HOLY THURSDAY - SELF-DONATION OF JESUS

HOLY THURSDAY (A): (Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26; John 13:1-15).
Theme: The gift of ultimate love of Jesus to the humanity

General Reflection
Entering into the Paschal Mystery

- We enter into Paschal Triduum with the Last Supper Mass of Thursday
- The Three principle days of preparation for the great feast of the Resurrection
- These are NOT three days of separate celebration of various mysteries as: Thursday as the celebration of Jesus’ Eucharist; Friday as the celebration of Jesus’ passion and death; Saturday as the celebration of silence and hope of waiting for the Jesus’ Resurrection.
- BUT these three days the CHURCH CELEBRATES WHOLE MYSTERY OF CHRIST’S PASSION, DEATH AND RESURRECTION, NOT AS A DEVIDED MYSTERIES BUT AS THE ONE MYSTERY OF CHRIST’S PASCHAL EVENT.
- Each of the days is the fullness of celebration of Christ’s salvation mystery.
- Holy Thursday is the ‘door’ through which we enter into (we are introduced into) the immediate Pascal mystery of Christ.
- Holy Friday is the ‘commemoration of Christ’s passion and death’ in which we make ‘fast’ and ‘abstinence’ and participate in the same mystery of Christ’s work of salvation.
- Holy Saturday is the ‘commemoration of Christ’s descent into the dead not to be as a dead man but to bring out those who are sleeping there with the hope of resurrection. Therefore this is the day of silence contemplation and holy waiting, for the resurrection.
- Holy Friday and Holy Saturday are the days ‘a-liturgical’ which means, outside the liturgy and therefore we do not have the mass and great liturgy but silent and prayerful participation in the passion and death of Jesus.

Reflection
Holy Thursday as the day of self-donation of Christ in the Institution of the Eucharist

- The three gestures of Jesus:
o the washing of the Feet of the disciples;
o the Last Supper of Jesus;
o the commission of Jesus to the apostles to do the same in his memory; are
- The three mysteries of Christianity:
o The Baptism: The fathers of the Church always considered the words and actions of Jesus during washing of the feet of disciples as the elements of institution of Baptism and Penance. Participation of the disciples in the very life of Christ (if I do not wash your feet you have no share with me); Specially St. Augustine says that Jesus when He talked about the ‘bathing’ he thought of the Baptism and when He talked about the ‘washing of the feet’ he talked about the Penance. They all mean that through the washing of the feet the disciples were made to enter into the life of Christ and so we enter intot he life of God in the Bapstism.
o The Eucharist: when Jesus has taken the bread and wine and gave it to the disciples with the words ‘this is my body’ which is ‘given to you’ (Mt 26:26), and ‘this is my blood’ which is ‘shed for you’ (Mt 26:28), He gave his own body and blood in anticipation which he is going to fulfill in few hours. Therefore this is the GIFT OF SELF-GIVING of Jesus so that He remains with them forever. And
o The Priesthood: Jesus did not stop his words and actions (gestures) with giving them his body and blood in the form of bread and wine, BUT He asked them to DO IT IN HIS MEMORY. Not to everyone but to whom he has chosen and to whom he has given the participation in his act of sacrifice ‘Eucharist’, He has given the commission of CONTINUING THIS MYSTERY IN HIS MEMORY. Here Jesus makes them his partakers of his mystery and his ministry, and specially, of ‘celebration of the Eucharist’ in his memory since he is not doing it by himself anymore till he come again (Mt 26:29). This ‘doing in his memory’ is the continual celebration of Christ’s Mystery which has to be carried upon by his Apostles and those who are elected in their place for the ‘offering of sacrifice’ and therefore Jesus makes them sharers of his priesthood.
- The three virtues of Christian life:
o Service: “So If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (Jn 13:14ff);
o Love: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). And thus follows the third virtue of
o Mission of continuation and Participation Lord’s mystery ‘doing in His memory’. Therefore participation in Christ’s Mystery and continuing it in one’s life is also the responsibility of Christian virtue.

First Reading

- Explains the way that the paschal dinner has to be consumed.
- This is the exodus dinner, dinner which serves as the nutrition for the paschal journey from the bondage of Egypt to the liberation of being God’s chosen race.
- The principle elements of the rite of First exodus Pascua:
o Innocent lamb to be sacrificed (Ex 12:5-6)
o Blood to be sprinkled, that is, shed and applied to the doors (Ex 12:7)
o Bread has to be that of unleavened, that is, not yet fully baked (Ex 12:8)
o Along with the Bitter herbs (Ex 12:8).
o To be eaten: with the loins girded, sandals on the feet, staff in the hand and with hurry (Ex 12:11).
- These elements usually belong to the nomads (who do not have their fixed tents and those who do not have their permanent houses). They move around or always in the move and thus eat such kind of food (all raw and on the foot).
- This is to remind the people of Israel that God’s doing is not of that normality but that of a special intention with the special nutriment.
- Meaning of this insertion of rite of nomads in the liberation action of God in the life of Israel is:
o Historically: The Pasqua of the Old Testament, in this way, signifies the Presence of God in the story, of his redemptive action and of his love. This presence is seen in the ‘passing over’ (passing through the doors of Israel) of God that night to save them and to destroy the Egyptians (Ex 12:27).
o Spiritually: Through the elements prescribed and used in the rite of Passover of the Israelites signify that ‘they have nothing of this world, they do not belong to the word and they would not cling on to the temporal goods but they have to be always on the move (with the girds to the waist) towards their promised land’. In one word it means that ‘they are only the pilgrims and they have to pass over from this land (Egypt and bondage of the world) to the promised (Cana and freedom of God’s children in heaven).


