that You offered Your body to the traitor who harbored evil against You in his heart. Of course, we thank Christ; there is not one of us who is a true traitor, but there are weak people among us, as the Apostle said, “There are many sick among you, and some have fallen asleep because we partake in an unworthy manner.” However, there is no one among us who approaches the body and blood of the Lord while harboring evil against God Himself, as Judas did.

But even the love of Jesus, as Saint Gregory says in the liturgy, “There is no power of speech that can limit the depth of Your love for humanity,” Judas’s betrayal cannot diminish Jesus’s love for Judas; this difficult betrayal does not lessen Jesus’s love for Judas. That is why He offered him His body and said, “Take all your share in My love.” I do not deserve it, my Lord but He said, “No… your share… My love has no limits.” Then our teacher John the Evangelist says that Jesus immediately said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified; now love is glorified to its fullest extent because the traitor eats the morsel.”

But, my beloved… what can we say in the face of Your love, O Jesus: You loved us and poured Yourself out on the cross, You broke Yourself and gave us to eat, and every time we approach, we must have deceit and bad things within us… and yet You give us. What can we do in return for Your love for us? What, O Lord, can we do? Believe that what the woman did when she poured the fragrant oil was little… According to Saint Ignatius, the disciple of Saint Peter the Apostle, says “I will not feel… I will never feel that I love Christ unless I shed my blood as He shed His for me… and if you try to make the beasts calm (as He approaches martyrdom), I will try to provoke them to devour me so that my blood may flow, so that I may feel my love for Christ… I want the beasts to grind me so that I may be turned into flour and be the wheat of the Creator, just as He offered Himself and His body to be food for me.

Finally, my beloved, with what respect and dignity should we attend the church, the house of God? The One who condescended, washed our feet, loved us, and offered us Himself… With what respect should one stand in the church? How should one stand?!! I fear, my beloved, that we will be judged because we take the house of God too lightly… When the Pentecost comes, you will see the celebrations and the crowns and what happens in the church; does this befit the house of God?!! You will see during the liturgy how I stand and drift off in my thoughts; does this befit the one who offered Himself and humbled Himself to wash our feet? You will see how… I do not want to open this topic… but I plead with God to grant us respect for His house and respect for His body and blood, and a sense of indebtedness that we owe Him for His condescension, humility, and washing our feet, and for offering His body and blood.
To our God be everlasting glory. Amen.

Reference :-

Book of Luminous Lived Sermons – Issued by the Diocese of Mallawi, Ansena, and Ashmounin.