Holy Thursday
Scripture:
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15
Reflection:
Do this in remembrance of Me (1 Cor 11:24)
Memory is a beautiful gift of God. Without it our love ones drift away from us as if they have died. No one doubts that with the loss of memory brings severe damage to us. So it is with Jesus’s concern for us that we never forget Him Who never forgets us! At the moment of the institution of the Holy Eucharist when Scripture tells us that one of the apostles is betraying Him, He asks us to remain with Him in our thoughts and hearts by memory.
We are grateful when people remember us because they are putting us into their inmost thoughts and heart. The Eucharist is a living remembrance of Christ at the ultimate act of love that the world has ever seen! “The Eucharist Sacrifice, the memorial of the death and resurrection of the Lord, in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated over the centuries, is the summit and source of all Christian worship and life:” Code of Church Law Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of his boundless love”. Lumen Gentium,
Holy Thursday is that time when we remember Jesus remembering us. We in the explosive moment of the Lord’s death and resurrection place deeply in our hearts and minds the indescribable love He shows us on the cross. It is the ultimate moment of revelation that we keep in our mind and heart. It is the decisive hour for us to experience how we are in the beautiful memory of Christ on the Cross! “Jesus remember me when you enter into your kingdom!” Can we ever imagine a more beautiful place to be than in the mind and heart of Jesus at the supreme moment of His fondness for us? Such is the Eucharist! To be forgetful of it is to miss the treasure of our lives!
Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P. preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.