Holy Thursday
One
The Institution of the Eucharist
On Holy Thursday evening, Jesus gave us the greatest gift possible, the gift of Himself in the Eucharist. On the night He was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion, he took bread and, giving thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given up for you.” In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took the chalice and, once more giving thanks, he gave it to his disciples saying, “Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.”
The CCC teaches us: By the consecration of the bread and wine, there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood. This change is called transubstantiation. The Eucharist is the whole Person of Jesus Christ, given to us.
Two
According to Scripture, the heart signifies the whole person.
It can be difficult to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist because it looks and tastes like bread. But after the consecration, only the appearance remains. The substance is changed. It becomes Jesus Himself. To strengthen our faith, God has permitted signs, Eucharistic miracles, that reveal what is hidden.
On August 18th, 1996, a consecrated Host was found discarded in St. Mary Church in Buenos Aires. The priest placed it in water so it could dissolve. Instead, within days, it changed into what appeared to be bloody flesh. The local bishop, who became Pope Francis, authorized a scientific investigation. A fragment was sent, without explanation, to Dr. Frederick Zugibe, a forensic pathologist. His conclusion: the sample was human heart tissue from the left ventricle. Further analysis revealed: The tissue was alive at the time it was sampled. It showed clear signs of severe trauma. It contained active white blood cells, which cannot survive outside a living body. And yet, this sample had been preserved in water for an extended period, something scientifically impossible if it were ordinary tissue. The blood type was AB, the same type identified in other Eucharistic miracles. When compared with the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, the results matched, pointing to the same origin.
What was hidden under the appearance of bread was revealed: the living, suffering Heart of Jesus.
There have been more than 136 documented Eucharistic Miracles. You can find them at Eucharistic Miracles of the World, the website of St. Carlo Acutis. The Eucharist is truly the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
Three
Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
She writes: While I was praying before the Eucharist, Jesus presented Himself to me, all resplendent with glory, His Five Wounds shining like so many suns. Flames issued from every part of His Sacred Humanity, especially from His chest, which resembled an open furnace and disclosed to me His most loving Heart, which was the living source of these flames…
“My divine Heart,” he told me, “is so inflamed with love for the human race...that it cannot keep back the pent-up flames of its burning charity any longer. They must burst out through you and reveal my Heart to the world to enrich mankind with my precious treasures” Next, he asked for my heart. I begged him to take it; he did and placed it in his own divine Heart. He let me see it there—a tiny atom being completely burned up in that fiery furnace. Then, lifting it out—now a little heart-shaped flame—he put it back where he had found it. “There, my well-beloved,” I heard him saying, “that’s a precious proof of my love for you, hiding in your side a little spark from its hottest flames. That will be your heart from now on” After this I remained for on fire for several days, inebriated with Divine Love.
The Mass is an exchange of Hearts. At Mass, we are invited to offer our hearts to Jesus when the priest says, “Lift up your hearts,” and we say, “We lift them up to the Lord.” Then Jesus gives us His Sacred Heart in the Eucharist at Communion, which is a burning furnace of love to set our hearts on fire. The Mass is an exchange of hearts. What a wonderful way to have our cold hearts set on fire!
Four
How generous has the Lord been
We think of God the Creator as all-powerful, someone who just snaps His fingers and can give us whatever we need when we need it. But in Jesus we see a God who bleeds out individual drops of blood for us, who gasps out, in horrible agony, individual breaths for us, until all the blood is gone and He’s taken His last breath.
Jesus in the Sacred Heart pulls His heart out of His chest, He sinks to His knees, and He stretches out the hand with His heart in it, and He says, “Here! This is all I have, all that I am! What else can I give you? My love for you cost Me everything. What is it going to take for you to notice me? To care about Me?”
How can you not respond to that? How can you not respond to someone who has been so generous to you, at such a cost?
Five
How much He needs us
Jesus tells us that the pain of our indifference wounds Him more deeply than even the agonies of the Cross. He is pleading with you and with me for a little love.
Would you turn away if your child reached out for a hug? Would you ignore a friend in tears, asking you to come because something terrible just happened? Then how can we ignore God Himself, who tells us that His Heart is pierced, not only by the abandonment of His Apostles in His hour of suffering, but by the coldness and contempt He continues to receive in the Eucharist?
Jesus revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that we can console His Sacred Heart simply by receiving Him with love as often as we can in the Eucharist and by thanking the Sacred Heart of Jesus for everything.