August 16, 2026

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 118

First Reading: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7

Thus says the LORD:
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.

The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
ministering to him,
loving the name of the LORD,
and becoming his servants—
all who keep the sabbath free from profanation
and hold to my covenant,
them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8

R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you!

May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

Second Reading: Romans 11:13-15, 29-32

Brothers and sisters:
I am speaking to you Gentiles.
Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,
I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous
and thus save some of them.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Just as you once disobeyed God
but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you,
they too may now receive mercy.
For God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.

Alleluia: Cf. Matthew 4:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Matthew 15:21-28

At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
“Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.
Jesus’ disciples came and asked him,
“Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”
He said in reply,
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He said in reply,
“It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters.”
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”
And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.

Reflection

Gospel

There are three noteworthy points in today’s Gospel about the story of Jesus’ encounter with Canaanite Woman (Syro-phoenician Woman in St. Mark’s Gospel 7:24-30) and her sick daughter.

First on the list is the obstructionist posture of the disciples upon the Canaanite Woman in accessing Jesus. On the assumption that it may have been unintended, they should have known better that Jesus would not refuse anyone who seeks him out for help. The disciples must have been persuading Jesus to dismiss the woman because, being in charge of crowd control, they would have been pestered by this woman who stands to break the security cordon which may lead to Jesus being mobbed or crowded, at the very least. In other words, one can say that the disciples were barring people from getting near Jesus so that they could have an easier time in “protecting” Jesus who is God and the irony of it all, our Lord never needed protection from anybody.

This is how crucial and critical perseverance in the faith in Jesus can become. Persevering in the faith can sometimes be a difficult proposition and even confusing, to say the least, because it can be obstructed by people who are suppose to bring us closer to Jesus—in this case, it was the Apostles who were preventing people from getting closer to Jesus. They should have known that Jesus will not refuse anyone who humbly comes to Him for help. Jesus was always available then and will be so until the end of time.  

Second on the list is the perseverance of the Canaanite Woman, a gentile, in getting help from Jesus for the healing of her daughter. Due to her circumstance, and like any caring and loving mother would do, the woman does not and will not take “no” for an answer. She was desperate and will grab any possibility for her daughter getting well. This story represents, in part, the maladies that mankind experiences in everyday life. For sickness of the body, man relies on medicine and science for the cure. But what about the spiritual maladies mankind suffers? Where does one go for his or her spiritual needs? Answer: We come before the one who said: “All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt 11: 27-30)

Despite being a gentile who probably was living some miles away from Nazareth and Jerusalem, the Canaanite Woman was most probably hearing in her place about our Lord Jesus and the works of His public ministry, which included miraculous healing of people afflicted with sicknesses and diseases. She probably heard of leprous patients getting cured of an ailment which was then known to be incurable. She might have gotten wind of blind, deaf and mute people who got back their sight, hearing and speech, and paralytics cured of their immobility. And for the icing on the cake, she must have heard about Jesus resurrecting the daughter of Jairus to life (see Mark 5:21-43, Matthew 9:18-26, and Luke 8:40-56). This must have struck a chord with her for having realized at least two similarities with her situation: Jairus was also a gentile and they both had sick or dying daughters.

She wanted to grab every chance to make her daughter well and she went for it out of desperation. She didn’t exactly know if Jesus could heal her daughter but she was willing to take the trip to wherever He was for the healing. She obviously had hope in Jesus’ power and was willing to do everything for her daughter’s wellness. Her hope is causing her to persevere in her objective, out of her desperation—a mother who’d do everything for her child.   

This holds true for salvation and the life of righteousness. If we believe in God, we know that our life on earth, no matter how sad it has become, is merely a temporary phase in life because Jesus already promised us that he’ll come back for us some day and take us to His abode himself. This is why we have hope in Jesus and the natural response is to persevere in the faith He gave us because in it are the very instructions for our salvation. We have hope in Jesus because we believe in Him, and because we believe in Him, we persevere in the faith in the hope we are rewarded with everlasting life.

Sadly, people who need to work on their salvation with fear and trembling (a.k.a. people who are living a sinful and wayward life) are those who think that they do not need salvation either because they believe they are beyond the mercy of God’s forgiveness or they are those who simply are having a grand time enjoying the fruits of persisting along the evil path that they feel invincible and immortal.

When we say that salvation or the lack of it is enough cause to drive a person to desperation, we are saying that for a person who is having a grand time profiting from his sinful life, the realization to amend one’s ways through daily conversion seems to be very farfetched indeed or a lost cause. However, for those who realize that the righteous path is indeed the life of abundance promised by Christ, they are the ones who leave behind their evil ways and look for God’s salvation with desperation, as if there is literally no more tomorrow to wait for or expect.

In the case of the Canaanite Woman, who probably has been asking around, she found out that there is this Jesus, a Jew from Nazareth, who has been going around Judea, healing the sick and performing miracles. She seeks out Jesus and her resolve pushes her to persevere, with tenaciousness even, to get healing for her daughter because she believes that Jesus can heal and save. 

The story of the Canaanite Woman is a great teaching tool for those who take salvation and reaching Heaven seriously. If one truly believes that Jesus is God’s salvation, then that person must do everything to get to Jesus and be closer to Him. This is what the Canaanite Woman teaches us in the story: that she insisted to get closer to Jesus and in the process, point out to our Lord the very lesson He is preaching, which is compassion; that the Lord’s mercy and generosity have no boundaries for a repentant soul.

