Holy Thurdsay

Readings of the Day

Of all of this week’s liturgies, it always seemed to me that today’s - The Mass of the Lord’s Supper – was for those with Jesus the “calm before the storm” before the seeming catastrophe of the following day.

Presumptions can be deceiving, however. Far more than just a prelude, that very first Holy Thursday was a critical day in salvation history. It was then that Jesus passed on his most important lessons – from modeling servant leadership by washing his disciples’ feet to instituting the Eucharist - setting the stage for how his disciples were to live out his mission in the years, decades, and centuries to come. 

Those lessons strengthened the disciples through the dreadful day that followed, sustained them in the following years, and remain relevant today.

Much like the disciples during the first Holy Week, for many of us the past few years– lived in the shadow of a world-wide pandemic, a struggling economy, in a deeply divided nation, while witnessing a bloody conflict at the crossroads of Europe and Russia with the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War – have been like an ongoing Good Friday where shadows seem to overcome the light. But also like those first disciples, we too can turn to the lessons Jesus taught that first Holy Thursday, particularly regarding service as the work of peace. Through the act of washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus demonstrated the standard for his followers in caring for one another. 

In a world full of conflict and war, we know that Christians are called to be peacemakers. It was through Jesus’s example that first Holy Thursday that we learned HOW we are called to be peacemakers: that the path to salvation and peace is through service to others. It is for this reason that Catholic Charities agencies do the work that they do - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the ill and the imprisoned, and welcoming the stranger - in order to build peace. And while not all of us can go and assist refugees in Ukraine, we all can support those that do. Even more so, we can incorporate the powerful lessons of Holy Thursday into our own lives and work to build a world of peace, dignity and justice for all.       

Tom Dobbins Jr. is the Justice and Peace Coordinator of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, a Producer for the “JustLove” radio broadcast on Sirius/XM’s Catholic Channel, and Chair Emeritus of the Roundtable Association of Catholic Diocesan Social Action Directors.    

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