20260402 DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME
02 April 2026, Maundy Thursday
First reading |
Exodus 12:1-8,11-14 |
The Passover is a day of festival for all generations, for ever
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:
‘This month is to be the first of all the others for you, the first month of your year. Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, “On the tenth day of this month each man must take an animal from the flock, one for each family: one animal for each household. If the household is too small to eat the animal, a man must join with his neighbour, the nearest to his house, as the number of persons requires. You must take into account what each can eat in deciding the number for the animal. It must be an animal without blemish, a male one year old; you may take it from either sheep or goats. You must keep it till the fourteenth day of the month when the whole assembly of the community of Israel shall slaughter it between the two evenings. Some of the blood must then be taken and put on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where it is eaten. That night, the flesh is to be eaten, roasted over the fire; it must be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. You shall eat it like this: with a girdle round your waist, sandals on your feet, a staff in your hand. You shall eat it hastily: it is a passover in honour of the Lord. That night, I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, man and beast alike, and I shall deal out punishment to all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord! The blood shall serve to mark the houses that you live in. When I see the blood I will pass over you and you shall escape the destroying plague when I strike the land of Egypt. This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a feast in the Lord’s honour. For all generations you are to declare it a day of festival, for ever.”’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 115(116):12-13,15-18 |
The blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ.
How can I repay the Lord
for his goodness to me?
The cup of salvation I will raise;
I will call on the Lord’s name.
The blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ.
O precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death of his faithful.
Your servant, Lord, your servant am I;
you have loosened my bonds.
The blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ.
A thanksgiving sacrifice I make;
I will call on the Lord’s name.
My vows to the Lord I will fulfil
before all his people.
The blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ.
Second reading |
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 |
Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the death of the Lord
This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me.’ In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’ Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn13:34 |
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
I give you a new commandment:
love one another just as I have loved you,
says the Lord.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Gospel | John 13:1-15 |
Now he showed how perfect his love was
It was before the festival of the Passover, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. He had always loved those who were his in the world, but now he showed how perfect his love was.
They were at supper, and the devil had already put it into the mind of Judas Iscariot son of Simon, to betray him. Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God, and he got up from table, removed his outer garment and, taking a towel, wrapped it round his waist; he then poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘At the moment you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ‘Never!’ said Peter ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus replied, ‘If I do not wash you, you can have nothing in common with me.’ ‘Then, Lord,’ said Simon Peter ‘not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well!’ Jesus said, ‘No one who has taken a bath needs washing, he is clean all over. You too are clean, though not all of you are.’ He knew who was going to betray him, that was why he said, ‘though not all of you are.’
When he had washed their feet and put on his clothes again he went back to the table. ‘Do you understand’ he said ‘what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am. If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.’
DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EX 12: 1-8, 11-14; PS 116:12-13,15-18; 1 COR 11: 23-26; JN 13: 1-15]
Today, we gather to celebrate the Last Supper Mass. In this Mass, we celebrate the sacrament of charity–the Holy Eucharist–which is the gift of the entire being of Jesus Christ, so that He may reveal to us the depth of His Father’s infinite love for every one of us, saints and sinners alike. Indeed, this sacrament manifests the great love of Jesus, which led Him to lay down His life for us, whom He considers all His friends (Jn 15:13). The Gospel today sums up what it means for God to love us to the very end.
The Last Supper shows us how near God is to us, so that we will never doubt His presence and love. Even though we have rebelled against Him and abandoned Him, God’s love continues to call us to repent and return to Him. He desires to share a meal with us–in other words, to be in fellowship with us. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15). God desires our company and our friendship. Indeed, He is not a remote or unapproachable God, so majestic that He is unconcerned with our pain, struggles, or needs. His greatness lies not in distancing Himself from us, but in coming close to us as a man.
He is truly great by being a servant to us all. The Lord lived out what He taught His apostles about greatness: “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:26-28). He came down from His divine glory and emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant. “Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel around His waist.” He knelt before them and performed the work of a slave, washing their dirty feet so that they might be admitted to God’s banquet–something they could never achieve on their own. His love has no end, and His mercy has no limits for those who repent.