It is true that Jesus became man to save mankind. The incarnation is proof that God truly wants to unite divinity and mankind. Jesus’ death and resurrection opened up the way to Heaven because Jesus is the promised salvation of God. However, taking from what St. Paul said: “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12), we who are mortals on this earth and believe by faith that Jesus is Lord, must commit ourselves to make sure that the salvation gifted to us through our baptism is held tight and never let go. Salvation can be lost by sinning big time over and over and without remorse, which is tantamount to rejection of the faith. God gave us free will and will not interfere with our decisions. To believe in “once saved always saved” as some of our protestant brothers and sisters stand on, would be a mockery of God’s justice. To persevere in the faith until the end is what gets a person to the end and over the line into Heaven.

Third on the list would be the mercy and compassion of our Lord. The Lord said: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” It is true that the “house of Israel” referred to the Israelites of old because they were the chosen people of God for the having the faith, prophets, the Commandments and the Covenant. However, Jesus came to head the house of Israel by building a church upon the rock, who is Peter. The house of Israel is God’s kingdom, which is house that Jesus built upon Peter. All those who enter it become members of the house of Israel but Jesus also said “…I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So, there shall be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16).

The Canaanite Woman may not be part of the house of Israel but her faith in Jesus Christ, being a gentile, is what saved her and made her daughter well. Her prayer: “Lord, help me” is something Jesus cannot resist.

Then our Lord says these somewhat dismissive words: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” When the Lord uttered these seemingly cold and insensitive words, He was just presenting a matter of fact. Our Lord came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel first because those who are not lost do not need saving and those who are not from the house of Israel will be brought in, in due time. The intention is to bring back the lost sheep of the house of Israel so that the latter can help in making disciples of all nations. Sadly, history tells us that Israel rejected the Son of Man.  

Despite the harsh reply from our Lord, the Canaanite Woman turns the table around by putting Jesus on the defensive saying (probably the only one to ever do that to the Lord): “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Again, we hear the persistence of the Canaanite Woman and our attitude towards salvation is to always persevere in the Lord, by seeking His righteousness because those who last until the end are saved.

In fact, our Lord rewards the woman’s faith when her daughter gets cured: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

It is true that faith in Jesus is everything. But our faith must be active and contaminating, and in our actions, we encounter hardships. When these difficult things converge, staying in the faith now becomes a challenge in perseverance and the Canaanite Woman gives us the example. Thankfully, we have a God who we can run to and has equipped us in every spiritual blessing we need to stay the course.

Fourth on the list is this doctrinal point made by our Lord: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Here, our Lord was seemingly being dismissive of the Canaanite Woman which appears very uncharacteristic of Jesus. However, this is one instance when our Lord had to “call a spade a spade”, so to speak. In other words, Jesus was only telling the truth about His mission—that He came to gather the lost sheep of the house Israel in the Old Covenant and gather them into the Church of the New Covenant. In fact, the Church He founded and sustains is the house of the New Israel erected to continue to gather His sheep.

Since man’s creation, God had been true to His word and covenant obligations. From the beginning, we see His loving hand over Israel. From a couple in Adam and Eve, to a nation built on the twelve sons of Jacob (a.k.a. Israel), He shepherds and provides for them like a diligent father does for His children because He chose this nation as His own people. He chose them for a divine purpose that only He can comprehend and fathom out for His omniscient power; and therefore, His decision is always unassailable and unquestionable. To be appointed as God’s own people carries with it responsibilities and privileges, and one of those is the reward of having a unified and blessed nation under our Lord, if Israel obeys and fulfills its part of the Covenant. Sadly, we know that Israel rejected the Messiah and this is the reason why Jesus built the Church to make sure that His Covenant with man remains.

In sum, Jesus came for those who are in Covenant with the God or those who believe in God and in the one who was sent for mankind’s salvation.         

In the Gospel, the Canaanite Woman persisted in her objective because she had faith in Jesus. Her trust and belief in the Lord was rewarded and her daughter became well at the moment Jesus said: “O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”

A blessed Sunday to everyone.

– Gospel reflection by Kuya Rommel Cecilio of SLRP Bible Apostolate Ministry

June 7, 2026  

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ 

Lectionary: 167 

First Reading: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a 

Moses said to the people: 
“Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, 
has directed all your journeying in the desert, 
so as to test you by affliction 
and find out whether or not it was your intention 
to keep his commandments. 
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, 
and then fed you with manna, 
a food unknown to you and your fathers, 
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, 
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD. 
 
“Do not forget the LORD, your God, 
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 
that place of slavery; 
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert 
with its saraph serpents and scorpions, 
its parched and waterless ground; 
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock 
and fed you in the desert with manna, 
a food unknown to your fathers.” 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20 

R.  (12) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem; 
praise your God, O Zion. 
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; 
he has blessed your children within you. 
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. 
 

He has granted peace in your borders; 
with the best of wheat he fills you. 
He sends forth his command to the earth; 
swiftly runs his word! 
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. 
 

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob, 
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. 
He has not done thus for any other nation; 
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia. 
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. 
 

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 

Brothers and sisters: 
The cup of blessing that we bless, 
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? 
The bread that we break, 
is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 
Because the loaf of bread is one, 
we, though many, are one body, 
for we all partake of the one loaf. 

Sequence — Lauda Sion 

Laud, O Zion, your salvation, 
Laud with hymns of exultation, 
Christ, your king and shepherd true: 
 
Bring him all the praise you know, 
He is more than you bestow. 
Never can you reach his due. 
 
Special theme for glad thanksgiving 
Is the quick’ning and the living 
Bread today before you set: 
 
From his hands of old partaken, 
As we know, by faith unshaken, 
Where the Twelve at supper met. 
 
Full and clear ring out your chanting, 
Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting, 
From your heart let praises burst: 
 
For today the feast is holden, 
When the institution olden 
Of that supper was rehearsed. 
 
Here the new law’s new oblation, 
By the new king’s revelation, 
Ends the form of ancient rite: 
 
Now the new the old effaces, 
Truth away the shadow chases, 
Light dispels the gloom of night. 
 
