Holy (Maundy) Thursday (W/S/V)

Thursday, April 9

Description:
Introit: Ps 116:1-4 (antiphon: Ps 116:5)
Old Testament: Ex 12:1-14
Epistle: 1 Cor 11:23-32
Gospel: Jn 13:1-17, 31b-35

Let Us Love One Another, as Christ Jesus Has Loved Us and Loves Us to the End

"The Lord's Passover" (Ex. 12:11) and "the blood of the covenant" at Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:8) foreshow the Lord's Supper. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, now covers us, and we keep His Supper "as a feast to the Lord" (Ex. 12:14). In Him, we see "the God of Israel" (Ex. 24:10), and yet He does not lay His hand on us to punish us, but from His hand we eat and drink in peace. As our High Priest, He "entered once for all into the holy places by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:12). He shed His own blood in order to "purify our conscience" and bring us before His God and Father "without blemish" (Heb. 9:14). The holy apostles received this New Testament in His blood from the Lord Jesus "on the night when he was betrayed," and they delivered the same to His Church, which we also now receive in the name and remembrance of Christ (1 Cor. 11:23-26; Matt. 26:26-28). Since He has "loved his own who were in the world" and He loves us "to the end" (John 13:1), therefore, let us also "love one another" (John 13:34).