Holy Thursday

Yesterday's sunset marked the beginning of Lent's last three days: The Easter Triduum. These three days of remembrance coincide with Christ's Passion, Death, and Resurrection and Christ's promise which is cataloged in the Gospel of John's Chapter 2:19. "Destroy this temple, and I will rebuild it in three days." During these three days, we accompany Christ onto his Cross on Good Friday and watch him resurrect from the dead on Easter Sunday, all of which was done for the sake of our salvation.

Holy Thursday, the first day of the Triduum, we remember a very important teaching that Christ gave us and we still practice today, the Liturgy of the Eucharist. This stems off of an annual Jewish practice done since the Exodus from Egypt, Passover. The Jewish feast is a meal of unleavened bread, a 1 year old, unblemished male lamb, and bitter herbs. (Leviticus 23:4-14) The feast is done every year, just as God prescribed them to do. Jesus and the 12 Apostles were Hebrew men, which meant that they also participated in the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem and partake in the celebration of Passover. But on one night, Jesus took the bread, broke it, blessed it, and passed the bread to the twelve Apostles. He explained his actions by saying that the bread was his body which was going to be sacrificed for their sake. At every Mass, daily, for the past two thousand years we repeat his very words and continue his actions, spreading the blessed Eucharistic hosts, transubstantiated into the Body of Christ. Jesus repeated the same actions with the chalice of wine. We also do the same, the wine transubstantiates into the Blood of Christ.

As a side note, the chalice of wine that Jesus drank of, blessed, and passed to the other twelve is now known as the Holy Grail, and has been searched for by many people and for many centuries.

Another important thing to note about Holy Thursday is that it is the last Liturgical celebration before the Easter Vigil. This is because on Good Friday we remember Christ's loving sacrifice of the Cross, and the opening of the Gates of Heaven to all on Holy Saturday. The Tabernacle, an ornate box which holds any leftover pieces of the Body and Blood of Christ to be used at the next mass, is left open. It usually is closed and is always a signal of God's Presence, but we accompany Him during his Passion on Holy Thursday evening until his death, traditionally held from noon on Friday to 3 p.m. The Body of Christ is left on an Altar of Repose after Thursday's Mass and remains there until Easter Sunday. All Churches are open for all to come and follow Christ in his sacrifice for us, for our sake, and for our salvation.