Maundy Thursday Explained

Maundy Thursday is observed by Christians on the Thursday before Easter. "Holy Thursday," as it is also commonly known, marks the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with his apostles prior to his betrayal, trial and crucifixion as portrayed in the Christian gospels.

While the Palm Sunday and Easter observances of Holy Week are generally more joyful, Maundy Thursday observances take on a more solemn tone and focus on two primary rituals that are portrayed in the biblical accounts of the Last Supper.

The name "Maundy Thursday" is derived from the Latin word mandatum meaning "commandment." The primary commandment of Jesus' message is found in the story of the Last Supper when Jesus humbles himself to wash the feet of his apostles prior to the traditional Passover meal. He then commands them to "Love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34). In observance of this commandment, the act of feet-washing is often performed by clergy as part of Maundy Thursday church services.

The other important Christian ritual to come out of the Last Supper story is that of the Eucharist or Holy Communion. Described in all three of the synoptic gospels and expounded upon in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, Christians take communion to replicate Jesus' giving of bread and wine to his apostles during their final meal together. While different denominations may maintain different specific interpretations of the ritual, many incorporate a special communion into the Maundy Thursday liturgy.

Despite the fact that there has been some debate over the actual dating of the Last Supper within Holy Week, the traditional identification as a Passover meal has had a strong influence on the way that many Christians mark Maundy Thursday. It is not uncommon for smaller groups or entire congregations to celebrate the occasion with a traditional Passover Seder instead of or in addition to church services and communion. The Maundy Thursday Seder has been used by many as an occasion to remember and celebrate the origins of Christianity in Judaism and the strong ties that the two religions maintain.

Comments

[ManuOB1]

07:12 AM on 04/22/2011

One minor error in the article. In John's gospel, Jesus' Last Supper takes place the night before Passover, so it wasn't a Passover meal. John's point was that while the lambs were being slaughtered for Passover, the true Lamb of God was being sacrificed outside Jerusalem.

[Hysterian68]

04:01 PM on 04/21/2011

Instead of washing feet, shouldn't the pope be washing out his jail cell?

[bbqmee]

01:07 AM on 04/21/2011

The Catholic Church has the fullness of the Christian faith. The apostle Paul said there is two not one criteria of christian truth- the written word and unwritten word(tradition) both of which are of equal importance to Christians.
Stand firm, then, brothers, and keep the TRADITIONS that we taught you, whether by word of mouth(unwritten word) or by letter.[ 2 Thess 2:15 ] Keep away...., not in accordance with the traditions you recieved from us. [2 Thess 3:6]
What traditions did the early church follow ?
Fourth century christian father St. Athanasius. "But it will hardly be out of place to investigate likewise the ancient traditions, and the doctrines and faith of the CATHOLIC CHURCH, which the Lord communicated,...."
CATHOLIC TRADTION IS BIBLE TRADITION

[A-Superstitionist]

02:07 AM on 04/21/2011

Every claim made that is not supported by verifiable and falsifiable evidence is superstition UNTIL such evidence is brought forward that can survive the brutal scientific peer review.

Since there is no shred of verifiable and falsifiable evidence that supports the existence of anything supernatural, all your claims MUST be considered superstition.

[New Yorker]

05:57 AM on 04/21/2011

Educate yourself. Read the events of Fatima, Portugal in 1917, and the Miracles that no man can duplicate to this day which occurred on October 13th, 1917 at a little past noon. these Miracles of The Sun were witnessed by a crowd of between 50 and 70,000 of your fellow humans and included newspaper reporters, atheists like yourself (who abandoned their ignorance that day), as well as government officials hoping to prove it all a big hoax, and of course the believers. They were there because the miracles had been forecast months earlier as to the exact place, day, date, time that God would provide them. Proof does exist if one is not BLIND to reality. We'll have to see if you prefer your blindness to the truth, and newspaper accounts who never suggested for a moment all this was a hoax. Today 4 million people a year visit Fatima, every year the faithful come and pray, and give alms. Many even pray that people like you who are blind will one day be cured. We shall see.

[Salty too]

10:58 PM on 04/20/2011

Just more Catholic BS. They just love to pervert Christianity.

[Defender of Truth]

04:48 PM on 05/09/2011

On the contrary what you post if BS++++++.

[sunshine14]

06:49 PM on 04/20/2011

The washing of the feet was a teaching spiritual understanding we are all here to serve on another. No matter who you are. Jesus Christ was the son of God, King of Kings. No one is above his master and no master is greater then his servant. God is  Righteousness and serves us, provides for us all, loves us all dearly and laid down his life for us all. I love all

[BurtonDesque]

08:54 PM on 04/20/2011

Jesus, who was probably himself entirely fictional, was not the son of a god. Gods do not exist.

No one is my master and I ask no one to serve me.

Keep your silly superstitions to yourself.

[Florida1966]

10:43 AM on 04/21/2011

stop trying to remove some else's freedom of religion, speech and expression. You have no right or standing to demand that others keep quiet to avoid offending you. If you don't care to hear it you have every right to ignore it.

