Meditations on Holy Week - Holy Thursday

From Brother Giles

Today there are actually two distinct Masses. The first, which we will discuss now, is the Chrism Mass. This is the Mass at which the Bishop consecrates the three oils used in the sacramental anointings throughout the year. Those oils are for Baptism, Anointing of the Sick, and Holy Orders.

This morning, Mass is celebrated by the Bishop and all the priests (who can make it) of the diocese. This is because, in addition to its being the institution of the Eucharist, it's also the anniversary of the Institution of the Holy Priesthood, in which Christ, the High Priest, shared His ministerial priesthood with the Church, through those men He has chosen.

Celebration of the Last Supper begins what the Church calls the Sacred Triduum. "Triduum" can be roughly translated as "The Three Day Event." We call it so because the Church does not consider Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Resurrection of Our Lord as three separate things, but, rather, as one event—the Mystery of our Redemption.

It is fitting that we see it as one event, because The Eucharist, the death of Jesus on the Cross, and His glorious Resurrection, are all part of our salvation. It isn't that one is more important than the other; it's that all three are part of God's love for us, even when we go astray. Especially when we go astray, because this event is not only proof of God's love for us, but also, proof of Who He is as God. God is Love.

It is important, to note that the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) all record the Last Supper, when Jesus broke the bread, and said, "Take this and eat..." John, on the other hand, does not record the Last Supper. Instead, he records the Washing of the Feet of the Apostles. Does that seem strange?

John, of course, knew about the three Synoptic Gospels. When he recorded the events of Jesus Washing the Feet of His Disciples, he was merely trying to show us how important humble service of others was. John was trying to tell us that participating in the Eucharist requires us to care for others.  It's almost as if he suggests that when Jesus said, "Take and eat, this is My Body, this is My Blood," He is adding "As I have done for you, so must you do for one another. If you do not, you can have no part of Me."

Note, too, that Judas left before the Washing of the Feet, just as he left before the Insititution of the Eucharist in the Synoptic Gospels. Was it because he would have no part of humble care of others?

Earlier this week, we discussed the washing of feet in terms of Mary washing Jesus' feet, and that means we were discussing it in terms of intimacy. But I also think it's valid to think of it in terms of service...and that true service, true washing of one another's feet, is also and most deeply an act of intimacy, because it is an act of total self-giving of the most humble sort. 

Just as Jesus gave us His very Self, His Body and Blood, in the Eucharist, so also John equated that giving in terms of service, as washing one another's feet. That service is also meant to be one of total self-giving, and therefore one of the deepest and utmost intimacy.

It is in this context I can see Mary's washing of Jesus' feet and drying them with her hair as, not only a deeply personal and intimate act as between a man and a woman, but also one of self-giving, of emptying out of oneself into another, and that can be for both the washer of feet (because they are performing the act itself) and the receiver, because to receive the gift of another's self is also an act of love, an act of giving consent to receive the gift offered.

I would submit that this washing of feet, the total giving of oneself and the total pouring out of oneself in love can happen in different circumstances. One has only to see a picture of Mother Theresa holding a dying infant in her arms to see what I mean.

But I also think it can happen between friends. We see this in Saint Francis and Saint Clare. When it happens between two people God has called together to love one another (not talking about Matrimony here), then that pouring out of one into the other is intended to bear much fruit. Their love/friendship is intended to bear much fruit. That's why God calls people together to love one another in a deeper-than-is-usually-thought-of manner.

Additional commentary from Veronica, Sister in Christ Jesus

"It isn't that one is more important than the other, it's that all three are part of God's love for us, even when we go astray. "

Like the Trinity (well, the comparison has it's limitations)—three persons in one God; three events in one Redemption. You can't separate one from the other.

"It is fitting that we see it as one event, because The Eucharist, the death of Jesus on the Cross, and His glorious Resurrection, are all part of our salvation. It isn't that one is more important than the other; it's that all three are part of God's love for us, even when we go astray. Especially when we go astray, because this event is not only proof of God's love for us, but also, proof of Who He is as God. God is Love."

I would add here "because we go astray". "O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!" We have the Triduum because we go astray. Otherwise, we would have no need of it.