In
Jewish culture, usually families celebrate the Passover together. It is
interesting to note that in today’s account from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus
celebrates the Passover not with Mary and Joseph, but rather with his disciples
– his closest friends and followers. Jesus
knew that this would be his final Passover meal. He
knew that his journey here on earth was soon to come to an end. He
knew that one of these close friends would soon betray him. We
can imagine that Judas knew that he would be the betrayer at this point, even
though he denied it publicly. In
the Gospels of Luke and John, it says that at the Last Supper, it was Satan who
entered Judas’ heart at this point, causing him to betray Jesus. It is
easy for us to thumb our noses at Judas and at what he does, but might examine
our own hearts and our own actions before we do so. We
may think of the times we betray Jesus in our words and our actions, how we
justify ourselves even though we know we are going against the values of our
faith and the Lord’s commandments.
As we
think of the communal aspect of the Passover that Jesus celebrated with his
disciples, we think of how it is much more that the sharing of a meal. Our
sharing of the Eucharist, in the meal Jesus shares with us, we think of how we
come together as a community of faith sharing in our belief in God’s kingdom –
the kingdom that exists in glimpses right now here on earth and the eternal
kingdom that is to come. The
celebration that Jesus and his disciples shared in the tradition of their
Jewish faith became much more. In the
tradition of the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples, we remember
the Paschal mystery. We remember
Christ’s Life, Death and Resurrection. As we
share in the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist around the Lord’s Table,
we are called to make a communal commitment share God’s love and mercy to the
world. May we remember this calling and challenge as we enter into Christ’s
Paschal mystery this Holy Week.
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