A Dominican monk from the Bordeaux convent, Jean-Thomas de Beauregard comments on the readings for Maundy Thursday. The Mass of Maundy Thursday commemorates a triple event, where Jesus reveals himself for eternity as servant, high priest and slain lamb.
The Holy Thursday mass has no end. It does not end with an Ite missa est , the sending of the faithful into peace and on mission, nor with a blessing. In truth, it doesn’t end at all. The Mass of Maundy Thursday continues in the procession which brings the Blessed Sacrament to the resting place. There, Jesus remains present under the Eucharistic species, delivered to the adoration of the faithful. This is because the Mass of Maundy Thursday commemorates a triple event which is one: the washing of the feet , the institution of the Eucharist, and the sacrifice of the Cross . Now Jesus Christ never ceases to be servant, high priest and slain lamb. The Holy Thursday Mass knows no end because Jesus is for eternity servant, high priest and slain lamb.
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A triple event
Jesus is a servant when he washes the feet of his disciples. Jesus is a servant when he feeds his disciples with his body and quenches their thirst with his blood. Jesus is a servant on the Cross when he brings the good thief into the banquet of the Kingdom.
Jesus is high priest when he offers a sacrifice of humility by washing the feet of his disciples and reveals through this gesture the ultimate purpose of the Eucharist: the increase of charity within the Church. Jesus is high priest when he establishes the Eucharist, source and summit of the life of the Church, towards which everything converges and from which everything flows. Jesus is high priest when he dies on the Cross , where he makes in his person the only sacrifice capable of saving the world, not because he suffers enough for that, but because he loves much more than it would not be required.
Jesus is a lamb slain by washing the feet of his disciples because he makes himself small and full of gentleness to accomplish this gesture. Jesus is a lamb slain when he institutes the Eucharist, because it is his own body and his whole person that he offers in a non-bloody way under the species of consecrated bread and wine. Jesus is a lamb immolated on the Cross, since his hands and feet are nailed when he receives, as the priest’s knife, the thrust of the spear by which the water and blood of the sacraments of the Church flow from his open side for the salvation of the world.
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The resting place of heaven and earth
At the resting place, it is Jesus the servant, Jesus the high priest and Jesus the slain lamb whom we come to adore. And the Mass of Maundy Thursday knows no end, because Jesus is servant, high priest and lamb slain in every moment of time and for eternity. On the altar of the resting place, on Maundy Thursday, linens and flowers are placed, enough to welcome the divine guest. A display of beauty, but in great sobriety, far from the baroque and sumptuous splendor of the Corpus Christi resting place. Now is the time for simplicity.
We are ourselves, unworthy creatures and yet madly loved by God.
In the silence of the night, Jesus wants to be with his friends. Is this resting place where true lovers of Christ come to meditate from heaven or earth? The poets are divided. Baudelaire wrote: “The sky is sad and beautiful like a great resting place”, while Péguy wrote: “And the earth was only a vast resting place”. With Péguy as with Baudelaire, the resting place is there only for comparison, but their difference raises the question: is the resting place more of the sky or of the earth? The resting place is from heaven and it is from earth, like the entire liturgy of Maundy Thursday. It is of heaven and earth, like the entire liturgy of Holy Week . It is of heaven and earth, like all Christian life irrigated by the sacraments. We are ourselves, unworthy creatures and yet madly loved by God, heaven and earth, when we welcome into our hearts Jesus, servant, high priest and lamb immolated under the species of the Eucharist.
