Homily: Holy Thursday

April 3, 2026

My dear brothers and sisters, we have gathered this evening to begin the Easter Triduum with this Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s supper. In this last supper that Jesus had with his disciples before He gave Himself for crucifixion, Jesus left for His followers the most significant signs with which they would identify themselves as His disciples. It is like a father who gradually approaching the end of life, leaves for his beloved children the last testament of his will.

Three evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke reported that it was this evening that Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist and instituted the Sacred Priesthood to perpetuate the Holy Eucharist. St John that we read this evening specifically reported that Jesus knelt down and washed the feet of his disciples thus leaving for them this eternal gesture of love and service. Biblical scholars have always emphasized that both the Institution of the Holy Eucharist and institution of charity are essentially the same, because they converge at the same message.

Different details in the readings of today help to underscore the importance that Jesus Himself attached to His actions for the good of His disciples. Beginning with the first reading on the Jewish Passover, Jesus’ last supper occurred within the context of the Jewish Passover. People all over the world remember important events in their history, for instance, a country’s Independence Day or special victories over their enemies. These Remembrances are not just passing things, often they are concretized with some kind of rite, military parades, firing of guns, speeches, inauguration of monuments etc. that recall and, in some way, relives the event which is celebrated. Israel too remembers its past. Perhaps, an event of greatest significance for them was the Passover. It was that night of nights that God liberated them from the land of slavery. It was that night of nights that they escaped death through the blood of the lamb smeared on the lintels and door posts of their houses.

The institution of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that occurred within the context of the Jewish Passover was like a replacement of the old law with the new law. The Blood of redemption, the Blood of liberation, the Passover meal of the night of nights is no longer the unblemished lamb but the Body and Blood of Jesus the lamb of God Himself. Thus, an event of the greatest significance for the followers of Christ is what Christ left for them on the eve of His death. Jesus did not leave for them his statue or his picture or his relic or a fat bank account or a remembrance of the miracles He worked. He just gave them His Body and Blood, the Holy Eucharist and asked them to do it in His memory.

Brothers and sisters, nothing should remove us from the Eucharistic assembly. The Holy Eucharist is a communion among all God’s children. Jesus wants us to be part of this communion. Jesus wants us to eat His body and drink His blood and thus become one with Him and with our brothers and sisters and behave like Him Jesus. The way He offered Himself to us as food, the way He offered Himself for humanity at the cross of Calvary, we too should follow in His footsteps. In the gospel reading of today, Jesus left for His disciples a vivid example of this following in this His footstep. The gospel reading first started by first telling us that Jesus knew that his hour has come, that long expected mysterious hour has come, having loved His followers to the end. What Jesus valued most at the last hour was that He knelt down to wash their feet, a humiliating task left only for the most lowly of the slaves. He left for them the eternal example, do to others as I have done to you. This is the simple meaning of Christianity.

Brothers and sisters, Holy Thursday ceremony challenges us to love Christ, to love the Holy Mass, to love the Holy Eucharist, to love the priests of the Church and to pray for them. The Holy Mass that we celebrate represents Jesus giving Himself for others. If we really believe that we receive Christ in the Eucharist who was a Man for others, we must ourselves strive always to become persons for others.