What happened on Holy Thursday?

Holy Thursday inaugurates the Paschal Triduum, the heart of the Catholic liturgical year. Lent ends at the beginning of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on this day, and from that moment begins the sacred Triduum which extends until Easter Sunday.

On Holy Thursday, the Church commemorates four inseparable realities:

• The institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper;
• The institution of the ministerial priesthood;
• The celebration of the first Holy Mass;
• The commandment of love expressed in the washing of the feet.

Furthermore, on this day, the bishop, in communion with all the priests of his diocese, performs the blessing of the holy oils that will sustain the sacramental life of the entire diocese throughout the year. This celebration is known as the Chrism Mass.

Many Catholics ask: Is it obligatory to go to Mass on Holy Thursday? While it is not a holy day of obligation, the Church strongly invites the faithful to participate. Indeed, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper is one of the most important celebrations of the liturgical year.

In the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus gives himself to remain with us forever until the end of time. How can we not participate in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday to thank him for his infinite love that led him to become the Eucharist?

The Holy Thursday Masses

1. The Chrism Mass

On Holy Thursday morning, in every cathedral in the world, the bishop celebrates the Chrism Mass surrounded by his entire presbyterate. It is one of the most beautiful images of the unity of the Church: all the priests of the diocese gathered with their pastor, around the altar, to bless the oils that will sustain the sacramental life of the year.

The Three Holy Oils

In this first celebration of Holy Thursday, the three sacred oils are blessed and consecrated:

The Renewal of Priestly Promises

One of the most moving moments of this Mass is when the priests publicly renew their ordination promises. They reaffirm their readiness to unite themselves more closely to Christ and to fulfill their ministries with joy and selflessness. The bishop, in his homily, reminds them that their identity is configured with Christ the Anointed: they are ministers of hope for the people God has entrusted to them.

The Rite of Consecration of the Chrism

The culminating moment is the consecration of the Holy Chrism. The bishop pours perfumes into the olive oil to symbolize the “good aroma of Christ” that the baptized must radiate. He then breathes over the mouth of the vessel, recalling the breath of the Spirit at creation.

At that moment, all the priests present extend their right hand toward the chrism while the bishop pronounces the prayer of consecration. It is a gesture of enormous theological beauty: it visibly expresses that it is a single priesthood acting in the Church for the sanctification of the people of God.

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The Holy Mass of the Lord’s Supper

As evening falls on Holy Thursday, the Church gathers for the evening Mass in Coena Domini. It is the celebration that marks the official start of the Paschal Triduum, and it possesses a unique structure that is not repeated at any other time of the liturgical year.

The Gloria and the Silence of the Bells

At the beginning of the celebration, the Gloria is sung with solemnity. While it is sung, the bells toll for the last time. Once the hymn is finished, they fall silent. They will not ring again until the Easter Vigil. It is one of the most eloquent silences of the liturgical year.

The Holy Thursday Readings: From the Jewish Passover to the New Covenant

1st Reading: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14

The first reading (Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14) describes the prescriptions for the Jewish Passover, the banquet that preceded the liberation from Egypt. Jesus, by celebrating the Last Supper within this ritual framework, takes the place of the Paschal Lamb, whose blood does not liberate from physical slavery, but from sin and eternal death.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: “This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel:

“On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest neighbor in procuring one, and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.

The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they eat the lamb. That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the Lord.

For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first-born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the Lord!

But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.

This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution.””

Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18

R. How shall I make a return to the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?

Or:

R. The cup of blessing that we bless
is a communion in the Blood of Christ.

How shall I make a return to the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the Lord. R.

Precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, Lord,
your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds. R.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the Lord.
My vows to the Lord I will pay
in the presence of all his people. R.

Second Reading: 1 Cor 11:23-26

Saint Paul, in the second reading (1 Corinthians 11:23-26), transmits the Eucharistic tradition initiated on Holy Thursday as the core of Christian life:

Brothers and sisters: I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my Body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my Blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Gospel: Jn 13:1-15

The Gospel (John 13:1-15) completes the picture with the gesture that changes everything: Jesus humbles himself and washes the feet of his disciples at the Holy Thursday supper.

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.

When he came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

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The Washing of the Feet

Jesus, knowing that the Father had put everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God, rose from the table, tied a towel around himself, and began to wash the feet of his disciples. A gesture reserved for slaves in the culture of the time. A master class in humility, service, and love.

