Today the church begins the holiest time on the Church calendar: the Easter Triduum. It's starts with the Mass of the Lord's Supper and concludes with the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday.
On Holy Thursday, the church commemorates the night the Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist and gave us the gift of His Body and Blood, which we are able to receive at every Holy Mass. We read in St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians that on the night our Lord was handed over, He took bread and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:23)
Central to our Catholic faith is the fact that when the priest says these words over the bread and wine, they indeed become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. Christ, knowing that he was about to be handed over to be crucified on the cross, and eventually rise on the third day, wanted to leave us an everlasting gift: the gift of His Body and Blood. This spiritual food, eaten worthily, gives us strength to grow ever more closer to God.
Let us make every attempt to receive our Lord worthily by the frequent use of confession. Our souls, upon receiving the Lord, becomes vessels of His Body and Blood and should be as clean as possible.
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