Jesus shares his Priesthood with the Apostles during the Last Supper

Homily for Holy Thursday

by Fr. Tommy Lane

Thanks be to God for the gift of priesthood! As we celebrate this Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we give thanks to God for the priesthood and the Eucharist. The priesthood was born during the Last Supper, as Pope John Paul II reminded us (Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 2004 §1). There were many priests in the Old Covenant but there is one Priest, Christ, in the New Covenant and he has extended his priestly ministry to his ordained priests.

Scripture is very clear that Jesus is the Priest of the New Covenant. A priest is someone who offers sacrifice. There were many animals sacrificed in the Old Covenant by the Jewish priests, but there is one sacrifice offered in the New Covenant, the sacrifice of Jesus in his priestly offering of himself on the cross. Scripture shows us Christ’s death as a sacrifice because he is the Priest of the New Covenant: “Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God” (Eph 5:2); “you were ransomed…with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.” (1 Pet 1:18-19) During Mass, that one sacrifice of Jesus as the Priest of the New Covenant is extended to us through time and made present to us. There is not a new sacrifice of Jesus on the cross during every Mass; it is the same one sacrificial offering of Jesus as Priest on Calvary but extended through time, as in a time warp, and made present to us now. (Catechism §1362-1368; DS 1743)

We have just listened to an excerpt of the account of the Last Supper in John’s Gospel. It described Jesus washing the feet of his apostles (John 13:1-15). That is only part of John’s account of the Last Supper; John’s account concludes with Jesus’ Priestly Prayer in John 17. During that prayer to the Father, Jesus prayed for the apostles, “Consecrate them in the truth.” (John 17:17) Jesus was praying that the apostles be interiorly changed by the truth, that they become like Jesus himself who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). It was Jesus ordaining the apostles as his priests.

Part of the ordination rite of Jewish priests in the Old Covenant involved washing (Ex 29:4; Lev 8:6). During the Last Supper, Jesus washed the the apostles’ feet. While Jesus performed this action to teach his apostles to serve rather than be served (John 13:13-15), could we not say that it also resembles and calls to the mind the washing that preceded the ordination of the Jewish priests of the Old Covenant? Jesus said to Peter, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later” (John 13:7) and I wonder if later they saw the foot washing in a new sense, calling to mind the washing that was part of the ordination of Jewish priests in the Old Covenant. (In a sense, we could say that on Easter Sunday evening Jesus concluded giving his apostles the priesthood).

Thanks be to God for the gift of the priesthood! The priests of the New Covenant continue the mission of Jesus the Priest. Please pray for more vocations to the priesthood and support vocations to the priesthood. If a family and parish shows its love for and support for priests, can we not expect priests to arise from that family and parish?

Jesus gave us priests so that we may have the Eucharist. Jesus does not want our celebration of the Eucharist to be cut off and separated or divorced from the rest of our lives. Our celebration of the Eucharist is to affect our entire lives. What kind of effect is the Eucharist to have on our lives? Jesus washing his disciples’ feet during the Last Supper when he gave the Eucharist surely teaches us that the Eucharist is linked with service. Our celebration of the Eucharist should lead us to love all our brothers and sisters in a sacrificial way. Our celebration of the Eucharist sends us out from here to love and serve the Lord in others. Our meeting with the Lord here continues as we love and serve the Lord in others after our celebration here. That is also why during the Last Supper Jesus gave his new love commandment, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” (John 13:34) St. Augustine, writing about the Eucharist, said that if we receive Holy Communion worthily, we are what we receive (Sermon 227); when we receive Christ in the Eucharist, we too are to sacrifice ourselves, and in that sense we become what we eat. Just as Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it, when we receive the Eucharist we are to allow ourselves to be taken by Jesus, blessed, broken and given in love for others. In that sense, the words of Paul in our second reading tonight become true, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” (1 Cor 11:26)

Thanks be to God for the gift of the Priesthood and thanks be to God for the Eucharist!

Copyright © Fr. Tommy Lane 2008

This homily was delivered in a parish in Maryland.

More Homilies for Holy Thursday

Sharing in the Salvation of Jesus’ Cross now 2025

Jesus’ Body and Blood given for us 2021

Jesus our Passover Lamb consumed in the Eucharist 2015

The Eucharist and the Priesthood were born during the Last Supper

Related Homilies:

Homilies on Priesthood  Homilies on Vocation

Homilies on the Eucharist