The Celebration of the Gift of Holy Eucharist, Priesthood, and Call to Fraternal Love

 Reflection on Today’s Readings, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, April 14th, 2022
Texts: Ex. 12:1-8. 11-14; Ps. 116: 12- 13. 15-18;  1 Cor. 11:23-26; John 13: 1-15
Three things are called to mind today: The Eucharist, the priesthood and fraternal love. Today’s first reading and the gospel reading help us to see the Holy Eucharist in the light of Passover Meal and Jesus Christ as the Lamb. Moses says this about the Lamb: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old”.  Jesus Christ, our Lamb, is also without blemish. It is said of Him thus: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:2).  John the Baptist also proclaimed Him the Lamb of God: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Eucharist is the sacrificial Meal by which we are set free from the slavery of sin, just as the Hebrews were set free from the slavery in Egypt. When we receive sacrament, the blood of Jesus, the Lamb, is applied to our souls. The penny Catechism says, “The sacraments have the power of giving grace from the merits of Christ’s Precious Blood which they apply to our souls” (No. 251).
Today’s gospel reading helps us to understand that the institution of the Holy Eucharist was done in the mood of Passover Meal. It is said, “Before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” At the time, the Passover Meal was already expected, so they were already in the mood. Just as the Hebrews ate the Passover Meal in readiness to leave Egypt, the land of slavery, so also we are to approach the Eucharistic Meal with the mind and resolution to leave sinful life, to take off the yoke of sin. But many a time our story is not different from that of Hebrews who often chose to go back to Egypt, clamouring for the cucumber and pot of meat they were used to in Egypt. They never let go the life in Egypt.  
Holy Eucharist is also a sacrament of love. Jesus Christ gives us example of love in the celebration of Holy Eucharist. It is said, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. .... When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to 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.’ Whenever Holy Eucharist is celebrated we are reminded of the Lord’s command to love and serve one another.  
St. Paul,  in today’s second reading, tells us that whenever we approach Eucharistic Meal we proclaim the Lord’s death. In his words: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the chalice, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” The Lord’s death is the greatest act of love. Jesus says, This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12-13). When we proclaim His death, we proclaim His love for us. We proclaim His love by loving one another. Hence, by the Eucharist we are called to fraternal love.  
Priesthood and the Eucharist go hand in hand: It is where there is priest that Holy Eucharist exists. Hence, we cannot talk of Holy Eucharist without priesthood. The institution of the Holy Eucharist comes with the institution of Priesthood. Just as the Holy Eucharist perpetuates the presence of Jesus Christ sacramentally in the world, so also priesthood perpetuates the presence of Jesus Christ sacramentally in the world. Priests are another Christ in the world. When we bless you, it is Christ who has blessed you. At baptism it is Christ who baptises you. When you come for Holy  Communion, it is Christ who feeds you. At confessional, it is Christ who listens to you, forgives your sins and imparts the grace to conquer sins. During Homily, it is Christ who speaks to you. Priesthood is a gift to the world.  
 
O God, who have called us to participate in this most sacred Supper, in which your Only Begotten Son, when about to hand himself over to death, entrusted to the Church a sacrifice new for all eternity, the banquet of his love, grant, we pray, that we may draw from so great a mystery, the fullness of charity and of life.
 
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke