Do you realize what I have done for you? (Jn 13:12)
Today's Holy Thursday (evening) readings bring
together Eucharist and loving service. Exodus 12 (Ex
12:1-8, 11-14)
lays out how the Passover meal is to be observed by the Israelites
preparing to leave Egypt. It is a night of great expectation, when
God is going to secure the freedom of His chosen people. A spotless
year-old lamb is to be procured on the 10th day of the
month of Nissan, slaughtered on the 14th , eaten hastily
in the evening with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. The meal is to
be celebrated each year as a memorial to what God is about to do. The
lamb's blood, spread over the doorposts of Hebrew homes, will be a
sign for God's angel to pass over as he takes the lives of
Egypt's first born.
“Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.
This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”
The response to the first reading (Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18 ) is David's hymn of gratitude for God's blessings:
How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
...To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
The Church understands this psalm's fulfillment in the Eucharist, thus the response from 1 Cor 10:16, "Our blessing-cup is a communion with the blood of Christ."
The second reading from 1 Cor 11:23-26 describes the words and actions by which Jesus celebrated the Passover meal and instituted the Eucharist as the living memorial of His self-offering as Lamb of sacrifice for the New Covenant:
“Brothers and sisters: I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Jesus has revealed to St. Paul that His self-offering in the Eucharist is the new Passover meal. This sacred meal renders present what Jesus has established for all time in the New Covenant sealed with His Blood. He is the spotless Lamb Whose Body is to nourish His followers on the road to eternity, His Blood having purchased their passing-over from the death of sin to newness of life in Him.
John's Gospel (Jn 12:1,12 ff) tells us that Jesus enters Jerusalem on the 10th of Nisan (recall that Exodus 12 calls for a lamb to be brought into each house on the 10th of Nisan). Jesus is put to death on the 14th, the same day that Moses instructs the people to slaughter their Passover Lamb. John is showing us that Jesus Himself is the Passover Lamb.
In today's Gospel reading (Jn 13:1-15 ), John's account of the Passover meal centers on Jesus, stripping down to his inner garments and washing the feet of His apostles, as a slave would do. Only those who accept to have their feet washed by Him can have any part in what He offers. John has already stated in Chapter 6 that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Now, the focus is on allowing Jesus to wash us, and following His example by doing the same for one another. This is where Eucharist directs us: to humbly serve one another in imitation of Christ.
“So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at 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.'”
Lord Jesus, Lamb of God, I bow before Your humble majesty – coming to us under the appearance of bread and wine, setting us free from sin and death through the shedding of Your own blood. There truly is no love greater than Yours. Help me to follow Your example of humble service, and to never take for granted the great gift of Your Body and Blood in the Eucharist. Amen.
“Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.
This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”
The response to the first reading (Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18 ) is David's hymn of gratitude for God's blessings:
How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
...To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
The Church understands this psalm's fulfillment in the Eucharist, thus the response from 1 Cor 10:16, "Our blessing-cup is a communion with the blood of Christ."
The second reading from 1 Cor 11:23-26 describes the words and actions by which Jesus celebrated the Passover meal and instituted the Eucharist as the living memorial of His self-offering as Lamb of sacrifice for the New Covenant:
“Brothers and sisters: I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Jesus has revealed to St. Paul that His self-offering in the Eucharist is the new Passover meal. This sacred meal renders present what Jesus has established for all time in the New Covenant sealed with His Blood. He is the spotless Lamb Whose Body is to nourish His followers on the road to eternity, His Blood having purchased their passing-over from the death of sin to newness of life in Him.
John's Gospel (Jn 12:1,12 ff) tells us that Jesus enters Jerusalem on the 10th of Nisan (recall that Exodus 12 calls for a lamb to be brought into each house on the 10th of Nisan). Jesus is put to death on the 14th, the same day that Moses instructs the people to slaughter their Passover Lamb. John is showing us that Jesus Himself is the Passover Lamb.
In today's Gospel reading (Jn 13:1-15 ), John's account of the Passover meal centers on Jesus, stripping down to his inner garments and washing the feet of His apostles, as a slave would do. Only those who accept to have their feet washed by Him can have any part in what He offers. John has already stated in Chapter 6 that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Now, the focus is on allowing Jesus to wash us, and following His example by doing the same for one another. This is where Eucharist directs us: to humbly serve one another in imitation of Christ.
“So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at 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.'”
Lord Jesus, Lamb of God, I bow before Your humble majesty – coming to us under the appearance of bread and wine, setting us free from sin and death through the shedding of Your own blood. There truly is no love greater than Yours. Help me to follow Your example of humble service, and to never take for granted the great gift of Your Body and Blood in the Eucharist. Amen.
Link to readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041422-supper.cfm
Comments
Post a Comment