Tuesday, April 16 : Catechism of the Catholic Church

“The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father,” in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them the commandment of love (Jn 13,1). In order to leave them a pledge of this love, in order never to depart from his own and make them sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and Resurrection, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return; “thereby he constituted them priests of the New Testament” (Council of Trent)… By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning. Jesus’ passing over to his Father by his death and Resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfils the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom. The command of Jesus to repeat his actions and words “until he comes” (1Cor 11,26) does not only ask us to remember Jesus and what he did. It is directed at the liturgical celebration, by the apostles and their successors, of the memorial of Christ, of his life, of his death, of his Resurrection, and of his intercession in the presence of the Father.
maronite readings – rosary,team