April 6 2023, Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday 2023

Our Lord’s Eager Desire at the Last Supper

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15). With these words Jesus began the Last Supper. Our Lord was eager…we might say it was the desire of his Sacred Heart that on Holy Thursday night he would carry out a tri-fold act of his love.

His first act of love was something he had spoken about many times but the apostles were slow to grasp what he meant. With much of the crowd, his words fell on deaf ears and even caused some to abandon him. This act of love is of course that he would give to his apostles and to us, his very Body and Blood under the appearance of bread and wine—no mere symbols, but Jesus really and truly present in his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

The Holy Eucharist would be the way Our Lord would remain with his Church until the end of time. Of all the possible ways Our Lord could devise to remain close to us so that we might know his infinite love, he chose the Eucharist, “a solution so sensational that only God could have conceived it, so miraculous, that only God could do it.” [Leo Trese: The Faith Explained] How amazing that Our Lord would bestow such a gift—a gift that nourishes, strengthens, heals and comforts, on the very night that he would be betrayed and abandoned by those closest to him. In his immense love, he nevertheless gives the gift. Before so great a Sacrament, we can only echo humbly and with faith, the words of the Centurion we repeat at every Mass: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul will be healed.”

Our Lord “eagerly desired” to preside at the Passover Meal so that in his love, he might raise his apostles, despite their foibles and inadequacy, to the dignity and office of the priesthood. He would make them stewards and dispensers of the mysteries of God. They would be the first priests, who would be teachers and shepherds of his flock. This is why Holy Thursday is considered the feast day of the priesthood.

St. John Chrysostom said the “God has not granted to the angels the power with which he has invested priests.” St. Jean Vianney proclaimed that “the priest holds the key to the treasures of heaven.” Pope Benedict reminded us that “the priest does not teach his own ideas, a philosophy that he himself has invented, that he has discovered or likes; the priest does not speak of himself, he does not speak for himself, to attract admirers…or create a party of his own; he does not say his own thing, his own inventions, but the priest teaches in the name of Christ present, he proposes the truth that is Christ himself, his word and his way of living and of moving ahead.” [Audience 4/14/10]

It is a day for every priest to reflect on the dignity of his vocation and to renew his commitment to live it faithfully, selflessly, and joyfully. It is also a day for the faithful to pray fervently that all priests be sustained in their vocation.

The Lord “eagerly desired” to offer yet a third act of love. Jesus, the Divine Teacher, imparts a profound, moving, and disconcerting lesson by washing the apostles’ feet. When the Lord did this, the apostles were astonished because he was carrying out a menial task of a slave. He was eager to have his first priests and each of us understand that discipleship is not about the domination of others or seeking the first places, but about stooping low in humble service to their brothers and sisters.

On this night, Our Lord could have been completely preoccupied by the prospect of his impending passion and death, yet we discover his eager desire that before the tragedy of Good Friday, he would gift us with the Holy Eucharist, the Priesthood, and his example of discipleship…he would indeed love us to the end.