Maundy Thursday
In
Jewish circles this is a most holy and a most joyful night, a night of family
feasting in grateful remembrance of God’s wondrous blessings; it is a family night
because the Passover feast was, from the times of Moses, not a Temple feast
celebrated according to minute details of public ritual, but a family gathering
in the privacy of the home, a celebration with family and friends.
We
are told in the Gospels that Jesus reclined at table with His disciples for
what we call the Last Supper. This was
prescribed for faithful Jews; they would have ordinarily been seated, but for
this special Passover meal they had to eat reclining, stretched out on their
left side with head towards the food; it was a symbol of the liberty they were
enjoying and celebrating, the liberty God had won for His Chosen People by the
wonders He had worked in Egypt and their desert wanderings; wonders whereby He
had delivered them from slavery and idolatry and brought them to their own land
where they might freely learn to live and worship as God’s Chosen People.
This
was the occasion to which Jesus had really
been looking forward, for it would serve as a launching-pad, so to speak, for
the ultimate freedom of God’s People -- freedom from sin -- that Jesus was
about to win and commit to His Apostles’ care:
And
He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I
suffer. (Luke 22:15)
The
Last Supper was no sad occasion for saying “Good-by”, nor should our memorial
of it be overshadowed by thoughts of impending loss and grief. How on earth could Our Lord have eagerly desired to eat such a sorrowful
leave-taking meal with His disciples?
This was, on the contrary, something to be eagerly desired, something towards which His whole life’s endeavour
had been leading, something that would express the fulfilment of His consuming
zeal for His Father, His compassion for His People and for us. It was to be a celebration based on the
grateful remembrance of God’s historic goodness indeed, but much more, one
looking forward to something memorable beyond measure, for they were now
prefiguring and indeed actually setting in motion the ultimate fulfilment of
the mission for which Jesus had been sent by His Father, for which Israel had
been gradually prepared over many centuries, and for which the nations had been
languishing long; a fulfilment the disciples had been chosen to serve with
their lives, and one that would – drawing them through Calvary to the
Resurrection and Gift of the Holy Spirit -- totally transform them into
selflessly brave and devoted Apostles of
the Risen Lord, and wise servants and leaders of His Church on earth:
I
have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
This
meal was, therefore, the final preparation for the salvation to be brought
about, purchased indeed, by Jesus the Messiah: it was to be the seal of His now
fully discovered life-purpose for which He had so humbly and patiently searched
and scrutinized, communed with and prayed over, the Scriptures; yes, every
single word, every ‘jot and title’ of them.
This meal was to be the most intimately human and life-fulfilling gift
of Self to His disciples present and future; to be the ultimate and most
sublime celebration with His disciples of His Father’s eternally enduring ‘good
will towards men’ of all nations. How
truly is it said:
Happy
are those who are called to His Supper.
Humanity
had long been in darkness, alienated from the true happiness of life. Created, indeed, by God and for God, but
deceived by Satan and enchained in sin, the human state stirred such compassion
in the Father that He sent His only Son to share in and save the weakness of
human flesh by living and dying as Son of Man sinless despite Satan’s power, cunning, and hatred. Having thus broken the chains of sin He rose
again as Son of God, and in the power of that Resurrection ready to pour out
His healing and Holy Spirit upon all believers in His name, whom the Spirit who
would then form into a likeness of their Lord and Saviour for the glory of the
Father.
This
was, therefore, no time for sad forebodings, but for ardent aspirations for
what was to come: Jesus was indeed to suffer and to die but it would be for a
divine purpose to be most surely achieved by His embracing the shameful
cross on Calvary before entering upon the consummate glory of His Resurrection
on the third day, (cf. Hebrews 12:2):
Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured
the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God.
Although
it might seem that Jesus’ life was being taken from Him by the superior power
of death after having been betrayed by human treachery and condemned by human
hatred, Jesus was not going to allow His disciples to suffer any such deceits
of Satan. At this Supper He now most
deliberately offered His coming crucifixion and death to His Father, resolving
to accept it and embrace it out of obedient love and in total commitment. It would not be a result of the tragic
betrayal that Judas’ action would seem to signify, because that imminent
Passion and Death was now being lovingly embraced and yet more lovingly dedicated
and offered by Jesus to wipe away the sins and betrayals of men and women
(including Judas) of all times. The
whole tenor of tomorrow’s crucifixion was being pre-determined now, at this
very meal, by Jesus. He would die out of
supreme zeal for His Father’s great glory, out of redeeming love for His People
and compassion for sinful humanity the world over: all in accordance with and
fulfilment of the wisdom, the beauty, and the sublime goodness, of divine
Providence.
At
the Passover Meal the Jews celebrated God’s wonders which saved the nation from
physical slavery in Egypt; how much more should we, the new People of God,
celebrate the wonder of God’s love for us manifested in the gift of His Son to
us and for us? How much more should we
rejoice in the love which Jesus had and has for us; that love which led Him to
endure the Cross and to scorn its shame so that He might enable us to have
access to and, in Him attain to, our heavenly home:
Let
us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, Who for the
joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God.
This
night Jesus rejoices that soon He will be able to lead a host of disciples into
the supreme joy of the heavenly banquet in the Kingdom of, and before the very
presence of, His beloved Father whose will, purposes, whose Person, He had
sought so humbly, so patiently, so whole-heartedly as Son of man on earth to
serve and glorify.
Dear
People of God, Holy Mass continues, so live it, love it, and above all:
Do this in memory of Me.