[Martin Eldred]

08:29 PM on 04/21/2011

If you are offended by this, why then do you spend so much time and engery readig and responding in this Religion section?

[alterego55]

04:25 PM on 04/20/2011

The day that cannibalism became the strongest tenet of Christianity.

[Andres64]

04:45 PM on 04/20/2011

I wish I could remember the YouTube video (maybe Mr Deity) about this. Something about Jesus(?) going down and introducing vampirism and cannibalism and God(?) getting mad at him.

[loufarrelli]

10:46 AM on 04/21/2011

Was that an Eddie Izzard bit?

[New Yorker]

08:23 PM on 04/20/2011

Only a person entirely ignorant of any and all religious understanding could render such an utterly laughable comment but for the sad realization that such ignorami populate the world even this late in human existence. So please explain why one so devoid of any minimal grasp of religious understanding bothers to post here on the forum for religion. Perchance because the Al Bundy and Homer Simpson forums are unable to allow you to log on any longer ?

[alterego55]

09:46 PM on 04/20/2011

Having grown up in a devout Catholic household where I never missed a mass, or missed any holy day - and having attended the Stations of the Cross more than once every Lent season - and having a grandfather who was the one man choir every single weekday mass for 20 years - and having eaten my share of fish sticks on Friday and during Lent - and coaching CYO basketball for three years - and having read the Bible, the Q'uran and the Bhagavad Gita (I just could not make it through the Book of Mormon) - and having taken a semester of world religions in college - I am crystal clear in my knowledge of religion and feel the same enlightenment with my Agnosticism as you do with your Christianity. However, my enlightenment isn't based upon superstitious nonsense.

I think you asked the why question before, but I'll answer anyway. First of all, I don't care what religion anyone wants to practice and I will fight for anyone's right to do so - right up until that religion inserts itself into our government.

You will never see another anti-religious posting from me when I SEE the following:

1. Our country's motto is officially changed back to the all inclusive "E Pluribus Unum" as originally adopted by our Founding Fathers, instead of "In God We Trust" that since 1953 has excluded 15% of all Americans.

continued ...

[alterego55]

09:48 PM on 04/20/2011

And SEE the following (continued):

2. One single Bishop or Cardinal getting arrested, convicted and jailed for aiding and abetting pedophiles and obfuscating evidence to protect them. Until that happens, Catholic Canon Law wrongfully trumps the laws of our country. It is Canon Law that we need to be afraid of, not Sharia.

3. A multitude of "good Christian" protesters getting in the face of and effectively neutralizing the efforts of Fred Phelps and Terry Jones.

And I NEVER AGAIN SEE the following:

1. Christian activists twisting our Constitution to install a theocratic government.

2. Christian lawyer mills such as Liberty University and Regent University Law Schools churning out armies of Christian activist lawyers and politicians whose sole objective is to achieve #1.

3. Christian activist law firms such as Advocates for Faith & Freedom raising banks of tax-free contributions, just to go fishing for pro-Christian lawsuits.

4. Tax-exempt status for any religious organization.

5. Christian activist developers getting $40 million in state tax credits to build a Creation Museum.

6. Christian activists trying to dumb down our children by promoting creationism as a science.

7. Catholic and Mormon churches sending tens of millions of dollars to my state of CA to prevent homosexuals from marrying.

8. Christian political leaders invading another sovereign country because God told them to.

9. Christian activists inserting themselves in the decisions made between a woman and her doctor.

continued ...

[powercosmic]

03:16 PM on 04/20/2011

What in the 'eff are the creepy old men in the photo doing?

Is this the example of what the sheep are supposed to do?

[KDMac]

03:49 PM on 04/20/2011

It's a foot-washing ceremony, something I refuse to participate in : )

[BurtonDesque]

08:55 PM on 04/20/2011

Never let clergy touch you below the waist.

[LiberalLee]

01:44 PM on 04/20/2011

Yeah, yeah. sure.
Show your humility. Wash a few feet.
Ignore the hundreds of thousands of children abused by your arrogant secrecy over the centuries.
When the clergy as a whole acts as they preach to others, maybe, just MAYBE I'll spare an ear for them.
But all I've seen over the decades and studied about religions, is more and more proof that a Church basically only exists to further ITSELF and close adherence to its founder's ideals seldom last more than a few decades after its inception.
What does an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-good Deity need with mouthpieces for one? Or big fancy gilded Houses and jeweled robes?

[powercosmic]

03:26 PM on 04/20/2011

F&F

Perfect!

[alterego55]

04:29 PM on 04/20/2011

I'm a little less demanding. I'm waiting for one Bishop or Cardinal who played Where's Waldo with pedophile priests to be tried, convicted and jailed for aiding and abetting and conspiracy.

Why be afraid of Sharia law which has no influence whatsoever in the US when we have Catholic Cannon law that rationalizes pedophilia?

