Holy Thursday, along with Good Friday and Holy Saturday, known as the Sacred Triduum, are the most significant days in the life of the Church because the Church lives for and celebrates the events that took place on these three days. The Church, as a Mystical Body of Christ, celebrates the memorial of these events not merely as an anniversary but as Anamnesis. This commemoration and recalling present the power and effects of the very events being celebrated. Let us reflect on three major events that took place on Holy Thursday.
The Holy Eucharist
First, the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of His Love, the Holy Eucharist—Jesus Christ present in the form of Bread and Wine. The Lord declares: “This is my Body. This is my Blood” (Matthew 26:26, 28; Mark 14:22, 24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25). The Church refers to the Holy Eucharist as “the source and summit of the Christian faith” because in the sacrament, every child of God, all believers are invited, fed, and sustained by the Lord Himself.
Beholding the Eucharist raises all sorts of questions, which, if one attempts to answer, deepen one’s faith in Jesus. For example, if you look at the Holy Eucharist, you might ask: how is it that a white substance is a living being and God Himself? Exploring to answer this mystery will lead one into a deeper experience with Christ. The reason is that you’ll be standing at a cusp between what you see (the accidents of the substance) and what you do not see (the Supernatural reality of the Risen Christ) present in the Eucharist. When you get close to clarity of your questions, you’ll immediately be stunned by the sheer humility of the Lord of glory to have humbled Himself to the level of being the spiritual sustenance for the journeying soul (John 6:32-35) to everlasting happiness.
Service
Secondly, on the same night the Lord established the Eucharistic meal-sacrifice, we read from the gospel of John how the Lord demonstrated His love through service of His servants, a call to humility and service of one another (John 13:14). True leadership is led by serving others, not an eye-service. And happiness is never possible until one begins to serve—serve God in people, family, community, Church, etc.
Divine Assistance
Finally, on the same holy Thursday night, the Lord went to the garden of Gethsemane with His apostles and prayed. At Gethsemane, Jesus received heavenly help through the ministry of angels of God (Luke 22:43). We can only accomplish our God-given assignments with divine assistance. The statement, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race…” (2 Tim 4:7) is a purpose-specific completion of one’s divinely assigned mission. Such missions are never completed without divine help.
On Holy Thursday, we give thanks to the Almighty God for the gift of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave up Himself and gave us Himself in the Eucharist, that we may have divine accompaniment and strength to accomplish the divinely assigned mission-driven life. May the Holy Eucharist remain our strength, Amen.
[Readings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15]
