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Hello Everyone and welcome back to the Matthew Schreiner Podcast. And we have discussed the Eucharist within countless videos. And that is for good reason. In fact this video is not the end of the discussion of the Eucharist, in fact, countless more episodes will be done discussing the Eucharist, for as long as I make videos. But of all the days today, when this video is uploaded, on Holy Thursday, the Eucharist is something of great and utmost importance. There is one other day, the feast of Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi after all, means the Body of Christ. But even above Corpus Christi, there is Holy Thursday. The Paschal Triduum, over any feast day, is the most solemn and important of all feast dates. Of Easter is the highest solemnity, and those days that precede it and follow it as well.

We have discussed Holy Week, and during Holy Week we recall our salvation. We recall the events that led to our salvation. The events which Christ undertook for our Salvation. It is on Holy Thursday that these events are at the forefront of what will lead to the cross. On Holy Thursday, it was that Christ had the Last Supper with his disciples. At this supper he washed the feet of his disciples. And he commanded his disciples to do likewise. He commanded his disciples, to like him, be servants. But then he call them to something more important.

On this night, while at supper, while celebrating the Passover, a Passover supper he longed to share with his disciples. And it was at this Supper that he gave bread to his disciples, and said to them, that this was his body given for them. In like manner he gave them the chalice and said that it was his blood for them. This fulfills the words that Jesus said about the need for his flesh for salvation, that he is the bread of life, these words that he has spoken previously. More than that, Jesus not only says that he gives to his disciples his body and blood, but he asks for them to keep this practice continually.

On this night, Jesus has instituted the Eucharist, and by it, by both this and the mandate of feet washing, he has established the priesthood. He has established the priesthood as one of service and of sacrifice. By these words and the words he has spoken throughout his ministry, we understand what it is Jesus commands of all his servants, and especially of his priests.

The Eucharist, however, was Christ’s gift to all the faithful, to all his servants, his priests and not. The Eucharist has been the core of the churches 2000 year history. It is around the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, her worship, her life, has been surrounded by what the Lord has given her. And till today, the church has kept the faith that she has been given. And she has kept the tradition the Lord has given her. A tradition of service, and a tradition of the Eucharist.

For Thousands of years, the People of the Jews had kept the faith of Abraham. Had kept his practice of circumcision, given to him by God. The people of Isreal kept the feasts and celebrations the Lord had given to Moses and others through the generations. All the feasts of Isreal to, were kept by Christ. All the precepts of Isreal were fulfilled by Christ, from his birth till his death.

In Christ, no longer is required constant sacrifice of priests who need to make sacrifice for themselves and the people. Rather, there is one sacrifice, once and for all. Christ is our true high priest, we are told in scripture, we are told that he passed through the true temple, with his blood, pleasing to God, and passing through the heavenly temple he redeemed us before God.

And it was on this day that our Lord, after his Last Supper, that Christ went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus has already been betrayed by Judas, for thirty pieces of silver. And Christ knew what was coming next, he knew that he would be arrested, would be tried, would walk the way of the cross, before being crucified and dying. All the complete the work of salvation. Pious belief holds that Christ saw the sins of all the world, as he sat in the garden, sweating blood, praying, asking that God let the cup pass him by, “not as he wills but as his father wills”. He prays that the will of the Father be done. He knows what must be done. And while he hesitates, he willingly does it.

And before his passion, before all this, he left us a memorial of his passion. And that was the Last Supper, he knew it was his last. And before he died he longed to share the Passover with his disciples. He knew that he was nearing his passion, that he foretold of several times. And he knew that at this Passover he would share something much more special than a remembrance of Isreal’s Passover from Egypt. Rather he was celebrating the Passover from sin, the Passover he would accomplish by his cross.

He willed also that he be a servant, and that his disciples likewise be servants. And he willed that they continue the memory of his passion. And we learn here the core of the church, what Christ gave to his apostles. We learn the two treasures Christ wished for his apostles before his passion: service, and the Eucharist.

And it is of the treasures of the faith that is the Eucharist. The Eucharist which is Christ’s continued presence among us, that he left to us. That he left as a saving remedy, and that he wished be the way of salvation. He willed that the bread of life be given before his passion, and likewise be a remembrance of it.

Holy Thursday is the founding day of the Eucharist, the day in which Christ, before he was to die, took bread and gave it to his disciples, and in like manner the chalice. It was on the cross that the body that willed to serve, that was shared among the twelve, would become lifeless. It was upon the cross that the blood of the chalice, the blood of Christ, share for the twelve, would be sweated out by Christ, and poured out from the side of Christ, fully till the last drop.

I wanted to give some look at the Eucharist on this Holy Thursday, as this is one of the most crucial elements of the day. As well, the Chrism mass that takes place on the day marks the blessing of three oils. The oil of the sick recalls Christ’s healings, and the mission continued by the church. The Oil of Catechumens, which marks those for Baptism, they are Marked as Christ’s. The Holy Chrism, that seals one, seals one in Baptism, Confirmation, and Ordination. In the mass is also the renewal of priestly promises, as on this Holy Thursday, Our Lord instituted the sacred priesthood. And through the generations were priests, consecrated by the Holy Chrism, to serve Christ, and serve others, but most importantly, to consecrate the Eucharist.