How does God wash away our sins so that we may be worthy to share in His life? When the Lord brought the basin of water before His apostles, it became a symbol of love and mercy. Only love can wash away our guilt and sins. Love has a purifying power that neither power nor wealth can give. By humbling Himself, the Lord exemplified His incarnation and foreshadowed His death. Twice He emptied Himself: first, of His divinity by becoming man, and then in His death. By loving us unconditionally and without reserve, through His suffering and death, He purifies us by His blood on the cross. How could blood wash us clean and make us pure, if not as a sign of His love for us?
This explains why, at the cross, when He was pierced by a soldier’s lance, blood and water flowed out. The blood symbolises the Eucharist, and the water symbolises the sacrament of Baptism. It is through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross that it becomes possible for us to enter into His death and share in His resurrection through Baptism. Like the apostles, we have all been baptised and made clean, as the Lord said to Peter: “Anyone who has bathed is completely clean and does not need to wash, except for the feet.” In other words, by virtue of our Baptism, we are already reconciled with God and have put on the wedding garment.
However, because of human weakness, our feet still become dirty, and so we require continual cleansing through the sacrament of Reconciliation. This is the love of Jesus: He makes us worthy of His Father’s love, never ceases to love us, and continually allows us to be purified when we sin. The Lord is ever ready to forgive us. All we need is to be humble and come before Him and seek forgiveness. This is why the Lord said to Peter, who protested, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” We must be humble in order to repent.
However, He added with sadness, “All of you are clean–except one” (Jesus already knew who was going to betray Him; that is why He said, “Not all of you are clean”). In these words, there is a sense of regret that all are clean except one. This is the tragedy of rejecting the love of God, as in the case of Judas.
At the Last Supper, Jesus gave us the gift of Himself in the institution of the Eucharist through the bread and wine. Yet this gift can be rejected. What makes a person unclean? It is the rejection of love–the refusal to be loved. It is when a person is too proud to admit that he is a sinner and that he needs forgiveness and purification. In Judas, we see a proud man who wanted things his own way. He was unhappy with the non-resistant stance of Jesus toward His enemies and chose to follow his own will. He could not accept that this was God’s way of conquering His enemies–through unconditional love and humble service, not through strength and might. His greed for money, power, and success blinded him to the true meaning of love. For Judas, these things were more important than sharing communion with the Lord. It was this self-sufficiency that led to his downfall and caused him to place the obstacle before the limitless love of God.
But our reflection does not end here. After Jesus had washed their feet, He asked, “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and it is right that you do so, because that is what I am. I, your Lord and Teacher, have just washed your feet. You, then, should wash one another’s feet. I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you.”
What does it mean to wash one another’s feet? For many of us, it means humble service–and this is true. Every act of charity we perform, whether big or small, especially when it alleviates the suffering of others, is a way of washing their feet. We are called to servanthood. True happiness in life is found in service and in giving. This requires us to die to ourselves and to share in the new life of Christ, a life of service.
But more than simply offering service, it must be given with humility and a readiness to accept rejection. To imitate Jesus means that we must come down from our “high horse” when serving others, not acting as if we are superior, arrogant, or self-righteous. The sign that we have truly learned humility in service is not when we think, “How great I am to serve humbly”–for this is hidden pride. Rather, we know we are serving with genuine humility and charity when we accept rejection, misunderstanding, and even ridicule for the good we do, and still persevere in doing good, trusting that one day, we will win hearts by our sincerity and humility. As St. Peter exhorts us, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.” (1 Pt 3:17f)
Still, we have not yet arrived at the deepest dimension of the meaning of the washing of feet. We must not forget that the original meaning of the washing of feet is the forgiveness of sins through the cleansing brought about by the blood and death of our Lord. To wash another’s feet, therefore, is to forgive one another constantly – “seventy times seven.” It means never to give up hope on the weaknesses of our brothers and sisters. It means always being ready to begin again. It also means choosing tolerance and love as the way to overcome hatred and selfishness. By continuing to bless others with the love of Christ and the sanctifying power of the Word of God, we help purify them and lead them to encounter His unconditional, forgiving, and inexhaustible love through us.
Indeed, this is the fullest meaning of the Lord’s command at the Last Supper: “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup and said, “This cup is God’s new covenant, sealed with my blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in memory of me.” St. Paul explains that this is not merely a ritual celebration of the Eucharist, but a call to imitate what we celebrate: “This means that every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Truly, we who have received this unconditional love of God from Jesus are called to do likewise–to give ourselves in service to God and to one another, and to forgive constantly.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
