Mass of the Lord's Supper

On April 9, the fouth day of Holy Week, the Catholic student group convened with the congregation of St. Theresa's Parish for a Community Mass commemorating the Lord's Supper.  This ceremony observes the last supper Jesus had with his diciples before he was arrested by the Romans and endured the Passion.  This supper was in fact the Passover seder that Jesus and his diciples observed as Jews.  The Catholic ceremony of mass derives from this very evening, when Jesus took the bread and broke it, gave it to his diciples, and said "Take, eat; this is my body."  He then took the wine and said, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."  In this gesture, Jesus transsubstantiated the material into his flesh and blood to reassure his diciples of his continuing presence after his foretold death.  The Catholic ceremony of Mass remembers and renews this covenant.

The Community Mass of the Lord's Supper is observed by the taking of Jesus' flesh and blood and also by the foot washing ceremony.  This commemorates Jesus getting up from the table in the middle of the Last Supper, donning his underclothes, and kneeling to wash his diciple's feet.  He was met with resistence in this gesture, however, as this was considered extremely inappropriate.  The washing of feet is only to be done by the inferior to his or her superior, and because of this the diciples were taken aback by this proposition.  Jesus did this, however, to teach them that the leader must be a servant to his or her followers, and to show them that they must carry on what he did for them.  This is observed during the Community Mass of the Lord's Supper with the priest of St. Theresa's kneeling to wash the feet of members of the congregation.  It reminds observers of the importance of humility, service, and community.