Holy Thursday: Eucharist, Priesthood, Humble Charity

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper

My brothers and sister in Christ, with this Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we enter into the Sacred Triduum, the three holiest days of the year when we walk with our Lord Jesus Christ from the Upper Room to Calvary and then to the Tomb. Tonight at this Mass we gather as Jesus gathered with His Twelve Apostles, and we follow His instructions: “Do this in memory of me.” From that night to the present, we Christians have followed that command every time we gather for the Mass, but in a very particular way on Holy Thursday. The central Mystery that we mark and remember and receive is the Eucharist, the most precious gift of the Lord’s own Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This is real food, real drink, and it is really Jesus Himself.

Jesus’ gift of Himself had its roots deep in the experience of God’s Chosen People, Israel. Perhaps 2000 years before Christ, Abraham was told by God to take his only son, Isaac to the top of Mount Moriah and to sacrifice him. Abraham obeyed the Lord. Isaac, his son bore the wood for the sacrifice up the steep slope, and moments before that terrible sacrifice, Isaac asked Abraham, “Father, where is the ram for sacrifice?” Abraham told his only son, “God will provide the sacrifice.” Isaac was bound and Abraham’s arm was raised to kill him when the Angel of the Lord stayed his hand, and there, caught in the bush, was the ram. God provided the sacrifice, and God kept the covenant promises He had made to Abraham.

Later, Abraham and Sara’s offspring were held captive in Egypt. As we heard in our first reading, they kept there the first Passover, when the blood of the paschal lamb marked their doorposts, and the Angel of Death passed over them, and they escaped from under Pharaoh’s might, across the Red Sea, through the desert, and into the Promised Land. Each year they remembered that protection and exodus by celebrating the Passover Feast, and each year once again they sacrificed a lamb and marked their doorposts so as not to forget what God had done for them. God was faithful to His covenant and promises to His people

In the fullness of time, God provided the sacrifice that He had intended to offer all along, fulfilling all that had been promised and foreshadowed. In our second reading, in a letter written decades before even the Gospels, St. Paul tells us what happened: In that upper room, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Then he took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” No longer was the flesh and blood of an animal to be offered as some imperfect proxy of the priest and people. The Great and Eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ, offered no lamb, but Himself, and He gave that very gift of Himself to His apostles under the appearance of bread and wine. By the protection and grace of the Holy Spirit, that Gift has been handed down to us, and we continue to keep that feast and offer that sacrifice, and to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood.

So, tonight, we remember this perfect gift of the Eucharist, this is the principal mystery that we celebrate. And yet there is more! How did that gift come to us, who was to repeat and imitate the Lord’s actions? At the Last Supper, the Apostles were consecrated and ordained, receiving the gift of Holy Orders along with that sacred order, “Do this in memory of me.” We only know of those words because of their testimony and witness, and this too has been handed down to us. We do not receive the Eucharist out of our own creativity or ingenuity. We do not produce the Eucharist out of our own merits or virtues, rather, it is given to us despite our unworthiness through the Holy Priesthood. The Apostles were the first bishops, and they passed on that power and authority and gift by the laying on of hands. No man can priest himself, and no Christian can produce the Eucharist out of good will or even profound desire. This gift has been handed down in an unbroken line from Jesus Christ to the Apostles, and down through the long generations to us. Why did Jesus choose only men for this particular ministry? His Blessed Mother was far worthier, and He broke every taboo and barrier in reaching out to the women of His time and calling them to follow Him. We do not know why the Lord made this choice, but we know that He did, and the Church has followed and obeyed that mysterious choice ever since. In every age both men and women have answered the most basic call of the Gospel, to holiness, and the Church lifts up the men, women, and children of every nation as Saints, whose example and intercession helps us to follow their example! The priesthood is no worldly power possessed by some against others, but rather a call to imitate Christ and to serve in a particular way that Jesus Himself instituted. We can but faithfully obey and receive this gift.

Finally, the Church calls us to reflect this night, not only on the Gift of the Eucharist, not only on the Holy Priesthood by which that Gift comes to us, but also upon the fruits and effect that Gift should have in our lives… humble service to each other and to the world.

In our Gospel, we hear not of the Eucharist, directly, but of Jesus washing His Twelve Apostles’ feet. Jesus is indeed teacher, and master, and Lord. He is Himself God, and yet He humbles Himself and performs the task of the lowest servant, even when Simon Peter resists. He gives the Twelve a model to follow, and not only the Twelve. As your pastor, the Church insists that I too must publicly offer this witness, to humble me, and to humble you, and to remind each and every one of us that if we are given this most Precious Gift of the Eucharist, it is precisely so that this good seed of Jesus Body and Blood would be planted in our hearts and lives, and then would bear the rich harvest of humble charity.

The Lord gives us this perfect gift, this perfect sacrifice. The Lord calls us to the highest holiness and virtue, and by this Eucharist He gives us the healing and grace that we need to respond. Tonight, may we receive Him who saved us on the Cross with open hearts, may we be transformed, and through us, the whole world.

+ A. M. D. G. +