April 8, 2004 - Holy Thursday

LAST SUPPER MASS

Do This in Memory of Me

Readings:
Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15

Greeting (See the Gospel)

"If I, the Lord and Teacher," says the Lord,
"have washed your feet,
you also ought to wash one another's feet.
For I have set you an example
that you also should do as I have done to you."
May the Lord and servant Jesus be always with you.
R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

When Jesus instituted the eucharist at the Last Supper, he said: "Do this in memory of me." In memory of Jesus we are now remembering and celebrating what happened at the Last Supper and doing again what he did there, as we do, in fact, at every eucharist. We, God's people, are now the disciples of the Last Supper. The priest, acting in Jesus' name represents Jesus. The table around which the disciples were gathered is now the altar. The room of the Last Supper is the church. Like the disciples, we are gathered as a community around Jesus and eating with him. This is a basic act for our Christian communities: to be gathered around the Lord, to eat and drink with him and in this way to become more united with him and more like him. Let us celebrate with the Lord.

Penitential Act

Our Lord gives himself to us in the eucharist
that by his strength we may do as he did.
In his presence and before one another,
let us ask ourselves whether we have been faithful
to this task of loving service.
              (PAUSE)
Lord, in the eucharist you call us together
to be one in you,
but we fail to set our differences aside
and to build up love and justice among us
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Christ our Lord, in the eucharist you serve us,
but service and sacrifice for others
are often too humiliating and cost us too much:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord, in the eucharist
you continue to share yourself with us,
but when WE share
we often measure and weigh our gifts
and we don't give ourselves:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
May the Lord have mercy on us,
forgive us our lack of love and service
and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us pray that we may celebrate the Lord's Supper
with the Lord's own attitude
              (SILENCE)
Our God and Father,
in this night,
so different from all other nights,
we are gathered here to partake of the supper
which your only Son left us
so that he could stay with us
with all the fullness of his liberating love.
He gave this meal to us
when he was about to die
and commanded us to celebrate it
as the new and eternal sacrifice.
We pray that in this encounter with your Son
he may share with us his life and love
and be our bread of strength
that enables us to serve and do your loving will.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Scripture Readings

First Reading Introduction: A Day of Festival, for Ever
      As the Jews were saved by the blood of the paschal lamb, so we remember that Jesus is our saving Paschal Lamb. His death and resurrection brought us forgiveness and life.

First Reading: Ex 12:1-8, 11-14

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 household 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 partake of 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 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 firstborn 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."

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

R. (cf. 1 Cor 10:16) Our blessing-cup is a communion with 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. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

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. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Second Reading Introduction: This Is My Body for You
      In the first report of the New Testament on the institution of the eucharist at the Last Supper, Paul reminds us that we have to let Jesus do among us, in his memory, what he did at the Last Supper. Let him give us his body to eat.

Second Reading: 1 Cor 11:23-26

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 Introduction: Wash Each Other's Feet: Serve!
      Jesus washed his apostles' feet to impress upon them and us that service is at the heart of the gospel, together with self-giving.

Gospel Reading: Jn 13:1-15

It was before the feast of the Passover. Jesus realized that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, and as he had loved those who were his own in the world, he would love them with perfect love.

They were at supper and the devil had already put into the mind of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray. Jesus knew that the Father had entrusted all things to him, and as he had come from God, he was going to God. So he got up from table, removed his garment and taking a towel, wrapped it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing.

When he came to Simon Peter, Simon said to him, "Why, Lord, you want to wash my feet!" Jesus said, "What I am doing you cannot understand now, but afterwards you will understand it." Peter replied, "You shall never wash my feet."

Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you can have no part with me." Then Simon Peter said, "Lord, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!"

Jesus replied, "Whoever has taken a bath does not need to wash (except the feet), for he is clean all over. You are clean, though not all of you." Jesus knew who was to betray him; because of this he said, "Not all of you are clean."

When Jesus had finished washing their feet, he put on his garment again, went back to the table and said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also must wash one another's feet. I have just given you an example that as I have done, you also may do."

