The Most Luminous Night: On the Last Supper

On that blessed night of the Last Supper, the Eucharist was not yet made. This is why today the tabernacle is empty. Jesus knew that He was about to be betrayed and taken to prison: this is why today’s celebration will finish with us accompanying Jesus, after Supper, to a place of prayer. That Supper was the last time Jesus could communicate with His disciples before his death. He wanted to leave a treasure behind, He wanted to establish a people for generations to come, He wanted to stay with them forever and write His testament on their hearts. He had to move forward but he found a way to stay behind. Three gifts He left: His Law of Love, His Body and Blood, and His priests.

1.  There is no people without law: the first thing Jesus did at the Last Supper was to teach the law of love, as we have heard tonight. The Gospel is the one where Jesus teaches us to love one another as He has loved us (cf. John 13:1-15). Jesus, however, was not content with words only: He taught with His example and, as we will do tonight, confirmed His teaching with His actions. Jesus washed the feet of the one who would betray Him, He washed the feet of those others who would abandon Him, He washed the feet of the friend who would deny Him three times... The Law of Jesus, the one He left us, is loving everyone, not loving just those from whom we expect to be loved in return (cf. Luke 6:32-34).

2.  A law is not enough to keep a people together. There has to be something in common, something they all share. Jesus wanted His people not only to be one, but to be one body. Jesus wanted His people to be one with Him and in Him, He wanted His Church to be His Body (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:17). He wanted us to live with His own life, as He Himself lives with the Father’s life. Thus, as the Father shares everything He is with the Son, the Son shares everything He is with us, in the Holy Eucharist (cf. John 6:57; 16:15). This is what he came to bring: the Son of God came to bring us a share in God’s own life. On Holy Thursday, tonight, He will accomplish His mission with the institution of the Eucharist, anticipating in a sacramental way His total self-giving on the Cross.

3.  There is no body without head, there is no people without a leader. Jesus is the Head and the true Leader of God’s people. His life and mission on earth, however, were about to finish, and He wanted His friends to continue His way of life and His mission on earth. He wanted someone to feed His sheep, He wanted someone to give the Eucharist to His people, He wanted someone to keep His people together and defend them from His enemies. So He said to the Apostles, “Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19). He gave them the power to do what He had just done. Jesus keeps calling others in the same way, He calls them tonight, today and always down the centuries: “Do this in memory of me.” May other men accept the call to serve God’s people as priests.

The night of the Last Supper became the most luminous night. Jesus illumined our minds with the perfect law: the law of love. He also set on fire the table with his Eucharistic presence. And He set a light on the lampstand to illumine His house, a torch on the mountaintop (cf. Matthew 5:14-15), someone who could continue to shed light on His people and put fire on the altar once He had left. And all of that to keep us in communion: communion of love with one another, communion with Him through the Eucharist, communion in one Church and in one Eucharist sacrifice through the priesthood.

Let us receive these three gifts today. They are Jesus’ testament. Before His death, He left us what he considered the most important. The law of love, the Eucharist, the priest: How important are they for us? How would our life be without them? Would it be like a desert or about the same? How do we receive the Eucharist? How do we receive the priest? How do we welcome our brothers and sisters? May the love of God illumine our lives tonight and always.