Apr 10 2023
Holy Thursday or The Lord’s Last Supper (Year A)
6 Apr 2023
Theme: Jesus Christ, our High Priest who serve and save
A. This evening as we gather in this Cathedral to celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Last Supper, we begin the Easter Triduum – the Great 3 days but one event: The Paschal Mystery.
1. Tonight, we begin this Paschal Mystery with the celebration of the Lord’s Last Supper. The 1st Reading tells us of the ‘Instruction concerning how to prepare the Passover Meal’. For the Jewish people, the Passover Meal is one of the biggest Feasts of the year. It is a time for the people of Israel:
i. To give thanks for their salvation;
ii. To remember the night they were saved from slavery;
iii. To remember how the Lord went through Egypt and passed over their houses;
iv. To remember how the Lord struck down the first born of every Egyptian family and animal.
2. Tonight, we gather to celebrate a meal, another Passover Meal but not the Original Passover Meal celebrated by the Jewish people, but the Lord’s Supper, the last meal our Lord Jesus Christ ate while He was on earth.
3. Christ was celebrating this Passover Meal, with His disciples-the Saving Act of God in freeing His people from slavery under the Egyptians. Tonight, here we are celebrating this Saving Act of God freeing us from the slavery from sin and death.
i. The nation of Israel was saved by the death of the first-born sons of Egypt.
ii. We are all saved through the death of God’s first and only Son Jesus.
Sisters and Brothers,
B. Every time we take part in the Mass, every time we receive Christ’s Body and Blood in the Mass, every time we join our heart to His during or when we receive Communion, we participate in His Last Supper or Meal. There at that particular Meal – our Lord’s Last Supper, what do we see, experience and witness?
1. Gospel (John) presented to us the ‘Washing of the Feet of the disciples’ by Jesus, instead of the ‘Institution of the Eucharist’. But the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke have carefully described to us the Ritual Details of what Jesus did at His Last Supper Meal – we see over the Bread and Wine. Jesus ‘Took, Praised, Broke and Distributed or shared’.
i. Take: He takes-up His own life;
ii. Praise: He praises the Father for the life that He has;
iii. Break: He breaks His own-self or life;
iv. Share: He shares His life for others or the world.
We should do the same.
2. But the Evangelist John in Gospel today tells us nothing of Bread & Wine, instead of what Jesus wants us to experience and learn. St John tells us that… on that night…
i. Jesus knew that He hour has come, He knew that Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him and they all would abandon Him.
ii. Jesus knew that His closest friends would all abandon Him in His time of distress. What do you think? How would He accept or approach this hour?
iii. Most of us would abandon ourselves to anger or despair when we know that someone, we know very well betraying or denying us. We would be so unforgiving for the hurt and betrayal that was at hand
iv. But Jesus did the unthinkable or unimaginable. He bent down to wash the feet of His disciples. He poured out water not only of service but also for love or forgiveness.
v. So, what we could experience and learn tonight we experience and learn that how much Jesus loved His disciples and us till the end (unconditionally).
3. Tonight, as we see and experience what Jesus did at His Last Supper, we should witness as He had also commanded us saying: ‘As I have done to you, so you also must do.’ Jesus emptied to you Himself from the stage of Divinity, and served His own creatures. He comes to serve us, so we must also serve one another, especially the least of the society. We must:
i. Give ourselves for others;
iv. Give our time, our energy, our love, our attention all for others.
iii. Jesus does not just ask for a couple of good works here and there. He orders His whole life towards the service for His disciples. So must we.
C. Sisters and Brothers, Jesus loves us to the very end, even when we always fail Him and forsake Him. The Lord loves each of us freely and unconditionally. His love has power to set us free to love and serve others with Christ-like compassion and humility.
Question: Do you allow God or His power to work in and through you? Does the love of Christ rule in your heart, thoughts, intentions and actions?
1. He is invitation you to be with Him so as to be strengthen by Him. Hence, come and to be with Him tonight…
Spend time with him, we need Him to journey on with our life.
