Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday
2 April 2026

On this holy night, with the beginning of this Holy Mass, Lent has concluded and the Sacred Triduum, a brief privileged time from now until Easter Sunday evening finds us commemorating some of the most important events of our faith, the events by which the Lord Jesus accomplished his saving mission for us. Though we have been in an extended period of penance during Lent, and while we are called to observe penance tomorrow (on Good Friday) until the first Mass of Easter, our penance is put on pause with the Holy Thursday Mass. This Mass is a Mass of joy and thanksgiving marked by the festive color of white because we are celebrating the love of the Lord for us, evidenced by his establishment of the Holy Eucharist on this night, a sacrifice and a sacrament, the perpetual memorial of His Passion by which we are saved. That sacrament is made present to us day by day and in every time and place through the ministry of the Church’s priests in Holy Orders, the second sacrament the Lord established on this night. Finally, after the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Priesthood, the third focus of this night is what is called the “mandatum”, the command of fraternal charity, to love one another as the Lord loves us. Because of the Latin word “mandatum” this day has also become known as Maundy Thursday.

I imagine most people would say that the foot washing is a distinctive part of this Mass, though it might be surprising to learn that it is an optional rite. In fact, well before it was ever known as a ritual of the Holy Thursday Mass in parish churches, the foot washing had a long history of being done usually outside of the Mass as a service to the poor or as a ritual done in religious houses. Eventually it made its way into Masses with a bishop in cathedral churches only. And finally in 1955, after some liturgical adaptations made by Pope Pius XII, the foot washing was copied in parish churches but remained entirely optional. In the year 2020, due to a global event whose name shall not be said, the Church around the world omitted the foot washing. I, and many of my brother priests, found that omission to be a happy opportunity to simply let the Holy Thursday Mass focus on the two intimately connected sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders that the Lord established on this night. Frankly – just trust me – the optional foot washing ritual had suffered under the burden of becoming politicized or simply reduced to a call to generic service. In addition, it required more effort and planning time than you can even imagine. You would not believe the complications in finding 12 parishioners who can commit to attending the Mass, who will also agree to have their feet washed, and who – at least among the women – can manage to have enough time to schedule a pedicure before the foot washing! Ever since 2020, I indicated that we would do the rite from time to time and omit it on other years. Tonight we will include that rite again, but after a pause of some years, my hope is that this evening we can commemorate the rite and be impacted by it in a way that draws out some of the imagery and power of that first foot washing at the Last Supper. Primarily, what I hope we experience this evening is some appreciation of what the Lord was doing at the Last Supper and how he was preparing his apostles to carry on his mission.

The Gospel tells us that “Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world” (Jn. 13:1). This creates a clear context for everything the Lord was doing at the Last Supper. His personal fulfillment of his mission was at hand. Though he never abandoned his Church after “his hour”; he would not remain with her in the same way. And so, at the Last Supper the Lord was preparing his apostles to continue his mission in the Church as his instruments. In fact, we can look to later in John’s Gospel when, after the Resurrection, the Lord appeared in the locked upper room and said to the apostles “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn. 20:21). The Resurrected Jesus spoke those words just three days after the Supper and in the same Upper Room. He made explicit what had already surfaced at the Last Supper, namely that since his hour to pass from this world had come, his mission from the Father would need to be continued by the ones he in turn was sending out. The Last Supper was clearly not simply a normal Passover meal. The Lord was doing something new with it. He was revealing that the Passover refers to himself, for he is the one true and perfect Lamb who takes aways the sins of the world. He was giving the gift of his Body and Blood as food that would sustain his soon-to-be-born Church until he would come again. Since it would make no sense to promise a gift that cannot be made available, and since he himself was passing from this world, the Lord was transforming his apostles at the Last Supper, making them his first priests, such that by receiving his authority they would be able to make his Body and Blood present when they were in turn sent out. For this reason, the Church believes that Holy Thursday is the night that the Lord established the two sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders.

