When someone we love dies the last things they did, the last things they said, the last gestures they made, all become very precious to us and we store them in our memory and recall them with great affection and emotion when we meet together as families or as a group of friends.

This also is very true with Jesus, Our Lord – the words he said on the cross, the actions he used at the Last Supper, the looks he gave especially to his disciples, have been lovingly recorded for us by all four evangelists and as we listen to their accounts each Holy Week These actions, these words, these gestures come alive for us in our time and we experience through faith what the Lord did as he celebrated the Last Supper, as he went to the Garden of Gethsemane, was arrested, tried and crucified, and died on the cross – the memory of the gospel writers becomes our memory also and we experience in our hearts the Lord’s love and self-giving for us all.

And what a great experience it is for us – the celebration of The Lord’s Supper, The Lord’s Passion and His Resurrection are the central acts of our faith as Christians and through their celebration each year our faith in the mysteries of our redemption are renewed for us and the hope of eternal life in Jesus guaranteed. The prayer after communion tonight says exactly that:

“Almighty God, we receive new life from the supper your Son gave us in this world. May we find full contentment in the meal we hope to share in your eternal kingdom.”

Before a person dies they can leave a will, a testament of what they want to happen once they have departed this life, and on this night we pay special honour and renew our enduring faith in the will and testament of Jesus. He tells us “Take and eat, Take and drink. Do this in memory of me.” His will is that we carry on doing what he did at the Last Supper, for by doing this we keep his memory alive within us; more than that we know that he is still present with us and he continues to feed us with his Body and Blood in the Eucharist he first offered for and to us at the Last Supper.

Because we celebrate the Eucharist frequently, and in our own situation are blessed to have it celebrated so frequently, our appreciation can sometimes be dimmed and we don’t always fully appreciate the gift we receive, but the night of the anniversary as it were of the Last Supper brings it alive again for us in a special and intense way and devotion we show and link we see so clearly tonight between what Jesus did at the Last Supper and his self-offering on the cross call us to renewed faith and appreciation for every Eucharist we participate in and to a stronger commitment to be present at mass as often as we can and to carry the gift of Christ’s love, offered to us at each mass, into every aspect of our lives.

We are conscious that Jesus shared the Last Supper with his twelve chosen apostles, and indeed that one left the supper to betray him, and it was they that made known what the Lord had said and done and then celebrated the Eucharist in the early Christian communities as he had told them to. From the Last Supper itself we see the close link between the Eucharist and the apostolic ministry, which continues in the Church through the bishops and priests ordained as the Lord’s servants. The action of the Lord in washing their feet is the example he left especially to them, to us, to be like him:

“If I then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.”

To me it appears that the Lord is saying to the apostles, and to their successors, I am giving you the great privilege of celebrating the Eucharist for the people, but along with this comes the responsibility, the privilege also, of serving the people with your whole life, in imitating the Lord by a life of self-giving and sacrifice for others.

It is not always easy to understand this – Peter’s objection to Jesus washing his feet shows that. He doesn’t think it is the right thing for the Lord to carry out such an apparently menial task, and perhaps by inference himself neither, so he has to be taught, better rebuked, by the Lord that this is indeed what he expects of those who follow him, and in particular those who minister in his name.

For those of us who have received this ministry it is good to be reminded on this night that the great blessing we have received of being able to celebrate the Eucharist goes hand and hand with the offering in love and service of our whole life to the Lord and to his people, his Body, the Church. It is appropriate to pray therefore for faithfulness and commitment on the part of all who share today in the ordained priesthood, for those preparing to be ordained, and for vocations to the priesthood, which can only come from a deep love and appreciation from everything we celebrate this evening, through which the Lord calls to a life of service and self-sacrifice.  

The response to the responsorial psalm tonight:

“The blessing cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ”

is a reminder that Jesus gives us in the Eucharist his Body and his Blood – not his Body and the Wine as sometimes we hear being said. The possibility of receiving the Blood of Christ from the chalice by all the faithful, and not just the priests, is a blessing which has become part of our participation again in receiving Christ in Holy Communion. Through receiving the Blood of Christ we are brought close to the suffering Christ on the Cross, where he poured out his blood for us, and it is an opportunity to be aware that we are receiving the power of his offering and sacrifice into our own lives thus strengthening us to share the cross with him, and perhaps to help others carry their crosses also.

We are receiving also in the blood of Christ the pledge of the new eternal covenant, through which we hope to share in the fullness of his resurrection. There is pain and joy therefore in sharing in the chalice of the Lord’s Blood, and we should think about that as we come forward to receive communion, the Lord’s Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine.

For those who don’t take communion from the chalice I think it would be appropriate if they made an act of reverence by bowing as they pass the chalice, so that they are acknowledging the Lord’s presence although they are not communicating from the chalice at that mass. Today we are being encouraged to show our faith in Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist by the reverence we show in receiving the communion, and also towards the Lord’s reserved presence in the tabernacle, and in a particular way this evening when we carry the Eucharist in procession to the Altar of Repose and there spend time with him in prayer as we recall the Last Supper and his vigil of prayer and anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane.

May it be a prayerful evening for us and may the fruits of our celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper be with us at every Mass we attend in the months ahead.