What is celebrated on Holy Thursday?

Why is it a holiday this Thursday? What happened on that day? These are some of the most frequently asked questions around this date, commemorated in the country over the years.

For Catholics, Holy Thursday is one of the most important days that precede the crucifixion of Jesusan act that the faithful celebrate as a gift of love. The story is found in the Gospels of Matthew (26), Mark (14), Luke (22) and John (13-18).

The story of what happened this Thursday is composed of several moments: the washing of the feet, the last supper, the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Olives and the betrayal of Judas.

Jesus washing the feet of his disciples

According to the Gospel, knowing that one of his friends, Judas Iscariot, would betray him and deliver him to Roman soldiers for him to be executed, Jesus gathers his apostles. He washes his feet – considered as a sign of humility, because at that time the person responsible for their cleaning of the land was the servant of the houses – and he dined with them as a goodbye.

"Before the Pbadover feast, knowing that his time had pbaded from this world to the Father, having loved his own who was in the world, he loved them until the end." During dinner, when the devil had already put in the heart of Judas Iscariot (…) the goal of delivering him, (…) he gets up from the table, takes a towel, girdles it (…) and starts washing the disciples' feet and drying them", we read in the Gospel of John, chapter 13, verses 1-15.

Pedro is the one who stops his master. He asks, "Are you going to wash my feet?". Jesus responds, "What I am doing, you will not understand it now" and despite the denial of the apostle, he insists, "If I do not do it, you will not be able to share my lot." "So, sir, wash your hands and your head too." However, Jesus answers, "The one who washed is not in need of washing, you are pure, but not all," referring to Judas' subsequent betrayal.

After washing his feet, he took his clothes, went back to the table and said: "Do you now understand what you have done, you call me Master and they say it, because I am, if I am the Master and the Lord, I washed my feet, you should wash yourselves feet to each other ". Symbol of service and love that Catholicism aims through the acts of solidarity that it achieves.

The last meal

Before his death, Jesus gathers his apostles at a last supper where, without telling them, he tells them goodbye. Sitting at the table, he blesses bread and wine, elements that will be consecrated as his body and blood. In this act, he introduces the priesthood, which is why this gesture It is practiced in all Mbades, the most relevant case being where God is present in the Eucharist.

He took the bread and, thanking, he looked at them and said: "Take it and eat it all, because it's my body that will be delivered for you". Then he took the cup and he thanked again. "Take and drink all of it because it is the cup of my blood, the blood of the New and Eternal Covenant that will be given by you and by many for the forgiveness of sins." And he asked them to do this gesture in his memory.

"I give you a new commandment: love one another, as I have loved you," Jesus continues. For Catholics, this sign is relevant because it establishes the fundamental principle of the faithful, above the ten commandments that God gave to Moses.

• Announcement of Peter's denials

After dinner, Jesus is ready to go to the Mount of Olives to pray. Pedro stops him. "Lord, I will go with you to prison and to death", but Jesus answers: "I badure you, Pedro, that today, before the bad crows, you have denied three times that you know me ". This scene is a prefiguration of what the Gospel plans for the future.

In the garden of olive trees and betrayal of Judas

Accompanied by two disciples – who fall asleep later – Jesus goes to the garden of olive trees, a mountain also called Gethsemaneto pray there, with a kiss on the cheek is betrayed by Judas, which, for thirty pieces of money, gives it to the soldiers for it to be executed.

"Judas approached Jesus to kiss him. Jesus said to him, "With a kiss you betray me?". The apostles who were with Jesus, seeing what was going to happen, asked him, "Lord, are we using the sword?" And one of them smote with his sword the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus said, "Stop, that's all." And touching his ear, he heals him ", writes the Gospel of Luke (22, 47-51).

Holy Thursday Mbad

Many gestures that appear in the story unfold in the mbad. Some of them are washed feet, in the ceremony it is the priest who does it to some of the present. As an offering, those present sympathize by offering a non-perishable food for use in the parish hall or other centers that need it.

As in all mbades, bread and wine are consecrated. However, another hallmark of Holy Thursday Mbad is that after the celebration, the call "Holy hour"a moment of prayer that commemorates Jesus' prayer on the mountain a few minutes before his imprisonment.