We do not want a joyful and life-giving party to end. We do not want to have to say good-bye to that or to friends. There is much pain when we lose a loved one to death. It hurts when we lose a good friend because differences cannot be resolved. Children do not want their parents to divorce. Marriage is supposed to last. Love and friendship and life are supposed to last. The thought and reality of relationships ending is painful because we are built to last together in the limitless love of God.

Why do we know that relationships are supposed to last forever? Because God is forever and we come from him and are going back to him. His love pardons and heals so that relationships and marriages can stay together and deepen. As we grow closer with God, we learn that death is not a relationship ended but changed and it is a movement to a more fully loving relationship that will never end.

In Exodus, God establishes the Passover. The Israelites are to put the blood of a year-old male lamb without blemish and apply it to their doorposts. As God goes through Egypt striking down every first-born of the land, he will pass-over the houses with blood on their doorposts and not take the life of the first-born. It is by the blood of the lamb that the eldest shall be passed over by death and allowed to preserve his life.

As time moves on, however, we see how the Passover is insufficient for human beings. It cannot keep our love and friendships and lives going like we know they are supposed to last. All the sacrifices of the lambs cannot insure that our relationships will endure, especially through death. This is where this day, Holy Thursday, comes to the fore. Jesus institutes the Eucharist to make sure that our relationships will last forever if we are in him and his love. He is the Lamb of God who will not let differences, sin or even death put an end to that which we know is to last forever. The lambs were not working but The Lamb of God works! On This Holy Thursday as we celebrate the Mass of the Lord's Supper, Jesus gives us his Body and Blood which will not allow the life we now share to come to an end.

The jaws of death shall not prevail against the church because of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is constantly being celebrated in our churches throughout the world. It is never not happening as you journey through life. It heals, forgives, unifies and destroys even death. In Jesus we last and live and love forever. This is the reality of Holy Thursday that we celebrate this holy night and forever!

Blessed by the BEST,

+Fr. John