Holy Thursday. The Church was born of the Paschal Mystery

This evening the liturgy leads us to the Upper Room, where the mystery of the Church is clearly revealed. It is the Last Supper that we must consider the proper act of establishing the Church by Jesus. Only here does Jesus give the future community a specific foundation, a particular event which is only proper to it, which distinguishes it completely from all other religious communities and unites its members with their Lord and with one another, forming from them a new community.

Saint John Paul II, in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, wrote: " The Apostles, by accepting in the Upper Room Jesus' invitation: “Take, eat”, “Drink of it, all of you” (Mt 26:26-27), entered for the first time into sacramental communion with him. From that time forward, until the end of the age, the Church is built up through sacramental communion with the Son of God who was sacrificed for our sake: “Do this is remembrance of me... Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor11:24-25; cf. Lk 22:19)." The institution of the Eucharist was the realization of God's eternal plan, which willed the Church to become a sacramental extension of Christ's presence on earth; nourished by his Body, it was transformed into his Mystical Body, which would become the true house of God and the dwelling place of Christ in our midst forever.

Saint John Chrysostom beautifully comments on this fact: "For what is the bread? The Body of Christ. And what do they become who partake of it? The Body of Christ: not many bodies, but one body."  The true purpose of the institution of the Blessed Sacrament was not to enclose Him in the tabernacle, or even to adore Christ present in the Eucharistic Bread, but that those who partake of Him become His living presence in the world and be united to one another by the bonds of love that bind His Mystical Body, the Church. Today, with the gesture of washing the feet, Christ shows us all what relationships are to be in place between his disciples: "Wash one another's feet", that is, serve one another with humility.

The Eucharist is meant to lead to service to others. Of course, it's not that you literally have to wash the feet of others. It is about the spirit of this activity, that is, the attitude of service. To serve as husband to wife; to serve as a wife to a husband; serve as parents – children; serve as children – parents; serve as father-in-law, mother-in-law – son-in-law, daughter-in-law; to serve as a priest - to the people.  

Christianity is service and the Eucharist is to lead us to serve others. The Eucharist must also lead us to serve those who betray us, who exploit us, who abandon us. In the name of what should you do this? Is there any rational explanation for this attitude?

That is how Jesus served. He ministered to the disciples who betrayed Him, abandoned Him. He did not serve "for something" but "despite".

How is this possible? This is possible only through the Eucharist. This is possible only by receiving Jesus in Holy Communion. Because only then is there a chance to change us – into Jesus. Receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus, we must allow Him to live in us, so that he may transform us into himself. Without having Him in our life, such service is impossible.

Only in the context of the Paschal gift of the Eucharist is it possible to understand the meaning of the New Commandment, which Jesus proclaims only after the institution of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Nourished by the Body of the Lord, we are introduced to the Trinitarian dynamic: Jesus enables us to live in imitation of the Holy Trinity, whose persons constantly live the reciprocity of the total gift of self. Here the true meaning of the Eucharist is revealed, which makes the anonymous, dispersed and indifferent one Body – the Church and enables us interiorly to live in relationships that reproduce the prototype and model that eternally exists in God – the reciprocity of gift. The Eucharist and the Church are one great dynamic unity. There is no Church without the Eucharist, nor is there the Eucharist without the Church.

The Paschal and Eucharistic context also allows us to discover the true meaning of the ministerial priesthood that has been instituted today. The priesthood is for the Eucharist and the Eucharist is for the people. In one of his letters, John Paul II addresses priests in the following words: "Our sacramental priesthood is a ministerial priesthood. It is a special ministry – it is a service to the community of believers. [...] It is a gift to this community." In his book Gift and Mystery he wrote: "There is no Eucharist without the priesthood, just as there is no priesthood without the Eucharist." Priests are not "owners" but ministers of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is never a private action, even if for various reasons it would be celebrated privately, because it is an action of the whole Church and for the Church. The Church needs priests, because without them the Eucharist is impossible.

I would like to finish today’s meditation with the words of Saint John Paul II: "When I think of the Eucharist, and look at my life as a priest, as a Bishop and as the Successor of Peter, I naturally recall the many times and places in which I was able to celebrate it. I remember the parish church of Niegowić, where I had my first pastoral assignment, the collegiate church of Saint Florian in Krakow, Wawel Cathedral, Saint Peter's Basilica and so many basilicas and churches in Rome and throughout the world. I have been able to celebrate Holy Mass in chapels built along mountain paths, on lakeshores and seacoasts; I have celebrated it on altars built in stadiums and in city squares... This varied scenario of celebrations of the Eucharist has given me a powerful experience of its universal and, so to speak, cosmic character. Yes, cosmic! Because even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world. It unites heaven and earth. It embraces and permeates all creation. The Son of God became man in order to restore all creation, in one supreme act of praise, to the One who made it from nothing. He, the Eternal High Priest who by the blood of his Cross entered the eternal sanctuary, thus gives back to the Creator and Father all creation redeemed. He does so through the priestly ministry of the Church, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Truly this is the mysterium fidei which is accomplished in the Eucharist: the world which came forth from the hands of God the Creator now returns to him redeemed by Christ." (saint John Paul II, Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, nr. 8)

Thoughts from Saint Faustina: During this hour of prayer, Jesus allowed me to enter the Cenacle, and I was a witness to what happened there. However, I was most deeply moved when, before the Consecration, Jesus raised His eyes to heaven and entered into a mysterious conversation with His Father. It is only in eternity that we shall really understand that moment. His eyes were like two flames; His face was radiant, white as snow; His whole personage full of majesty, His soul full of longing. At the moment of Consecration, love rested satiated – the sacrifice fully consummated. Now only the external ceremony of death will be carried out – external destruction; the essence [of it] is in the Cenacle.  (Diary 684)

fr. george