In Standing in the Shoes My Mother Made, theologian and author, Diana Hayes affirms that “everything we are, all that we stand for as a church arises from our understanding of and celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy. It is the symbol par excellence of the Roman Catholic Church (Hayes, 36).”

And yet, the very excellence of Eucharistic liturgy challenges the understanding of some 21^st century believers – those who struggle to grasp its mystery as well as those who attend Mass regularly but become complacent, taking for granted the sacrament and its meaning for everyday life.

Tonight, we have entered the Triduum – the three high, holy days of the Christian calendar – during which the Church around the world surrenders to the mystery of the Eucharist through the liturgical celebration that began this evening, Holy Thursday, continues through Good Friday, Holy Saturday and culminates on the holiest of days, Easter Sunday.

Today’s Exodus reading is a prequel, a backstory to the account of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection that we commemorate during the Triduum. The Old Testament account recalls how God rescued the Jews, God’s chosen people, enslaved by Egypt’s Pharaoh. In spite of God’s insistence and punishing plagues upon the Egyptian people, Pharaoh refused to let God’s people go. In a last rebuke, God instructed the Hebrew community to prepare for liberation by slaughtering an unblemished lamb whose flesh they were to share in a ritual meal and whose blood was to be used to mark the doorposts of every Hebrew house. That night, as God struck down the first born of every Egyptian household, the homes marked with the blood of the lamb were passed over. Thus, the Hebrews escaped the Egyptian slaughter and Pharaoh’s retribution as they fled miraculously across the Red Sea to freedom. In thanksgiving for God’s intervention, Jews throughout the generations have celebrated the ritual Passover each year as a memorial feast.

The New Testament readings have Jesus celebrating the same tradition – the Passover feast - with his apostles on the night before he died. Paul writes that during that evening, Jesus instituted a memorial feast in which he was the unblemished lamb to be slaughtered in a new covenant between God and all God’s people. He shared with the apostles and the generations of disciples to follow, his body as food, his blood as drink. We who partake of this holy communion – the real presence of the Lord, become united with him in the mystery of his passion, death and glorious resurrection.  Washing the feet of the apostles at that Last Supper, Jesus takes on a servant’s role to teach his disciples how they are to serve one another and lead others to him.  

During the sacred passage through the Triduum, we will encounter God through powerful word, symbol and ritual in the retelling of humanity’s redemption. During the three-day celebration, may we come to know that full, conscious and active participation with Christ in the Eucharistic liturgy is a share in his resurrection for our salvation and the deliverance of the world.

Amen, amen.