This rite, known as the Mandatum, was reformed by Pope Francis in 2016 through the decree In Missa in Cena Domini. Since then, those chosen for the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday can be designated from among all the People of God: men, women, young people, the elderly, the healthy, or the sick. The mandate of service knows no distinctions.

Why does the priest remove his chasuble for the washing of the feet? By stripping himself of the vestment that identifies his presidential function, the priest acts not only as Christ the Head, but also as Christ the Servant, reminding us that the greatest among Christians must be the servant of all.

The Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament and the Altar of Repose

At the end of communion, the celebration does not conclude with the usual blessing. Instead, a solemn procession is organized to transfer the ciborium with the consecrated hosts to an altar of repose. The priest, covered with the humeral veil, carries the Blessed Sacrament preceded by incense and candles while the Eucharistic hymn Pange Lingua is sung.

What is the Holy Thursday Altar of Repose? It is the altar of reservation where the Eucharist remains exposed for the adoration of the faithful. Liturgical norms expressly forbid it from taking the form of a tomb: its purpose is to highlight the living presence of Christ, not to represent his burial, which is commemorated on Holy Saturday. Eucharistic adoration continues until midnight.

The Stripping of the Altar

After the procession, the denudatio altaris takes place: the stripping of the altar. The cloths are removed, flowers are taken away, and crosses are covered with a red or purple veil. The bare altar is one of the most eloquent images of the entire Christian liturgy. It evokes the absolute dispossession of Christ, abandoned by his disciples and stripped of his garments before the crucifixion.

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Meditation: Sacrifices of Jesus in the Eucharist by Saint Peter Julian Eymard

What are the distinctive characters of love? Only one: sacrifice. Love is known by the sacrifices it inspires or that it gladly accepts.

A love without sacrifices is a word without meaning, a disguised selfishness.

Do we want to know the greatness of Jesus’ love for men in the mystery of the Eucharist? Then let us see the sacrifices he had to impose on himself to realize it. They are the same ones that the God-Man accepted at the time of his passion. Now as then, Jesus Christ immolates his civil life, his natural life, and his divine life.

I

During the passion, to which his immense love for us impelled him, Jesus Christ was excluded from the law; his people disown Him and calumniate Him, yet He does not utter a single word to defend himself; He puts himself at the mercy of his enemies and no one protects Him, yet He does not plead the rights of the least of the accused. All his rights as a citizen and as an honest man He immolates for the salvation and love of his people.

In the Eucharist, Jesus accepts and continues the same sacrifices. He immolates his civil life, in that he is without any right; the law does not even recognize his personality; to Him who is God and Man at once, to the Savior of men, the nations redeemed by Him hardly dedicate a single word in their codes. He lives in our midst and is unknown. “Medias autem vestrum stetit quem vos nescitis”.

Nor are public honors granted to Him. In many countries, even the feast of Corpus Christi has been suppressed. Jesus Christ cannot go out, cannot show himself in public. He has to hide, because man is ashamed of Him! Non novi hominem!, I do not know him! And do you know who they are who are ashamed of Jesus Christ? Could they be the Jews, or perhaps the Mohammedans? No, they are Christians!

The Holy Eucharist is without human defense or protection. As long as you do not disturb and prevent the public exercise of worship, you can insult Jesus and commit whatever sacrileges you want: these are things in which the authorities have nothing to do.

Therefore, Jesus in the Sacrament remains without defense on the part of men.

But will not heaven come to his defense? Neither. Just as in Pilate’s palace and in Caiaphas’ house, Jesus is delivered by his Father to the will of sinners. Jesum vero tradidit voluntati eorum.

Is it possible that Jesus Christ knew all this when instituting the Eucharist and that nevertheless he freely chose that state? Yes; he did so to serve as a model for us in everything and to be our comforter in the persecutions and hardships of life.

Thus he must remain until the end of the world, giving us an example and helping each of his children with his grace. So much does he love us!

II

To the sacrifice of his rights, Jesus adds in his passion the immolation of everything that constitutes man: he immolates his will, the bliss of his soul, which he allowed to be a prey to unequaled sadness, of his entire life ended on the cross.

And as if it were not enough to have immolated himself thus once, in the Holy Eucharist he continues to mystically renew this natural death.

