Holy Thursday - the Beginning of the Sacred Triduum

In a beautiful and solemn liturgy, at 7pm tonight, our parish will begin the Sacred Triduum.  

Holy Thursday is the day on which we recall the Lord's Last Supper, the institution of the Priesthood, the institution of the Eucharist, and the "Mandatum" - the command to exercise charity - exemplified in the washing of feet.  Jesus celebrated the Last Supper as part of the Passover (or Seder) Meal which commemorates the escape of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.  It was during this supper that Jesus offers Himself as THE Paschal Lamb - the Paschal Sacrifice.  Every ordained priest to this day presents this same sacrifice, by Christ's authority and command, in exactly the same way. The Last Supper was also Christ's farewell to His assembled disciples, some of whom would betray, desert or deny Him before the sun rose again. 

The Holy Thursday liturgy, celebrated in the evening because Passover began at sundown, also shows both the worth God ascribes to the humility of service, and the need for cleansing with water (a symbol of baptism) in the Mandatum, or washing, in Jesus' washing the feet of His disciples, and in the priest's stripping and washing the feet of some of his parishioners (in our case, the Knights of the Holy Temple). Cleansing, in fact, gave this day of Holy Week the name Maundy Thursday.

The action of the Church on this night also witnesses to the Church's esteem for Christ's Body present in the consecrated Host in the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, carried in solemn procession to the Altar of Repose, where it will remained 'entombed' until the celebration of the Night Prayer of the Church.  The people were invited to come and spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament - just as the disciples stayed with the Lord during His agony on the Mount of Olives before the betrayal of Jesus by Judas.

Also during this Mass, the Oils which were consecrated by Bishop McFadden during the Chrism Mass on Monday will be officially presented in the parish.  We had planned for one of our ill parishioners to bring up the Oil of the Sick, but her condition has deteriorated and does not allow her to attend tonight.  None-the-less, a parishioner will bring up the Oil of the Sick.  Then Lori Sword, one of our Catechumens (one who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil) will carry up the Oil of Catechumens.  Finally, one of our Confirmation Students, Cody Bennett, will carry in the Sacred Chrism which will be used to anoint the faithful during the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation - and is used to anoint those men who enter into Holy Orders.

There is such an abundance of symbolism in the solemn celebration of the events of Holy Thursday layer upon layer, in fact that we can no more than hint at it in these few words. For many centuries, the Last Supper of Our Lord has inspired great works of art and literature, such as the glorious stained glass window in Chartres cathedral, Leonardo's ever popular (and much imitated) Last Supper in the 16th century, and the reminiscence called Holy Thursday, by the French novelist, Franasois Mauriac, written in the 1930s. 

Tomorrow our liturgical mind will shift to the Crucifixion of Christ.  The schedule for the day: Morning Prayer at 8am; the Office of Readings at 11:30; the Stations of the Cross at 12noon; and the solemn Liturgy of the Lord's Passion at 7pm.