A threefold gift

 

Holy Thursday

The Easter Triduum opens with Holy Thursday. According to Catholic tradition — shared by Orthodox Christians and many high‑church Anglicans — this first day of the Triduum reveals a threefold gift at the heart of Christian life:

1. Jesus gives us the Eucharist,
2. Jesus establishes the ministerial priesthood, and
3. Jesus entrusts us with the New Commandment of love.

Some modern scripture scholars question whether a sacramental priesthood existed in the earliest Christian communities. Yet the continuous tradition of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, rooted in the liturgy and the Fathers, has always understood Holy Thursday as the moment when Christ united the Eucharist, the priesthood, and the command to love in one single act of self‑gift.

Many years ago, I wrote about the third of these gifts in a blog entitled “Are we ready for the challenge?”. Jesus expresses it with striking simplicity:

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ (John 13:34–35)

This commandment is not an optional extra. It flows directly from the Eucharist and from the ministry that serves the Eucharist. At the Last Supper, Jesus reveals that the heart of Christian worship is self‑giving love — a love that becomes sacramentally present in the breaking of the bread and is meant to be lived out in the daily life of the Church.

John’s Gospel makes this connection with extraordinary depth. Unlike Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John does not recount the words of institution. Instead, he gives us the washing of the disciples’ feet — an enacted parable of the Eucharist. In this gesture, Jesus shows what the Eucharist means: not privilege, not status, but humble service. It is a direct challenge to any notion of priesthood as a caste of rulers. The one who says, “This is my body, given for you,” is the same one who kneels with a towel and basin.

John has already prepared us for this in chapter 6, where Jesus speaks of giving his flesh and blood for the life of the world – a teaching so shocking that some disciples walked away. The foot‑washing completes that teaching by showing that Eucharistic love is not only something we receive; it is something we are called to embody.

As we approach the night of Christ’s agony, let us sit quietly with this mystery of love –  a love poured out in the Eucharist, entrusted to the priesthood, and commanded to every disciple.

Watch and pray. And let’s pray for our priests and be thankful for the gift of the Eucharist.