Holy Week: Thursday, the Sacred Meal

 Jesus reclined at the table,

   with the twelve disciples. (Matthew 26:20)

Peter and John leave early for the city where a man with a pitcher leads them to a large upper room set aside for Jesus and the twelve to eat their Passover meal. In the evening, Jesus joins the twelve there for the meal. This time, as Mary suspected, Jesus will not return to Simon’s house. 

This marks the beginning of what the Latin Church calls The Triduum Sacrum, meaning the “sacred three days”: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Morning. Three days as one day; or, three days that mark “the hour,” as Jesus called it: “The hour has come” (Mk 14:41). These three days will take up nearly half of John’s Gospel. John will give five chapters to this sacred meal. That’s why they recline. It will be a long evening drawing together all that Jesus is in Word and Deed (Jn 13).

 In Deed… Jesus welcomes the disciples to the sacred meal by washing their feet. “Do you understand what I have done?” Jesus asks.

 In Word… “I give you a new commandment (mandatum novum from which we get  the “maundy” in Maundy Thursday—the day of the “new commandment”),” Jesus tells his disciples reclining at table, “that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (Jn 13).

 Much conversation follows: Peter swears he will lay down his life for Jesus. Jesus tells him “Before the rooster crows you will disown me three times.” When Jesus says, “You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas raises his hand, and asks, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answers, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  I’m glad Thomas had the courage to raise his question; otherwise, we might not know one of the church’s most treasured Jesus sayings.

Everyone, reclining about the table raises their questions. Philip says to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus response, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father… I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Then Jesus goes on to speak of the Holy Spirit who will comfort and empower them when Jesus can no longer be seen going before them. At this sacred meal—a meal so precious it is re-enacted in our church every Sunday, we get the whole of our Triune God:

            -The Father who created us and sticks with his Creation, and

            -The Son who redeems us and prays for us still, and

            -The Spirit who, in unseen ways, sustains us and keeps us close to Jesus.