To immolate his own will, He who is God obeys his creature; He who is king obeys the subject, He who is the liberator obeys the slave. He obeys priests, the faithful, the just, and sinners, without any resistance or violence, even his own enemies and all with the same promptness. Not only in the Mass, when the priest pronounces the words of consecration, but also at all moments of the day and night, according to the needs of the faithful. His permanent state is purely and simply a state of obedience. Is it possible? Oh, if man understood the love of the Eucharist!

During his passion Jesus was bound, he lost his freedom: in the Eucharist he binds himself; like iron chains, his promises have bound him absolutely and perpetually, and the words of consecration have inseparably united him to the sacred species. He is in the Blessed Sacrament without his own movement, without action, as on the cross and as in the tomb, although he possesses the fullness of the life that rises.

Jesus is, absolutely, under the dependence of man, as a prisoner of love; he cannot break his bonds or abandon his Eucharistic prison. He has made himself our prisoner until the end of the ages. To such an extent has he obligated himself and to such an extent does the contract of his love extend!

As for the bliss of his soul, it is clear that, once resurrected, he cannot suspend his raptures and joys as in Gethsemane; but he loses his happiness in men, and in those of his unworthy members, such as bad Christians. How often is Jesus met with ingratitude and outrage! How many and many times do Christians imitate the conduct of the Jews! Jesus wept once over the guilty city of Jerusalem; if he could now weep in the Blessed Sacrament, how many tears would our sins and the eternal perdition of those who are condemned make him shed! As he loves us more, our ruin afflicts him to a greater degree than that of the Jews!

Finally, not being able to actually die in the sacred Host, Jesus takes at least a state of apparent death. The sacred species are consecrated separately to signify the shedding of his most precious blood, which upon leaving the body caused him such a painful death.

He gives himself to us in Holy Communion; the sacred species are consumed and as if annihilated in us.

Finally, Jesus also exposes himself to losing his sacramental life when the impious profane and destroy the holy species.

Sinners who receive him unworthily crucify him again in their soul and unite him to the devil, the absolute master of their hearts. Rursum crucifigentes sibimetipsis Filium Dei. This is […] they crucify again for themselves the Son of God […](Heb 6:6).

III

Jesus also immolates in the Eucharist his natural life as much as his glorious state allows.

In the passion he did not spare his divine life; neither does he spare it in the Eucharist. For what glory, what majesty, what power appear in the torments of his passion? There one sees only the man of sorrows, the cursed of God and of men, Him of whom Isaiah had said that he could not recognize him, disfigured as his august face was by wounds and spittle.

Jesus, in his passion, let nothing be seen but his love. Wretched are those who did not want to recognize him! It was necessary that a thief, a criminal, should adore him as God and proclaim his innocence, and that nature should weep for its creator.

In the Sacrament, Jesus continues with even more love the sacrifice of his divine attributes.

Of all the glory and power he has, we only see a patience more than sufficient to scandalize us, if we did not know that his love for man is infinite, reaching even to madness. Insanis, Domine!

By which proceeding this sweet Savior seems to want to tell us: Do I not do enough to deserve your love? What more can I do? Inquire what sacrifice remains for me to consummate!

Wretched are those who despise such love! It is understandable that hell is not an excessive punishment for them.

But let us leave this… The Eucharist is the supreme proof of Jesus’ love for man, in that it constitutes the supreme sacrifice.

Do you want to live Holy Week with devotion? Here are some articles that may help you do so:

• Holy Week timeline: Discover what Holy Week is, what is celebrated each day, and how to live the Paschal Triduum according to the Catholic Church. A clear, complete guide.
  
• The 3 Pillars of Palm Sunday: What is the Palm Sunday liturgy like? Explore its 3 pillars: the blessing of palms, the procession, and the Passion narrative.
• What Did Jesus Do on Holy Monday?: Let’s follow in the Redeemer’s footsteps. Let us reflect on what he did on Holy Monday.
• What is celebrated on Holy Tuesday?: Let us contemplate the events of Holy Tuesday: the announcement of Peter’s denial and Judas’ betrayal.
  
• What does the Bible say about Holy Wednesday?: Want to know what happened on Holy Wednesday? Read the Gospel and reflect with St. Augustine.
• What is the Good Friday Liturgy like?: In this post, we explain each moment of the Liturgy of the Passion step by step.