Holy Thursday. Thursday April, 17. Lent 2014.

And so we enter the Triduum.

Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Holy Thursday is my favorite day of the whole year.

Hands down.

Without a doubt.

My favorite part of this day is after Mass when we all process into the hall and have Eucharistic adoration.

It brings me so much joy to see the hall jam packed with people praising their Jesus.

There are so many details and so much depth in these next three days.

Holy Thursday is the day when we remember the Last Supper.

Very significant.

Jesus celebrated Passover Seder with His 12 apostles.

Before the Passover celebration began, Jesus, in humble service to His apostles, washed their feet with His own hands.

Christ led by example.

He washed the feet of His apostles to bring to light many things.

Washing the feet of the apostles showed extreme humility.

It exemplified Christ’s parable that the greatest must become least

And that the exalted will be humbled.

The humility shown by the washing of the apostle’s feet was a prelude to the humiliation of the crucifixion.

The washing of the feet also symbolized the cleansing of sin by the death of Christ.

The tradition of the washing of the feet is a tradition that is still carried out at the Last Supper Mass.

And now begins the Last Supper.

The institution of the Eucharist.

The beginning of the most important part of our lives as Catholics.

“Then He took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them saying, ‘This is my body which will be given for you; do this is memory of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.’”

This was the institution of the Eucharist.

It is for this reason that we live and breathe.

We live and breathe for the Eucharist.

Our hearts, minds, and lives should be centered on the Eucharist.

It was at this moment that the priesthood was instituted as well.

Christ took the bread, blessed it, and broke it.

He gave it to the apostles and said,

“Do this in memory of Me”.

Christ made His apostles priests so that they could continue to carry out the mission of the Church once Christ was gone from this earth.

It is unclear whether or not Judas was present when Christ made His apostles priests.

If Judas was present when Christ made His apostles priests, it just shows even more so how much prayer our priests need.

If Judas was made a priest, then from the moment the priesthood was instituted, human nature and jealousy and betrayal crept into the sacredness of the priesthood.

Regardless of whether Judas was made a priest or not, our priests still need prayer.

A tremendous amount of prayer.

Priests are still human.

Yes, they have been blessed with many graces but much is also expected of them.

They need our prayers!

And on we continue with the Last Supper.

Another most remembered event of the Last Supper is the betrayal.

Judas betrayed Jesus.

We all know this.

The betrayal began the events that led to the crucifixion.

Judas was jealous.

It is said that Satan entered Judas.

Judas just did away with His relationship with Christ for 30 pieces of silver.

Judas left at some point during the Last Supper and did not fully participate.

A traditional Passover dinner consists of four cups of wine with food in between each cup of wine. During the Last Supper, Jesus and His apostles partook in 3 of the required 4 cups of the traditional Seder meal. They then sang as song, per tradition, and then went to the Mount of Olives. It was unheard of to not complete the Seder meal. Interestingly enough, that last part would be completed on Good Friday.

The Garden of Gethsemane is located on the Mount of Olives.

It is in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Agony in the Garden took place.

Christ was under so much stress and in so much agony that His capillaries burst and He began to sweat blood while He prayed this prayer, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done”.

Jesus was then betrayed by Judas and arrested.

The next day would be a lifesaving, world changing day.

*The blog posts for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday were written on 2011. 

The original Holy Thursday post can be found here.