Today, Holy Thursday, we begin the Easter Triduum with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper.  The readings link the Jewish Passover, the Christian Eucharistic Meal, and the new Passover about to be fulfilled tomorrow (the Friday we call Good) on Calvary.

I want to suggest for our prayer a simple way of entering into the almost staggering immensity of the symbolism and meaning of today's celebration.  It is to use the response part of the Responsorial Psalm  (Psalm 116): "Our blessing cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ."  Let us consider together the unbelievable spiritual and ecclesial richness of this response.

"Our blessing cup."  What does that call us to think about?  Well, drinking is one of the essential acts of life, and so a cup is a universal symbol embodying what goes on in our lives.  Quenching of our thirst, hospitality, celebration, fellowship, friendship, sharing, and suffering.  It can also be a symbol of victory (e.g. as in Stanley Cup), of success, of triumph, and of heroism.  Recall the time when Jesus asks James and John, "Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?"  He uses "cup" as a symbol of life filled with sorrow and joy that we can accept, lift up, and drink as a blessing and a way to salvation. "Can you drink this cup?" Jesus asks all of us this weekend.  What a wonderful question to ask ourselves these three days! Drinking the cup that Jesus drank is living a life in and with the spirit of Jesus, which is the spirit of unconditional and non-violent love.  As such, it is an act of immense trust and an act of surrender to God, who will give us what we need to do it.

"A communion."  Holy communion.  Communion with God and with one another.  The whole purpose and the summit of the revelation of God in the Bible and in Jesus Christ.  The washing of the feet in today's Gospel should remind us that there is no such thing as communion with God apart from one another.  We are challenged today to recall and accept that Jesus is present in the Eucharist with immediate, insistent demands for family love, forgiveness and fellowship with all men and woman everywhere!  We must so love that we are willing and glad to invite EVERYONE to our table, which is also the Table of the Lord.

"With the Blood of Christ."  This is the Passover of the Lord.  Just as in the Old Covenant the angel of death "passed over" the households marked with the blood of the paschal lamb, so now we who drink the blood of the Lamb of God share his deathless life.  As children of the resurrection of Jesus, proclaiming the death of the Lord until He comes again, we go forth confidently and courageously toward a new wonderful life, a life with and in Christ, a life full of love, and, therefore, a life that as already eternal. When such a love becomes totally real and immediately evident, the Eucharsit takes place in heaven!

"How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good He has done for me?  The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call on the name of the Lord. I will call on the name of the Lord, and I will be saved from all my enemies."