Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 17, 2025 - Holy Thursday: Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper - ABC
[Exod 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26; John 13:1-15]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, and after he had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 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." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. [1 Corinthians] So when [Jesus] 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? You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am. 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." [John]
One of the more vivid memories of the COVID pandemic just a few years ago is the line of cars in the parking lot across from our university parish on Sunday, waiting for priests and deacons to come out and distribute "communion" to the occupants of the cars. The desire to receive the Body of the Lord was on clear display. That desire is also on display in the lives of those who are excluded for one reason or another from receiving communion because of canonical or personal challenges.
On Holy Thursday, the first day of the "sacred Triduum," we commemorate and continue the event of the Last Supper, which includes, as the Gospel According to John shows, the washing of the feet of the disciples. St. Paul's words, quoted above, are the oldest recollection of Jesus' actions and words on that occasion. The words: "Do this in remembrance of me.." are repeated, as well as their meaning: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes." To receive the Eucharist is not simply a personal devotional act of faith, it is a proclamation! That proclamation includes all that happened in those days, from the washing of the feet of the disciples to the death and resurrection of the Lord! When we "receive communion," we are challenged also to "give communion" to one another. When the "mandatum" ["command"], the liturgical term for the ritual of washing of the feet, is excluded because it is "optional," the full meaning of the Last Supper is lost. The words, "Do this in remembrance of me" include a challenge to serve one another and to "give communion" in love - in short, to "put skin on" what we proclaim when we "go to communion!" To "proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes" is to proclaim a life given for all of us and a challenge to give that life to others. Holy Thursday is not just a commemoration of a past event. It is meant to be repeated every day. AMEN
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