Holy Thursday, April 2, 2026
Mass of the Lord's Supper
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
“Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.” John 13:1
On this night we pass into the Sacred Triduum. As we enter the upper room for the Last Supper, we rise to take a “bird’s eye” view of what will come to pass during these three days. The Last Supper will see the institution of the Eucharist and the Holy Priesthood, in anticipation of the Sacrifice of the Calvary for which the Eucharist will be an everlasting remembrance, echoing the command of the Lord for the Passover meal itself — “This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution” (Exodus 12:14). “Do this in remembrance of me,” (I Corinthians 11:24) the Lord will say to His Apostles. This is what they have done for over 20 centuries, faithfully remembering the sacrifice, and much more. For at Calvary the Church will be planted in the blood of Christ flowing forth from His side in the water of Baptism and the blood of the Eucharist (cf. John 19:34). The Church will enter the great silence of Holy Saturday until Christ the light will shatter the darkness of the tomb with His Resurrection. The light will only grow more intense as the sun dawns on Easter morning. We, like Mary Magdalen, will come to the tomb, hear our name in baptismal renewal, and return, like her, rejoicing.
All of this — the suffering, the sacrifice, the death, the rebirth, and the Resurrection — meet in the Eucharist. Speaking of this great mystery of the Word of God, the death, and the Resurrection, then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: “Only the three together make up a whole, only these three together constitute a veritable reality and this single mystery of Easter is the source and origin of the Eucharist” (God Is Near Us, Ignatius, 2003, p. 44).
What is this Word about which the future Pope Benedict XVI speaks? “This is my Body” (I Corinthians 11:24) and “This is my Blood” are expressions taken directly from the Israelite language of sacrifice in the Temple. The priest of the Jerusalem Temple designated the sacrifices to be offered (ibid, p. 32). When our Lord shows the bread to the Apostles and takes the cup of wine and says, “This my body, which is given for you” and this is “my blood which is shed for you and for many” He is using the words of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53).
What is happening in the upper room is not without antecedent or preparation. It is a full-throated proclamation of the fulfillment of prophecy that echoes into the three days of suffering, Passion, Death and Resurrection. The Eucharist is never simply what the congregation does. It is all God’s work, unfolding before us, presented in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As the future Pontiff will write, “The Eucharist is a sacrifice, the presentation of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross” (ibid, p. 44).
This “sacrifice on the Cross” has never been and never will be an isolated event. This is a sacrifice that captures heart and imagination because it envelops the soul. It transports us from the upper room, through the desolation of Calvary, to the joy of the empty tomb. When the priest lifts the sacred host and precious chalice, we see before us the words of Isaiah fulfilled which say, “Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear. Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked, and he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses” (Isaiah 53:10-12). We see Christ victorious, the Lamb of God, the Bread of Angels, God with us.
This is what brings us, as Catholics, joy and peace, comfort and reconciliation. Here the Upper Room, Calvary, and the Empty Tomb meet. God is with us, offering us Himself for eternal redemption, feeding us with His Body and Blood, a foretaste of the eternal banquet of Heaven, where all will be fulfilled. There we will be more than merely His guest. We will be part of Him, for we shall have partaken of His flesh and blood, which is indeed food and drink. With St. Paul, we will say, “I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:19-20).
