Holy Thursday
March 2008
As I have told you before, it was the experience of the Risen Lord at Easter that gave insight and understanding to his followers, of what the life death and resurrection of Jesus was all about.
What happens tomorrow, on Good Friday - his suffering and execution on a cross - was the total shattering of the hopes of his followers. They did not have the slightest notion of what it really meant. The huge crowds who were in Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, both Jews from all over the world and Romans soldiers who had to keep order, and who followed the words and actions of Jesus with great interest, great hope, or ridicule, believed they were witnessing, as they had so often witnessed before; the sticky end of yet another prophet who had caused trouble for the Romans and for the Jewish authorities.
The true meaning of what was happening on Calvary, before their very eyes, passed them by in total incomprehension.
In short nobody had a clue about what was happening.
The comprehension and the insight burst upon Jesus’ followers on Easter Sunday when they witnessed and experienced the Risen Lord.
Now, the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross had great meaning for them. It was the greatest thing that had happened in the whole history of mankind. It was what they wanted to spend the rest of their lives talking about and preaching about. It was what almost all of them eventually gave their lives for.
But the event was over. It had happened on Good Friday before their very eyes and they hadn’t a clue of what it meant. They would dearly love to turn the clock back and re-experience the events of Good Friday with the knowledge and understanding they now had.
Then they recalled an event they had overlooked. On the Thursday evening - today, Holy Thursday - while they were celebrating the Passover Meal, Jesus had diverged from the usual format, and taking bread he broke it into pieces and giving a piece to everyone present said; ‘take this and eat it, this is my body which will be given up for you.’ Then taking the jug of wine he poured some into all their glasses and said; ’take this and drink it, this is the cup of my blood, which will be shed for you.’
Then he told them, ‘do this in memory of me.’
Now they realised that what Jesus had done on Thursday evening was to give his followers a symbolic way of presenting again, and of experiencing again, the events of Good Friday; but now with understanding and insight.
What Jesus did on Holy Thursday evening we call the Last Supper.
It is what we have gathered here today to do.
Today we call the Last Supper the Mass.
Each time we come together to celebrate the Mass, we are given, in a symbolic way, the opportunity to be present at and to experience, the actual events of Good Friday on Calvary. But now, unlike those present the first Good Friday, we can comprehend and participate in, what is actually happening.
How much trouble have you and I taken to understand and participate in what happens at every Mass.
Or am I, to a large extent, just like those present the first Good Friday?