Cathedral Triduum Commences with the the Lord's Supper
Article and Photos by Fr R Cross
In a near capacity Cathedral, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper together with Bishop Donald Sproxton and eleven priests and deacons.
In his homily, Archbishop Costelloe referred to the Letter of St Paul to the Philippians where St Paul says, “In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus”.
The Archbishop went on to talk about how St Paul in his Letter to the Philippians speaks eloquently of Christ as the one who “. . . did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave and became as men are.”
We are called to have the mind and heart of Jesus and empty ourselves and put on Christ, the Archbishop said.
After his homily, the Archbishop echoed what he had just proclaimed. He took off his chasuble and put on the apron of a servant and washed the feet of twelve men. This symbolic act recalled how Christ stripped himself of his garment, of his glory, and assumed the condition of a slave, washing the feet of his apostles.
Archbishop Costelloe said that we who are of the mind and heart of Jesus are called to strip ourselves of glory and be servants of love.
After Mass there was a procession of the Eucharist to the Altar of Repose in Our Lady’s Chapel of the Cathedral, where those attending the Mass were invited to stay a while with Christ in memory of his agony in the garden.
