Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper

I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, 

that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, 
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, 
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

The readings of the Triduum – the three ceremonies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday night -- bind us to the past and find us in the present.  We must know who we are and, to do so, we must remember our past. As he celebrated the Eucharist Saint Paul invoked the tradition that was already rooted in Jesus Christ. That which he had “received from the Lord” and handed on to others was received by the Lord from already ancient Jewish tradition.

This weekend we will remember an ancient incident, the escape of the Hebrews from Egypt, which they celebrated for several hundred years before the stories, songs and ceremony of Passover were described in sacred scripture. The Exodus was, for all intents and purposes, a prehistoric event. Only the Bible documents the incident. There is nothing in Egyptian hieroglyphics to authenticate it. We don’t know which Pharaoh was drowned with his army, nor do we know how many first born male children died. The story is told not as it might be described today, a catastrophe with terrible loss of life, but as the victory God won for his people. That is all the detail the Hebrew escapees and their heirs needed.

As we hear these readings we peer through the centuries to recall the grace of that Exodus and its meaning. And then, as Christians, we will remember the death and resurrection of Jesus and its Exodus meaning for us.

Today, of course, we celebrate the “Last Supper of the Lord.” It is rich with meaning for us as it was the First Mass, the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Institution of the Priesthood. In fact Holy Thursday is so dense with layers of meaning the Catholic Church has to celebrate two festive ceremonies, the Chrism Mass and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. (But most American dioceses celebrate the Chrism Mass earlier in Holy Week or Lent.)

William Faulkner, speaking of the south, wrote: “The past is never dead; it’s not even past!” If that is true of the southern United States, it is doubly true of the Church. The Triduum is not how we keep the memory of Jesus’ death and resurrection; it is the memory. 

As we sing the songs, hear the readings, offer our gifts, listen to the prayers and receive the Blessed Sacrament we take our place within the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We are carried aloft as he offers the precious gift of himself to his God and Father from the altar of the cross. As he dies we descend into hell and lie in the darkness of the tomb. As he is raised up so are we raised up to new, eternal Spirited life.