Homily #090409 ( 12min) Play – The Last Supper of the Lord is the Feast of the King who is the Lamb and so is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies where three things are established, the kingly food of the Eucharist, the priesthood (the new kingship) and the new brotherhood of the kingdom of God.

Ave Maria! Mass readings

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Homily #120405 ( 18min) Play – Today we celebrate the Lord’s Supper where Our Lord institutes the Holy Mass and the priesthood, but also Judas, one of the first priests, betrays Jesus and thus creates the first scandal of a unfaithful priest. Let us pray for all our priests that they persevere in faithful service to God.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Holy Thursday Lord’s Supper – Wkdy – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: exo 12:1-8, 11-14
Resp: psa 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
2nd: 1co 11:23-26
Gsp: joh 13:1-15

Audio (MP3)

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Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: address at the Basilica of St John Lateran, Holy Thursday, 5 April 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Holy Thursday is not only the day of the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist, whose splendour bathes all else and in some ways draws it to itself. To Holy Thursday also belongs the dark night of the Mount of Olives, to which Jesus goes with his disciples; the solitude and abandonment of Jesus, who in prayer goes forth to encounter the darkness of death; the betrayal of Judas, Jesus’ arrest and his denial by Peter; his indictment before the Sanhedrin and his being handed over to the Gentiles, to Pilate. Let us try at this hour to understand more deeply something of these events, for in them the mystery of our redemption takes place.

Jesus goes forth into the night. Night signifies lack of communication, a situation where people do not see one another. It is a symbol of incomprehension, of the obscuring of truth. It is the place where evil, which has to hide before the light, can grow. Jesus himself is light and truth, communication, purity and goodness. He enters into the night. Night is ultimately a symbol of death, the definitive loss of fellowship and life. Jesus enters into the night in order to overcome it and to inaugurate the new Day of God in the history of humanity.

On the way, he sang with his Apostles Israel’s psalms of liberation and redemption, which evoked the first Passover in Egypt, the night of liberation. Now he goes, as was his custom, to pray in solitude and, as Son, to speak with the Father. But, unusually, he wants to have close to him three disciples: Peter, James and John. These are the three who had experienced his Transfiguration – when the light of God’s glory shone through his human figure – and had seen him standing between the Law and the Prophets, between Moses and Elijah. They had heard him speaking to both of them about his “exodus” to Jerusalem. Jesus’ exodus to Jerusalem – how mysterious are these words! Israel’s exodus from Egypt had been the event of escape and liberation for God’s People. What would be the form taken by the exodus of Jesus, in whom the meaning of that historic drama was to be definitively fulfilled?

The disciples were now witnessing the first stage of that exodus – the utter abasement which was nonetheless the essential step of the going forth to the freedom and new life which was the goal of the exodus. The disciples, whom Jesus wanted to have close to him as an element of human support in that hour of extreme distress, quickly fell asleep. Yet they heard some fragments of the words of Jesus’ prayer and they witnessed his way of acting. Both were deeply impressed on their hearts and they transmitted them to Christians for all time. Jesus called God “Abba”. The word means – as they add – “Father”. Yet it is not the usual form of the word “father”, but rather a children’s word – an affectionate name which one would not have dared to use in speaking to God. It is the language of the one who is truly a “child”, the Son of the Father, the one who is conscious of being in communion with God, in deepest union with him.

If we ask ourselves what is most characteristic of the figure of Jesus in the Gospels, we have to say that it is his relationship with God. He is constantly in communion with God. Being with the Father is the core of his personality. Through Christ we know God truly. “No one has ever seen God”, says Saint John. The one “who is close to the Father’s heart … has made him known” (1:18). Now we know God as he truly is. He is Father, and this in an absolute goodness to which we can entrust ourselves. The evangelist Mark, who has preserved the memories of Saint Peter, relates that Jesus, after calling God “Abba”, went on to say: “Everything is possible for you. You can do all things” (cf. 14:36). The one who is Goodness is at the same time Power; he is all-powerful. Power is goodness and goodness is power. We can learn this trust from Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives.

