MAUNDY THURSDAY - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I give you a new commandment:
love one another just as I have loved you,
says the Lord. JN 13:24

EXODUS 12:1-8,11-14 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

When God instituted the Passover before He led His people from slavery and exile in Egypt to the Promised Land, He gave Moses and Aaron clear instructions on how the community of Israel was to prepare and eat the Lamb, how they were to be dressed while they ate it and what they were to do with the blood of the lamb. All these instructions had to be followed faithfully and after they entered the promised land future generations were to continue to celebrate the Passover each year recalling how God had intervened mightily to save His people.

That first Passover was a foreshadowing of the new Passover instituted by God. He provided the Lamb, His well-beloved Son without blemish or stain to become the Lamb of Sacrifice that takes away the sins of the whole world, freeing the new people of God from the jaws of death, hell, and Satan. The lamb of sacrifice had to be a male one year old, without blemish taken from either sheep or goats. 

This is what God instructed, the people of Israel to do with the blood of the lamb that was slain, some of the blood was to be taken and put on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where it is eaten. The lamb had to be roasted whole and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They were to be dressed for the journey as they ate: with a girdle round their waist, sandals on their feet, and a staff in their hand. If the family was too small to eat the animal they were to ask their nearest neighbors to join them as many as were required to eat it. 

The blood of the lamb on doorposts and lintel would serve to mark the houses that God's people lived in and the angel would pass over and not strike dead the firstborn of man and beast in that house.  God said, 'When I see the blood I will pass over you and you shall escape the destroying plague when I strike the land of Egypt. This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a feast in the Lord’s honor. For all generations, you are to declare it a day of festival, forever.’

While the Jews continue to celebrate Passover just as their ancestors did, the new people of God celebrate the fulfillment of that first Passover until You return again in glory and majesty. As we enter the Triduum today, the most solemn of all the days of salvation history leading up to the greatest event of all time changing the course of history forever, the Church will faithfully recall all You said and did on Your last days on earth. Thank You, Beloved, for instituting the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood today. 

 

PSALM 115(116):12-13,15-18 ©

How can I repay the Lord
for his goodness to me?
The cup of salvation I will raise;
I will call on the Lord’s name.

O precious in the eyes of the Lord

is the death of his faithful.
Your servant, Lord, your servant am I;
you have loosened my bonds.

A thanksgiving sacrifice I make;

I will call on the Lord’s name.
My vows to the Lord I will fulfil
before all his people.

The blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-26 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

My Lord and my God, my God and my all thank You for instituting the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and for the Holy Priesthood at the same time. We could not eat Your Body and drink Your Blood if there were no priests to consecrate these simple gifts of bread and wine into the supernatural food that our souls need and would die if deprived of it.

 There never was a time after You instituted this Sacrament of the Eucharist when it was not celebrated even before the Church was formally born at Pentecost. On the road to Emmaus, the two disciples recognized You at the breaking of bread and we recognize You at Holy Mass when the priest does what You did at the Last Supper. We make that moment present at every celebration of the Holy Eucharist and so it will be until You return again in glory.

For as long as the sun rises and sets and rises again a perfect offering is offered to the Father - the Sacrifice most pleasing to Him and by the power of the Holy Spirit the world is sustained. It can never be destroyed no matter how hard Satan and his minions outside the Church and even within her might plot and even carry out their evil designs to annihilate her. 

May we who remain faithful by the love of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit never cease to pray that the whole world may come to know You, love You, worship You, and be one with You in the Church You established which is Your Body. 

This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me.’ In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’ Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death.

JOHN 13:1-15 ©

It was before the festival of the Passover, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. He had always loved those who were his in the world, but now he showed how perfect his love was.

They were at supper, and the devil had already put it into the mind of Judas Iscariot son of Simon, to betray him. Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God, and he got up from table, removed his outer garment and, taking a towel, wrapped it round his waist; he then poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘At the moment you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ‘Never!’ said Peter ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus replied, ‘If I do not wash you, you can have nothing in common with me.’ ‘Then, Lord,’ said Simon Peter ‘not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well!’ Jesus said, ‘No one who has taken a bath needs washing, he is clean all over. You too are clean, though not all of you are.’ He knew who was going to betray him, that was why he said, ‘though not all of you are.’
When he had washed their feet and put on his clothes again he went back to the table. ‘Do you understand’ he said ‘what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am. If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.’