Thursday of Holy Week
As we listen to the liturgical readings for today, Holy Thursday, I suggest that there is a connecting theme. The theme is movement with a purpose. Notice how the Israelites are called to prepare to move in the Old Testament Passover story. After gathering as families for the ritual meal and its special food “to go,” they were told to collect the blood of the victim lamb and mark their doorposts as protection from the marauding angel of death. This was the critical preparation needed to move into a new freedom and faithfulness. It formed their own identity and national memory as God’s Chosen People even as they were being told to wait for the Messiah.
Today we enter into the Sacred Triduum. Our celebration of Holy Thursday captures the meaning of the original Paschal Meal and gives each of us a personal thrust into a deeper understanding of community. Jesus continues to be the host of the ritual Last Supper and clearly identifies himself as the saving victim, completing the overall plan of salvation through his self-offering to God the Father.
But He does something significantly more. He physically moves to a new position. He gets up from the table and bends down in humble kindness to wash the feet of everyone there. This defining movement is branded and extended into our personal lives when we hear Him declare, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
When fully understood, this movement propels us from the common table outward to taking our place next to the suffering, dying and rising Jesus. This movement calls each of us to move into the cycle of divine love.
Reflection by Fr. Daniel Petsche, OSB
Posted in Articles for Lent, Daily Reflections