Holy Thursday

Father Brian Christensen
Holy Thursday
March 28, 2024

On this holy night, on this Holy Thursday at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we’re keenly aware of the absence of our bishop. Normally it would be the bishop that celebrates the Triduum here at his Cathedral. The last time I celebrated was four years ago in front of iPhones during Covid. It’s so good to have this opportunity, even as we continue to pray for the repose of the soul of our good bishop and pray for his successor, we come here tonight with hearts filled with hope.

“Jesus loved his own in the world, and he loved them to the end.”

This evening – this Mass of the Lord’s Supper – is about amazing and unexpected transformations. What Jesus accomplishes this evening, in the Upper Room, is both amazing and unexpected. There are several transformations that could capture our attention; but I want to turn our attention to just two of them.

First, a transformation is defined as a “complete change in the appearance or character of something or someone,” and it says, “especially so that the thing or person is improved.” Transformation has a positive connotation. When speaking about a transformation, we are speaking about a change that is complete and a change that improves.

Jesus, in this intimate moment with his disciples at table, transforms – he changes completely for the better, for the best – at least two things (1) is the Passover meal and (2) is the priesthood of the covenant.

Jesus first transforms, in an amazing and unexpected way, the Passover Meal. As we heard in that first reading, the Passover is the ancient celebration of God’s saving action for Israel. During a Passover Meal, the Jewish people remember the way that God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. They recall how God led them across the desert into freedom in the Promised Land.

At the sacred meal, the family gathers and recalls the story of their salvation. In a carefully ordered ritual, the Passover Lamb is slaughtered and prepared. The Passover Lamb is eaten along with unleavened bread representing the manna from heaven – the food given by God for Israel’s journey to freedom. The blood of the lamb is placed on the doorposts and the lintels of the home – a sign of salvation and deliverance.

What Jesus does is amazingly and unexpectedly in the Upper Room? Here, on this very night, Jesus becomes the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God, the lamb of slaughter, a sacrifice. There is no lamb on the table and I’m sure that his apostles noticed. Instead, Jesus commands his disciples to eat the flesh of the Son of Man, to take and eat, “This is my Body given for you.” Jesus presents himself as the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God, the lamb led to the slaughter.

The unleavened bread which he takes — the food for the journey, the bread of angels, the manna from heaven – is transformed into his body. Jesus tells us that the bread that he gives us is the bread of life of the world; it is flesh; he instructs us, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. This is amazing and unexpected. An unexpected transformation. Jesus is the Lamb of sacrifice. Jesus in the bread of life!

The blood of the lamb is no longer placed on the doorposts and lintels of homes; rather, Jesus commends his apostles to take and drink his blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant. The Blood of Christ is not a symbol on the entrances to our homes, but the Blood of Christ becomes sanctifying grace, the presence and action of God that purifies us and brings salvation to the souls of all believers.

Through Jesus – through him alone – we have salvation. He frees us from the slavery of sin and he leads us into the promised land of the Kingdom of God: a new, abundant, and eternal life! Jesus has given us a complete, a perfect, a most excellent Passover Meal. And in this transformed meal, Jesus has given us himself.

Secondly, Jesus transforms in an amazing and unexpected way, the Priesthood of the Covenant. In ancient times, the Jewish priesthood was passed down through the lineage of Levi. Both Aaron and Moses were from the tribe of Levi. It was the Levitical priest that offered sacrifice in the temple, especially the Passover sacrifice of the Lamb.

Jesus, our great High Priest, confers a priesthood now on this night, on his apostles. In the Upper Room, at the Passover Meal, Jesus commands his disciples to, “do this in memory of me.”

On this very night, the apostles are ordained by Jesus to offer the new Passover sacrifice. They are commissioned to offer the unbloody sacrifice of the Eucharist: the Body, Blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are to offer this sacrificial offering – his Real Presence – for the salvation of the world!

No longer is the priesthood connected to a tribe, to an inheritance; it is no longer connected to the temple; and no longer is it a bloody sacrifice of animals. Jesus has transformed the whole priesthood into a participation in his divine priesthood. His new priesthood is formed by divine election: a priesthood of those chosen by Jesus with a brother’s love. The priesthood is intimately connected to his body in the Eucharist. The priesthood is exercised in the midst of his body, the Body of Christ, His Church. The priesthood is a ministry of sacrificial service to Christ and his Body, the Church.

On this holy night, Jesus transforms the priesthood in an amazing and unexpected way! These two astonishing and startling transformations – the transformation of the Passover Meal into the Eucharistic Banquet of Jesus’ Body and Blood and the transformation of the Levitical Priesthood into a participation in Jesus’ own priestly life – are grounded in one thing. They’re grounded in God’s love for us.

“Jesus loved his own in the world, and he loved them to the end.”

In the span, in the whole arch of salvation – from the fall, through the patriarchs, from Egypt to the Promised Land, from King David through the prophets and the exile; from restoration to the time of Maccabees; right up to the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary of Nazareth – God was seeking to reconcile all of humanity to himself. Israel, God’s beloved, God’s chosen one, the smallest and meanest of all nations, was to be his servant, God’s instrument, a light to the nations for salvation. God prepared and labored tirelessly for Israel and for the world – his beautiful creation. His preparations and his labors came to their fullness in his Son, our savior Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ, God, the Father, reconciled the world to himself and out of his great love – unfailing love, undiminished love – God gave us a new covenant in his blood, served by a new priesthood, for us and for our salvation. Jesus – out of his great love for you and for me – established the new covenant in his own body and blood. He transformed that Passover Meal into an exchange between heaven and earth: a holy communion between God and all humanity. This holy communion of love – this sacrament of charity – is offered by a transformed priesthood – more complete and more excellent, in service to the new and eternal covenant.

Why? Why these amazing and unexpected transformations? Why this new Passover Meal that we celebrate in every Mass? Why this new priesthood at the disposition of the world? Because Jesus.

“Jesus loved his own in the world, and he loved us to the end.”