Holy Thursday: last supper mass
This evening we have come together to celebrate the memory of Jesus’ farewell meal: At this supper so heavy with meaning, he did and said unusual, shocking things. Like the lowliest of servants, he, the great Teacher and Lord, washed the feet of his disciples and told them to become, like him, servants of people. Then, as they were eating, he passed the bread and the wine to them, saying: “This is my body broken for you. This is the cup of my blood shed for you. Love one another as I have loved you.” These events happened long ago, and yet, he tells us here and now: “I have given you an example. As I have done, so you must do; as I have served, so you must serve. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Reading I: Ex 12:1-8, 11-14
11 “And here is how you are to eat it: Be fully dressed with your sandals on and your stick in your hand. Eat in a hurry; it’s the Passover to God.
12-13 “I will go through the land of Egypt on this night and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, whether human or animal, and bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am God. The blood will serve as a sign on the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you—no disaster will touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 “This will be a memorial day for you; you will celebrate it as a festival to God down through the generations, a fixed festival celebration to be observed always.
Reading II: 1 Cor 11:23-26
This is my body, broken for you.
Do this to remember me.
After supper, he did the same thing with the cup:
This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you.
Each time you drink this cup, remember me.
What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.
Gospel: Jn 13:1-15
1-2 Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.
3-6 Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”
8 Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”
Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”
9 “Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”
10-12 Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.
12-17 Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.
Prayer
Our God and Father,
in this night
so different from all other nights,
we are gathered here to partake of the supper
which your only Son left us,
so that he could stay with us with all the fullness
of his liberating love.
He gave this meal to us
when he was about to die
and commanded us to celebrate it
as the new and eternal sacrifice.
We pray that in this encounter with your Son
he may share with us his life and love
and be our bread of strength
which enables us to do your loving will
to serve our neighbor far and near.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Reflection:
6 April 2023 – Holy Thursday
John 13:1-15
A vocation to kneel down to serve the despised
Today the Church celebrates the feast of the institution of the Eucharist and therefore, it is also the day to celebrate priesthood. It is the day to celebrate our vocation to go down on our knees to wash the feet of one another. Please remember to pray for your priests as we go through the liturgy today!
Fr. Ron Rolheiser gives us a beautiful reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist and Foot-washing. We should be on our knees washing each others’ feet because that is precisely what Jesus did at the first Eucharist, and he did it to teach us that the Eucharist is not a private act of devotion but an invitation to service. The Eucharist is meant to send us out into the world, ready to give expression to the mercy of Christ, humility of Christ, and his self-sacrifice.
Jesus tells this to us when he institutes the Eucharist. The Eucharist invites us to receive nourishment from God, be filled with gratitude, and break open our lives to serve the poor in hospitality, humility, and self-sacrifice. Where the other gospels have Jesus saying, “This is my body; this is my blood; do this in memory of me”, John has him wash his disciples’ feet. For John, this gesture replaces the words of institution. It specifies what the Eucharist is, in fact, meant to do, namely, to lead us out of the Church into the humble service of others.
To take the Eucharist seriously is to begin to wash the feet of others, especially the feet of the poor. The Eucharist is both an invitation that invites us and a grace that empowers us to service. And what it invites us to do is to replace distrust with hospitality, pride with humility, and self-interest with self-donation so as to reverse the world’s order of things – wherein the rich get served by the poor and where the first priority is always to keep one’s pride intact and one’s self-interest protected. The Eucharist invites us to step down from pride, move away from self-interest and to turn the position of privilege into an opportunity for service.
It is no accident that, for liturgy on Holy Thursday, the feast that marks the institution of the Eucharist, the Church has chosen to use the account of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. Indeed, nothing better expresses the meaning of the Eucharist. The Pandemic had deprived us of the reception of the Eucharist… but it has taught us to live in the spirit of the Eucharist – the spirit of washing one another’s feet – the spirit of service.