By: Msgr. Charles Pope

The Last Supper is, strangely, a sad study in the kind of affliction the Lord had to endure from His own disciples. Of all the meals the Lord must have shared with them, this was the one that should have gone beautifully and perfectly; it did not. From one moment to the next the blows just got worse. There were inept responses, distractions, bullheaded debates, and rebukes directed against Jesus … and then of course betrayal. It was nothing short of a disaster. The ineptitude would be almost comical if it weren't so sad. If ever the Lord needed His disciples' attention and understanding, it was at the Last Supper. But to a man, they let Him down. There was squabbling, misunderstanding, argumentativeness, and betrayal, all packed into one evening.

I am mindful that the unleavened bread Jesus took in His hands that evening was called "the bread of affliction." Scripture says, You shall eat [the Passover] with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt (Dt 16:3).

Indeed it was an evening of affliction! It was so awful that one could hardly have faulted the Lord for saying, "That's it, Father. I've had it with them; I'm coming straight home!" Praise God that He chose to stay and die for the likes of us. And further, He takes this "bread of affliction" we dish out to Him and lifts it to the glory of the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.

Lest we be too critical of The Twelve, remember that we are often like them in many ways. Indeed, they are we and we are they. And the Lord loved both them and us to the end.

So on Holy Thursday, let's examine the sequence of events at the Last Supper. It illustrates pretty well why the Lord had to die for us. We will see how earnest the Lord is about this Last Supper, how He enters it with an intense love for His disciples and a desire that they (we) heed what He is trying to teach them. We shall see, however, that they (we) show forth a disastrous inattentiveness and a terrible lack of concern for the Lord.

Here, then, are the movements of the Last Supper. Watch how things begin with the loving and careful attentiveness of the Lord and end with a selfish, inept, and unloving response from the Apostles (us?).

COMING CLOUDS

Jesus knows that His hour has come; this will be His last meal. Judas has already conspired and been paid to hand Him over. Scripture says, Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come. He always loved those who were his own, and now he would show them the depths of his love. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over (John 13:1). Thus in the gathering storm Jesus plans His last meal, which will also be the first Holy Mass. He instructs His Apostles to prepare the meal: He sent two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the householder, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I am to eat the Passover with my disciples?' And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us" (Mark 14:13-15).

CARING CONCERN

This last supper was obviously important to Jesus. Luke records the heartfelt words of Jesus: And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God" (Luke 22:15-16). Yes, this was to be a very special moment for Jesus.

COSTLY COMMUNION

Jesus, reclining at the table, will now celebrate the Holy Eucharist for the first time. But this was to be a costly communion. He had already lost many disciples for what he taught on the Eucharist (cf John 6:50ff). After the first consecration, Jesus looks into the cup at His own blood, soon to be shed, and He distributes His own body, soon to be handed over. Yes, this is no mere ritual for Him. Every other priest before Jesus had offered a sacrifice distinct from himself (usually an animal, sometimes a libation). But Jesus the great High Priest will offer Himself; it is a costly communion.

COLLABORATIVE CONDESCENSION

During the meal Jesus rises and then stoops to wash the disciples' feet. He instructs them to see in this action a model for those who would collaborate with Him in any future ministry. John records it this way: He rose from the supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded (John 13:5). Jesus then teaches the Disciples: Do you know what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you (John 13:12-15). Just moments from now, we will see them demonstrate a complete disregard for what Jesus has just tried to teach them. Now things get bad.

CALLOUS CRIME

Back at table after having taught them that they must wash one another's feet, Jesus suddenly becomes troubled in spirit and says, I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me (John 13:21). This causes a commotion among the Apostles, who begin to ask, "Who can it be?" As the anxiety around the table builds, Simon Peter motions to John and says, "Ask him which one he means." Leaning back against Jesus, he [John] asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. "What you are about to do, do quickly" Jesus told him (John 13:24-30).

CONFOUNDING COMPETITION

But as Judas takes the morsel of bread and heads out into the night, no one even tries to stop him! Despite the fact that Jesus has clearly identified His betrayer, no one rises to block the door or even utters a word of protest! Why not? Luke supplies the answer: A dispute arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest (Luke 22:24). They should be concerned about Jesus' welfare but instead they debate which of them is the greatest. How confounding and awful! Yet is that not our history? Too often we are more concerned with our own status and welfare than with any suffering in the Body of Christ. So much that is critical remains unattended to because we are concerned with our own status, position, comfort, and welfare. Jesus had just finished teaching them to wash one another's feet, but in an amazingly inept response, they end up arguing as to who among them is the greatest. Jesus patiently reminds them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For which is the greater, one who sits at table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at table? But I am among you as one who serves (Luke 22:25-27). Meanwhile, due to their (our) egotistical ineptitude Judas has escaped into the night.