What he did at supper seated, 
Christ ordained to be repeated, 
His memorial ne’er to cease: 
 
And his rule for guidance taking, 
Bread and wine we hallow, making 
Thus our sacrifice of peace. 
 
This the truth each Christian learns, 
Bread into his flesh he turns, 
To his precious blood the wine: 
 
Sight has fail’d, nor thought conceives, 
But a dauntless faith believes, 
Resting on a pow’r divine. 
 
Here beneath these signs are hidden 
Priceless things to sense forbidden; 
Signs, not things are all we see: 
 
Blood is poured and flesh is broken, 
Yet in either wondrous token 
Christ entire we know to be. 
 
Whoso of this food partakes, 
Does not rend the Lord nor breaks; 
Christ is whole to all that taste: 
 
Thousands are, as one, receivers, 
One, as thousands of believers, 
Eats of him who cannot waste. 
 
Bad and good the feast are sharing, 
Of what divers dooms preparing, 
Endless death, or endless life. 
 
Life to these, to those damnation, 
See how like participation 
Is with unlike issues rife. 
 
When the sacrament is broken, 
Doubt not, but believe ’tis spoken, 
That each sever’d outward token 
doth the very whole contain. 
 
Nought the precious gift divides, 
Breaking but the sign betides 
Jesus still the same abides, 
still unbroken does remain. 
 
(The shorter form of the sequence begins here.) 
 
Lo! the angel’s food is given 
To the pilgrim who has striven; 
see the children’s bread from heaven, 
which on dogs may not be spent. 
 
Truth the ancient types fulfilling, 
Isaac bound, a victim willing, 
Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling, 
manna to the fathers sent. 
 
Very bread, good shepherd, tend us, 
Jesu, of your love befriend us, 
You refresh us, you defend us, 
Your eternal goodness send us 
In the land of life to see. 
 
You who all things can and know, 
Who on earth such food bestow, 
Grant us with your saints, though lowest, 
Where the heav’nly feast you show, 
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia. 

Alleluia: John 6:51 

R. Alleluia, alleluia. 
 

I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; 
whoever eats this bread will live forever. 
R. Alleluia, alleluia. 

Gospel: John 6:51-58 

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: 
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; 
whoever eats this bread will live forever; 
and the bread that I will give 
is my flesh for the life of the world.” 
 
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, 
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 
Jesus said to them, 
“Amen, amen, I say to you, 
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, 
you do not have life within you. 
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood 
has eternal life, 
and I will raise him on the last day. 
For my flesh is true food, 
and my blood is true drink. 
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood 
remains in me and I in him. 
Just as the living Father sent me 
and I have life because of the Father, 
so also the one who feeds on me 
will have life because of me. 
This is the bread that came down from heaven. 
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, 
whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 

Reflection 

Like Easter Sunday, which is the birth of the Church by the Coming of the Holy Spirit, this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ or Corpus Christi is also a feast of Holy Mother Church because it celebrates the Church’s constitution as the mystical Body of Christ (Ep 4: 11, 15 & 5:23: “…Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior”). 

Among man’s “bond and connection” with God, nothing could be more graphically rich than the image of being a member of the Body of Christ—which is the Church of Jesus, the Catholic Church. Christ is the Head of the Church and the Church is His Body and therefore, all those who enter the Church are bonded to God forever. This bond leaves an indelible mark upon those who enter the Church through baptism. However, a person marked with God’s seal may still lose his salvation through voluntary and willful rejection. 

Side Note: There are several reasons why we say “Amen” when we receive the sacred host, either at Mass or whenever it is offered to us like in hospitals run by Catholic religious groups. One of them is the fact that we declaratively and openly confirm that we are indeed members of the mystical Body of Christ and that the Jesus is our Lord and Savior. 

At Mass, the consecrated host is lifted up during the consecration and the epiclesis, not only for the whole congregation to see the host but for Jesus, who is truly present in the sacred host and who is one with His mystical body (which is the Church) is offered up and presented to His God and Father who wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of truth (see 1 Timothy 2:4).   

Please note that every Mass is a thanksgiving celebration of the Church to the Father through Jesus Christ, who incidentally and intentionally is both eternal high priest and victim. Today, we celebrate the Church’s constitution as the Body of Jesus and we the faithful are once again invited to ponder upon this dogma which says that we have become the mystical body of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, because such was already intended even before time only and through God’s mercy that we become so.   

Jesus didn’t need a mystical body because even before all creation, He was already God and was God who existed in simple perfection—without beginning and without end. By being incarnate, Jesus became true man and true God and the bridge to reconcile God with man by elevating the latter to the status of children in His mystical body. Jesus made this possible because it was the only means for mankind’s salvation. Jesus became flesh so that he could build His Church and give away His life to make the Church live forever. Our oneness with Jesus starts with our entry into the Church through our baptism and our stay is sustained by the Eucharist. Both baptism and the Eucharist are sacraments dispensed in the Church that Jesus built and nowhere else.  

With these premises, we can view here that the Church is a sacrament by itself and the means of mankind’s salvation because of its oneness with Christ. The Church is the congregation of the baptized who are both called to come inside and sent to go into the world and spread the Gospel. We are the Church and therefore we are the Body of Christ. Please take a little moment to reflect on this truth.  

The Mystical Body of Christ – The Church 

In his Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul clearly establishes the spousal relationship between Christ and his Church. This spousal relationship results in a mystical union where Christ is the head of his body which is the Church. In fact, the mystical union of Jesus and his bride is unmistakable when St. Paul puts forth this dogmatic principle in the backdrop of enjoining wives to subject themselves to the authority of their husbands, akin to the subordination of the Church to the head who is Jesus. St. Paul said:  

Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. (Ephesians 5:22-24) 

Therefore, all those baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit become children of God because Christ himself built and married the Church. 