Before reflecting on the content of Jesus’ petition, we must still consider what the evangelists tell us about Jesus’ posture during his prayer. Matthew and Mark tell us that he “threw himself on the ground” (Mt 26:39; cf. Mk 14:35), thus assuming a posture of complete submission, as is preserved in the Roman liturgy of Good Friday. Luke, on the other hand, tells us that Jesus prayed on his knees. In the Acts of the Apostles, he speaks of the saints praying on their knees: Stephen during his stoning, Peter at the raising of someone who had died, Paul on his way to martyrdom. In this way Luke has sketched a brief history of prayer on one’s knees in the early Church. Christians, in kneeling, enter into Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. When menaced by the power of evil, as they kneel, they are upright before the world, while as sons and daughters, they kneel before the Father. Before God’s glory we Christians kneel and acknowledge his divinity; by this posture we also express our confidence that he will prevail.

Jesus struggles with the Father. He struggles with himself. And he struggles for us. He experiences anguish before the power of death. First and foremost this is simply the dread natural to every living creature in the face of death. In Jesus, however, something more is at work. His gaze peers deeper, into the nights of evil. He sees the filthy flood of all the lies and all the disgrace which he will encounter in that chalice from which he must drink. His is the dread of one who is completely pure and holy as he sees the entire flood of this world’s evil bursting upon him. He also sees me, and he prays for me. This moment of Jesus’ mortal anguish is thus an essential part of the process of redemption. Consequently, the Letter to the Hebrews describes the struggle of Jesus on the Mount of Olives as a priestly event. In this prayer of Jesus, pervaded by mortal anguish, the Lord performs the office of a priest: he takes upon himself the sins of humanity, of us all, and he brings us before the Father.

Lastly, we must also pay attention to the content of Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. Jesus says: “Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want” (Mk 14:36). The natural will of the man Jesus recoils in fear before the enormity of the matter. He asks to be spared. Yet as the Son, he places this human will into the Father’s will: not I, but you. In this way he transformed the stance of Adam, the primordial human sin, and thus heals humanity. The stance of Adam was: not what you, O God, have desired; rather, I myself want to be a god. This pride is the real essence of sin. We think we are free and truly ourselves only if we follow our own will. God appears as the opposite of our freedom. We need to be free of him – so we think – and only then will we be free. This is the fundamental rebellion present throughout history and the fundamental lie which perverts life. When human beings set themselves against God, they set themselves against the truth of their own being and consequently do not become free, but alienated from themselves. We are free only if we stand in the truth of our being, if we are united to God. Then we become truly “like God” – not by resisting God, eliminating him, or denying him. In his anguished prayer on the Mount of Olives, Jesus resolved the false opposition between obedience and freedom, and opened the path to freedom. Let us ask the Lord to draw us into this “yes” to God’s will, and in this way to make us truly free. Amen.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20120405_coena-domini_en.html

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Homily #130328 ( 11min) Play – Fr. Dominic explains the incomparable gift and dignity of the holy priesthood given by Our Lord Jesus Christ on this Holy Thursday.

Ave Maria!
Mass: Maundy Thursday – Ferial – Form: EF, Nos Autem
Readings: 
1st: 1co 11:20-32
Gsp: joh 13:1-15

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Homily #140417 ( 17min) Play – By washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus gave us an example of how to humbly offer ourselves in charity to our neighbor, especially to our enemies. By giving us the Holy Eucharist, Jesus gives all of Himself – the ultimate gift of His love – the source and summit of the Christian life. Ave Maria!

Mass: Holy Thursday Lords Supper – Wkdy – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: exo 12:1-8, 11-14
Resp: psa 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
2nd: 1co 11:23-26
Gsp: joh 13:1-15

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Homily #140417b ( 22min) Play – Fr. Elias on the Lord’s Supper and how this starts the Easter Triduum the three days before Easter with the death and resurrection of Our Lord when He redeemed us by His sufferings. This is the fulfillment of the Jewish Passover instituted in Egypt by God through Moses where Jesus is the perfect lamb to take away our sins once and for all. Father also reads for the Popes homily on this day.