CAUSTIC CONTENTIOUSNESS

Jesus continues to teach at the Last Supper. At this moment He surely wanted to impress upon them His final instruction. How He must have longed for them to listen carefully and to deeply internalize what He was teaching! Instead, all He gets are arguments. Both Thomas and Phillip rebuke Him. John records this outrage: Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." But Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him. So Thomas rhetorically rebuked the Lord by saying, in effect, "We have NO IDEA where you are going; when will you show us the way?" Jesus answers, but Phillip will have none of this promise to see the Father and boldly says, "Lord, show us the Father, and then we shall be satisfied." Jesus, likely saddened at all this, says to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father'? (John 14:1-9) His own Apostles are being argumentative and contentious. They are caustic and seem to rebuke the Lord. This supper isn't going so well!

COMIC CREDIBILITY GAP

Undeterred, Jesus embarks on a lengthy discourse (recorded by John) that has come to be called the priestly prayer of Jesus. At the end of it, the Apostles remark, perhaps ironically, perhaps with sincerity, Ah, now at last you are speaking plainly, not in any figure! Now we know that you know all things, and need none to question you; by this we believe that you came from God (John 16:29-30). But Jesus knows their praise is hollow and will not withstand the test. There is a great credibility gap in what they say, so much so that it is almost comical. So Jesus replies, Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone (John 16:31-32). Peter protests, saying, Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Here is another almost comic credibility gap. Jesus says to Peter, Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times. Still insistent, Peter replies, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you." And so said all the disciples (John 16:33-35). Well, you know the story, and you know that only John made it to the Cross. Their credibility was, by this time, a dark comedy.

COMPASSIONATE CONSTANCY

But you also know the rest of the story. Jesus went on and died for the likes of them (us). I wonder if He had some of this Last Supper in mind when He said to the Father, "Forgive them, they know not what they do." It is almost as if to say, "They have absolutely no idea what they are doing or thinking, so have mercy on them, Father."

What a grim picture of us the Last Supper was! A disaster, really. But the glory of the story and the saving grace is this: the Lord Jesus Christ went to the Cross anyway. Seeing this terrible portrait of them (us), can we really doubt the Lord's love for us?

May your Holy Thursday be blessed. I hope you will attend Mass and the Last Supper/First Mass will be made present to you. Never forget what Jesus endured!

by Sebastian R. Fama

The Church has always taught that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is difficult for some to accept. However, belief in the Real Presence rests upon the words of Christ Himself.

In John 6:48-57 we read:

I am the the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread, will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. The Jews quarreled among themselves saying, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me."

Opponents of the Real Presence contend that this is all symbolic. But read what happens in verses 60 and 66, – "Then many of His disciples who were listening said, 'This saying is hard, who can accept it?'...As a result of this, many [of] His disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied Him."

Why was it hard for Jesus' disciples to accept something that was supposedly symbolic? Why would they abandon Him over it? Apparently they took Him literally. If they were wrong, why didn't He correct them? When Jesus taught something and it wasn't understood, He would explain it as He did with the parables. If His message was understood but rejected, He just repeated it with more force, as He did with the Pharisees. Which category do you suppose John 6 is in?

At the Last Supper, Jesus fulfilled His promise:

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, 'Take and eat, this is My body.' Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins'"
(Matthew 26:26-28).

This could hardly be seen as symbolic, as Jesus held bread and the cup of wine in His hands and said "This is my body" and "This is my blood." He was obviously referring to what He was holding. Luke records that Jesus also said to do this in memory of Him (22:19). For the Jews, to do something "in memory" meant to make it actually present.

Paul affirms the Real Presence in 1 Corinthians 10:16 and 11:27-29.

"The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?... Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord...For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself."

If the Lords body and blood are not present, how can a wrong be committed against them?

Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant sacrifice prefigured the New Covenant sacrifice. Both include a partaking of the sacrifice to signify participation in its effects.

Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch from the year 69 to 110, writes in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans, "But look at the men who have those perverted notions about the grace of Jesus Christ…They will not admit the Eucharist is the self same body of our Savior Jesus Christ which suffered for our sins, and which the Father in His goodness afterwards raised up again" (7:1).

A few decades later, around the year 150, Justin Martyr wrote: "Not as common bread or common drink do we receive these, but since Jesus Christ our savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus" (First Apology 66).

By Dr. Ray Pritchard

"You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
(Luke 22:28-30)

The final act has been set in motion, the die has been cast, all the players are on the stage, the wheels of injustice slowly grind away. Evil times have come. Even now Judas is on his way to betray the Lord Jesus.

But before the final drama unfolds, Jesus says something very significant to his men: "You are those who have stood by me in my trials." He remembered that his men had been with him from the beginning. They had seen it all: the good times and the bad, the miracles and the controversies, and when thousands of Sunshine Disciples had left him, these 11 men had stayed by his side. They were not much to look at; they weren't educated or powerful or eloquent. They didn't have much to recommend themselves. Maybe we wouldn't have picked them as part of our support team. They were mostly blue-collar, country types who felt a little uncomfortable in a big city like Jerusalem. They were fishermen and farmers and tax collectors and political zealots. They really didn't have that much in common.

