In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
My dearly beloved in Our Lord,
“On Maundy Thursday the Church commemorates the institution of the Blessed Eucharist. On this day one Mass only can be said in the same church and that must be a public one. White vestments are worn by the priest, the altar is decked with flowers, and even the purple veil, which covers the cross during Passion-tide, is replaced by one of white. The celebrant consecrates two hosts, one for the priest who officiates on Good Friday, when there is no consecration. This host is carried in procession to a place known as the Repository or Sepulchre, where it remains until the following day. After the Mass on Maundy Thursday the signs of mourning proper to Passion-tide are resumed: the altar is stripped of it coverings and of ornaments of all kinds, the lights in the sanctuary are extinguished, and the door of the empty tabernacle is left open. On Maundy Thursday the yearly consecration of the holy oils takes place, each bishop consecrating a sufficient quantity of these oils for the three in number: the oil for the sacrament of Extreme Unction; that for anointing those who are to be baptized, and also for anointing the priest’s hands at his ordination; and the sacred chrism, a mixture of oil and balsam used in the sacrament of Confirmation, and at the consecration of bishops.” (The New Roman Missal, Frs Lasance & Walsh, 1945)
The Church does not celebrate or commemorate “the Last Supper” on this day – but the Sacrifice of the New and everlasting Covenant which Christ has instituted after having eaten the Paschal Lamb with his disciples.
“In hac mensa novi Regis,
Novum Pascha novae legis
Phase vetus terminat. -
Vetustatem novitas,
Umbram fugat veritas,
Noctem lux eliminat.” (Corpus Christi, Sequence “Lauda Sion”)
By the words “This do ye for the commemoration of Me” (Epistle; 1Cor 11:24;25) Our Lord gives to the Apostles present the power to consecrate. He ordains and consecrates them as priests and bishops of the New Testament. For Our Lord cannot possibly give this order to the Apostles without transmitting to them the appropriate power and capacity to fulfill it.
The sacrifices of the Old Testament had no efficiency by themselves, as St Paul has explained on Passion Sunday (Epistle). They were all foreshadowing the one true Sacrifice offered by Our Lord on the Cross, and only in this way could they achieve whatsoever good effect. With Our Lord’s death those sacrifices became useless; and they became evil and sinful after the destruction of the Temple, which constituted the definite and obvious demise of the Mosaic rites. The Sacrifice of Our Lord has obtained our redemption, and its fruit will be dispensed by the priests reenacting this same and sole Sacrifice throughout the centuries in Holy Mass.
Our Lord today asks his Apostles after he has washed their feet – to the great astonishment of all, particularly St Peter: “Know you what I have done to you?” (Jn 13:12) He has given the Apostles an incredible example of humility out of charity: “You call me Master, and Lord; and you say well, for so I am. If then I being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also.” (ibid. v.13-15) St Paul resumes this teaching brilliantly, two chapters after today’s Epistle in his famous praise of the virtue of Charity: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” (1Cor 13:1-3) After his resurrection Our Lord will ask St Peter to make up for his terrible threefold denial, and the soon-to-be first Pope does so by confessing that he loves his Lord and Master above all, and more than the other disciples (cf. Jn 21:16-17).
Dearly beloved! Do we know what Christ has done to us? I think we hardly do! The hardness of heart we so often manifest through lack of charity; the little fervor we show for serving God; the great reluctance to give the best of what are and of what we have received to Our Lord… are as many proofs of how little we usually care about “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39) and which Christ demonstrates through his actions, today and tomorrow.
Only a few days ago has Holy Church celebrated the feast of the Annunciation (March 25th) where all things come to a head in Our Lady’s answer to the Archangel Gabriel and which we recall three times a day when we recite the “Angelus” by the will of the Church: “Ecce … Fiat … – Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word”. Had she answered otherwise; had she only withheld one morsel of her heart, mind and will from her beloved God, there would not have been any possibility of Redemption! Lucky for us she did not! Blessed us if we learn from her daily, and imitate her total gift to God.
May the burning love of Our Lord for our souls warm our hard and cold hearts. His Sacred Heart will soon be opened in order to show that he has withheld nothing, not even the last drop of blood, in his redeeming sacrifice. May we follow the example of St Peter and the other ten Apostles, and not that of the traitor Judas! We are great sinners – let us repent and show worthy fruit of penance, through love for Our Lord who has given his life for love of us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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