Second Reading

- Even this handing over of the rite of the celebration and its meaning is still maintained by Paul and we see more clearly in his first letter to the Corinthians and in particular way, we may observe in today’s passage: “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you” (v.23) and he concludes exalting them to continue the same until the Lord comes: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (v.26).
- We clearly understand from this that the command of Jesus ‘do this in memory of me’ is observed in the ultimate manner in the primitive Christian community and thus it is something to be continued until the Lord returns and drinks again the cup.
- To continue this ‘doing in the memory of the Lord’, there are two most important aspects: ‘what to do’ and ‘who to do’. For the first the answer is ‘to do the sacrifice of the Lord in the same way and in the same manner He has done it’ and it is “EUCHARIST”. For the second the answer is ‘to be done by the one who participates in his priesthood’ which means not everyone who knows him and who believes him (there were many who knew and believed him in his mission of preaching and doing miracles), that means, not all Christians but those who share in his priesthood, which means, those who are called and consecrated for the special faculty of continuing his mystery of Eucharist, that means, the disciples and now the successors of Apostles, the bishops and priests. And it is “PRIESTHOOD”.
- Therefore, these two mysteries (sacraments) INTERTWINED in and during the Last Supper of Jesus.
- For Paul who has taken this recount of ‘last supper’ of Jesus from that of Luke, holds that Jesus takes this rite of Judaic Sacrifice but gives it a different and new meaning, for he takes the bread and wine and says ‘this is my body’ and ‘this is my blood’. It is not any more Judaic rite of alliance but it is that of ‘the New Alliance’ (Jer 31:31-34) in the Spirit of God which Christ fulfills in his Last supper.
- The spiritual meaning that Paul gives to the faithful of Corinth is that “the Eucharist is originated from the ‘love of Christ’ and it has to be celebrated in love and it has to regenerate love for others.”

Gospel

- The placement and significance of today’s Gospel:
o It may seem strange for us to see the account of ‘washing of the feet’ on the day of “Institution of Eucharist”. We have the idea of contemplating the ‘Body and Blood of Christ’ on this Holy Thursday and also little idea of reflecting on the ‘Institution of the Priesthood’ also. But this practice of ‘washing of feet’ and its narration properly today is still little confusing although we know well it’s meaning of ‘doing service to others’.
o In his Gospel John do not mention the institution of the Eucharist same as have done other Evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke. In its place, John writes of ‘washing of feet’. We know that John is always conscious of Christ being the ‘Word of God’ made ‘man’ out of love and this love is manifested by his ultimate gestures of his service to the humanity. His main concern is not only how he has fulfilled the Old Testament but more than that of, how he has revealed his Father’s love to the world. Therefore John gives more theological importance than to mere historical elements, which of course, are necessary.
o Even the actual narration of the Last Supper of Jesus itself is different in John. We see it as the mission of Jesus to manifest the ultimate love of God:
 It’s his time to leave this world and go back to His Father (Jn 13:1): thus the pass-over of the Old Testament.
 He has loved his own until the end of time (Jn 13:1): already to continue the love of God till the end as the ‘Eucharistic love’ to be continued until he comes back.
 Knowing that God has given all things into his hands (Jn 13:3): not just to repeat what is said and done in the Old covenant but power and authority to create everything new with the ALLIANCE OF LOVE. And now he gets up from the table of supper (the only instance of Jesus’ last supper in the Gospel of John) and with the towel tied around him (as of the girdle around the waist of first reading) sets out for the journey of service.
 John do not speak of the participation in the ‘body and blood’ of Jesus in the last supper but speaks of the ‘participation in this soul/mind/will’ by cleansing of oneself (by repentance and conversion) and by availing oneself to the service of others.
- The dialogue between Jesus and Peter:
o Reveals that John does not reject the institution of Eucharist and the participation of his disciples in it and in that of eating of his body and drinking of his blood in his memory as narrated by the other Gospels. He only gives higher significance to the gestures of service which his disciples have to ‘continue’ as He had done (in his memory) – Jn 13:15.
o Washing of the feet, not of head and body as Peter asked Jesus, signifies that, one who has received the baptism (bathing – washing of head and body) needs only to do act of penance, that is, confession (washing of sins – washing the dust of the feet) in order to participate in his Eucharist (banquet of love and service).
o Manifests that those who participate in his Supper to be NEW CREATURES who have modified the old commandments and enter into the NEW COVENANT with the new command of LOVE (not loving others as we love ourselves but loving others as Christ has loved us).
- Eucharist of the Soul:
o John’s concern is that we are made partakers not only of the body and blood of Christ (which is material celebration of Eucharist) but of the soul of Christ (the spiritual celebration of Eucharist) with love and service and that way confirming ourselves to the ‘mind’ and ‘will’ of Christ who always does ‘His Father’s Will’.
o This spiritual celebration of Eucharist is always possible with the purification of one’s will, which includes, leaving of the world he has created for himself (If you want to follow me renounce your own self and all that you have) and entering into the world of Christ (If I don’t wash your feet you have no part in me) and thus the purification of the head and body (Baptism), of the feet (Confession) in order to participate in his ‘body and blood’ (Eucharist) and to be part of him with the command of love in the Spirit (Sign of the Spirit: Confirmation).
o Partaking in the Eucharist of the Soul means participating in the self-donation of Jesus (LOVE) and in his self-sacrifice (SERVICE).

Conclusion
- The day of LOVE in the gift of himself of Christ
- The day of SERICE in the abasing attitude of Christ
- The day of MYSTERY of the Eucharist, of the Holy Orders (and also of the Baptism and Confession).
- The day of MISSION and Commission to continue everything he has done ‘in his memory’ until he comes.