Holy Thursday
HOLY Thursday is the commemoration of the last supper of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is when he established the sacrament of Holy Communion prior to his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. It also commemorates the institution of the priesthood. Jesus celebrated the dinner as a Passover feast.
The Last Supper was the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples in Jerusalem. During the meal, Jesus predicted betrayal by one of his followers in exchange for 30 pieces of silver. The core of Holy Thursday is the re-enactment of the Last Supper at Mass.
During the Passover meal, Jesus broke bread and give it to his disciples saying – “This is my body which will be given up for you.” When supper was ended, he took the chalice with wine and said: “This is my blood, of the new and everlasting covenant which will be shared for many for the forgiveness of their sins.”
After the meal, He rose and took off His outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said
to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.”
When he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher and ‘master’, and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
The celebration thus stresses the significance Jesus puts on the humility of being a servant-leader, and the need for cleansing with water, a symbol of baptism. It also emphasized the importance of the Eucharist and the sacrifice of Christ’s body, which we now find present in the consecrated host.
At the conclusion of the celebration, the faithful are invited to continue to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament throughout the night, just as the disciples were invited to stay up with the Lord during His agony in the garden before His betrayal by Judas. Our traditional Visita Iglesia commences after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper when the sacred hosts are transferred to the Altar of Repose.