At the Last Supper something very unique and intimate took place for the apostles. The supper was not a large or open gathering meant for the public. It was an intense time shared between Jesus and his closest followers. The apostles were transformed over the course of that Last Supper to be priests. They weren’t ordained in the same way that we have a developed ritual of ordination now in the Church. But the Lord gave them a share of his sacred authority with the command to them, “do this in memory of me” (Lk. 22:19). The Catholic Church has continued to pass down that same authority in the line of valid apostolic succession through her ordination rites. When you consider how the Lord was transforming his apostles at the Last Supper, how they were being made his first priests, it is interesting to note that foot washing is evocative of the ordination of Levitical priests and evocative of preparation to offer sacrifice, which we see in the Old Testament. This adds still more force to the Church’s belief that the Lord established Holy Orders at the Last Supper and by means of the foot washing. In Leviticus chapter 8, Moses washed Aaron and his sons as part of the ordination rite for their temple service. Levitical priests would wash both their hands and their feet just before offering sacrifice in the temple. Leviticus 16 describes the ritual of the day of atonement. Once in the holy place, the high priest takes off his garments, washes his body in water, puts on his garments, and then goes to offer sacrifice. There is a similar pattern in the Gospel of this Holy Mass, creating strong allusions to the pattern of the high priest: At the Supper Jesus took off his garments; he washed the feet of the apostles; he then put his garments back on; and he would soon go out to offer the one perfect sacrifice of himself on the Cross. In Leviticus the high priest washes himself before offering sacrifice; in the Gospel Jesus washes the feet of the apostles because they must have their inheritance with him, they must have a part in him, if they are to be able to be sent out to carry on his mission. In this we can appreciate the force of the foot washing, making the apostles priests. As the Lord said, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me” (Jn. 13:8).

At the Last Supper and by means of the foot washing, with its allusion to old covenant ordination and preparation to offer sacrifice, Jesus transformed the apostles to be his first priests as he knew that his hour had come and that he would be sending them out to continue his mission. Jesus washed the feet of those seated around him at the table of the Last Supper. He washed the feet of those closely associated with his action of offering sacrifice. He washed the feet of those who could be sent to be his priests. He washed their feet to show that the authority he was sharing with them was to be exercised in humility.

This evening, hoping to capture the imagery from the Last Supper and the primary meaning of the foot washing, by which the apostles were made priests, I have asked twelve of the more senior altar boys to have their feet washed. Like the imagery of the Last Supper, they are seated nearest around the table of the sacred altar. They are closely associated with the action of offering the sacrifice of the Holy Mass. They have the capacity to be sent as future priests, and perhaps there are future priests among them. At the same time, I want to be clear about what our ritual here this evening does NOT mean. I am not saying that these young men definitely are called to be priests. The ones chosen were not chosen as some type of prediction on my part of who might be a priest. They will not be priests after tonight. [If I had that kind of power, that would be one incredible retirement plan!] Pray for them, yes, but don’t hound them or act like they are already going to seminary. [Believe me, I’ll keep that idea in front of their eyes for us all!] Instead, see in them a representation of the larger group of youth in our parish who are being transformed into their vocation and whom the Lord is preparing bit by bit to be sent out into some calling. What I hope to communicate in the ritual this evening is that these young men serve as an image of what the Lord was doing in providing priests for his Church. They can evoke for us that primary meaning of the foot washing, so often obscured or lost when the foot washing is politicized or made to be only about generalized service open to all disciples. More than the humility and fraternal charity that the foot washing teaches as a broad requirement of all disciples, the Lord was specifically transforming the apostles and getting them ready to be sent. Many of these young men are open to the priesthood and some are thinking and praying about it quite seriously. They are an image of how the Lord’s call is working among many, many more than simply the twelve young people you will see. As the foot washing is taking place, I ask you to pray for this petition: Pray that the grace of the priesthood will be poured out generously on our parish community so that the men who are being called by God may receive that grace, may notice the stirrings of a call, and may be willing to give it attention. Pray that the men who are called may respond generously to the way in which Jesus wants to give them a share in his inheritance. Whether it is these young men or others, may the Lord stir up his calling in the hearts of more from our parish.