The Church is the Bride which Jesus will present to the Father in Heaven at the end of time (Rev 21: 9-26). We were created by God and destined us to be children of his kingdom. However, we become his children by adoption because of our membership in the Church. Saint Paul confirms this by saying: “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 5: 5-6).  

This does not mean that the adoption bestowed upon us is subordinate or with inferior rights. Remember, God’s Kingdom existed merely as a consequence of His act of creating the Angels and human beings. There is no kingdom to talk about if there are no subjects or in this case, no children to constitute as heirs. Therefore, the Kingdom of God or Christ’s mystical body was never required until the Angels and human beings came to be. God’s existence is perfect and simple. He had no need to create angels and man. But because he did, His Kingdom of priests, of royal blood due to the cleansing blood of the Lamb, became necessary. It is in this context that we who are of His Kingdom should be so grateful to be part of.   

It also proves that God can only beget God. This is the reason why in the Nicene Creed, we say: “God from God, light from light, true God from true God. Begotten, not made; consubstantial with the Father.” The rules of human childbirth do not and cannot apply to God and it is when we try to analyze matters of the divine using human standards that we get confused.  

We are mere human beings created by God. But with baptism, we are elevated to children of God. God can only beget God, as human beings can only beget humans. Therefore, without our entry into the Church through baptism, we remain mere creatures. Because of our baptism, we have become children of God by adoption because Jesus and the Church have been mystically united. In other words, baptized Christians are married to Christ. And because we have become children of God, we too have become heirs of His kingdom like Jesus, the Angels and Saints in Heaven. 

The Bread of Life: “…not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3, also in John 6:22-59). 

Allow us to start this by saying that Jesus is both the Word of God and the Bread of Life. In the Mass, we first listen to the Word of God to prepare ourselves to receive the Bread of Life in the Eucharist during communion. In other words, we first listen to Jesus so that we can have the proper disposition to receive Jesus in the Eucharist.  

Therefore, salvation and holiness in our lives must be all about absorbing, imbibing and living out every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD, which includes the command uttered at the Last Supper: “Take and eat, this is my body; take and drink, this is the cup of the Covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.” 

The words of our Lord in today’s Gospel, about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, cannot get any clearer than this: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (John 6:54-55). 

And in today’s Second Reading, St. Paul points to the reality that when we eat His flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, it is a communion of the Body of Christ because all who partake of the bread and drink from the cup are linked as brethren to brethren, through Jesus who is the Bread we all partake. From a spousal relationship necessarily came the expansion into a family communion because of the Eucharist. This is how significant the Mystical Body of Christ is and our incorporation into it means salvation, holiness and life as God wants it to be.  

Gospel 

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (John 6:51) 

What do we normally do with bread? 

This is not a trick question. The answer, of course, is we eat it. In rare case, breads are photographed for ads. Stale bread even gets recycled into a different product like bread pudding, salads and other dishes. 

As to why Jesus chose bread to be associated with His flesh that we should eat is something only He knows. It is probably the familiarity and availability of it as a staple of many cultures and countries that our Lord decided as He did. 

The declaration is clear: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…” Jesus is the living bread and His address is Heaven. If He says He’s the living bread, then he can be eaten or more accurately, he’s setting us up for a scenario that will eventually lead to the Last Supper and the Eucharist: “Take this all of you and eat it. This is my body which is given for you.”  

Then, the invitation: “whoever eats this bread will live forever”. Here, Jesus makes it an invitation to eat him, which must have sounded odd and cannibalistic to the people who heard it. But at the Last Supper, the invitation turns into a command to eat His flesh in the appearance of unleavened bread which was transformed into His flesh, because He has the power to do so and will it.   

Then comes: “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world”. His flesh is the life of the world. Now, the invitation travels along the linear path of eating His flesh which results in everlasting life. His incarnation was meant for His Mystical Body as the sustaining life for those who believe that He is indeed the Bread of Life, which was meant to be broken, blessed, shared and eaten, so that the union between Jesus and His Church could be real and forever. 

The Mystical Body was purposefully willed by God because of His undying, unlimited and unconditional love for those He created in His own image and likeness – angels and human beings. Because of this, St. Paul said: “He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…” (Ephesians 1:5). Let us always be thankful that we are part of Jesus’ Mystical Body. 

Second Reading: “We are what we eat.” 

There is a saying: “We are what we eat.” This may very well be applicable in reflecting on today’s feast of Corpus Christi because, as members of God’s family and the Body of Christ, we are called to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ. This is the very reason why we are Catholics – we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; this is what differentiates us from the two other major monotheistic religions namely Islam and Judaism, and the other polytheistic religions and faiths.    

In the Eucharist, Christ is truly present in the transubstantiated bread and wine which, after consecration by the priest, has become the body and blood of Jesus. Partaking of the bread and wine means that we are one with our Lord and the entire Church. It is a communion of the Body of Christ because what we partake to Christ himself. To eat Christ is to be one with Him because He sealed the Covenant with His blood. 

The Body of Christ & The Bread of Life: A Postscript 

We reiterate that it is our baptism that incorporates us into the Body of Christ, thereby making us royal citizens of Heaven and heirs of the Kingdom. Saint Paul says: “As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.” “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1Corinthians 12:20 & 27). To be baptized does carry with it lifetime consequences. Therefore, to be baptized in the “right” church is important.  

