Celebrating the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy said Jesus present in the Eucharist sustains people in their life’s journey and helps them know the Lord is with them.
During the Holy Thursday Mass on April 17, 2025 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Cardinal McElroy washed the feet of six women and six men, after that evening’s reading from the Gospel according to John told the account of Jesus washing the feet of the Apostles during the Last Supper, telling his followers then and now, “I have given you a model to follow.”
The Mass commemorating Jesus’s gift of the Eucharist at the Last Supper was followed by Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the cathedral’s St. Anthony Chapel.
During the prayer of the faithful, Cardinal McElroy encouraged people to “remember the Lord’s selfless love for us symbolized in the washing of the feet and the Eucharist itself.” He also asked God “to help us remember your Son in the breaking of the bread and in our service to our brothers and sisters.”
In his homily, Cardinal McElroy told a story about the noted American writer James Agee, who in his book “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” chronicled how individuals and families heroically faced deprivations during the Depression.
The cardinal noted how one night Agee was driving in the back country of Appalachia during a downpour, and his car skidded and hit a tree. Lost in the darkness, he wandered toward a light, which turned out to be a small, broken-down cabin. He was welcomed inside by a young man, who invited him to join their family for a dinner. Around the table were an elderly grandfather and grandmother, the man and his wife and their three children.
A crucifix was at the center of the table, and before they ate, each family member gave thanks for God’s blessings that day, and the grandfather read from the Bible. After praying silently, they shared what they had with their guest, soup and pieces of bread from a large loaf that fed the family.
Cardinal McElroy said Agee later wrote that meal reflected the symbolic meaning of the Eucharist, and the Eucharist always meant more to him after that night, after finding God’s grace in the life of that family, in their prayer, their welcome, their thanksgiving and their sacrifice.
Commenting on the writer’s experience, Cardinal McElroy said, “These are the elements of the Eucharist, which is the sacrament of the real presence of Christ, which we celebrate this night. Christ’s supper, undertaken on the night before His passion and death, the sacrifice for our redemption. An act of thanksgiving for all that we have known in our lives, every grace that God has poured upon us. The food, the nourishment, the Body and Blood of Jesus in its reality, given to us to help us, sustain us on our journey in life, day in and day out, and to know that the Lord is with us. The community gathered around understanding the Lord calls each and every one of us to come to this altar and to find our salvation here – not merely as individuals, but as a community of faith, God’s sons and daughters, gathered together in faith.”
The cardinal also underscored how the family welcomed the stranger.
“For Agee, that moment of desperation in the hills when he was lost brought to him a penetrating and enduring sense of what the Eucharist truly means,” Cardinal McElroy said.
Scripture readings and prayers at the Mass were offered in English and Spanish. In an opening prayer at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Cardinal McElroy noted “Jesus’s example of perfect love.”
Holy Thursday marks the end of Lent and begins the sacred Triduum, the holiest three days in the Church calendar. Together with Good Friday and Easter, the three days recall Jesus’s Last Supper, His suffering and death on the cross, and His resurrection.
The Holy Thursday Mass concluded with Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Cardinal McElroy, the concelebrating priests, the liturgical ministers at the Mass, and members of the cathedral’s Schola Cantorum choir processed solemnly as the Eucharist was carried from the main altar by Father Isaac Sagastume, a parochial vicar at the cathedral, to a tabernacle in the St. Anthony Chapel. Cardinal McElroy and those who had processed to the chapel remained there praying silently as the Schola Cantorum sang Adoration motets including Jesu Dulcis Memoria and Tantum Ergo. After the cardinal and the concelebrating priests and liturgical ministers processed from the chapel, crowds of people gathered there to pray before the Blessed Sacrament in silent veneration prior to the cathedral closing for the evening.
After Adoration, the Most Blessed Sacrament was transferred to a side altar where it will remain until Holy Communion is distributed at the Good Friday liturgy. The cathedral’s main altar was stripped in preparation for tomorrow’s solemn Good Friday liturgy.
With the conclusion of the Holy Thursday Mass, no Masses will be celebrated until the Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 19. A liturgical service will commemorate Good Friday.
Link to photo gallery of the Mass of the Lord's Supper at the cathedral:
Link to livestream of Cardinal McElroy’s Holy Thursday Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral:
https://www.youtube.com/live/qmEx1fqZYzo
A livestream of a reflection on the Lord’s Passion, “The Seven Last Words of Christ” will begin at noon at on Good Friday April 18 at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, followed by Cardinal McElroy’s livestreamed Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord at 1 p.m. That livestream of the cardinal’s Good Friday liturgy can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/live/DLvzD7_b1ss
Also that day, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar will celebrate a Good Friday liturgy in Spanish at St. Matthew’s Cathedral at 4 p.m. The livestream of Bishop Menjivar’s Good Friday liturgy can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/live/V_PE6dv9bSg
On Holy Saturday April 19, Cardinal McElroy will celebrate a livestreamed Easter Vigil at St. Matthew’s Cathedral at 8 p.m. It will be available online at https://www.youtube.com/live/2tDprGQ3d4I
Then on Easter Sunday April 20, Cardinal McElroy will celebrate a livestreamed Mass at the cathedral at 9 a.m. It can be followed online at https://www.youtube.com/live/uy7-_Y8wXEI
Later on Easter Sunday, Cardinal McElroy will celebrate a noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that will be livestreamed on the basilica’s YouTube channel that can viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DNnKLJllzA
