Holy Thursday 2023
Exodus 12:1-8,11-14; Psalm 115 (116); 1 Cor 11:23-26; John 13:1-15
I don’t imagine that many of you were, in your time, subscribers to the News of the World. Even if you didn’t read it, though, you may remember its motto: “All human life is there”. The same can be said of Holy Week and, indeed, of today, Holy or Maundy Thursday.
Tonight we hear of slavery, escape, sacrifice, death, love, and service, all undergirded by the Eucharist, which makes all of them present. We begin with the Passover, the great event of Jewish history, and one of the greatest in salvation history.
The Jewish people are instructed how to celebrate Passover (or Pesach) which makes present to them every year their liberation from slavery, as they escape, with their ancestors, from the land of captivity. Every item in the Seder, the Passover meal, from the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread to the lamb has a particular significance.
For a number of years, it was customary in many Catholic parishes to celebrate a version of the Seder, in which the importance of every aspect of the ritual was explained, and the Mass was set in context by pointing out at which stage Jesus would have blessed the unleavened bread which became His body, and which of the cups He consecrated to become His blood. This has now been banned by the Church on the perfectly reasonable ground that it could cause offence to Jewish people by appearing to be a parody of their most sacred activity. Nonetheless, it may be worth pointing out that one such event which I attended, in a Catholic setting, was led by a Rabbi, who provided all these explanations.
For the Israelites in Egypt, the sacrifice of the lamb, and the smearing of its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their houses were central, as they caused the Angel of Death to pass over them. We believe that these lambs foreshadowed the true Paschal Lamb, Jesus the Christ, whose blood was shed upon the Cross, and is now smeared on our lips as we receive in every Mass the fruits of His sacrifice.
Vital too is the Jewish concept of “memorial”. This is more than simply a reminder of a past event: it is the making present of that event, here and now. Thus, at each celebration of Pesach, the Jewish people today are liberated, along with their ancestors: at each Mass, the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ becomes present for us. Consequently, it is a great shame that Jesus’ words ”Do this as a memorial of me” are clumsily rendered, in our current translation of the Mass, as “Do this in memory of me”, which lacks the force of the original: the death and Resurrection of Jesus are not merely remembered, they are made present.
St. Paul’s account, which we read tonight, is the earliest written description of the Last Supper, and of the institution of the Eucharist. Can the Last Supper, the re-imagining of the Passover, be described as the first Mass? It is probably more accurate to describe it as the beginning of the first Mass, because Jesus, the Paschal Lamb, had not yet been slain. The first Mass continues through the killing of Jesus the Lamb on Good Friday, and is completed by His Resurrection, all of which become present for us in every celebration of Mass, an awesome, indeed an overwhelming thought and realisation.
There is one more vital element to be considered, as John’s account of this night makes clear. John has already recounted his eucharistic theology in chapter 6, in which Jesus speaks of the necessity of eating and drinking His Body and Blood, and the 4th Gospel’s account of the Last Supper focuses on what is generally called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, and on His washing of the disciples’ feet.
What is the significance of this? It states both boldly and indeed baldly that our celebration of Mass is not complete until we have loved and served our brothers and sisters with the same self-sacrificing love which Jesus showed, a love which took Him to the Cross.
When Pope Francis took this command of service into a juvenile detention centre, and washed the feet of inmates including a young Muslim woman, the liturgical purists were up in arms but the Holy Father was making the point that this should be, not merely a ritual gesture, but one which plays out in practice.
Finally, we leave the supper room, and accompany Jesus to Gethsemane, there to watch with Him in His Agony.
