Paschal Triduum – Holy Thursday – The Lord’s Supper
Proper
Texts taken from the “Sulla Tua Parola” Missal, March-April 2021.
With the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the Paschal Triduum begins, three days that the Church lives as though they were one great day. These are the most important days of our faith. Everything begins here, with the events that take place during these three extraordinary days. At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood, and the Church, in obedience to his words, repeats that gesture so that he may be fully present here among us today. Let us open our hearts wide and let Christ enter.
FIRST READING
From the Book of Exodus (Ex 12:1-8, 11-14)
In those days, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be for you the first month of the year. Speak to the whole community of Israel and say: ‘On the tenth day of this month, each of them shall procure a lamb for his family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a lamb, it shall join the nearest household, according to the number of persons; you shall calculate the lamb in proportion to what each person can eat. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, one year old; you may take it from the sheep or the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the community of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. Then they shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. That night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This is how you shall eat it: with your loins girded, sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; you shall eat it in haste. It is the Passover of the Lord! That night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and I will execute judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord! The blood on the houses where you are shall serve as a sign in your favor: when I see the blood, I will pass over you; no destructive plague shall touch you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a memorial for you; you shall celebrate it as a feast of the Lord. Throughout your generations you shall celebrate it as a perpetual institution.’” The word of the Lord.
Commentary on the first reading
“This day shall be a memorial for you; you shall celebrate it as a feast of the Lord. Throughout your generations you shall celebrate it as a perpetual institution.” It is not merely a memory of a past event, however extraordinary; rather, it is a memorial: the past that is still present today and will be forever. Christianity is not suited to those who limit themselves to being singers who praise the past. Easter is alive and present today. The passage of liberation from Egypt and from all possible and imaginable forms of slavery is still taking place now. The true blood that saves is no longer that of the lamb, which was merely a sign pointing ahead, but the true blood shed on the cross, the Eucharistic blood of Christ. It is indeed a perpetual rite, but not so much because it is repeated endlessly every year; rather, because it immerses us in the eternal life of the divine Trinity. It is a true feast, a passage from slavery to freedom, from the death of sin to divine life. It is only in Easter that we can find true joy: let us allow it to burst forth today and forever.
SECOND READING
from the first letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11:23-26)
Brothers and sisters, I received from the Lord what I in turn handed on to you: that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread and, after giving thanks, broke it and said: “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. The word of the Lord.
Commentary on the second reading
“For whenever you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” Experts state that this reading from Saint Paul contains the oldest description of faith in the Eucharist: words and gestures that make Jesus Christ present and effective among us today, just as he was two thousand years ago. It is wonderful, incredibly beautiful, to place ourselves not in a past, but in a memorial that is also present today. In every Eucharist it is Jesus himself, the same one who walked the streets of Palestine, spoke with authority, and performed wondrous deeds, who is alive here among us today. It is the same Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the Father, begotten, not made, who wishes to give himself and communicate himself to us. Saint Paul tells us: “Brothers and sisters, I received from the Lord what I in turn handed on to you.” Faith is firmly founded on tradition (from the Latin: to transmit, entrust, hand over, leave as an inheritance). This transmission begins with Jesus, who gives the bread and wine as his body and blood to the apostles, and continues through the centuries until the end of time.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to John (Jn 13:1-15)
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During the supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, the intention of betraying him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God, rose from the table, laid aside his garments, took a towel, and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus added, “Whoever has bathed has no need to wash, except for the feet, and is entirely clean; and you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who was betraying him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” When he had washed their feet, he put on his garments, returned to the table, and said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, so that you also should do as I have done to you.” The Gospel of the Lord.
Commentary on the Gospel of the day
“Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Saint Paul, Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe how the Last Supper took place; John, in keeping with his purpose, prefers to focus on its meaning. Thus, the account of the Last Supper corresponds to the account of a significant action, the washing of the feet. The gesture is explained through the fulfillment of a love “to the end”: the Eucharist is presented as service. Christ’s total self-giving to the Father and the apostles; our acceptance of the gift, for the praise of God and the Christian joy of our brothers and sisters. How often do our Eucharistic celebrations consist merely of performing repetitive gestures? What sense does it make to pretend to honor the unseen God, only to then forget God present in our brother or sister - first of all the one nearby, perhaps annoying, difficult to deal with, or someone I simply do not want to obey? Let us try to hold together the signs of the bread and wine consecrated as the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, together with Jesus himself washing the feet: it is the same God who offers himself.
