Texts taken from the Missal “On Your Word” March-April 2024

Easter Triduum - Holy Thursday «The Lord’s Supper» 
proper

Evening Mass

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 the first month of the year for you. Speak to the whole community of Israel and say: “On the tenth of this month each of them shall procure a lamb for their family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a lamb, it shall join its nearest neighbor, according to the number of persons; you shall calculate the lamb in proportion to what each one can eat. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, one year old; you may take it from the sheep or from 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 put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. That night they shall eat its flesh roasted over the fire; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; you shall eat it in haste. It is the Passover of the Lord! For that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human and animal; and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord! The blood on the houses where you are shall be a sign in your favor: when I see the blood, I will pass over you; no destructive plague shall come upon 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

Sacred history is also a history of blood. We must not be scandalized, because everything is in God’s hands, and what comes from him is the work of divine Providence. There are innocent people who die in the land of Egypt, but what we must consider is their final destiny. If they die in this world to be reborn in God’s eternity, according to a plan that is also mysterious to us, we must think that good comes from it. God’s work is not against human beings, but against the so-called “gods” of Egypt. And when Jesus is born, other innocents will die by Herod’s decree. Such violent deaths bring to mind the cross of the great Innocent One, the Son of God, who suffers and is killed not for his own faults, but to atone for the faults committed by other people. Easter reminds us of our responsibility, showing that true death is the death we inflict on our souls through sin and rebellion. Ancient Israel leaves Egypt through a powerful, unforgettable “tear,” and Easter means this definitive passage from sin to grace.

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 also, saying: «This cup is the New Covenant in my blood; do this, whenever 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. - The Word of the Lord.

Commentary on the second reading

The life of the Church has its heart and center in the Mass, described by the apostle Paul in a sober and essential way. When we nourish ourselves with the Body and Blood of Christ, we are not merely experiencing something personal, the extraordinary encounter between our poor humanity and God’s immense love; we also proclaim the death of the Lord to everyone, because our lives change completely. By eating that Body, we enter into Christ’s death, where sins are erased and eternal salvation is proclaimed; in a concrete and real sense, our insufficiency is taken up by the Son and presented to the Father to be renewed in grace. We also become participants in Christ’s glorious resurrection in order to live the life of God’s children. «Until he comes» means that there is still a period of waiting, a time. Fulness will come only at the end of everything, when this world ends and there is a resurrection of the bodies. Until that moment, our life will be nothing other than communicating to others what we have become: children of God and participants in the divine nature.

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 supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray 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 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 he had tied around himself. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him: «Lord, are you going to wash my feet?». Jesus answered: «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 head!». Jesus added: «Anyone who has bathed does not need to wash except his feet, and he is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all». For he knew who was going to betray him; for this reason he said: «Not all of you are clean». When he had washed their feet, he put his garments back on, reclined again, 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 may do as I have done to you».- The Word of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the day

The washing of the feet is a striking gesture. Before giving us the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus establishes the “sacramental” of service to our brothers and sisters, joining the two acts into one inseparable whole. Indeed, the apostle John omits describing the central moment of the Eucharist in order to focus on the gesture of washing the feet. It is not possible - he seems to tell us - to eat the Body of Christ if we are not prepared to live in total dedication to the needs of our brothers and sisters, whom we must not love in an ordinary way, according to personal preferences and friendship, but in a supernatural way. When I eat the Body of Christ, I must feel drawn upward (toward his divine Heart) and at the same time downward (toward the feet of my brothers and sisters), receiving on one hand the greatness of the Savior and on the other declaring myself everyone’s servant. These two acts reveal our royalty, the power of love that makes no calculations and has no measure. We have received freely; freely we place ourselves at the service of others, with the life of Christ within us as our reward, bringing great peace. This is love: the two commandments (love of God and love of neighbor) are one and the same.