Ave Maria!
Mass: Holy Thursday Lords Supper – Wkdy – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: exo 12:1-8, 11-14
Resp: psa 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
2nd: 1co 11:23-26
Gsp: joh 13:1-15

Audio (MP3)

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This is a reflection given by Fr. Giles M. Atherton on the readings for Holy Thursday – Mass of the Lord’s Supper, March 24th 2016.

Ave Maria!

The post Mar 24 – Homily – Fr Giles: The Eucharist, the Priesthood and Fraternal Charity first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Fr Ignatius gives the homily at Bloomington, IN on Mar 29 Holy Thursday on how the Last Supper marks the coming of His Hour which is the institution of the Ministerial Priesthood and the Eucharist that was prefigured by the Passover meal where the Lamb was sacrificed and consumed in order to save each family. Father highlights the many parallels to this old Covenant meal focusing on the manner in which the Israelites had to eat the lamb, that they had to be well prepared. So too, we should fulfill our Christian duty, that is, humble service to God and our neighbor, examining our conscience in this regard.

Ave Maria!

Mass: Holy Thursday Lords Supper – Wkdy
Readings: 
1st: exo 12:1-8, 11-14
Resp: psa 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
2nd: 1co 11:23-26
Gsp: joh 13:1-15

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Fr Terrance gives the homily at Bloomington, IN, on Apr 06, 2023, Holy Thursday, Lord’s Supper Mass, on how we achieve greatness and enter eternal life through suffering, and Jesus leads the way.

He emphasizes the connection between the Last Super and the Passover Meal of the Jews that was happening at about the same time. Jesus is about to pass over to the Father through his suffering, being immolated like the sacrificial lamb, leaving this life and passing on to eternal life. We, too, must suffer.

Passover is close to suffering in Latin.

St Bede 4 meanings of Passover from crossing over

1 the slaying angel going through Egypt passes over the children of Isreal

2 Passover from slavery to freedom

3 Cross over to the Father

4 Faithful after casting off slavery may Passover to heavenly st bede

St Augustine, doctor of grace, Passover from the devil to Christ

Passover from sin to grace, death to life

He loved his own to the end, perfectly.

John 15: 13 no man has greater love than to lay down his life for another. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/15?13

Maundy Thursday, John 13: 34-35 a new maundatum is to love one another by laying down our lives in service to others. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/13?34

In his time of glory, he takes the form of a slave, washing the feet of the disciples, ready to die the death of a slave, crucifixion.

phil 2: 5-7 Christ, though in the form of God, did not grasp to this but took the form of a slave. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/philippians/2?5

1 john 4: 20-21 Whoever loves God must love his brother https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/4?20

1 john 3 14 we know we have passed to grace by our love https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/3?14

John 13: 4 takes off and puts on his garments relates to his good shepherd discourse, laying down his life for his sheep and taking it up again. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/13?4

John 10: 17-18 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/10?17

Link to the Sacraments

An allusion to the ordination of priests, Sons of Arron were washed

See washing of feet relates to baptism John 3: 5 – https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/3?5

Holy Eucharist, washing relates to the need for the cleansing of confession before going to communion. 1 cor 11: 27-29 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/11?27

When we celebrate the last supper during mass During the last Supper Jesus, the lamb, is sacrificed, and the blood that was spread on the door post is now spread on the wood of the cross, and we eat the Lamb in the Eucharist.

John 6: 35-38 Bread from Heaven discourse He who gets this bread will live forever. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/6?35

Many of his followers ceased following Jesus after this discourse, including Judas, at least in his heart.

Ave Maria!

Mass: Holy Thursday Lords Supper – Wkdy
Readings:  – http://usccb.org/bible/readings/040623.cfm
1st: exo 12:1-8, 11-14
Resp: psa 116:12-13, 15-18
2nd: 1co 11:23-26
Gsp: john 13:1-15

More on the Readings: http://dev.airmaria.com/r?m=1688

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