THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE SACRAMENTS OF LOVE



Maundy Thursday/2024

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP

Theme: Sacred Institutions of Love

As we enter the three most holy days of the season within the Holy Week, the Church turns our attention to the most sacred things and events of our Christian faith. The morning celebration focusses on the institution of the Sacred priesthood that the Son of God, in his sacred humanity, instituted to perpetuate his presence and ministry among his people. The Cathedral is suitable for the celebration, with the bishop as the chief celebrant and all the priests around him sharing in the sacred Order of Jesus Christ and Melchizedek. The priesthood, which the bishops have in fullness, is a ministry of love and service. The purpose of its institution is to mediate divine presence among his people. The priest is ordained to give or minister the holiest things to the people, namely, God’s word and Sacraments. The priest daily receives the word of God and administers the Sacraments. He becomes what he gives, that is, the presence of God. Thus, he is reverently called Father. The institution of the new priesthood is the first part of ‘the design of love’ by Jesus Christ to remain with his people. The priesthood is primarily for the celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharistic, which is the fount of the Church’s life and holiness. For this reason, these two great Sacraments are commemorated on the same day. The two together reveal the depth of love of the Saviour.

Love is about the beloved. Jesus Christ thinks and lives for his beloved Church. Understanding the essence of love is an aid to understanding the meaning of these two Sacraments. In the institution of the Eucharist, Our Lord Jesus Christ puts his divine power to use in designing a means of remaining with his beloved souls and sharing intimately in their lives. The very foundation of the Sacrament of Love is the equation of God to his word. The word of God brings into reality the thing or event for which it is communicated. “The Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it, and broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me.’ In the same way, he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.” Hence, this Sacrament makes the body, blood, soul, and divinity of the Lord present, in essence, the real presence of the Lord. The Lord commands that we celebrate it in memory of him.

The memorial act is necessary for us, because we can only be present to the Lord we do not physically see through a representation of him in our consciousness aided by memory. Through this act of recollection or anamnesis we can enter into a loving communion with the Lord. He is objectively present in the Eucharistic Sacrament but personally present to each of his members through his conscious remembrance of his words and sacrifice on the cross. His loving action on the cross was to atone for our sins with his blood. The gospel gives us the symbolic ritual of that sacrifice that washed away our sins and nourished us with his body, blood, soul, and divinity. The acknowledgment and confession of our sins to a priest at the confessional form an essential part of the communion with the Lord, for it removes the hindrance to our communion with him. “If I do not wash you, you can have nothing in common with me.”

Let us pray: O Lord, who in this Sacrament has left us a memorial of your passion and death, grant us, we beseech you, so to reverence the sacred mystery of your body and blood that we may gain the fruit of its merits.

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