Holy Thursday - Eucharist & Priesthood

Today we thank Jesus for giving us the Eucharist and the priesthood. Saint Pope John Paul II said in one his Holy Thursday Letters to priest, “There can be no Eucharist without the priesthood, just as there can be no priesthood without the Eucharist.”

You see priests involved in many different activities. No matter what type of good work a priest does the high point of the priest’s ministry is celebrating the Eucharist. It is the most important moment of the day for the priest. And so the Pope writes, “The ordained ministry…enables the priest to act in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) and culminates in the moment when he consecrates the bread and wine, repeating the actions and words of Jesus during the Last Supper.”

Before this extraordinary reality we find ourselves amazed and overwhelmed, so deep is the humility by which God “stoops” in order to unite himself with man! If we feel moved before the Christmas crib, when we contemplate the birth of God, what must we feel before the altar where, by the poor hands of the priest, Jesus makes his Sacrifice present in time? We can only fall to our knees and silently adore this supreme mystery of faith.

To come to Mass is a privilege. To receive the Eucharist is a privilege. To come to adore Jesus in our Eucharistic Adoration is a privilege. These are privileges because the Eucharist is the greatest gift God gives us on earth, because the Eucharist is the gift of God Himself.

The price of the Eucharist was very costly. Every time Mass is offered we hear how much it cost Jesus to give Himself-- to us-- in the Eucharist. Jesus said, “This is my body, which will be given up for you.” And when He had taken the cup, He said, “This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant, to be shed for you, so that sins may be forgiven.” Our Lord gave His body and blood on the Cross, so that He could give us His body and blood in the Eucharist.

At the Last Supper the apostles were ordained priests so that Our Lord could give Himself. At the Last Supper, the apostles made their first Holy Communion. Yet one of them would betray Jesus. Even though Judas was ordained a priest by Jesus and even though Judas made his first Holy Communion at the Last Supper. Scripture tells us that Satan entered his heart and then he took the morsel, which was the Eucharist. Judas received the Eucharist in the state of mortal sin, and what did he do, but left the Last Supper early before it was over.

The eleven apostles would ordain other men as bishops, priests and deacons. These eleven men would offer Mass, hear confessions, and preach the Gospel wherever they went.

All of them, but John would be martyred. John would take care of the Blessed Virgin Mary and watch over Her until She was assumed into heaven.

The succession of priesthood is past down to us today through the sacrament of Holy Orders. That’s why today, bishops are considered apostles and priests and deacons are ordained by the bishops. One of the primary purposes of the priesthood is to make available to the people the priceless gift of the Eucharist in every time and place until Jesus comes again.

At the Last Supper, Jesus 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… 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."

Deacon Keith Founier said, “This God, before whom all the Nations will one day bend the knee, bends His human knee and washes feet.” He said, “How extraordinary! The God who fashioned the entire universe, who dwells in inaccessible light, is now present as a Man among men; serving the very humanity that had been created through Him. This God, before whom all the Nations will one day bend the knee, bends His human knee before the ones He had chosen to carry His redemptive mission forward until He returns in glory.”

Jesus washed the feet of the apostles to remind them that as priests, they were to carry on the redemptive work of Jesus by serving the people, especially by offering the Mass.

Lay people cannot offer the Mass, but lay men, women and children are also called to serve their neighbor. That’s what the stewardship way of life is all about. It is about serving God and serving our neighbor, which finds its source and its strength from the Eucharist. That’s why Eucharistic Adoration in our parish is so incredibly powerful, because the more we come to adore Jesus, the more we want to serve others, and serve God by our time and talent.

On this Holy Thursday, let us praise God for the wonderful gifts of the priesthood and the Eucharist. May we thank Jesus every day for the precious gift of Himself, the Eucharist, given to us at the Mass, which comes to us through the hands of the priest. Because without the priesthood, there can be no Eucharist and without the Eucharist there can be no priesthood.