In the First Reading, God “purposely” starved the Israelites in the Sinai desert to test their resolve – whether or not they will stay faithful to Him even in want and deprivation of two (2) very basic human needs – food and water. When they experienced hunger, they didn’t hesitate to complain to God, instead of humbly begging for his mercy. God satisfied their complaining by sending ‘manna’ or the bread from heaven, as a foreshadowing of the arrival of the Bread of Life in the New Testament, all in fulfillment of the promised salvation in Jesus the Christ. The test was supposed to humble them to always seek God’s mercy and long for the ‘bread that comes from heaven’. Sadly, they failed the test like a spoiled, privileged and entitled child. There was still “too much Egypt” in the hearts of the Israelites. 

Remember that Corpus Christi, which is the Church and the individuals that make up the Church via baptism and the Eucharist might be different words with different meanings and significance, and may even appear as different concepts. But they are actually one and the same, like a man and woman are one in marriage, which is what the Mass and Eucharist are about. 

When Jesus built his Church through Peter, he became one with it by virtue of a real marital union. In other words, Jesus became one with us, with you and me. St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 5: 23, reveals Christ spousal and covenantal relationship with his Church: “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” 

A blessed Corpus Christi Sunday to everyone. 

– Gospel reflection by Kuya Rommel Cecilio of SLRP Bible Apostolate Ministry

April 3, 2026

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

Lectionary: 40

Reading I: Is 52:13—53:12

See, my servant shall prosper,
    he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.
Even as many were amazed at him —
    so marred was his look beyond human semblance
    and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man–
so shall he startle many nations,
    because of him kings shall stand speechless;
for those who have not been told shall see,
    those who have not heard shall ponder it.

Who would believe what we have heard?
    To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up like a sapling before him,
    like a shoot from the parched earth;
there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
    nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by people,
    a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,
one of those from whom people hide their faces,
    spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
    our sufferings that he endured,
while we thought of him as stricken,
    as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
    crushed for our sins;
upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
    by his stripes we were healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
    each following his own way;
but the LORD laid upon him
    the guilt of us all.

Though he was harshly treated, he submitted
    and opened not his mouth;
like a lamb led to the slaughter
    or a sheep before the shearers,
    he was silent and opened not his mouth.
Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,
    and who would have thought any more of his destiny?
When he was cut off from the land of the living,
    and smitten for the sin of his people,
a grave was assigned him among the wicked
    and a burial place with evildoers,
though he had done no wrong
    nor spoken any falsehood.
But the LORD was pleased
    to crush him in infirmity.

If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
    he shall see his descendants in a long life,
    and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.

Because of his affliction
    he shall see the light in fullness of days;
through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,
    and their guilt he shall bear.
Therefore I will give him his portion among the great,
    and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty,
because he surrendered himself to death
    and was counted among the wicked;
and he shall take away the sins of many,
    and win pardon for their offenses.

Responsorial Psalm: 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25

R. (Lk 23:46) Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
    let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
    you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
R.   Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

For all my foes I am an object of reproach,
    a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends;
    they who see me abroad flee from me.
I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;
    I am like a dish that is broken.
R.  Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

But my trust is in you, O LORD;
    I say, “You are my God.
In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
    from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.”
R.  Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Let your face shine upon your servant;
    save me in your kindness.
Take courage and be stouthearted,
    all you who hope in the LORD.
R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Reading II: Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9

Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, 
Jesus, the Son of God, 
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, 
but one who has similarly been tested in every way,
yet without sin.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace 
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

In the days when Christ was in the flesh, 
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears 
to the one who was able to save him from death, 
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; 
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

Verse Before the Gospel: Phil 2:8-9

Christ became obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name.

Gospel: Jn 18:1—19:42

Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley 
to where there was a garden, 
into which he and his disciples entered.
Judas his betrayer also knew the place, 
because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards 
from the chief priests and the Pharisees 
and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, 
went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?”
They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
He said to them, “I AM.”
Judas his betrayer was also with them.
When he said to them, “I AM, “ 
they turned away and fell to the ground.
So he again asked them,
“Whom are you looking for?”
They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
Jesus answered,
“I told you that I AM.
So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”
This was to fulfill what he had said, 
“I have not lost any of those you gave me.”
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, 
struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear.
The slave’s name was Malchus.
Jesus said to Peter,
“Put your sword into its scabbard.
Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?”

So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus,
bound him, and brought him to Annas first.
He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, 
who was high priest that year.
It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews 
that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.
Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, 
and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.
But Peter stood at the gate outside.
So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, 
went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.
Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, 
“You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?”
He said, “I am not.”
Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire
that they had made, because it was cold,
and were warming themselves.
Peter was also standing there keeping warm.

The high priest questioned Jesus 
about his disciples and about his doctrine.
Jesus answered him,
“I have spoken publicly to the world.
I have always taught in a synagogue 
or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, 
and in secret I have said nothing.  Why ask me?
Ask those who heard me what I said to them.
They know what I said.”
When he had said this, 
one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, 
“Is this the way you answer the high priest?”
Jesus answered him,
“If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; 
but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”
Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm.
And they said to him,
“You are not one of his disciples, are you?”
He denied it and said,
“I am not.”
One of the slaves of the high priest, 
a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, 
“Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”
Again Peter denied it.
And immediately the cock crowed.

Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium.
It was morning.
And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, 
in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.
So Pilate came out to them and said, 
“What charge do you bring against this man?”
They answered and said to him,
“If he were not a criminal, 
we would not have handed him over to you.”
At this, Pilate said to them, 
“Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.”
The Jews answered him, 
“We do not have the right to execute anyone,“ 
in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled
that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.
So Pilate went back into the praetorium 
and summoned Jesus and said to him, 
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered,
“Do you say this on your own 
or have others told you about me?”
Pilate answered,
“I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?”
Jesus answered,
“My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world, 
my attendants would be fighting 
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
So Pilate said to him,
“Then you are a king?”
Jesus answered,
“You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world, 
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

When he had said this,
he again went out to the Jews and said to them,
“I find no guilt in him.
But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover.
Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
They cried out again,
“Not this one but Barabbas!”
Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, 
and clothed him in a purple cloak, 
and they came to him and said,
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
And they struck him repeatedly.
Once more Pilate went out and said to them, 
“Look, I am bringing him out to you, 
so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
So Jesus came out, 
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.
And he said to them, “Behold, the man!”
When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, 
“Crucify him, crucify him!”

