Holy Thursday - Mass of the Lord's Supper

In the Opening Prayer/Collect, for this Mass, the Holy Eucharist is called: "this most sacred Supper," "a sacrifice new for all eternity" and "the banquet of his (Jesus) love." In the Prayer over the Offerings it is called "the memorial of this sacrifice" and in that after Communion: "the Supper of your Son" and "his banquet." The summary of what all this means is articulated in Preface I of the Most Holy Eucharist: "For he (Jesus) is the true and eternal Priest, who instituted the pattern of an everlasting sacrifice and was the first to offer himself as the saving Victim, commanding us to make this offering as his memorial. As we eat his flesh that was sacrificed for us, we are made strong, and, as we drink his Blood what was poured out for us, we are washed clean." In the 1983 Code of Canon Law we read: "Canon 897 The most August sacrament is the Most Holy Eucharist in which Christ the Lord himself is contained, offered, and received and by which the Church continually lives and grows. The Eucharistic sacrifice, the memorial of the death and resurrection of the Lord, in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated thorough the ages is the summit and source of all worship and Christian life, which signifies and effects the unity of the People of God and brings about the building up of the body of Christ. Indeed, the other sacraments and all the ecclesiastical works of the apostolate are closely connected with the Most holy Eucharist and ordered to it. "

All of this is a teasing out of the statement by Jesus in the Second Reading: "Do this in remembrance of me." (1 Cor 11: 24) Yet, all of this is inadequate. The only way to get some kind of purchase on the significance of this amazing sacrament is to enter as fully as we possibly can into the mystery. That most of us are obliged to fast from the Eucharist in this time of crisis can call us to reflect on the meaning of the Holy Eucharist for each one of us and what the act of receiving Holy Communion brings us. After all, for the laity, their participation in the sacrifice of the Mass is a Marian one. It is a sacrifice of praise and gratitude as we stand with Our Lady at the foot of the Cross. The joy of the Presentation in the Temple is joined with the anguish of Good Friday and ultimately the glory of the Resurrection and the Assumption. let us be caught up in this sacred mystery even as we are deprived of its communal celebration.