THE LORD'S LAST SUPPER

MAUNDY THURSDAY, EVENING MASS

Exod 12:1-8,11-14; Ps 116:12-13,15-18; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15

The Lamb’s Most Sacred Supper

We celebrate two Masses today, the Chrism Mass with the bishop and priests, in which we celebrate the institution of the ministerial priesthood. In the Chrism Mass, the Church celebrates and thanks God for the gift of the presbyteral or priestly Order, which the bishop possesses in fullness and shares with the priests in the wonderful gift by which Jesus Christ is made present to his people for service leading to their salvation. The second Mass, which is the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, is the celebration of the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist. By the gift of the Eucharist, Jesus is present to his people for personal and communal encounter and transformation. The Sacraments of Holy Order and Holy Eucharist are different means of representing the person of Jesus Christ to his people. The Holy Order, as a Sacrament is ordered to the service of the people of God, and specially ordered to the Holy Eucharist, for the priests serve the spiritual needs of the people of God by giving them Jesus Christ, in himself and the Eucharist. Thus, the Sacrament of the Eucharist, a banquet of love, illuminates the meaning and purpose of the Holy Orders. We approach the Most Holy Eucharist through the path of love, for it is the sacrament of love of Jesus Christ for his people.

Our Lord instituted the Eucharist during the celebration of the Passover, the feast of the Jews that anticipates the wonderful Sacrament. Central to the reading from Exodus about the instruction on the preparation and celebration of the Passover is the one-year-old lambs used as a sacrifice. The blood of these lambs smeared on the doorpost of the people of God saved them from the destructive angel God sent to punish Egypt and make them release the children of Israel. The rituals and events were so central to the foundation of Israel as the people of God that God declared the month the first of the year. God made the celebration of the Passover part of their life and identity. “The blood shall serve to mark the houses that you live in. When I see the blood I will pass over you and you shall escape the destroying plague when I strike the land of Egypt. This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a feast in the Lord’s honour. For all generations you are to declare it a day of festival, for ever.” The blood of the lamb freed them from bondage in Egypt, saved them from destruction, and consecrated them as people of God.

The blood of the lamb of Passover anticipates the blood of Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of God, in these three regards. Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross for our redemption; he freed us from the bondage of sin and evil; his blood saved us from everlasting death and damnation; his blood also washed and regenerated us as children of God, adopted in the Son. He achieved all these for us on the cross of Calvary. But he instituted the Sacrament of these events and reality the night before he suffered. His sacred institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, he replaced the type with reality. Because his death on the cross is the foundation of the spiritual people of God, the Sacrament is central to the life and identity of the Church as the people of God. Saint Paul reminds the Corinthians of the centrality of the Sacrament. “This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and thanked God for it and broke it, and he 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.’” The importance of the institution and the ritual around the Sacrament is clear in the words of Paul, who used the exact words of our Lord without alteration.

The importance of the Holy Eucharist as a Sacrament lies in the fact that it makes the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who offered himself in love for our redemption, present. The real presence is the means and purpose of his mission. Isaiah’s prophecy of his conception says his name will be Immanuel, ‘God-with-us.’ The Son of Man remained the presence of God with his people through his life on earth, and as he was about to end his physical presence, his love for us devised a means of perpetuating his real presence sacramentally. The Eucharist is an invention of love, for love desires to be present to the beloved. “Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God, and he got up from table, removed his outer garment and, taking a towel, wrapped it round his waist.” Love pours out himself for the beloved and becomes one with her. The Holy Eucharist is a means of Christ’s perpetual presence and communion with us, his own. Thus, to receive our Lord in the Eucharist is not just to receive the Sacrament of his body, blood, soul, and divinity; it is to receive his real presence within us, to believe, adore, hope, and love him. The fruit of this communion is our transformation into Jesus Christ to serve the various needs of our brothers and sisters. The Eucharist is a sacrifice and an invitation to be a sacrifice. “I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done for you.”

Let us pray: O God, who have called us to participate in this most sacred Supper, in which your Only Begotten Son, when about to hand himself over to death, entrusted to the Church a sacrifice new for all eternity, the banquet of his love, grant, we pray, that we may draw from so great a mystery, the fullness of charity and of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.