Pilate said to them,
“Take him yourselves and crucify him.
I find no guilt in him.”
The Jews answered, 
“We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, 
because he made himself the Son of God.”
Now when Pilate heard this statement,
he became even more afraid, 
and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, 
“Where are you from?”
Jesus did not answer him.
So Pilate said to him,
“Do you not speak to me?
Do you not know that I have power to release you 
and I have power to crucify you?”
Jesus answered him,
“You would have no power over me 
if it had not been given to you from above.
For this reason the one who handed me over to you
has the greater sin.”
Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, 
“If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out 
and seated him on the judge’s bench 
in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.
And he said to the Jews,
“Behold, your king!”
They cried out,
“Take him away, take him away!  Crucify him!”
Pilate said to them,
“Shall I crucify your king?”
The chief priests answered,
“We have no king but Caesar.”
Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself, 
he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, 
in Hebrew, Golgotha.
There they crucified him, and with him two others, 
one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.
It read,
“Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”
Now many of the Jews read this inscription, 
because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; 
and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, 
“Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’
but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.”
Pilate answered,
“What I have written, I have written.”

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, 
they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, 
a share for each soldier.
They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, 
woven in one piece from the top down.
So they said to one another, 
“Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “ 
in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:
    They divided my garments among them,
        and for my vesture they cast lots.
This is what the soldiers did.
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother
and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your mother.”
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

After this, aware that everything was now finished, 
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, 
Jesus said, “I thirst.”
There was a vessel filled with common wine.
So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop 
and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
“It is finished.”
And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

        Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

Now since it was preparation day,
in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,
for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, 
the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken 
and that they be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first 
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, 
they did not break his legs, 
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, 
and immediately blood and water flowed out.
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; 
he knows that he is speaking the truth, 
so that you also may come to believe.
For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:
    Not a bone of it will be broken.
And again another passage says:
    They will look upon him whom they have pierced.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, 
secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, 
asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.
And Pilate permitted it.
So he came and took his body.
Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, 
also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes 
weighing about one hundred pounds.
They took the body of Jesus 
and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, 
according to the Jewish burial custom.
Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, 
and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; 
for the tomb was close by.

Reflection

For this Good Friday, we offer these verses for reflection:

“Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-7)

[1] Born to die so that sins may be forgiven. When Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time, on Palm Sunday, He knew that He was going to die by Roman execution on Good Friday. This spells all the difference in the world because He knew how and exactly when He was going to die. He is God and He freely consented to die on the cross like a criminal being ignominiously handed to his executioners. His death was the only way for man to be saved – His life in exchange for our lives because He is the only perfect sacrifice and offering to our God and Father whom we wronged and still continue to wrong by our sins. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, our Lord never opened His mouth to complain, to curse or to give up in protest.

May we always be thankfully to our Lord Jesus because He didn’t give up on us and loved us until the end of His earthly life. He continues to love us even when we continue to sin.

[2] Welcomed one day, rejected in less than a week. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, He was greeted by crowds of people hoisting palms branches, shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David.” Palm, the endemic variety to the Middle East and the Mediterranean, was hoisted and waved by people of old to greet a visiting or arriving VIP such as an emperor or king. Some of crowds which greeted Jesus even laid down their cloaks and outer garments so that the donkey on which Jesus was mounted could march on a carpet-like pavement. A greeting and welcome truly fit for the King of kings. They jubilantly shouted: “Hosanna to the Son of David”, which affirmed they knew tradition and prophecy which says that anyone who is acknowledged as the son of David is the Messiah sent by God to liberate His people. The title of Son of David truly has deep theological significance for every Jew, past and present, because the Davidic Messiah is one the one who “comes in the name of the Lord” and therefore, is heaven-sent and divine.

Sadly, several days after Palm Sunday, particularly on the day of preparation and the day before the Sabbath, Jesus is being presented by Pilate before a madding crowd who are now shouting “crucify Him, crucify Him”, asking for the condemnation of an innocent man and the freedom instead of the known criminal “Barabbas”, a name which means ‘son of the father.’ The true Son of the Father, our Lord Jesus, was rejected by the crowd which days before was proclaiming: “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit. They chose death instead of life. On Good Friday, the crowd in the Procurator’s Court chose evil over good. Each time we sin, we choose death over life and evil over good. Worst of all, when we sin, we mock the salvation that Jesus won for us on the Cross.

The Good Friday crowd chose Barabbas instead of the true Son of the Father—Jesus. This is man’s continuing folly – choosing evil instead of the good, even when goodness is right in front of us.

[3] Deicide & murder of an innocent man. The crowds on Palm Sunday shouted “Son of Abraham”, “Son of David”, two titles which Jesus, by His human lineage, is justified in claiming because He is indeed descended from Abraham and King David, through Saint Joseph and our Blessed Mother. Jews knew that God’s promised Messiah for the liberation of Israel would come from the line of David. However, it seems that Israel was waiting for a “warrior” and military general type of Messiah who would wage battle against Rome and “restore” the Kingdom of Israel. The Jews, probably to their disappointment, witnessed that Jesus didn’t wage war against Rome. However, they didn’t realize that Jesus waged war against sin and death, and He won that battle for the sake of mankind, and established His new kingdom – the Church. The Jews welcomed their hero on Palm Sunday but crucified the same person on Good Friday. Jesus died for our sins, which means our sins caused His death on the Cross in what could be described as the greatest crime ever committed – the murder of an innocent man who happens to be God Himself; the crime is called Deicide.

