Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. We call these three days the Triduum. I'll explain them over the next three days as if the reader had never heard about them. And now: Holy Thursday.
The Master of the universe, ever gentle and ever loving and ever patient, chooses to lead us, not force us, to understand the unimaginable degree of God's love for all of us. Whenever Jesus met disorder outside of Himself, He never became disordered within Himself. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:22-23)
Hostility to Him increased because He dared to show that the way to God is forgiveness, and because He dared to say that "The Father and I are One." So to counter the hostility He gathered His disciples for what has come to be called the Last Supper. During this supper, which He gave to us to be the premier way we would be united with Him, He gave them and us the meaning behind His upcoming death: "so that sins may be forgiven."
It is not that God the Father is an angry God who wants to smite human beings for their offenses, but Jesus does show us that God's love includes the awareness of what harm we do to each other by our unloving deeds and attitudes. So He gave this meaning to His crucifixion: See how serious evil is! And see that the way to conquer evil is by forgiveness. The Eucharist is the time we hear it said every Sunday, and every day if we want to, "This is My body which is given up for you." "This is My blood which is shed for you." Why? "So that sins may be forgiven."
The Last Supper, then, is our entering into union with God so that in time we become like God; and in time we become, by His grace, His presence of forgiveness in each generation that needs forgiveness so badly. In every Eucharist we are drawn ever more into the very heart of God.
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