Holy Week 2021 - Holy Thursday Morning Prayer - Preparing for the Paschal Feast

 We’ve come to the final hours of Lent. As the sun sets, Lent concludes and the Paschal Triduum—the most Sacred Three days of the Church year—begins. 

On the evening of Holy Thursday 2000 years ago, the Lord gathered with his closest friends for the Last Supper. In preparation for that meal, around this time of day, Jesus sent his disciples to make preparations for that sacred meal—they were to search for a room, inspect it, and ensure it was furnished for that ritual meal. 

Just as Jesus’ disciples prepared for the Last Supper by ensuring the table and cups and plates and utensils and bowls for the ritual washings were in place for the Passover meal, every Catholic parish prepares today for this evening’s Mass.  We prepare the table of the altar, we decorate the church, we will get our liturgical vessels ready, our candles, the vestments, chairs and bowls for the ritual washing of the feet.

The external preparations for this evening’s ritual mass need to take place, but the internal preparations are also of vital importance. In other words, the more that we prepare our hearts for the Sacred Triduum, the more grace we will derive from their celebration. For the saving effects of these holy days are in direct proportion to our interior disposition of soul, openness to God’s grace, and docility to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.  A fervent practicing prayerful Christian will reap a much more abundant harvest of grace than one who fails to prepare his heart. And that’s true for the Christian life as a whole.

The Church’s morning prayer contains some powerful lessons to ready our hearts for the great Paschal Triduum to come.

The first Psalm today, Psalm 80, speaks of God as Savior. God is invoked as the “God of Hosts”—the leader of a heavenly army who brings victory over the evil in the lives of his people. This Psalm reminds us that the Sacred Triduum is a celebration of God’s great victory over evil and sin. But, that victory comes at a price. If you want less evil in your life, less evil in the world, we must imitate Jesus who conquers evil by the price of the cross. We must renounce sin and selfishness and take up our cross as well. 

The passage from the prophet Isaiah considered the identity of our savior. God indeed is our savior, but he does not save us from a distance. God has taken on the flesh and blood  of humanity in order to open the fountain of salvation to us. Jesus who goes to the cross is God incarnate, and we are to make his name known and exalted among all the nations.

And lastly, we recited the powerful Psalm 81. God not only saves, but feeds his people: with the “finest wheat” he feeds his people. At the Last Supper, tonight, we will celebrate how, on the night before he died—Jesus instituted the Sacrament of His Body and Blood—which is spiritual food—the finest of wheat—for His Church. Jesus says, unless you eat this food and drink this blood you do not have life within you. But he who eats this food will live forever.

In these final Lenten hours, our most important preparations involve preparing our minds and hearts for the upcoming festivities by pondering and emulating God’s great love for us. Don’t waste these precious hours on mere human activities, pray deeply during these upcoming days, that you may drink deeply of the fountain of salvation, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.