Homily for the Mass of the Lord's Supper

Thursday 2 April 2026
Holy Thursday – Year A

Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

First reading: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm: 115 (116b), 12-13, 15-16ac, 17-18
2nd reading: 1 Corinthians 11,23-26
Gospel: John 13,1-15

It was during the Jewish Passover meal that Jesus instituted the sacrament of
His love: the sacrament of the Eucharist. The ritual of Jewish Passover commemorates
of the Exodus from Egypt, the liberation from slavery, and the crossing of the sea
Red. A salvation of the people which was achieved, as Scripture says, by strong hand and by
arms outstretched to signify that it was truly the action of the Lord God who pulled
his people from slavery in Egypt. This Jewish Passover meal, this memorial, is
intended to be celebrated every year to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.
But this act of “remembering,” this memorial, is not solely the work of
to recall a memory through the Jewish Passover meal: the people of the sons
Israel is aware that God continues to lead them out of Egypt. And I heard
One day, a rabbi was teaching a Jewish audience, and he said very clearly:
When we celebrate Passover, we leave Egypt again.
In this memorial, Jesus establishes another memorial which assumes all the
the dimension of this liberation from Egypt. But now, it is no longer a lamb
The one who is going to be sacrificed is Christ Jesus himself, the Word made flesh who gives himself
freely, out of love for each of us. And it's no longer just a matter of...
earthly slavery from which we are freed is the slavery of the devil.
keeps us in bondage through fear of death, says the Letter to the Hebrews (2:14-
15). We are delivered from the slavery of the devil and from the slavery of sin.
Baptism brings us into this liberation of Christ by uniting us to
Jesus, and the Eucharist, never cease to nourish in us this life of children of God.
freed by Christ. But this liberation by Christ cannot last in
our life only if we remain in communion with Jesus, if we remain
in the intimacy of Jesus… and therefore if the Lord continues to dwell in us.
The sacrament of the Eucharist is there to constantly draw us into this
Christ's offering, into which he draws us, since he unites us to his Body given up
and to His shed Blood. When we come to receive communion at Mass and the Church
asks us to answer Amen before the one who presents us with the Body of
Christ, this Amen means: yes, I acknowledge that this bread has truly become,
substantially the Body of the resurrected Jesus.
But it also means: Amen, I acknowledge that I am a son of the Church and that
I want to live in communion with this Church that celebrates the Eucharist.
But it also means: Amen, I agree to become ONE with Jesus who
I give myself up. I agree to give myself up, out of love and in love.
in union with Jesus, for the salvation of all men.
None of the sacraments of the Church are for us alone. The sacraments of
The Church is all there to make us capable of working with Jesus for the salvation of all.
For the Eucharist to be celebrated, Jesus wanted there to be men who
They are with him and are sent out: these are the apostles. And the apostles have
instituted, so that this college of
apostles, those who succeeded them and whom we call today the
bishops. And since the bishops cannot be everywhere to do everything
that there was something to be done, they very early on, from the 2nd century — and even a little before,
as we see in the Acts of the Apostles — instituted men to be
configured to Christ the servant — these are the deacons — and men to be
configured to Christ the Good Shepherd — these are the priests — who are like the
two hands of the bishop.
Why do we need priests to celebrate the Eucharist? Why
Wouldn't it be enough for us, as baptized Christians, to take hold of what has
Did Jesus want to do it? It is precisely because it is Jesus who takes the initiative and the
The priest is there to remind us that it is not we who take the initiative.
to make Jesus present, but that it is he who takes the initiative. The priest reminds
this exteriority of Jesus to us, this freedom of Jesus. And in all the
In sacraments, the role of the minister who celebrates the sacrament is primarily to
to manifest the initiative of Jesus who comes to join us in our lives, for us
to give what we need to grow in faith, in hope and
in charity.
We need priests to celebrate the sacraments in this diocese
From Bayeux to Lisieux, it is a great sorrow for our bishop to observe
that between the last priestly ordination and the next, there will be at least 12
years… 12 years without a priest being ordained. And this is not the only diocese in
France, in Europe, which is like this. The Lord calls us to pray to send
workers at his harvest, but it's not at all obvious. And this is a murky affair.
Thérèse. Even when she was 16, she wrote to her sister Céline:
We are so insignificant… and yet Jesus wants salvation for
Souls depend on our sacrifices, on our love; he begs us for
souls… (LT 96 – October 15, 89).
Thérèse experienced this in July 1887, two years earlier, in the cathedral
Saint Peter's where, while contemplating an image of Jesus on the cross, she received this
a call to work with Jesus for the salvation of sinners and to give one's life
herself through Jesus, with Him and in Him for the salvation of poor sinners.
But a few years later, in 1892, she continued to reflect — what she
never stopped doing it all her life. And she writes again to Céline:
Recently, a thought came to me that I need to share with my
Céline. It was one day that I was thinking about what I could do for
To save souls, a saying from the gospel showed me a vivid
light. Jesus once said to his disciples, showing them the
fields of ripe wheat: "Look up and see how the countryside
are already white enough to be harvested" — It's towards the end of
the Gospel of the Samaritan woman — and a little later: “In truth the
The harvest is plentiful but the number of workers is small;
Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send forth
workers.” We find this, for example, in Saint Matthew, at the end of the
Chapter 9. Thérèse continues:
What a mystery!… Isn't Jesus all-powerful? Creatures don't
Do they not belong to the one who made them? Why then does Jesus say:
“Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers”?
Why?... His question is: but Jesus, if he wants there to be
workers sent to the harvest; if God wants to send workers, he has no
than to send them. That's also what many baptized people think… If
God wants priests, he only has to call them, but Thérèse says: why us
He said to ask? His answer:
Ah! It's because Jesus has such an incomprehensible love for us that He
He wants us to share with him in the salvation of souls. He wants nothing.
to do without us. The creator of the universe awaits the prayer of a
poor little soul, trying to save other redeemed souls like herself
at the cost of all his blood. (LT 135 – August 15, 1892).
Well, brothers and sisters, listening to Thérèse's interpretation of this
The Lord's request, it seems to me that we really need to take it seriously
Prayer to ask for priests. And daily asking the Lord,
in the dioceses where we live, may the Lord send workers to his
harvest, and among his workers priests; and that he raise up priests in our
dioceses, in our families — and not in the neighbor's family — in our
families, in our parish communities.
And we ask this in faith, not to inform God of our needs,
But because he awaits our prayer… because he doesn't want to do anything without us…

Amen.