“The devotion to the Eucharist is the most noble, because it has God as its object; it is the most profitable for salvation, because it gives us the Author of Grace; it is the sweetest, because the Lord is Sweetness Itself.” - Pope St. Pius X

During the COVID lockdown, I remember driving around on a brilliantly sunny Holy Thursday. The warmth of spring had come early, and yet an overwhelming coldness engulfed the earth. Our churches were locked and many of us were bereft of sweet intimacy with our Lord before His Passion. That Holy Thursday forever fixed in my mind a particular anguish — the overwhelming need our souls have for Christ. He who is our life is also the One who must nourish us. Life in Christ cannot exist without Him. How we crave Him! How desperately we need Him! Our souls truly ache to be united with Him.

A Night of Love and Betrayal

I can only imagine the last moments Christ spent with His Apostles before Good Friday. How sacred and beautiful that night must have been. The time was both sweet and heartrending; for despite the precious moments spent with Christ, betrayal lurked. Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen offers this meditation in Divine Intimacy regarding Holy Thursday:

“Judas had already set the price of the infamous sale; Peter was about to deny his Master; all of them within a short time would abandon Him. The institution of the Eucharist appeared then as the answer of Jesus to the treachery of men, as the greatest gift of His infinite love in return for the blackest ingratitude.”

Our Lord knew Judas had betrayed Him. He knew His apostles would leave Him. And yet, He gave them the Eucharist. He gave Himself to them — to us — in complete and total love.

In Holy Mass, again and again, this miracle continues as bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Christ. His charity never ceases though He knows all the times that we too have betrayed and abandoned Him. He stays in our midst and waits for us.

A Love to Imitate

The love of Christ is the love that we are meant to imitate. The love that persists even with the most difficult of souls. Just as Christ knelt and washed the feet of His Apostles, we must humble ourselves in the midst of ingratitude and injury. There is no room for pride in hearts consumed with the love of Jesus.

As Mother Teresa said: “If you really want to grow in love, come back to the Eucharist.”

Let us come back to the Eucharist – to Christ who sustains us, and models love without limitation and ego. Cling to Him and He will fortify you. May you have a Blessed Holy Thursday, spent in sweet intimacy with the One who sustains you.

"It is without doubt very humiliating for the good God to come into our hearts, but it is to find there a soul that He loves, that He has bought at the cost of His Blood." -St. John Vianney

Ann Burns is the founder of The Feminine Project, an organization dedicated to restoring the joy of womanhood. She is a writer and speaker, and strives to uphold what is truly good and beautiful. Most of all, she is a wife and mother, and loves to share the joy in living each day well.