But thrown together by their allegiance to Jesus Christ, over the years they had become a team. Now their Captain looks at them for the last time and says, "I haven't forgotten that you stood with me when everyone else ran away. That means a lot to me. I'm going to tell you something that you won't fully understand right now. But later on, you'll look back on this moment and remember my words. The day is coming when I will have a kingdom of my own. It's hard to believe right now, but it's true. Better days are coming. I won't forget that you stood by me in my darkest hours. I'll make it up to you in ways you can't even imagine. When that day comes, you'll not regret your faithfulness, just as I tell you that I have not forgotten it. You will be with me in my kingdom, eating and drinking and ruling the people of Israel. I know that may sound like wishful thinking right now, but don't forget that I told you these things. Nothing means more to me than this: You were with me in the time of my trial."

Here's an amazing fact. Even as he speaks these words, Jesus knows that in a few hours all these men will desert him (Mark 14:50). Under enormous pressure, scared and tired and disoriented, they will all scatter when the soldiers arrest Jesus.

Jesus knows that, and he still says, "You stood with me in my hard times." What a Savior who can honor those who serve him, even when that service is less than perfect.

No one is 100% faithful to Jesus. We all struggle in many ways. We serve a great Savior whose grace covers even our future failures.

Stay faithful today. That's all we can do. No one will ever regret serving Jesus. The rewards are out of this world.

Lord Jesus, thank you for forgiving grace that covers my sin. I pray for enabling grace that I might be faithful to you today. Amen.

By Dr. Ray Pritchard

"Stay awake and pray so that you won't enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"
(Mark 14:38).

It had been a long day.

For that matter, it had been a long week. It started with the big meal in Bethany followed by vast crowds greeting Jesus as he entered Jerusalem followed by all the commotion when he cleaned out the temple followed by days of controversy in the temple precincts. The city was clogged with pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for Passover. Everyone was talking about Jesus, wondering who he was and where he came from. Meanwhile dark clouds of opposition had gathered round their Master. You couldn't ignore it. You could sense the hatred, feel the rage, see the faces contorted with anger. Even without being told, they knew that something was going to happen to Jesus. Something bad. Something horrible. But what it was, they could not say.

Then came the Last Supper on Thursday night when Jesus washed their feet and gave them the shocking news that one of them would betray him. Judas had left but no one knew where he had gone. Now it is almost midnight in Gethsemane. They have come with Jesus to watch with him as he talks to his Father.

But they were so tired, so weary, so frightened, so confused, so worn out from the pressure that they fell asleep. Thinking about it that way, one could hardly blame them. We all have our breaking point. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. We fight to stay awake, and then we wake up four hours later, dazed and confused.

Against all that, we have these words of Jesus. They are spoken in sorrow, not in anger. If there is rebuke here, it is gentle. Jesus knows what tomorrow must bring. He sees clearly the "cup" he will soon drink. Knowing all that, he urges his disciples to stay awake and pray.

What Jesus said to them, he says to us: "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." We will fight this battle every day until we finally go home to heaven.

But we must fight!

If we sleep when we should stay awake, we ought not be surprised when we find ourselves falling into temptation. Pressure and stress wear us all down, but it is precisely then we must be most vigilant.

"Let us live like men on enemy ground, and be always on our guard" (J. C. Ryle).

This calls for earnest prayer. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to be distracted when you pray? Just as you bow your head, the phone rings, or you get a text message, or some music distracts you, or you suddenly remember that you have to check the roast in the oven. A thousand things come crowding into your mind. Sometimes it seems as if the devil's best work comes when we decide to pray. He unloads his full armory of distractions against us.

Better a short prayer from the heart than a long prayer that puts you to sleep.

Brothers and sisters, let us take to heart the words of Jesus. We're not as strong as we think we are.

by Archpriest Victor Sokolov

Troparion, Tone 8

When the glorious disciples at the supper were illumined by the washing of the feet,
then was the impious Judas darkened by the disease of avarice.
And he betrays Thee, the Righteous Judge, to the lawless judges.
See, O lover of possessions, how for money's sake he hanged himself!
Flee from that insatiate soul, which dared such things against His Master.
O Lord, who art good towards all men, glory to Thee!

Kontakion, Tone 2

Having taken the bread in his hands,
the traitor stretches out those hands in secret
to receive the price of Him who with his hands created man.
And Judas the slave and deceiver still repented not.

Ikos: Having all approached the mystical supper in fear, let receive the bread in purity of soul and remain with the Master, that we may behold how He washes the feet of His disciples. And let us do as we have seen Him do, submitting one to another and washing each other's feet. For so Christ commanded His disciples. But Judas the slave and deceiver took no heed.

The Exapostilarion (The Hymn of Light)

Thy bridal chamber, O my Savior, I see adorned,
and I have no raiment with which to enter therein.
Enlighten the garment of my soul, O Giver of Light, and save me. Behold, O Priest!