Today, Christians are celebrating Maundy Thursday. There are four important days during the Holy Week. First is the Palm Sunday which marks Jesus’ triumphant entry in Jerusalem. During this day, Christians commemorate Jesus by blessing of palm leaves which symbolize victory over spiritual danger and death.

Next is the Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday is a complex and profound religious ceremony, especially with the Catholics. It was during this day that Jesus instituted Himself as the Eucharist. Jesus also celebrated the Last Supper with His apostles. Some of these apostles denied, betrayed and deserted Him before the sun rose.

The Catholic Churches celebrate a morning mass blessing the Oil of Chrism which would be used for several of the Church’s sacraments. This is a highly celebrated mass because many priests will attend it in remembrance of Christ’s institution of priesthood during the Last Supper.

At night, there would be a mass which marks the end of Lent and the beginning of Triduum or last three days of Holy Week. Mass is held at night because Passover or Jesus’ Last supper begun at sundown. During this mass, the commemoration of Jesus instituting Himself as the Holy Eucharist is done. It symbolizes His would-be sacrifices and eventually death. At the same time, this mass will also be a symbol of humility and service through the washing of the feet of twelve priests by the bishop which was what Jesus has done. This symbolizes that the priests are there to serve the people. There is also the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, people having a vigil in the church, just as what Jesus’ apostles had done when He was praying at the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, before the arrival of the sentries.

Maundy Thursday is about cleaning, which was probably the origin of spring cleaning, in preparation for Easter. It also symbolizes not just the cleaning of the physical environment but moreso, the cleansing of the soul, the heart and mind so that when the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection comes, we are more than ready to accept Him in our lives.

This is a repost of a post I wrote last April 13, 2006.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 9:56 am and is filed under Prayers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.