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Holy Thursday (Evening Mass of the Last Supper)

From: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14

The Institution of the Passover

[1] The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, [2] "This month
shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the
year for you. [3] Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day
of this month they shall take every man a lamb according to their fathers'
houses, a lamb for a household; [4] and if the household is too small for a
lamb, then a man and his neighbor next to his house shall take according to
the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your
count for the lamb. [5] Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year
old; you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats; [6] and you shall
keep it until, the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of
the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening. [7] Then
they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the
lintel of the houses in which they eat them. [8] They shall eat the flesh
that night, roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat
it. [11] In this manner you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on
your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is
the Lord's passover. [12] For I will pass through the land of Egypt that
night, and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and
beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.
[13] The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses where you are; and
when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon
you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

[14] "This day shalt be for you a memorial day, and you shalt keep it as a
feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as an
ordinance for ever."

Commentary:

12:1-14 This discourse of the Lord contains a number of rules for
celebrating the Passover and the events commemorated in it; it is a kind of
catechetical-liturgicat text which admirably summarizes the profound meaning
of that feast.

The Passover probably originated as a shepherds' feast held in springtime,
when lambs are born and the migration to summer pastures was beginning; a
new-born lamb was sacrificed and its blood used to perform a special rite in
petition for the protection and fertility of the flocks. But once this feast
became connected with the history of the Exodus it acquired a much deeper
meaning, as did the rites attaching to it.

Thus, the "congregation" (v. 3) comprises all the Israelites organized as a
religious community to commemorate the most important event in their
history, deliverance from bondage.

The victim will be a lamb, without blemish (v. 5) because it is to be
offered to God. Smearing the doorposts and lintel with the blood of the
victim (vv 7, 13), an essential part of the rite, signifies protection from
dangers. The Passover is essentially sacrificial from the very start. The
meal (v. 11) is also a necessary part, and the manner in which it is held is
a very appropriate way of showing the urgency imposed by circumstances:
there is no time to season it (v. 9); no other food is eaten with it, except
for the bread and desert herbs (a sign of indigence); the dress and posture
of those taking part (standing, wearing sandals and holding a staff) show
that they are on a journey. In the later liturgical commemoration of the
Passover, these things indicate that the Lord is passing among his people.

The rules laid down for the Passover are evocative of very ancient nomadic
desert rites, where there was no priest or temple or altar. When the
Israelites had settled in Palestine, the Passover continued to be celebrated
at home, always retaining the features of a sacrifice, a family meal and,
very especially, a memorial of the deliverance the Lord brought about on
that night.

Our Lord chose the context of the Passover Supper to institute the
Eucharist: "By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course
of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning.
Jesus' passing over to his Father by his death and Resurrection, the new
Passover, is anticipated in the Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist,
which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the
Church in the glory of the kingdom" ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 1340).

12:2. This event is so important that it is going to mark the starting point
in the reckoning of time. In the history of Israel there are two types of
calendar, both based on the moon--one which begins the year in the autumn,
after the feast of Weeks (cf. 23:16; 34:22), and the other beginning it in
spring, between March and April. This second calendar probably held sway for
quite a long time, for we know that the first month, known, as Abib
(spring)--cf. 13:4: 23:18; 34:18--was called, in the post-exilic period
(from the 6th century BC onwards) by the Babylonian name of Nisan (Neh 2:1;
Esther 3:7). Be that as it may, the fact that this month is called the first
month is a way of highlighting the importance of the event which is going to
be commemorated (the Passover).

12:11. Even now it is difficult to work out the etymology of the word
"Passover".

In other Semitic languages it means "joy" or "festive joy" or also "ritual
and festive leap". In the Bible the same root means "dancing or limping" in
an idolatrous rite (cf. 1 Kings 18:21, 26) and
"protecting" (cf. Is 31:5), so it could mean "punishment, lash" and also
"salvation, protection". In the present text the writer is providing a
popular, non-scholarly etymology, and it is taken as meaning that "the Lord
passes through", slaying Egyptians and sparing the Israelites.

In the New Testament it will be applied to Christ's passage to the Father by
death and resurrection, and the Church's "passage" to the eternal Kingdom:
"The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final
Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection"
("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 677).

12:14. The formal tone of these words gives an idea of the importance the
Passover always had. If the historical books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel and
Kings) hardly mention it, the reason is that they allude only to sacrifices
in the temple, and the Passover was always celebrated in people's homes.
When the temple ceased to be (6th century BC), the feast acquired more
prominence, as can be seen from the post-exilic biblical texts (cf. Ezra
6:19-22; 2 Chron 30:1-27; 35:1-19) and extrabiblical texts such as the
famous "Passover papyrus of Elephantine" (Egypt) of the 5th century BC. In
Jesus' time a solemn passover sacrifice was celebrated in the temple and the
passover meal was held at home.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.