Holy Trinity Church

Source: SVAS April 2025 – Parishioner

Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, marks the Last Supper of Jesus Christ. On this sacred day, Jesus established the sacrament of Holy Communion, paving the way for His disciples to partake in His body and blood-a gift offering eternal life. It also commemorates His institution of the priesthood, a special vocation distinct from the “priesthood of all believers.”
During the Last Supper, after washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus commanded them to love one another as he had loved them. At the Passover meal, he broke bread and gave it to his disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you.” He passed around a cup filled with wine and said, “This is my blood…” It is believed that those who partake in Christ’s flesh and blood will attain eternal life.
Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter, marks the day Jesus celebrated his final Passover with his disciples. During this sacred meal, he demonstrated extraordinary humility by washing their feet and urged them to follow his example by serving one another.
Maundy Thursday commemorates Christ’s “mandate,” with the term “maundy” derived from the Latin word Mandatum, meaning “command.” On this day, during the final week before his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus shared the Last Supper with his disciples and washed their feet. It was then that he gave them this commandment:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” The profound words from 1 John 4:7-8 echo this sentiment: “Beloved, let us love one another. For love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
The day commemorates the institution of the sacraments of Holy Orders and the Holy Eucharist – the celebrants are clothed in white. As the Mass progresses, the words of the consecration are uttered for the last time until the Easter Vigil, and the bells that normally ring during the consecration are silenced and replaced by wood clappers. After Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament is placed in a ciborium and processed to a separate church area. This symbolizes Christ’s journey to the Garden of Gethsemane, which we accompany him.
Every Mass, we hear the words “on the night he was betrayed.” That night was Holy Thursday, and it is one of the most important nights in all of history.
Any words we might use to explain the mystery of Holy Thursday are inadequate. But it is not hard to imagine the feelings of Jesus’ heart on that evening, his last evening with his friends before the sacrifice of Calvary.
Jesus Christ, the perfect God and man left us, not a symbol, but a reality. He stays with us. He will go to the Father, but he will also remain among men. He will leave us, not simply a gift that will make us remember him, not an image that becomes blurred with time. Under the appearances of bread and wine, he is present, with his body and blood, soul and divinity.
This is the source of the joy we feel on Holy Thursday-the realization that the creator has loved his creatures to such an extent. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as though all the other proofs of his mercy were insufficient, institutes the Eucharist so that he can always be close to us. We can only understand up to a point that he does so because Love moves him, who needs nothing, not to want to be separated from us.
Maundy Thursday marks the establishment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Priesthood, alongside Christ’s commandment to love one another as he loves us.

There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, he would have given it to us. -St. John Vianney