The military unit has fallen into a trap. They all perished. However, one of them wrote the words on a piece of paper with his blood: Goodbye, mother! The paper with the words got into the hands of the mother, who looked at them with love every day. It was then that she felt the closeness and love of her son.
Today, Maundy Thursday, the Church remembers the events when the moment came for Jesus to leave this world, to return to the Father and decide to bestow gifts on people – the sacraments of the priesthood and the Eucharist, but also the new bloodless sacrifice, the Holy Mass. We know why Jesus did all this. To remind everyone of his love and become a source of grace until the end of time.
It reminds us of St. John, who was the closest of the apostles to Jesus that evening: “Because he loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the extreme” (Jn 13:1).
Let’s try to properly understand tonight and the gifts that Jesus left us when he said goodbye to the apostles. There has never been such a person on earth who said goodbye to his own with such great and pure love as Jesus in the supper room. Jesus proves his love to people, although the apostles did not realize it at the time. Jesus redeems the world consciously and voluntarily out of love. He alone knows “that his hour has come to depart from this world to the Father” (Jn 13:1). Jesus is a man of action. The apostles are surprised. And Judas, who decided to hand Jesus over to the enemies that night. As a servant, Jesus does what slaves do: he takes off his clothes, takes an apron, pours water into the basin and goes from one apostle to another, who are disturbed by the behavior of Jesus, surprised because he is washing their feet. Only Peter objects. Only when Jesus explains the matter to him: “Now you still do not understand what I am doing, but later you will understand… If I do not wash you, you will have no part with me” (Jn 13:7,8), Peter gives his consent. Jesus is preparing those to whom he wants to hand over power that nothing in the world can match so that as priests they can continue in humility and love in the service of Jesus to his brothers and sisters. “I have given you an example, so that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15).
This is how the last evening of Christ before his death began. It was the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, when Jewish families gather at the table, where, according to the old custom, the youngest turns to the head of the family, to the father, with the question: “What kind of custom is this?” And he receives the answer that it is a memory of the events when the nation received freedom in Egypt (cf. Ex 12:26-27). John himself likely asked Jesus this question at dinner. Here begins the new era of Passover – the transition. Every year, those who believe in Jesus as Redeemer and Savior, remember the institution of the Eucharist on this day. What we are doing today is an anamnesis or a liturgy of history. It is the sacrament that actualizes the event. This mystery was not invented by man, but Jesus established it with the words: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Jn 11:24). Years, but also weeks and days, revolve around these events as around an axis. It is a Passover memorial in three rhythms. In the daily life – as noted by St. Augustine – it is the “daily Passover”. When the Church daily offers the sacrifice of the Holy Mass. In a weekly rhythm, the Church remembers the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus every Sunday. And in the rhythm of the year, when we celebrate the events of Easter every year.
Preparation for Easter has its parts where secrets, things, and events are remembered. Since the earliest times, Easter has been celebrated in the Church as the peak of spiritual life, when Lent ends as preparation and when Easter is followed by the sending of the Holy Spirit.
The Maundy Thursday event also highlights the fact that the establishment of the Sacrament of the Altar, the Sacrament of the Priesthood, and the celebration of the Holy Mass end the Old Testament, which is no longer needed. Jesus establishes a new sacrifice, his body, and blood under the ways of bread and wine. Old Testament sacrifices, sacrifices, incense offerings, bloody and non-bloody give way to the greatest sacrifice, when Jesus commissions the apostles and through them, all the priests with the words: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Jn 11:24). God’s new food transforms people into Christ himself. A new sacrifice replaces the old one, brought by a new priest. The Levites become unnecessary, they have fulfilled their mission, just as Melchizedek fulfilled it, and became the herald of the new perfect sacrifice. A new priest “sacrifice” of unification and sacrifice arose. The sacrifice of the Holy Mass acquires clearer features of connection with God. He becomes an eternal sacrifice, which is performed by priests chosen from among the people and endowed with power from Christ to transform the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ for all people. The sacrifice of the Holy Mass is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, where he sacrifices himself in a visible way through the priests in bread and wine. Only the priest can say: “This is my body”… “This is my blood” in the sense that the bread becomes the body and the wine the blood of Christ.
We are experiencing exactly what happened at the Last Supper for the first time. In the spirit of faith in the Holy Mass, we celebrate the death of Christ as he himself established it.
Tonight, we feel sad that this gift of love is often not received properly by many. Such an analogy can be used.
Have you ever met a homeless person? You were about to say something to him when he walked past you obliviously. He only stops at the trash can. He wallows in it until he pulls out a discarded piece of hard bread, which he wipes with dirty paper and begins to eat with gusto. You go to him, you want to give him a few crowns to buy a fresh one, but he just looks at you and won’t accept the money. Someone who watches it with you will remark: He is a sick man.
Isn’t our age also sick? He suffers from a lack of love and other natural and supernatural values. And what do we see? When the Church offers her the values that we experience in this Holy Week, not only do they not accept them, but they even feel insulted. And yet we know that Jesus died for all without distinction. It is a memento for the Catholic Christian to be more aware of the meaning and magnitude of the Maundy Thursday gifts, to understand them more, and to accept them for his own benefit. This undoubtedly historic evening should open people’s eyes to understand why Jesus instituted these sacraments and commanded them to celebrate the Holy Mass.
We know that the Jews did not pronounce the name of their God. Pagans, on the other hand, give their gods various special names. We say about God: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Rightly so because he proved it with his word and deed. He is eternal, infinite, true Love.
A friend who could not come to terms with the teachings of the Catholic Church about the presence of Christ in the Eucharist came to a religious friend and asked: ”
How is it possible that the bread is transformed into the body of Christ and the wine into his blood?”
The friend tells him:
“When you’re the body can turn the food you take into muscles, tissues, blood and others, why can’t God who created man do it?” But the
friend continued: “And how can he be whole, infinite, great, and eternity in such a small piece of bread, God?”
“Look,” the friend continued to explain, “there are big trees around you, even whole mountains, and the starry sky you are looking at will appear in your eye, on your retina, which about them is so she had. Why couldn’t God, Jesus Christ, be present in the Eucharist?”
The friend took out a mirror from his coat and told his friend to look into it. Then he threw it on the ground and the mirror broke into several pieces. Then he said to him:
“When you look, you see your face in every part of the mirrors, even the smallest ones. Do not be surprised because Christ is fully and simultaneously present, wherever the Eucharist is celebrated or preserved.”
At the Last Supper, Jesus said goodbye to the apostles and once more at the ascension, not because we will never see him again. He remained present among us in the Eucharist, and we will see him one day at his coming, when he comes as our Judge. It is up to us not to betray him, not to put him aside, not to exchange him for anything… He wants us to receive him often, to visit him, to live with him.
Until then, every person – redeemed by Christ on the cross – must prove his loyalty to him. The mother not only keeps her son’s letter – written in his blood – but when she looks at it and takes it in her hands, she feels his presence. The Eucharistic Christ is a living God, and that is why even today we accept him as he wants, because we believe that at his second coming we will see him forever face to face
