Thursday evening we gathered to celebrate the Lord's supper. We celebrated not the Last Supper but the Lord's supper. This is important.
When Jesus gathered with his Apostles in the upper room, he was celebrating the Passover meal, the meal to commemorate and make present the saving act of God. The Israelites, who had marked their door post with the blood of the lamb, sat down to eat the lamb as God passed over them, saving them from death and leading them to freedom. The angel of death was not to touch them for their fidelity to God's command. It was the blood of the lamb that saved them.
Traditionally many misconstrue this event of Christ to be the last supper. If anything it should be called the first supper not the last. Here Jesus elevates the passover meal and enriches the meaning and purpose. He gives his body and blood as the new unfolding of God's plan of salvation. The bread and wine are instituted as the body and blood that is shed for all. The institution of the Eucharist is brought to the front. A new meal is given to draw the people of God together, to teach them charity, to empower them to live according to the new lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The Lord's supper was not last. For Jesus from that point until Judgment day is present at every celebration, which is a sacrifice, a meal, and the real presence of Jesus. How could it ever be the last if he is present every time in all places at the altar?
We also celebrated the institution of the priesthood. Jesus makes himself present in the ordain man who is called to be in Persona Christi. As the priest celebrates the sacraments, it is Christ who performs in them. The perpetual priesthood is a sign of Christ the High priest, the priest who not only makes the sacrifice but is the victim for life.
We instituted the reality and call of brotherly love. As Jesus knelt before his disciples and washed their feet, he gives us all a new commandment, "love one another as I have loved you."
On His knees we become friends of God. As faithful friends, we are called to do as he did. Empowered by the Eucharist, the heart of Charity, we must allow that charity to be animated through us to all in service.
Then we sat in vigil until midnight. We entered into the prayer of Jesus in the garden. "Father take this cup from me, but let it be your will not mine."
We, like the apostles, were invited to stay awake for an hour. Then we were encouraged to rise and embrace the plan of salvation. Jesus was betrayed by Judas, arrested, abandoned, condemned, and began the journey to Golgotha.
Good Friday we followed the way of the cross. We journeyed with Jesus along the way. As he was crucified at 9 until his last breath at 3 in the afternoon, we felt the blows, we felt the whips, we felt the falls, we felt the nails, we felt death.
We silently looked upon Him whom they had pierced.
Our gaze remained fixed upon the Crucified Lord.
At the service of the Passion of Our Lord, we prayed for all. The church reminds us that is is not enough to love those who love you, but we must love those who God loves. The crucifixion is a sign of love for all.
Then we venerated the wood of the cross upon which hung the savior of the world. The instrument of torture, ridicule, shame, humiliation, and death is transformed into a sign of victory and life. We bow to the wood of the cross, acknowledging the undeserved gift we have received in the will of the Father. Jesus' death reveals that he was the lamb that was to be slain; his death reveals his great loyalty and obedience to the Father; his death reveals that he refused to betray love.
Now we come to Holy Saturday. Jesus is taken from the cross and laid into the tomb. Today we experience the "death of God." God is dead and we have killed him. His lips are mute, he no longer speaks. The grave hides him and he no longer awakes. We experience the reality that not only is God's speech but also his silence a part of the Christian revelation, as Pope Benedict reminds us.
Jesus enters into death to hallow the grave and make it a sign of hope for all who believe.
Jesus descends in to Hell, the place of the dead, to set the captives free, "Awake O sleeper and rise from the dead, and Christ will be your light."
Today we experience in an exceptional way this article of faith. Jesus is alone with death. Is this not one of man's greatest fears, to be alone with death?
From this moment every experience of death, especially for believers, is no longer one of being alone. Every experience of death is now accompanied by the hand of one who has gone before us and conquered it. In death, we experience the crucified hand reaching forth to guide us through; we experience the voice of the one who embraced the silence of death to strengthen us in our fear and loneliness. Christ strode through the gate of our final loneliness and fills it with his presence, with a love stronger than death.
The gate of death is thrown open, and our fear and loneliness gives way to his ever abiding presence in all things human.
The Easter Triduum is rich in grace for all for in Jesus we have received grace upon grace.
1 John 2:8 "The darkness is over the real light begins to shine."
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