Fr Vincent's reflections on Holy Thursday

The Sacred Triduum begins with Jesus transforming himself into a
servant to wash the feet of his Apostles. He proves his eternal love by
transubstantiating bread and wine into His very Body and Blood.

watch the video: Fr Vincent's reflections on Holy Thursday

Read the reflections:

Holy Thursday  2020

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. R/.  Amen.

The Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

           the Love of God our Father,

           and the Communion of the Holy Spirit

                                                                    be with you all. R/.  And with your spirit.

 

Thanks for joining me as we begin to pray and reflect on the Sacred Triduum.  I told you we would be doing something special – here we are at St. Michael the Archangel Church, where our Tri-Parish Cluster usually celebrates the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper.  It is a joy to bring you all into the church, even if it is only virtual for you.  But believe me, my greatest desire is that all of you could be here with me!

If you have followed the other reflections for Holy Week, I trust your mind and heart are ready to participate in these most sacred of days in our Liturgical Year.

To mark the beginning of the Triduum, rather than prayer the “Our Father” as we have for the prior days, I invite you to recite with me the Gloria:                    [please stand]

 

                     Glory to God in the highest,

                     and on earth peace to people of good will.

                     We praise you,

                     we bless you,

                     we adore you,

                     we glorify you,

                     we give you thanks for your great glory,

                     Lord God, heavenly King,

                     O God, almighty Father.

 

                     Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,

                     Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,

                     you take away the sins of the world,

                                have mercy on us;

                     you take away the sins of the world,

                                receive our prayer;

                     you are seated at the right hand of the Father,

                                have mercy on us.

 

                     For you alone are the Holy One,

                     you alone are the Lord,

                     you alone are the Most High,

                     Jesus Christ,

                     with the Holy Spirit,

                     in the glory of God the Father.

                                Amen.

 

Let us pray:

 

                     O God, who have called us to participate

                     in this most sacred Supper,

                     in which your Only Begotten Son,

                     when about to hand himself over to death,

                     entrusted to the Church a sacrifice new for all eternity,

                     the banquet of his love,

                     grant, we pray,

                     that we may draw from so great a mystery,

                     the fullness of charity and of life.

                     Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

                     who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

                     one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

 

You may sit down as we now listen to the Gospel of Holy Thursday.  If you want to look it up in your Bible and follow along, it is John 13:1-15

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John.

           Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come

                to pass from this world to the Father.

           He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

           The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.

           So, during supper,

                fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power

                and that he had come from God and was returning to God,

                he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.

           He took a towel and tied it around his waist.

           Then he poured water into a basin

                and began to wash the disciples’ feet

                and dry them with the towel around his waist.

           He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,

                “Master, are you going to wash my feet?”

           Jesus answered and said to him,

                “What I am doing, you do not understand now,

                but you will understand later.”

           Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”

           Jesus answered him,

                “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

           Simon Peter said to him,

                “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”

           Jesus said to him,

                “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,

                     for he is clean all over;

                so you are clean, but not all.”

           For he knew who would betray him;

                for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

           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.”

The Gospel of the Lord.     R/.  Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Holy Thursday commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood, (without which the Eucharist could not be celebrated).

How much love Jesus must have for us, for you and for me, to give us this great gift of His Body and Blood!  For we do believe his promise at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”  And we believe his teaching in John’s Gospel, chapter 6:  “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.  . . .  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

And yet, on Holy Thursday, the Gospel is not the Institution Narrative we find in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but the PRE-Institution narrative from John’s Gospel:  the washing of the feet.  The Lord of Creation, the King of the Universe, the Savior of Humanity, devested himself and washed the feet of his Apostles!  In that moment, it a most visible and tangible act of love – self-mortification – to prove that love is not merely in the giving of gifts, even as great as the Eucharist is, but that it is most real in the changing of one’s self for the service of others!

If Jesus, “master and teacher,” can make himself the lowest of servants to his Apostles – and mind you, he washed the feet of Judas as well!  (That’s a whole other reflection, but image the love which led Jesus to wash the feet of the man he knew to be his betrayer!)  Then he certainly could love us enough to transform bread and wine into his Real Presence, His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.  As it were, by the washing of feet, Jesus proves He can also take the place of bread and wine to give us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink.

But the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus is not all there is to this Liturgy.  We commemorate the Priesthood of the Church.  As it were, it is the ultimate anniversary of every priest that ever was and every priest that ever will be; it is my anniversary!  And it is also about the power of God to transform something common and everyday into something essential for the salvation of the world:  a regular man is transformed by ordination into the instrument of God’s blessing presence in this world.  Wow!  Vincent Dufresne becomes a priest, a mediator between God and humanity – how awesome, how scary, how humbling!  Just as bread and wine are no longer bread and wine but the Body and Blood of Jesus, I am no longer just “me” but a means of your salvation through the Sacraments I perform on your behalf – to baptize, to consecrate the Eucharist, to absolve sin, to bind in marriage, when delegated by the Bishop, to confirm in the Spirit – not the actions of a common man, not the actions of Vincent Dufresne, but the actions of a life transformed by God to be a servant of His people.  Boy, do I need your prayers!

Holy Thursday, for you, is the beginning of your transformation as well – don’t sell yourself short.  Each of us comes here to witness the power of God over our world: the Master becomes the servant; the common man becomes the priest; the bread becomes the Body of Christ for the sake of our eternal life.  What are you ready to become?  Jesus is here to love you out of your old self into a new self, a new spiritual reality, a person filled with the loving presence of God.  I invite you to pray for that transforming love to enter your mind, heart, and soul right now.  Let God touch and change you to become all you truly want and need to be.

Please be sure to come back tomorrow for a special Good Friday video.  I’m announcing this now, because as with the Holy Thursday Liturgy, we will end in silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the Tabernacle.

Please join me now in kneeling and offering our prayer of Spiritual Communion until we can share fulling in receiving the Body of Christ once more into our own bodies.

                     My Jesus, I believe that you are present

                                in the most Blessed Sacrament.

                     I love You above all things and

                                I desire to receive You into my soul.

                     Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,

                                come at least spiritually into my heart.

                     I embrace You as if You were already there,

                                and unite myself wholly to You.

                     Never permit me to be separated from You.

                                Amen.

 



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