Empowered by Jesus’ Memory!

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Holy Thursday – Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15

The Maundy Thursday we celebrate today is highly significant to Christian life.

The four key moments of today’s liturgy are 1. The institution of the Eucharist, 2. The new love commandment given by Jesus, 3. The washing of the feet, and 4. The institution of the ministerial priesthood.

As the word ‘Maundy’ originates from the Latin word Mandatum, which means commandment, Jesus’ invitation to do these ‘in his memory’ would govern the faithful remembrance of all the four key moments. 

Talking in terms of ‘memory,’ we understand that the final moments of Jesus’ earthly life were filled with symbolic but significant acts. As a result, whatever Jesus performed at his Last Supper is theologically and pastorally rich and profound.

1. The Final Sign: If there is one overwhelming image that represents Jesus Christ best, then it is the image of the Eucharist, which is the ‘source and summit’ of Christian life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1324-1327). Jesus broke the bread in a symbolic act of breaking himself on the cross. If we want to understand the purpose of his incarnation through one single image, then it is contained within the Eucharist, where we ‘eat his body’ and ‘drink his blood’ in his memory. Because Christ broke himself for us, it becomes the life-giving source for Christians. Can there be any better sign or sacrifice than God nourishing and strengthening us in the form of his own body and blood, symbolized by bread and wine? For Christians, the visible love of God is manifested in the Eucharist, which represents Jesus offering himself for us. The Christian encounter with the Eucharistic Lord is life-changing. In consuming the Eucharist, we become what we eat. The Christ who enters in us transforms us fully so that instead of the bread and wine becoming part of us, we all become a part of Christ by the very fact of our participation in the eating of his body and the drinking of his blood. We can only cherish the enlivening presence of Christ in us through the Eucharist. 

2. The Final Act: Jesus’ life can be summarized by his preaching and healing mission. As Acts 10:38 would hold, ‘Jesus went about doing good.’ However, when it came to one final act, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples as if this one act, symbolizing a life of selfless service, contained the entirety of his mission in word and deed. For his disciples, who expected to fight alongside a conquering messiah, the image of the Servant Messiah was a contradiction and confusion. When they watched their Lord and Master stooping low to wash their feet, with no need for any further explanation, they all understood the symbolic meaning of priesthood or leadership, which is about selfless service and not unlimited privileges. If we can discover the real meaning of being Christ through his act of washing the feet, then others can discover the Christ in us only through such humility and service in God’s name. ‘Humility in service’ was what Jesus wanted Christianity to be identified and represented by. 

3. The Final Commandment: In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has shown us the authority that he is privileged with as the Son of God. More specifically, his self-referential statements ‘But I say to you…’ reveal not only his authority over the Divine Laws but also his thirst to take them to their basics. However, today’s celebration witnesses Jesus giving a new commandment on love, one that supersedes all others. His statement ‘Love one another as I have loved you’ shows that unlike any other religious leader, Jesus is able to show himself to be the fullness of love that others can flawlessly imitate. Here, Jesus becomes the moral yardstick for his followers to measure their moral life and wisdom. For Christians, the measure with which Christ loved us is the same measure with which we can extend our love toward our neighbors. If we can understand the cross symbolizing the fullness of Jesus’ love, we also can appreciate the fact that such love cannot suffer from any limitations precisely because Christ’s love was unconditional and everlasting. Thus, in asking us to imitate him in love, Jesus not only makes himself a moral criterion for all of us to follow but also shows that Christian love is or should be unconditional and everlasting. 

4. The Final Desire: Jesus’ parting wish was that ‘we do this in remembrance of him’ (Lk 22:19). Translating this statement to our own lives, we are to ask ourselves, ‘How am I/are we going to remember him in our daily lives?’ In this regard, the word ‘memory’ is very powerful because ‘to remember Jesus is to be like him.’ Thus, the call to memory has enormous implications as it makes a binding claim on every Christian. Remembering Jesus and doing nothing about what he cared for would be an inherent contradiction. Hence, remembering Jesus is to spread love, promote equality, abolish injustice in every form, work for just peace, and concentrate on charity in truth. Thus, a world loved by Christians will have no place for discrimination, hatred, inequality, or injustice. It is because of what such memory entails that the German theologian Johann Baptist Metz called it a ‘Dangerous Memory.’ Remembering Jesus is thus allowing the memory to shape and mould our lives so that our lives are marked by a continual striving to match Jesus’ love, sacrifice, and commitment. In this way, the call to remembrance or memory is quite functional in that we cannot alienate the inner promptings that such memory inspires. 

Though we reflected on the role of memory in the final instance, the meaning and message of Maundy Thursday is contained in that one act of ‘Remembering Jesus.’ With its intrinsic potential to shape and mould our lives, remembering Christ helps us replicate him in every aspect of our lives. 

We remember Jesus by breaking ourselves like him, following the Eucharistic call. 

We remember Jesus by selflessly serving others in his name. 

We remember Jesus by loving others with the same love with which he loved us all. 

Let us pray that we may allow the memory of Christ to enable our understanding of the meaning and message of Maundy Thursday and live the same in our lives. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar