Mario Alberto Molina, O.A.R., Archbishop Emeritus of the Archdiocese of Los Altos, Quetzaltenango – Totonicapán, introduces us to the Easter Triduum with a profound reflection on the meaning of Holy Thursday. From the Eucharist to the washing of the feet, he guides us to understand the mystery of Christ who gives himself out of love.
Easter Triduum begins: victory over sin and death
With this evening celebration we begin the Easter Triduum, the most important celebration of the Catholic liturgy. Throughout these three days, from today until Sunday evening, the liturgy takes as its guide the account of the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord that we find in the Gospels. Each day, in the liturgy, we will commemorate the salvific events through which Jesus Christ, our Lord, conquered sin and death to give us holiness and life.
Last Sunday we read the account of the passion of Jesus Christ according to St. Luke. The account begins with the narration of the Lord’s last supper with his disciples, during which he instituted the Eucharist and washed the feet of his disciples. Therefore, on this evening, the liturgy of the Church commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and repeats the gesture of the washing of the feet. Both gestures of Jesus refer in anticipation to his death on the cross. The readings we will read at each celebration will offer us the theological content of the event we are celebrating.
Easter: the definitive liberation
Jesus Christ died during the Jewish Pesach celebration. Pesach is the Hebrew word from which our word “Passover” is derived. The Jews celebrated and still celebrate Pesach today by 
through a family dinner commemorating the liberation from slavery in Egypt. Jesus died on the days when Passover was celebrated. From a human point of view, that is pure coincidence; but from the gaze of faith, one discovers God’s design.
If the Jews celebrated liberation from Egypt, Jesus Christ, with his death, brought us the true and definitive liberation from sin, from the inconsistencies of freedom and from the fear of death that undermines the meaning of human life.
The lamb, the blood and the new time
In the first reading of this Mass we heard the instructions for the celebration of Pesach. We are told that the first month of the year began with the new spring moon. On the 10th of the month, the Jews were to choose a little lamb and sacrifice it on the 14th, the day of the full moon. That was the day Jesus Christ died. Even today we still celebrate Easter on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring. Since the lunar cycle does not coincide with the solar cycle, Easter changes its date every year.
If the Jews consumed a little lamb at the Passover meal, Jesus Christ is the true Lamb of God, who gave his life for us and gave himself to us to eat in the Eucharist. With his death began not a new year, but a new era: the time of God’s salvation, grace and mercy. Moses ordained that day to be a perpetual memorial; the Christian Passover is in fullness.
The Eucharist: body given, blood poured out
Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples the day before he suffered. “How I have longed to celebrate this Passover with you,” Jesus said. At that supper, Jesus does not mention the lamb: he substitutes it for himself. Today’s second reading, taken from St. Paul, is the oldest testimony we have to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
“How I have longed to celebrate this Easter with you.”
During supper, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, distributed it to his disciples, and said, “This is my body which is given for you.” And he added, “Do this in remembrance of me”. Then he took the cup: “This cup is the new covenant, which is sealed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.
In the Eucharist, Jesus sacramentally anticipates his death. Each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we actualize that sacrifice: we eat his body given up and drink his blood poured out. In this way, we participate in his life.
The institution of the priesthood: Christ at work in the Church
In the celebration of the Eucharist, the bread becomes the Body of Christ and the wine his Blood. Only God can accomplish this mystery. In instructing his apostles, he entrusted to them that he himself would act through them, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
For this reason, on this day we also commemorate the institution of the priestly ministry. Bishops and priests are the servants through whom Jesus Christ perpetuates his self-giving. At every Mass, Christ acts through the priest to prolong his redemptive love.
The washing of the feet: a sign of self-giving love
The Gospel according to John does not recount the institution of the Eucharist, but it does recount a profoundly significant gesture: Jesus, during supper, began to wash the feet of his disciples. “Having loved his own… he loved them to the end”.
This gesture is a sign of his death. By washing his feet, Jesus anticipates his surrender on the cross. Peter, by resisting, symbolically refuses this surrender: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me,” Jesus warns him. To accept that Christ washes our feet is to accept that he dies for us.
“Having loved his own…he loved them to the end.”
Jesus commands us to do the same: “Wash one another’s feet”. It is not only a matter of humility, but of charity united to sacrifice. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (Jn 15:13). 
The love of Christ, our way
The liturgical gesture of washing feet on this day is a graphic representation of Christ’s love, of his self-giving, of his sacrifice. The priest does not die for us: Jesus did that. But in evoking the gesture, we remember that Christian love is made concrete in service and is perfected on the cross.
Let us give thanks to God who has been so good to us.