Have a blessed Triduum! ✝️🍞🍷
Friends and followers,
Today is Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday or Thursday of the Lord’s Supper.
It marks the beginning of the Paschal Triduum and commemorates Jesus’s washing of the feet of His disciples and the Last Supper of Jesus with His Apostles, wherein He established the Eucharist.
My wife and I have two images of the Last Supper overlooking our own kitchen table, portraying what is “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 1324) and “the sum and summary of our faith” (Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 1327). The first was painted by a priest in Colombia…
The second is an icon made by the religious sisters of the Seeds of the Word, a contemplative and missionary community with the charism of announcing the Good News of Salvation to the world…
As explained by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
“The Lord Jesus, on the night before he suffered on the cross, shared one last meal with his disciples. During this meal our Savior instituted the sacrament of his Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages and to entrust to the Church a memorial of his death and resurrection. The Institution of the Eucharist is written down in the four Gospels: Matthew 26:26-30; Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:14-20; [and] John 6:22-59 (i.e., The Bread of Life Discourse)”.
Last summer during the 2024 Paris Olympics’ opening ceremonies, a flamboyant troupe of transvestites performed a bizarre and pedophilic rendition of the Last Supper. I wrote about this madness here and here. Our religion, and this all-important historical event at the center of it, was mocked openly before the entire world.
Today, as we prepare to head to Maundy Thursday Mass, I am reflecting on these words of the Venerable Fulton Sheen in light of the world’s view of our faith and, specifically, what started at the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper:
“If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates…. Look for the Church that is hated by the world, as Christ was hated by the world. Look for the Church which is accused of being behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the Church which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth. Look for the Church which is accused of having a devil, as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils. Look for the Church which, in seasons of bigotry, men say must be destroyed in the name of God as men crucified Christ and thought they had done a service to God. Look for the Church which the world rejects because it claims it is infallible, as Pilate rejected Christ because He called Himself the Truth. Look for the Church which is rejected by the world as Our Lord was rejected by men….”
My brothers and sisters in Christ: have a blessed Triduum. ✝️
Consider inviting a friend to attend Maundy Thursday Mass with you today.
God bless,
Travis