Mass of the Lord’s Supper Year A 2023

Title

Cleansing and Freedom

Outline

1. The Christian year begins with the Sunday nearest to Nov 30, St Andrew’s Day, as a preparation for the coming of Christ, which is our alternative to New Year’s (Holy Name instead of New Year, a week after celebrating Jesus’ birth).

2. The first priority month in the Jewish calendar was Nissan, in the middle of which a lamb was slaughtered and ritually eaten, commemorating the defeat of Pharoah, the freeing of the Israelites, and their marching out of Egypt with God, so to speak, at their head. This was what they celebrated year by year: God coming to his people, defeating Pharoah, and leading them to freedom.

3. This is also what Christian do at least weekly, if not more often. As John Henry Newman pointed out, God joined himself to humanity, humbled himself more to die for us, and, having defeated death itself, he rose and went bodily before us uniting humanity to the divine. But he would not leave us without his physical presence, so he deigns to be in our presence as often as we celebrate Eucharist - his body, his blood, his humanity, his divinity presence there in the sacrament even if we can only see it with our spiritual eyes. He will not leave us alone on our journey to union with him, but continually is there among us, feeding us.

4. Now John has already written about the Eucharist in chapter 6, so it is not mentioned in his Last Supper narrative, chapter 13. What he does mention is the needs of the journey: the constant washing of dusty feet that want to cling to earth (or even turn back to Egypt) rather than journey to the New Jerusalem. What he does mention, then, is his continual cleansing and strengthening, another gift of the Eucharist as well as confession, that is needed for the journey.

5 What he does mention is that not only does he do this for us in his great sacramental actions , including the cleansing of holy water, and his care for us, but we are to become more like him by doing the same. “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

We give our lives for each other, we help each other along the way through cleansing and refreshing one another, through be the help for one another along the way.

6. In other words, the last supper not only memorializes the crucifixion, his utter humbling and death for us, but it keeps reminding us how that in him we are to live it out by serving each other in the same way. That is how we will indeed make it from Egypt to the New Jerusalem.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 4-6-2023: Chrism Mass

FIRST READING

Exodus 12:1–8, 11–14

1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month will stand at the head of your calendar; you will reckon it the first month of the year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every family must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a lamb, it along with its nearest neighbor will procure one, and apportion the lamb’s cost in proportion to the number of persons, according to what each household consumes. 5 Your lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. 6 You will keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole community of Israel assembled, it will be slaughtered during the evening twilight. 7 They will take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They will consume its meat that same night, eating it roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

11 This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you will eat it in a hurry. It is the LORD’s Passover. 12 For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every firstborn in the land, human being and beast alike, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD! 13 But for you the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thereby, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.

14 This day will be a day of remembrance for you, which your future generations will celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD; you will celebrate it as a statute forever.

Catholic Daily Readings 4-6-2023: Chrism Mass

RESPONSE

1 Corinthians 10:16

16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

PSALM

Psalm 116:12–13, 15–16c, 17–18

12 How can I repay the LORD

for all the great good done for me?

13 I will raise the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the LORD.

15 Dear in the eyes of the LORD

is the death of his devoted.

16 LORD, I am your servant,

your servant, the child of your maidservant;

you have loosed my bonds.

17 I will offer a sacrifice of praise

and call on the name of the LORD.

18 I will pay my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people,

Catholic Daily Readings 4-6-2023: Chrism Mass

SECOND READING

1 Corinthians 11:23–26

23 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, 24 and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Catholic Daily Readings 4-6-2023: Chrism Mass

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

John 13:34

34 I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

GOSPEL

John 13:1–15

CHAPTER 13

1 Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. 2 The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, 3 fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, 4 he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” 11 For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12 So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? 13 You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. 14 If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 4-6-2023: Chrism Mass

MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

YEARS ABC | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

On the same date: Chrism Mass

First Reading Exodus 12:1–8, 11–14

Response 1 Corinthians 10:16

Psalm Psalm 116:12–13, 15–16c, 17–18

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 11:23–26

Gospel Acclamation John 13:34

Gospel John 13:1–15