We started Holy Week last Sunday, with Palm Sunday, marking Jesus’ triumphant enter into the holy city of Jerusalem. On Tuesday, we here in the Diocese of Jackson commemorated Chrism Mass, which the Bishop celebrates with priests from throughout the Diocese and during which he consecrates the sacred Chrism and blesses the other oils. This Mass is amongst the principal manifestations of the fullness of the Bishop’s Priesthood and is considered to be a sign of the close bond between the Priests and their Bishop. Starting several years ago, our Diocese decided to shift the emphasis of the Chrism Mass from the priests to a celebration of the Bishop with the Catholic school children of the Diocese.
Today, we celebrate Holy Thursday, the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, when he established the sacrament of Holy Communion prior to his arrest and crucifixion. This Mass also commemorates Jesus’ institution of the priesthood. Jesus celebrated the dinner as a Passover feast. During the Mass on Holy Thursday, the establishment of the priesthood is reenacted with the priest washing the feet of twelve parishioners, following the example of Jesus washing the feet of his twelve disciples at the Last Supper. Above all, a priest is to serve God and God’s people with humility and obedience, to be a servant just as Jesus came as a servant. At the end of today’s Mass, the tabernacle is emptied of the Eucharist and put at a place of repose outside of the church’s sanctuary area. The altar is stripped bare. And the Catholic faithful are invited to spend time after the Holy Thursday Mass in Eucharistic adoration with the Lord while the sacrament is in repose. This is done to prepare the Church and to prepare the faithful for crucifixion of Jesus tomorrow on Good Friday.
Holy Thursday also marks the beginning of the Triduum of liturgies during Holy Week, with the Good Friday liturgy commemorating the day Jesus died, and with the Easter Vigil Mass celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.
I remember last year, one of the inmates asked me, Father Lincoln, I know that I should know this already, but could you explain to me in words that I can understand what the term “paschal mysteries” means? The word paschal comes from the Hebrew word “pasach” used to describe the passover, when the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites that were smeared with the blood of a sacrificial lamb on their doorposts, while the Lord struck down the firstborn of the Egyptian households that were not marked with the blood of the lamb. The sacrifice of an innocent lamb became the means of their salvation and their deliverance from captivity in Egypt. We hear about this passover event in Egypt in our first reading from Exodus today. In a similar way to the Passover event in Egypt, God sent his son our Lord Jesus Christ to be our paschal lamb. The essence of our faith is found in the paschal mysteries: that Jesus came to die for us and to free us from sin so that we might have a new and eternal life. The paschal mysteries refer to God’s plan of salvation, which is fulfilled in the major events in Christ life, namely his passion, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension into heaven.
We come to our Mass today with great love and reverence, as we commemorate the great mysteries of our Catholic faith and as we begin the Triduum of liturgies.
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