• Our sins killed Jesus!
• Jesus died to save us – an innocent man was sacrificed for the guilty and condemned!
• For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… (John 3:16)!

[4] Jesus: Our Redeemer, Equalizer & Unifier. Physicians who have analyzed the horrific torture wounds of our Lord said that they were no ordinary wounds and it was no ordinary physical suffering. The pain Jesus experience was real and extreme.  On top of that, He bore unimaginable heartache and sorrow because of the betrayal of Judas, the abandonment of the rest of the Apostles and most of all, the unthinkable and stupid choice mankind made in the Garden – man chose sin and death over life, and He was the One who had to suffer for it. He paid a debt He did not owe. He was a victim of the greatest injustice in human history. We know that Jesus is the Christ but we still betray Him by our sins.

Despite all these, our Lord still appeals to the Father because He is merciful: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). How many times do we justify our sins by saying that others are more sinful than us, or we had no choice but to sin? For all our flimsy excuses, let us remember that our Lord died for our sins and He was sinless. He never compromised with evil and so must we.

In death, we are all equal because everybody dies and all face God in the end. The question is, how do we want to be remembered after our death? We were supposed to share our life with others by bringing Christ to them. Did we share Christ with others and did we share Him as often as we could? These points and some other ones determine whether we enter everlasting glory or not. Remember what our Lord said: “Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter God’s kingdom. The only people who will enter are those who do what my Father in heaven wants” (Matt 7: 21-23ff). 

Jesus, lifted up on the Cross, draws all men to himself. His death is supposed to unify all men, all people, mankind – whether believer or atheist, Christian or not – because Jesus died for all. He created man, became man, died for man to save man and bring back man to Him. There is no greater love than His love because He is God and He died to save us, even when we reject Him. It is only right and just to praise and worship Jesus!

At that moment when our Lord said “It is complete” or “It is finished” (John 19:30), He confirms the completion of His Messianic work and the next word “Father, into thy hands I commend me spirit” (Luke 23:46) is the seal of it all. The salvation plan, which was established since eternity, culminates into perfect conclusion at the intersection of the Cross, where our Lord gave up His life so that man can live forever more. Deo gratias!

Kneeling before Jesus on the Cross, we say: “We Adore You, O Christ, and We Bless You, Because by Your Cross You Have Redeemed the World!”

– Gospel Reflection by Kuya Rommel Cecilio of SLRP Bible Apostolate Ministry 

April 2, 2026

Holy Thursday-Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Lectionary: 39

Reading I:Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
“This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;
you shall reckon it the first month of the year.
Tell the whole community of Israel:
On the tenth of this month every one of your families
must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb,
it shall join the nearest household in procuring one
and shall share in the lamb
in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.
You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month,
and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present,
it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood
and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel
of every house in which they partake of the lamb.
That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

“This is how you are to eat it:
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt,
striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast,
and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!
But the blood will mark the houses where you are.
Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;
thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,
no destructive blow will come upon you.

“This day shall be a memorial feast for you,
which all your generations shall celebrate
with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”

Responsorial Psalm:Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18.

R. (cf. 1 Cor 10:16) Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

How shall I make a return to the LORD
            for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
            and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD
            is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
            you have loosed my bonds.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
            and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
            in the presence of all his people.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Reading II: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Verse Before the Gospel: John 13:34

I give you a new commandment, says the Lord:
love one another as I have loved you.

Gospel: John 13:1-15

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him,
“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
            for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all.”
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

Reflection:

This very night, we commemorate the Last Supper, when our Lord instituted the Eucharist with the words: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19), evoking both command and loving request because it is exactly that—command and loving request. The Eucharist is the very summit and pinnacle of Christian life because it is through this Sacrament by which Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, calls us into deep and intimate relations with Him with the words “eat-this is my body” and “drink-this is my blood.” It is also a fulfillment of God’s promise to save mankind from everlasting death, a promise which goes all the way back to Genesis 3:15 and guaranteed by a New and Everlasting Covenant sealed with the blood of His Messiah and a sacrificial Lamb. There is no greater love than the God-man laying His life for his friends (see John 15:13).

Jesus died on the Cross because of His love for us. The event of the Last Supper is perpetuated precisely to bring those who’d come after in time into the event which saved us from death (Greek: “anamnesis”) because on this night, Jesus gave us His life by giving up His body and blood, in the form of bread and wine, to nurture and sustain us as members of His body.

We came from Him, who is Life, but chose to walk away from Him by our sins and live in darkness. He came to us like one of us, to be one with us, so that He may give us His life through His death: “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” (Romans 6:8).

This night also proves the origins and the longevity of our faith. Christianity started from Jesus who was sent to us by the Father out of God’s great love for us because He wishes nothing but the salvation of mankind and for us to have communion with Him forever. Jesus established the New and Everlasting Covenant, noting that He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (see Matt 5:17).

New Passover: Liberation from Slavery of Sin & Death.

As a faithful Jew, Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the last time on Palm Sunday to celebrate the Jewish Passover, as commanded by the Book of Exodus. However, He celebrates the Jewish Passover by instituting the new Passover, His own Passover by offering Himself as the Lamb of the feast – the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. God provided the ram after the aborted holocaust of Isaac (Gen 22:13) on Mount Moriah because it was actually a foreshadowing that someday, a worthy sacrifice to God may be made and that can only be done by Jesus, whose blood seals the New and Everlasting Covenant between God and man – a guarantee of God’s faithfulness in fulfilling His promised salvation for mankind through the death of Jesus.

