Category: Holy Week

Holy Thursday -Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

From the responsorial psalm: “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. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 13:1-15, today’s readings)

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”

During the Last Supper, Jesus puts all of his trust in the Father, fully aware, as John tells us, “that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.” When Jesus approaches Peter to wash his feet, Peter misunderstands the significance of the act. Jesus responds by indicating that unless he washes Peter, he has no share with him. Jesus demonstrates the importance of humility and service to others in the kingdom of God. He says to the disciples, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

God, the Father of Mercies, help me receive your mercy even as I do not fully understand its profound meaning in sanctifying me. When Jesus approaches Peter, he first refuses to allow Jesus to wash his feet. Open me to receive your mercy, Lord, in humility and gratitude. “How shall I make a return to the LORD,” the psalmist prays, “for all the good he has done for me?”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Surely it is not I, Lord?” | Wednesday of Holy Week

From the responsorial psalm: “I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving: ‘See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the LORD hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.’ Lord, in your great love, answer me.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 26:14-25, today’s readings)

When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?”

Matthew tells the story of Judas’s betrayal of Jesus. Aware of this, Jesus makes known that one of them will betray him. Having received payment from the chief priests, Judas’s response to Jesus seems odd: “Surely, it is not I, Rabbi.” Although he acknowledges Christ as his teacher, calling him Rabbi but not Lord, Judas at once denies his betrayal. Jesus holds a mirror up to Judas when he says, “You have said so.” In the same way, our inclination toward sin might cause us to deny willful participation in it even as we act on it. That’s the deep dysfunction that Jesus came to save us from, restoring us to God through his death and resurrection. In the verse before the Gospel, we hear his merciful response to sins that are ours, a cause to glorify him: “Hail to you, our King; you alone are compassionate with our errors.”

God, the betrayal of Judas is not an isolated event in the Gospel from long ago but relates to every person who struggles with sin and chooses that instead of choosing you. As he betrays Jesus, Judas not only pretends to be innocent but also deludes himself by thinking that he is not responsible for his choice to hand Jesus over. In choosing to do wrong with your gift of free will, Lord, how easy it is to betray you through sin, to reject you and deny responsibility. Give me the grace to stay with you at the table, even to be deeply distressed at the thought of betraying you, as the other disciples were. Keep me in your presence, Lord.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Will you lay down your life for me?” | Tuesday of Holy Week

From the responsorial psalm: “Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety, for you are my rock and my fortress. O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked. I will sing of your salvation.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 13:21-33, 36-38, today’s readings)

Peter said to him, “Master, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.”

John describes a moment during the Last Supper when Judas betrays Jesus. The disciples are unaware of the betrayal and misunderstand Jesus when he says to Judas, who has the money bag in hand, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” Acknowledging the significance of the betrayal and his commitment to the Father’s will, Jesus says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” After this, Jesus foretells Peter’s moment of weakness and denial and shares with the disciples the challenges that await them. Isaiah’s prophecy foretells Jesus’ mission of obedience to the Father’s will when he says: “For now the LORD has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb.”

Father in heaven, you remain with Jesus at every moment of the Last Supper, even as he is betrayed by Judas and predicts the denial of Peter. What you say through Isaiah comes to fulfillment as Jesus chooses to enter into his passion and death, finding you as his sole source of strength: “And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD, and my God is now my strength!” Jesus experienced betrayal and denial as part of the fulfillment of your will. Following Jesus’ supreme example, give me the grace to know that you alone are the Lord and the source of my strength even in the midst of disappointment and sorrow. As the psalmist prays: “On you I depend from birth; from my mother’s womb you are my strength.” Strengthen me, Lord.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.