Pope’s Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper

(April 2, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass of the Lord’s Supper Holy Thursday evening, urging all Christians to live in close communion with God so that unity may become a visible sign of God's love for all the world to see. The Pope’s exhortation came in his homily he delivered on Holy Thursday evening, while celebrating the Mass of the Lord’s Supper in Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran. The Mass commemorates Jesus ' institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood - an act which marks the founding of the church, the Pope said. During the Mass, Pope Benedict washed the feet of 12 priests from the Diocese of Rome. The ritual reflected the call to imitate Christ by serving one another and forgiving each other. The Pope poured water from a golden pitcher onto the foot of each priest and then gently rubbed each foot dry with a white towel.
In his homily, the Pope said that after the Last Supper, Jesus asked his disciples to bring men and women to faith in God "and through faith, to love." Jesus wanted his followers to be in intimate communion with him and with the Father, the Pope said. He wanted fidelity to him to give rise to visible unity, which would become "a sign before the world and (help) to authenticate the mission of Jesus Christ," the Pope said. Jesus' prayer for unity is a challenge to all Christians to undergo "a constant examination of conscience," the Pope said. People must ask themselves whether they are living in fellowship with God, the Pope said, "or are you rather living for yourself, and thus apart from faith?" He said God is asking people whether they are "guilty of the inconsistency which obscures my mission in the world and prevents men and women from encountering God's love?"
The Pope called on the faithful to meditate on Christ's passion and "feel Jesus' pain at the way that we contradict his prayer, that we resist his love, that we oppose the unity which should bear witness before the world to his mission." Donations collected during the Mass were earmarked for helping rebuild the major seminary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was reduced to rubble by an earthquake Jan. 12.