April 2, 2026 // Holy Thursday

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading for the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14

Reflect on the Word // 

Every Holy Thursday, I procure a lamb. Sometimes I buy lamb chops. Sometimes a small roast. Occasionally I simply procure it from a restaurant because Holy Week is tremendously busy when you work for the church. “Every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb” (Exodus 12:3). Yes, Lord, I have procured the lamb.

I feast before Holy Thursday’s Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, because lamb in your belly is the best when you are listening to these sacred Readings. I also remember the semester I spent student teaching in New Zealand, where there were ten times more sheep than people. My host dad, Roger, would say, “These lambs lived such happy lives.” 

That semester, I even got to shear some sheep for a school fundraiser. The lambs were small, fragile, and endlessly curious, chasing each other into trouble. Yet they trusted the shepherd completely. God asks the same, for us to rest in His care.

Tonight I step into a church buzzing with anticipation for the Triduum. I will help supervise more than forty altar servers. Amid the flurry of preparations, I recall the Lamb Whose sacrifice is perfect. In every Mass we encounter Him under the forms of bread and wine. Jesus is the unblemished Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, offering us His Body and Blood. Tonight we truly celebrate the gift of His priests and the gift of the Eucharist.

We, too, are called to procure the Lamb within our hearts. Just as the Israelites obediently marked their homes, our souls are indelibly marked through the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. The Lamb has conquered, bringing us from slavery to sin into a glorious life of freedom, hope, and love.

Let’s enter this Triduum with docile hearts, ready to receive the gifts the Lamb of God longs to give. May we, like those happy lambs in New Zealand, remain in the Good Shepherd’s care and live our happy lives with complete trust, abiding peace, and Easter joy.

Relate to the Lord // Thank God for His gift of the priesthood and the Eucharist. Pray for your parish priests offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass this Triddum.