THE SACRAMENT AND SACRIFICE

MAUNDY THURSDAY      

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

The Sacrament of His Love

The celebrations of today put everything we have been reflecting on in perspective. Both the celebration of the Chrism Mass by the bishop and the priests around him, and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the evening, point to the same mystery of God's love shown to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. The morning celebration of the Chrism Mass can be seen as the celebration of the means to the Lord’s Supper, for the ministerial priesthood is a ministry in service of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Communion. Though considered in itself, it is the end of the vocation of the Servant of God. As we have previously noted, the Servant of God plays the role of God, and the purpose of the role is that he becomes a priest or Sacerdos, which means ‘the giver of holy things.’ The holiest thing the Servant gives to his brothers and sisters is the divine will, which is our daily bread. Therefore, we see that the sacerdotal ministry is closely tied to the Eucharistic sacrifice and communion. We will therefore focus on the institution of the Eucharist as the end of our ministry as priests.

The Sacrament of the Eucharist, which our Lord instituted on Holy Thursday, a day before he suffered, has a general and specific significance. In its general significance, the Eucharist represents the Word of God as going back to God through the whole of creation. The Word that brought forth everything into existence goes back in thanksgiving to God the Father in the communion of all creation in the Eucharist. Hence, the gifts offered to God are products of men’s hands from creatures. The One who offers the sacrifice is no other than the Son of Man, who is the Incarnate Word of God. In this general sense, the Eucharist is the sacrifice of the whole creation through the mystical Christ. So, we receive and understand our original vocation to be the steward of the whole creation and bring all things in Jesus Christ to the praise of God the Father in the communion of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we consider the sacrifices we make of ourselves in our daily engagements carried out in communion with the Holy Spirit as continuations of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Our Lord’s injunction to the disciples to do what he did for them in memorial of him has this general implication and fulfilment. The reality of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is that Jesus Christ lives in each of us to offer himself, through us, to the Father for our salvation and that of the world.

The institution of the Sacrament illuminates this understanding. It draws from the Exodus experience of God’s deliverance of the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. The sacrifice of the spotless or unblemished lamb is a type of the sacrifice of the Son of Man for the salvation of the people of God from their slavery to sin and evil in this mortal life. “On the tenth day of this month, each man must take an animal from the flock, one for each family: one animal for each household. … It must be an animal without blemish, a male one year old; you may take it from either sheep or goats. You must keep it till the fourteenth day of the month when the whole assembly of the community of Israel shall slaughter it between the two evenings.” The purpose of the sacrifice is to save the people from the operation of the angel of death in the darkness of the night. “When I see the blood I will pass over you, and you shall escape the destroying plague when I strike the land of Egypt.” The specific purpose of deliverance entered the sacrifice because of original and actual sins. But the sacrifice is original and eternal in its reality and meaning. “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.”

Since the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt is a symbol or type of our common slavery to sin and evil through the original and actual sins, the reality of the sacrifice of the lamb for their deliverance is found in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who saved all of us. We note the emphasis God put on the unblemished nature of the one-year-old animal, that it may properly signify the Son of Man, who was conceived without sin in the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lived sinless. The purity of our nature in the Son of Man is what qualifies him to be a sacrifice (a victim) and the priest, at the same time, in the service of God. In the same way that the blood of the victim was used to purify and redeem the people of Israel, the blood of Jesus Christ is used to wash away our sins and redeem us from the bondage of evil.

Subsequently, we understand the Son of Man as the sinless one, whose sacrifice washed away our sins and redeemed us from the forces of death and evil, to be a sacrifice unto God our Father. We see the necessity of purity in his insistence on washing the feet of Peter and other disciples. “He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘At the moment you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ‘Never!’ said Peter ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus replied, ‘If I do not wash you, you can have nothing in common with me.’” These are solemn words which confirm our understanding of the deep meaning and mystery of the Eucharist. To offer it worthily to God, we must be purified by the blood of Jesus Christ, which is part of the sacred duties of the ministerial priests. In the person of Christ, by virtue of their ordination to him, they must purify their brothers and sisters and get them ready for the sacred and Eucharistic sacrifice. “If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.” We can unite with Jesus Christ spiritually to offer the sacrifice of his body and blood, soul and divinity, to the Father, for the redemption of the world, only when we are purified with his blood.

Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians explicates and emphasises the fact that it is the same sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which culminated on the Cross of Calvary, that we offer every time we celebrate the Eucharist. The reality of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is in fulfilment of his word or command, that we do what he did in memorial of him. Thus, Paul writes: “Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death.” This proclamation is seen in the life of love we live after receiving the Sacrament of his love. Through this proclamation or witnessing, Jesus continues to be present within and among us, to save us from sin, death, and evil, and to unite us to himself in his self-sacrifice to the Father in love. Thus, the mystery of this Sacrament is deep and beyond our complete understanding. May our worthy celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice bring us to fullness of salvation in Jesus Christ.

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, intrusted 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.