[LiberalLee]

05:30 PM on 04/20/2011

That whole "sharia" phobic thing is just a red herring thrown out by the GOP to take attention off the fact that they've delivered on none of their promises, and can't even admit how bad their last White House installation messed things up for everyone by the top 2% of earners.

[Treehuggindirtworshiper]

09:57 AM on 04/20/2011

Holy week is my favorite time of the church calendar. I look forward to Maundy Thursday service every year. I make it a point to observe Lent and dedicate the time for reflection and prayer.

[FoxReincarnated]

01:42 PM on 04/20/2011

Youre a catholic. Or a Christian Pagan. Either way youre a christian first. Doesnt matter. You guys get your end times, but everything comes with a price

[LiberalLee]

01:49 PM on 04/20/2011

"Christian and Pagan"?
One or the other, please.
The two are mutually exclusive.

[Treehuggindirtworshiper]

04:04 PM on 04/20/2011

Sorry fox I don't get your point. I'm a Christian and I do God's work 366 days a year. During Lent I focus on Christ's mission and ministry. I also do this during Advent. You're right I'm a "catholic" Christian with a little "c". It means universal. The price I pay is having to love people like you you because my Savior commands me to do so.
God's Peace this Holy Wednesday

[New Yorker]

11:59 AM on 04/19/2011

The Holy Eurcharist is the spiritual transformation of the physical Bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at the Catholic Mass. This fulfills the command of Jesus at the Last Supperon the night He was betrayed by Judas to, " Do This In Commemoration of Me ". Notice Our Blessed Lord did say, " Do a pretend version of this, in Commemoration of Me." He gave the power to forgive and retain sins to His Apostles and He gave them the power to transform the physical bread and wine into His spiritual Body and Blood through the power of The Holy Spirit.

Padre Pio the saint who dies in 1968 told us that if the people of this world knew the actual value of this to their immortal sould, we would need to have crowd control at every Catholic Mass. Funny how man so foolishly always underestimates the power and goodness of God.

[LiberalLee]

01:52 PM on 04/20/2011

Funny how many have been tortured by that same God's representatives...
Doesn't He police his own organization?
That organization has spent eons granting itself immunity from everything it could, while fleecing the flock it purported to be protecting.
Thank Heaven people aren't as gullible, naive, and willing to be fodder for predators as they once were.

[New Yorker]

02:28 PM on 04/20/2011

You refer to wolves in sheeps clothing, like the priests who were actually pedophiles. Jesus told his disciples, " I send you out as sheep amidst wolves." The Catholic Church also is hated, because Jesus was hated by the world. Take the Catholic Churches defense of unborn infants, and opposition to the death penalty, and euthanizing the sick and dying, all of these attempts to defend human life are met with hate and derision, as we expect. Jesus founded the Catholic Church, and so satan must attack and revile it as the enemy of God satan will always be, the real question is why are you working for him ?

The Word of God is clear, the weeds grow beside the grain and both enjoy the warn sun, and the rain from God. At the harvest the wheat is separated from the weeds and the chaff which get burned. Jesus was tortured and many of His followers, priests and apostles were also. There is a war between good and evil going on.

[sunshine14]

06:37 PM on 04/20/2011

Jesus founded the Catholic Church? I do not believe Jesus came to start a new religion just my opinion. Jesus was Jewish, born of Jewish parents, raised Jewish and fully obeyed all the Judah Religion Laws, Ten commandments, obeyed and observed all God's Holy Feast days commanded, faithfully. Why did Jesus come send by God? My Fathers House is a "House of Prayer not a Den of Thieves" commandments were being broken, man traditions were taken on what other nations were doing around them, which God forbid them all to do. Etc etc. Jesus could not strengths enough the Commandments of God. etc etc. I love all and I love my Catholic Church also.

[powercosmic]

03:19 PM on 04/20/2011

Well, actually the whole this is a giant "pretend" game.

Chr.istian Theologians "pretend" Jeebus existed and that an anthropomorphic g-d exists.

Then they'll refer to "Him" whilst pointing a finger towards the sky...

But hey! The whole thing is but a provincial ruse! The joke gets funnier to watch every year!

[Martin Eldred]

02:37 AM on 04/19/2011

Thank you for a good overview of Maundy Thursday observances. I might have emphasized the connection of "The Tridium" or, "The Three Days" (including Good Friday and Holy Saturday). I have always felt that they connect the dramatic flow of the events leading to Easter.

[sunshine14]

06:44 PM on 04/20/2011

God did not Name nor Command Easter. God called this Holy Feast Day the -Passover. Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb. For God names are very important have meaning, and all Holy Feast Days of God all have meaning, understanding of who God is and God's great plan for our future, what is to come. But sadly they have been lost, and why all the confusion now. There are 3 Holy Feast Days of God, and they are commanded by God- Why, how, when, where, month season, length of days there are to be celebrated. They all given a teaching to what God plan are for us. God does not mention Easter or Christmas. I love all