Triduum Sacrum: Holy Thursday

Triduum Sacrum: Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper Exodus 12:1-8; 11-14; Psalm 116; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15

“We proclaim your Death, O Lord…” Not a very attractive advertising slogan is it?

Have any of us reflected on what we sing at the heart of every Eucharistic Prayer? “We proclaim your Death, O Lord,…”  “When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord,…”

What does it mean to proclaim the death of the Lord? Why do we proclaim the death of the Lord? Is not the Eucharist an encounter with the living and risen Christ?

Have you considered that there is an uninterrupted link between the table and death?  The tradition relates “on the night he was betrayed” Jesus deliberately changes the words of the Passover Seder:

Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Haolam Hamotzi Lechem Min Haaretz. Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings bread from the earth…“this is my body…given up for you…” 

Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Haolam Boreh Pree Hagafen. Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine… “this is my blood…which will be poured out for you”.  And the Gospel of Matthew will continue “which will be poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

This word change of an ancient ritual that began the night God delivered Israel from Egypt can only be interpreted and understood in terms of Jesus’ death.   “On the night he was betrayed” Jesus goes directly from the Last Supper table to Gethsemane to arrest and crucifixion.  The death of lambs slaughtered and blood smeared on doorposts delivered Israel from slavery to freedom.  Jesus is slaughtered in the horror of a state sponsored execution, his blood is smeared on the hearts of every human being securing salvation for the entire cosmos.

Can we begin to understand why we proclaim the death of the Lord?

By claiming Paul’s words as our own in singing the Memorial Acclamation we make that same link every time we gather for the Eucharist.  We move from table to death.  For at the heart of the Eucharist is the cross, God’s absurd, paradoxical and ultimate sign to humanity and the universe.  The crucifixion and death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, is the unique feature by which our Christian authenticity is judged and receives true significance.

Are you and I authentic Christians? Are we the “real thing” when our lives are placed under the judgement of the cross?

Are the values we live as stern as death? Do we pour out our blood, our lives, for others? Do we draw people to Christ by the lives we lead?

Jesus welcomed all sorts and conditions of human begins at table. Is this not what Jesus wanted to communicate to us at both the table and the cross?

Are not table and cross the same still point where God and humanity converge? And so we sing…“We proclaim your Death, O Lord,…”

[Passages and ideas taken from The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus by Fleming Rutledge, W, B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2015.]