Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper

Preface

On this most sacred night, brethren, we begin the Sacred Paschal Triduum. One liturgy with three parts over three days. The Triduum is a liturgical season itself, between Lent and Easter.

On Holy Thursday each year, with this Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we mark three crucial aspects of our faith: Holy Eucharist, Holy Priesthood, Commandment of Charity.

Holy Eucharist

At this Mass, and indeed at every Mass, we perpetuate that Last Supper as well as the entirety of this Triduum. What occurred nearly 2,000 years ago in the Upper Room, at Calvary, and in the Tomb... is made PRESENT! HERE!

It is a MIRACLE, because God transcends time and space to bring us to the ACTUAL moments of Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection!

Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Passover, which we heard about in our first reading from the Book of Exodus. Jesus Himself is the unblemished Lamb. We consume His Body and Blood.

That is, “...all who are washed in the blood of the Lamb will be freed from eternal death.” Joseph Ponessa and Laurie Watson Manhardt, Moses and the Torah, Come and See: Catholic Bible Study (Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing, 2007), 46.

Holy Priesthood

Jesus also confers this sacred night the office of the holy priesthood on His apostles. Being the first Mass, He commands them to “do this in memory of me” (cf. Roman Missal) meaning the perpetuation of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with its profound graces and fruits.

St. Paul reminded the Corinthians, and he reminds us, that this is the meaning of “Do this in remembrance of me” (cf. 1 Cor 11:24-25 NABRE).

Just over ten months as a priest myself, what a gift it is to share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, the High Priest! What a gift it is to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in obedience to His command, and out of love for Christ and His Church! There is no more important thing I do on a given day than celebrate the Holy Mass. There is a prayer, borrowing from a brother priest, that I have recently been more intentional about praying prior to celebrating Mass: “May I pray this Mass as if it were my first Mass, my last Mass, my only Mass.”

Commandment of Charity

By the insistence that His washing of Peter’s feet is necessary, Jesus is reminding us that His doing so “...signifies Jesus’ loving action on the cross, and Peter must yield to Jesus’ loving action in order to share in Jesus’ life, which the cross makes possible.”

Francis Martin and William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John, ed. Peter S. Williamson and Mary Healy, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), 235.

As the CCC 1823 reminds us, and I quote:

“Jesus makes charity the new commandment. By loving his own “to the end,” he makes manifest the Father’s love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.” And again: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”” Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2019), 449.

As an application to ourselves here and now, today:

“Some people resist Christ because they do not consider themselves sinful enough to require him to wash them in baptism or the sacrament of reconciliation. Others have the opposite problem: they stay away because they are ashamed of their lives or secret sins. To both, Jesus speaks gently but firmly as he did to Peter, “Come, for unless I wash you, you cannot share in my inheritance.”” Francis Martin and William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John, ed. Peter S. Williamson and Mary Healy, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), 236.

Praise Jesus Christ for the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Priesthood, and the charity and humility to which He commands us, so that we all may experience the transforming power of His love and mercy!