Commentary

WHAT we call Holy Week was once concentrated into a single night, preceded by a few days of fasting and followed by a long period of joy-Pentecost. In the early centuries there were no other feasts (Christmas did not begin to be celebrated till the 4th century); everything was concentrated into a point. It must have carried tremendous significance. "O holy Pasch," wrote St. Gregory Nazianzen, "I speak to you as to a living being." At the heart of it was the Eucharist, celebrated at the end of the vigil, at cockcrow. It signified the moment in which Jesus rose from the tomb, the moment of passage from sadness to joy. It was a vivid reliving of his death and resurrection. "Yesterday I was buried with him, today I am risen with him" (St. Gregory Nazianzen).

In the 4th century, in the new climate of freedom, pilgrims in Jerusalem began to spread out the events of the Paschal Mystery, celebrating them in the places and at the times mentioned in the gospels: the Last Supper in the Cenacle on Holy Thursday, the adoration of the Cross on Golgotha on Good Friday, the Vigil in the Church of the Resurrection. Soon this practice spread throughout the Church.

To make sense to us, the Mass (any day of the year) has to be seen as part of this one concentrated event. It will help if we think of Holy Week as one single extended day in which we get time to attend to every detail of the mystery.

General Intercessions

We are gathered at the table of the Lord and with him here among us we are sure that the Father hears our prayers. We pray now: R/ Lord, hear your people.

- For all who preside over the eucharist, that they may deeply believe in the ministry they have received from Jesus and that they may also minister to their people with a sense of service, we pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.
- For all who have abandoned participating in the eucharistic celebration, that they may discover again how enriching the eucharist is for their lives, we pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.
- For all those in the Church and in the world in positions of heavy responsibilities, that they may regard their task as a service to God and to their people, we pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.
- For all who suffer from illness or oppression and rejection, that they may find strength in Jesus who gave himself for them and for all, especially the last and the least, we pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.
- For our Christian communities, that we may learn from our Lord in the eucharist to share our gifts and ourselves with one another, we pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.

God our Father, thank you for Jesus whose endless love brought us your life and joy. Keep us one in him, now and for ever. R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

Our God and Father,
your Son Jesus gave himself to his friends
as the new Paschal Lamb
in the taste of a piece of bread
and the joy of a cup of wine.
As he stays with us now,
may he nourish us with his body
to make us truly his body for the world,
the Church of his pilgrim people
on the march to the promised land
of everlasting joy and happiness.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

Today Jesus poignantly tells us: This is my body and blood for you; this is I giving myself for you. Learn from me to give yourself to God and each other.

Introduction to the Our Father

Before we share the Lord's table
as the people he has united,
let us pray with the Lord Jesus
the prayer which he himself has taught us: R/ Our Father...

Deliver Us

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil.
Give us today the bread of your Son
to lead us forward
on the road of love and service
and to be our strength
in the trials of life,
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...

For the Breaking of Bread

We break the Lord's bread together
for ourselves and for one another
that the joy and peace
of our Lord Jesus Christ
may be with us for ever.

Invitation to Communion

This is the Lamb of God
who laid down his life
to take our sins away
and to be our life.
Come to the table of the Lord
in peace and friendship.
It is the Lord who invites us
and the Lord who nourishes us;
it is the Lord who gives us his peace. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

May the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
fill us with new life,
enable us to love one another,
and be for us a source of lasting peace.

Prayer after Communion

Our God and Father,
when he gave himself to his friends
as food and drink for the road,
your Son Jesus committed himself
to stay with us as the person?for?others
and the Lord?who?serves.
May we learn from him
to be committed to our neighbor,
to love and serve without counting the cost
and to set our brothers and sisters free
from all enslaving evil,
as a foretaste of the unending happiness
that you have prepared for us
through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Before the Procession

After the Last Supper Jesus went with the apostles to the garden of Gethsemani to pray before he would be taken prisoner and begin his passion, to die the next day on the cross. Like the apostles, we are asked by our Lord to watch and pray with him. We could reflect on how he accepted his suffering out of loyal love for his Father and for us. We could also thank him for staying with us in the eucharist, to be among us as the bond of unity and love.

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