Maundy Thursday
In Jewish circles this is a most holy and a
most joyful night: it is 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.
On returning home for this celebration, and
after prayer, the head of the family-gathering had to consider himself a
prince: decorating his table with the best food and the most acceptable wines:
it was his duty to prepare sumptuously according to the measure of his
possibilities. 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 been seated for an ordinary meal, 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 throughout their desert wanderings, whereby He had
delivered them from slavery and brought them to freedom in their own land. They had, indeed, much to be grateful for,
and this was the night on which they gave whole-hearted expression to that
gratitude in accordance with the Lord’s command. Each successive generation of faithful
Israelites was taught to consider that they themselves had been brought out of
Egypt and saved from slavery by the Lord their God; they were not celebrating
something that happened in the past to their fathers only; no, they had to
realize that they themselves were among those that had been saved. The sages, the wise men, of Israel, when
speaking of this night’s celebration, tell us that when it is celebrated with
such dispositions, the God of Israel, the Holy One Himself, leaves His normal,
familiar, entourage of angels and of the righteous in the Garden of Eden, and
comes this night, to watch with delight the children of Israel here on earth
rejoicing in the deliverance He won for them, gratefully singing His praises
and loyally observing His commandments.
This was an occasion to which Jesus had
really been looking forward, for it would serve as a launching-pad -- so to
speak -- for the ultimate deliverance and freedom of God’s People that Jesus
was about to win and hand over 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)
Thus the Last Supper was no sad occasion for
saying “Good-by”, nor should our memorial of it be overshadowed by 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 work had been leading, something that would express the
fulfilment of all His previous efforts and presently-consuming desires for His Father,
His disciples, and for us. This 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 Jesus had been given by His Father, for which Israel
had been prepared over many centuries, and for which the nations had been
waiting ages 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 most
loving and devoted Apostles of the Risen Lord and selfless servants of His Church on earth:
I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer.
This meal was both the symbol of, and the
ultimate preparation for, that heavenly banquet that will celebrate by
consummating the salvation brought by Jesus: freedom from sin, and membership
-- as adopted children and members of Christ -- in the family of God, where all
call Him “Father” and share in His eternal blessedness, according to the words:
Happy are those who are called to His Supper.
That was the blessing the Son had come to
bring to a humanity which had long been in darkness, alienated from true
happiness and life: a humanity created by God and for God, but deceived by
Satan and enchained by sin; a humanity which stirred such compassion in the
Father that He sent His only Son to share in and to save the weakness of human
flesh by dying sinless and rising again; and in the power of His Resurrection
pouring out His Holy Spirit upon those who would believe in His name, the
Spirit who would form those disciples in the likeness of their Lord for the
glory of the Father.
It was now so near to fulfilment; this was,
therefore, no time for sad reminiscences of the past but for ardent aspirations
to what was to come: Jesus was indeed to suffer and to die but that was for a divine
purpose which would be surely achieved through His human suffering and death
and subsequent glorious Resurrection on the third day.
Let us now just look at that suffering and
death, which was so close at hand but which, Jesus refused to allow to deter
Him:
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.
(Hebrews 12:2)
It might have seemed that Jesus’ life was to
be taken from Him by the superior power of death after having been betrayed by
human treachery and condemned by human hatred.
Had that been the case, then indeed, Jesus’ death would have been the
supreme tragedy and the Last Supper an occasion for agonizing farewells and
deep-felt loss. That was not what Jesus
wanted and was not what Jesus was going to allow, because at this Supper He
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. Neither would His suffering
and death be a result of the tragic betrayal that Judas’ action would seem to
signify; because that Passion and Death was being dedicated and offered by Jesus
now to wipe away the sins and betrayals of men and women 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 obedient and loving zeal
for His Father, out of redeeming love for the whole human race, and in
accordance with and fulfilment of the wisdom, the beauty, the 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 and attain, in Him, 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.
Tonight Jesus rejoices that by dying He is
going to destroy death and turn betrayal into faithful love; He rejoices that
soon He will meet up, once again, with His disciples in the great joy of a
heavenly banquet shared among friends; friends to whom, in the meantime, He is about
to bequeath this final liturgy of love with its divine Food along with His confident
and consoling request:
Do
this in memory of Me.
