Maundy Thursday Mass at the Cathedral of St Chad was a welcoming one and an occasion that set the tone for this first day of the Triduum. Fr David Oakley, Rector of Oscott College, inspired us, ‘to search out our hearts’ desire over these days’ explaining that, ‘this is not an intellectual process or an ethical behaving but the search for the truth who is a person, our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.’
He encouraged us to ponder three mysteries, ‘the institution of the Holy Eucharist, the priestly Order, and the commandment of the Lord concerning fraternal charity.’
‘The Eucharistic presence’, he reminds us, ‘is a holy action, a serving of each other, born out of the Lord’s service of us.’ Adding that ‘the priesthood with regards to the Eucharist is understood in terms of verbs rather than nouns, received, passes, took, thanked and broke.’
Concerning fraternal charity he reminded us that, to truly understand service we must first realise, in the words of Pope Francis, that we should ‘live the Eucharist in a spirit of faith and prayer, with the certainty that the Lord will bring to fulfilment all that he has promised.’ He closed with the point, ‘we are not celebrating here what we have done, but what the Lord has done.’ To read the homily in full click here