MAUNDY THURSDAY 2022
For many years, Israel cried to God and longed for the night of their liberation. Once the Passover night had arrived, the Israelites celebrated the sacrifice of their redemption. They killed the lamb, put some of his blood on the doorposts and the lintels of their houses, and ate its flesh roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Then they set off in haste ontheir way out of Egypt, their Exodus.
For Jesus, too, the Passover night has arrived. He has long desired to eat this Passover with His disciples, with us. He longed for the hour when He could love to the end. Then He would be able to accomplish the mission the Father had entrusted to Him and to work out our liberation and salvation, to take the lead and open the way of our Exodus.
When He was at table, Jesus took bread, and then a cup. We could wonder: “Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” (Gn 22:7). However, meat is provided, blood is there to be drunk. These come from the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”. Jesus Himself is the Lamb of the new Passover; He gives Himself to us. Under the sign of the bread and the wine, His life passes from Him to us. He lives in us and our life becomes one with His life. We live with Him and from Him.
Consider the Host, look at the chalice. Here is Someone who is totally given. He gives Himself so as to become your life. He gives Himself to you. His gift is total for He does not reserve anything for Himself. He empties Himself. He loses His life for you, for He loves you. He entrusts His life to you. He dies for you a sinner, condemned to death by your sins. He takes up your death and gives you His life. This bread is the bread of His Cross, and this blood, the blood of His Passion. They are yours, for He received them from you as a condemnation and now presents them to you as a gift. You who eat this bread and drink this cup, be ready to die with Jesus as He died for you, to give yourself to Him by serving your brothers and sisters as He gave Himself to you.
Eat, die, and be raised from the dead. For this is the bread of the Resurrection and the chalice of the new life. All is new in the Holy Eucharist. It is a new Passover and a new covenant. Here is a world of newness, indeed the beginning of the new world. We can find no trace of old leaven in the Bread of life. A new love is poured out into the hearts of men and women. We begin to serve one another out of love, to wash one another’s feet out of humble mercy. We look at one another with a new charity. We open a new page in our relationships. A new love able to transform the world is presented to us as a gift and a mission.
My Sister, my Brother, take up the bread and the wine and go to the altar, put them in the hands of Jesus who is our High Priest – whom human priests represent sacramentally. Adore your God, give thanks to your Father, offer yourself up. Empty yourself of yourself and be filled with the One who emptied Himself. Sacrifice yourself, die with Jesus daily, and receive the light and the life of the Resurrection.
Take up the bread and the wine, eat and drink from the altar, and go to your Brethren. Serve them out of love. Love them and be ready to serve them to the end, with humble patience, with infinite hope.