HOLY THURSDAY-2018
FIRST READING Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it. The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb. That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. “This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the Lord. For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the Lord! But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you. “This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution.”
SECOND READING 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Brothers and sisters: I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
GOSPEL John 13:1-15
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.” So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
My sisters and brothers in the Lord,
The Great Passover of the Lord! The first reading today takes us to the time of Moses and we read from the Book of Exodus about God passing over the land of the Egyptians and killing all the firstborn of the land in order to make Pharaoh understand the importance of letting the Hebrew people leave Egypt. We moderns don’t like the notion of God killing all the firstborn of the land or any idea which makes God kill people. We must understand that our ancestors felt and thought differently and so interpreted the bad things that happened as coming from the hand of the Lord. We modern people know that God does not set out to kill people but that God is involved in all that happens.
The symbolism, however, is what is important in this reading. God tells the people of Israel, the Hebrew people, that if each family kills a lamb and puts its blood on the doorpost, the firstborn of that house will not die. And so it happens. The Israelites, the Hebrew people, are spared the death of their firstborn and Pharaoh is convinced to let them leave Egypt. The Passover becomes the great festivity of the freedom of the Jewish people.
The symbol is that the Israelites, the Hebrew people, are saved by the blood of a lamb. This becomes for us Christian a foreshadowing of the death of Christ, by whose blood we are saved.
The second reading is from the First Letter to the Corinthians and is the oldest account of the institution of the Eucharist. We can pay attention today to these words: “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” It is the death of the Lord that we celebrate because we know that He rises from the dead. But if He had not truly died, there could be no true Resurrection.
We also celebrate with this institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the priesthood. Without “doing this in memory of Him,” we would not have the Sacrament that Jesus gave to us. So we give thanks for the priesthood (do this in memory of me) and for the Sacrament (the great Passover) and what they mean in our lives.
It is the Gospel from John today that tells us how we recognize these gifts of God: in the washing of one another’s feet! This is symbol once more and it is a symbol of always serving others in love, even when they may betray us and work for our death. We are invited to follow the Lord Jesus and love and serve. We are strengthened by the gift of the Sacrament of the Eucharist to live this love and service.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip