Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 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]"This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as perpetual institution." [Exodus] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. [1 Corinthians] "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]
More than two thousand years of faith are packed into the celebration of Holy Thursday and the Mass of the Lord's Supper. The celebration of Passover commemorates the deliverance of the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt at the Red Sea. The celebration of the Eucharist commemorates Jesus' gift of his Body and Blood at the Last Supper AND Jesus' washing the feet of the disciples with the command to follow his example. In the Gospel According to John, the gift of the Eucharist is presented in chapter 6, following the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, but not at the Last Supper! The other three gospels do not mention the washing of the feet. For very practical reasons the washing of the feet has not endured as a regular LITURGICAL practice, but it is no less asked of us by the Lord. As an act of loving service, it is demanded of our daily lives as Christians.
We Catholics are familiar with the holy water fonts at the entrance of our church buildings. These are reminders to us of our baptism, which itself recalls the deliverance of the Chosen People at the Red Sea. We touch that holy water and make the Sign of the Cross on entering and leaving. We are reminded that everything we do INSIDE the church must be put into practice OUTSIDE the church. Jesus' washing of the feet of the disciples AND his gift of his Body and Blood would be further expressed in the total gift of his life on the cross. The gift of the Eucharist means COMMUNION not only with the Lord but with one another. Holy Thursday is not simply a celebration of the past but a challenge for us NOW and until the Lord comes again. AMEN