Jesus is the Bread from Heaven, the unleavened bread and wine of the Seder – the Passover rite – now transubstantiated into His body and blood for us to eat and drink and have life eternal (see John 6:54).

If the Passover in Exodus is liberation from slavery and freedom for the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage, the Passover at the Last Supper of Jesus is liberation from death and freedom for mankind from the bondage of sin and death.

New Priesthood: Washing The Apostles’ Feet to Perpetuate & Delegate His Priesthood.

For centuries, the Gospel for Holy Thursday has always been taken from St. John and it is about our Lord washing the feet of the Apostles. This episode in the Last Supper is recorded only by St. John and is not found in the synoptic Gospels.

Since St. John the Evangelist was the last to write his version of the Gospel and whose feet was washed by our Lord at the Last Supper, he must have deemed this episode to be very significant, one truly endowed with a life-changing purpose because the priesthood of the Levites was going to be replaced and supplanted by the New Testament & ministerial priesthood instituted by no less than the Eternal High Priest himself, and those who were present at the Seder with Jesus will be the first batch of priests – the Apostles. In fact, the Apostles were first the bishops of the Church.

If the Levites who were being readied for consecration to the priesthood were washed before their ‘ordination’ (see Lev 8:6; Ex 40:12, 31-32), our Lord, in a similar but perfect way, washed His Apostles’ feet (only) because they have already been bathed and made clean during their 3-year abiding with Jesus:

“…Jesus answered him (Simon-Peter), “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all clean.” (John 13:8-11)

For a Jewish man to wash another man’s feet was a gesture of hospitality, humility and low stature. This task was usually relegated to servants of the house as part of their duty to make guests feel welcomed and comfortable inside the host’s abode. Jesus washes the feet of His disciples to set an example of humility and service, making them aware that their consecration to the priesthood is all about service to others: “You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:13-15)

Lastly, the marching order to the Apostles, which is to perpetuate Jesus’ priesthood, is clear when our Lord said: “Do this in memory of me” because only priests can consecrate bread and wine into the body and blood of our Lord. Today, only duly ordained priests in the tradition and line of the Apostles may consecrate bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. It is the priesthood of Jesus that He imparts and delegates to His Apostles, and He washes them clean for them to actually share and inherit this sacred duty. This is why we say that at the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Sacraments of Holy Orders and the Eucharist. Absent the priesthood, the Eucharist may not be offered.

New Commandment: Love One Another (John 13:34)

At the Last Supper, Jesus gave us a new commandment, which appears to be simply worded: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

This new commandment actually bears a ton of significance in our faith and the institution of the Holy Orders because of this ‘connecting’ verse from the Book of Hebrews: “For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.” (Heb 7:12)

In other words, Jesus can justifiably seal and conclude the New Covenant, thereby supplanting the old because, by His very own act and power, He also ordained the new batch of priests who were going to implement the terms of the New Covenant. A new law, which is the New Covenant, requires a new priesthood and the Apostles were the first of the lot. This, among others, proves the ‘Apostolic tradition’ of our faith and Church because this was enshrined with these Easter night words from our Lord: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23). At the Last Supper, Jesus institutes the Eucharist and the New Testament priesthood. On Easter night, Jesus aspirates the Apostles with the Holy Spirit into a newness of life and gave them the power to forgive sins.

Aside from the new commandment of loving one another, we can also infer that loving one another is all about service and giving of self to another just like what our Lord Jesus did. The Eucharist is about service because it is our Lord’s body and blood given up for the forgiveness of sins and when we partake of it, we’ll have eternal life. The priesthood is also about service because those who are ordained into it leave their families for a bigger family in the faith.

Important Note: Our Lord deliberately gave a new law—to love one another, because he was changing the priesthood from the Levites to the New Covenant. The Book of Hebrews lays this out when it says: “For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well” (Hebrews 7:12). Before the priesthood of the New Testament, it was the priesthood of the Levites and the change was the requirement for Israel to make sacrifices daily for atonement of sins.

Additional Notes

Tonight, if possible, please go out into the open and look at the moon, which hopefully is clearly visible due to the absence of clouds. Remember, that is the same moon that our Lord Jesus was looking at when He was at the Garden at Gethsemane where He prayed and wept. Bring yourself into that moment when our Lord was alone praying and finding the courage and strength to go through the suffering that He knew was to befall upon Him. Pray and thank Him for what He has done for us. Remember, He even perspired blood in a rare medical phenomenon called ‘haematidrosis’ or ‘hematohidrosis’ because He was so sad about so many things, among them were the following:

[1] The sins of the world. Jesus, the Word of God, through whom all creation came to be, took away the sins of the world from Adam and Eve’s original sin, to the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, to the infidelity of Israel to the Covenant, to our sins and up to the last sin which will be committed before His second coming, by going through a most agonizing torture and horrific death on the Cross. Truly, the weight of the sins of the world was upon him.

[2] Betrayal. He knows that He is going to be abandoned by His very own Apostles as they scatter in cowardice, from the betrayal of Judas, one of the Apostles who got enticed with 30 pieces of silver. Remember that our sins are also a betrayal of our commitment to the Covenant. Wherever we sin, we mock Jesus’ saving death on the Cross.

In the same way that our Lord Jesus the Christ wept at the death of Lazarus, He also wept at the Garden because we stupidly chose death instead of life. On this Holy Thursday night, the least we can do is to prayerfully keep vigil for an hour and not fall asleep like the Apostles:

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, thy will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.  (Matt 26:40-45)

Lord, help us and give us the strength to pray to you for at least an hour with you tonight. Guide us to pray for the right things and the things that glorify you. Give us the power to resist temptation and stand by your Word. Lastly, thank you for loving us and dying for us. Amen.  

– Gospel Reflection by Kuya Rommel Cecilio of SLRP Bible Apostolate Ministry