Holy Thursday

Discussion Questions for the Readings for Holy Thursday (readings can be found at www.usccb.org/readings)
 

• Today’s readings bring us ever more deeply into the mystery of the Passion. The first reading is the great pinnacle of the Exodus story. Something big is about to happen. God is preparing his family. We get the same sense in John’s Gospel. There is a palpable intimacy, a sense of closeness, tension, expectation, foreboding, wonder. It is not for naught that we are experiencing all that we are in these strange days at this particular moment in the Church’s liturgical calendar. What is God saying to you during this time? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand. 

• The psalms in this Holy Week, written nearly a thousand years before Christ’s coming, speak in an uncanny way to all that He will one day suffer. In today’s psalm, there is a brief reprieve that points us to the Eucharist, “Our blessing cup is a communion with the Lord”. The psalm points us to what will be the future mystery of the Eucharist as a thanksgiving sacrifice (“How shall I make a return to the Lord for all he has done for me?”) and as a saving memorial (our “cup of salvation”), and finally, consolation in death: “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.” In these days when we are unable to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion, what are some ways we can deepen our communion with the Lord when we cannot receive him sacramentally?
   
• At various points in the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that “the greatest among you must be the servant of all.” At the Last Supper, Jesus punctuates this point in a most striking fashion by doing the work of the lowliest house servant: washing the smelly, dirty feet of his apostles. Many of the Church’s greatest Saints will later imitate this repulsive work in various ways. It is repulsive, but it is also intimate. When we engage in this work, we truly become Christ for others. The spiritual and corporal works of mercy provide a framework of the work we are compelled to do as disciples of Christ. In what ways can I be Christ for others with those in my circle and local community?   

• Precisely on this day at this Last Supper, the Church takes as its traditional institution not only of the Holy Eucharist, but of the Priesthood. While we are painfully often reminded that priests are frail human beings, they are also Christ’s presence in the world and are ordained to be so. In their sacramental role in the confessional and at the altar, they act, in the language of the Church, “in persona Christi” (in the person of Christ). How can I better support my pastor in his role as shepherd? How can I use the gifts and talents God has blessed me with to bring others into the Faith for the sake of their salvation?  Pray today for your pastor and the priests of your parish.
   
• For Children:
   
  Tell or read to your child(ren) the story of the Last Supper from either a child’s book you have at home or from an online resource, or simply paraphrase the story in today’s Gospel. Ask them what questions they have. After answering these, discuss how Jesus is greater than the greatest King and that kings it is not usual for kings to do lowly tasks like cleaning the feet of their servants. Ask them why Jesus wanted to do that.
  
  From a children’s bible if available or paraphrasing today first reading from Exodus, tell your children the story of the Passover. This will likely require a telling of the Hebrews slavery in Egypt and Moses’ instrumentality in leading them out of Egypt. Ask them what questions they have and answer these. Explain that God gave Pharaoh many chances to free the Israelites and that it is only when Pharaoh was going to kill the firstborn of all the Israelites the next day, that he turned it around on the Egyptians beginning with Pharaoh’s firstborn.
   
• Have your child(ren) make a Passover plate from the ingredients found in your refrigerator (e.g. use cut celery for bitter herbs, etc.). Improvise and substitute as needed, or draw a Passover plate using watercolor paints or crayons. (Advanced: Look online how to conduct a Jewish seder meal. Prepare and conduct one at home).
   
  Let’s pray:
   
  Dear Lord Jesus, we deeply desire you in our hearts. Help us to be the good and faithful servants you desire us to be. Help us to discover our gifts and talents and to use them in your service remembering that they all come from you and the reason we have them is to use them to build up others and in so doing to build up your Kingdom, and so we pray in the words you taught us…
   
  Our Father…
   
  And let us ask Mary to protect us:
   
  Hail Mary…
   
  All content original to the Diocese of Kalamazoo