Mass of the Lord's Supper

This evening's Mas is called the Mass of the Lord's Supper. Someone might object - but is not every Mass the "Mass of the Lord's Supper"? I recall years ago that youth and university chaplaincy groups would rehearse seder meals and priests would use chalices and Communion bowls made from earthenware. Chalices would even, on occasion, be wineglasses. The implication, or even express theology, was that the Eucharist was a replay of the Last Supper. We were all sharing at the "table of the Lord" and the Holy Spirit was the wonderful vibe between us as we broke bread and shared wine together. If you do not believe me find the lyrics to the "eucharistic" songs written in that period, for example, Carey Landry's "We are companions on the Journey." 

To remedy such a impoverished sense of the Mass we need to be reminded that Pope St John Paul II taught in Redemptor hominis 20 that the Eucharist is: "... at one and the same time a Sacrifice-Sacrament, a Communion-Sacrament, and a Presence-Sacrament And, although it is true that the Eucharist always was and must continue to be the most profound revelation of the human brotherhood of Christ's disciples and confessors, it cannot be treated merely as an "occasion" for manifesting this brotherhood. When celebrating the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the full magnitude of the divine mystery must be respected, as must the full meaning of this sacramental sign in which Christ is really present and is received, the soul is filled with grace and the pledge of future glory is given." In Eucharistic Prayer III we pray: "Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the saving Passion of your Son, his wondrous Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, and as we look forward to his second coming, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice."

Thus, in the Mass we enact an anamnesis (living memorial) or the whole of the mystery of Christ. In the Mass of the Lord's Supper we, through the washing of the feet, are reminded of the Last Supper as that moment in which Christ instituted a mystery which must be seen in the context of the whole of his saving work which continues in the Church today.