Blessed Holy Thursday to you my brothers and sisters in Christ! This day truly does hold a very solemn celebration, and it indeed holds an extremely important part of our faith in Christ. On this day, Holy Thursday, 1996 years ago, Christ our Lord, being the Son of the Living God, eradicated the Old Covenant, and instituted the New Covenant, full of God's Grace. Christ did this by his institution of the Holy Eucharist, where he took bread, gave thanks, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take this and eat of it all of you. For this is my Body, which will be given up, for you." And likewise with the cup of wine, he also gave thanks, drank it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take, and drink. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you." This part of the Last Supper, or some call the Mystical Supper, is an extremely important part of our faith in Christ, and it is extremely important to understand what happens here, when Christ our Lord institutes the Holy Eucharist. Because once we understand what is going on, our faith is guaranteed to strengthen, deepen, and become more intimate.

A visual guide is very important to our understanding of the Holy Gospel, but for this it is especially important. So, here is a short clip from The Chosen, showing the exact time that Jesus Christ, Son of Man and Son of God, instituted the Holy Eucharist, the Messianic Banquet, for our salvation, for our intimate Union and Communion with God, and to pave the way for us to receive the full presence of the Holy Spirit and the full Grace of God, that we might be transformed by his Grace and Love:

Here is the link if it does not play for you

With this clip of The Chosen, the Holy Scripture passage from Luke detailing the Mystical Supper at the top of this article, and with the Grace of the Holy Spirit guiding our hearts to understanding, let us now be attentive and understand what our Lord Jesus Christ does for us once he fully institutes the Holy Eucharist.

From the Holy Scripture from Luke, we see that before Christ institutes the Holy Eucharist, he took another cup, a different cup from the Eucharistic cup, and with this first cup, before the cup that held his most precious blood, he said to his disciples, "Take this and divide it among yourselves: for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." This first cup that Christ talks about is the cup that concludes the Old Testament Passover meal. After this cup, the Passover meal is deemed obsolete and outdated. This is because Christ, being the total fulfillment of the Law, had to eat this Passover meal, in order to fulfill the entire law, so that we would not be under the yoke of the law, but under the yoke of God's Grace. Being the Son of the Living God, he does just that, fulfilling the law 100%. And Christ speaking about the coming of the Kingdom of God, that means until Christ's resurrection from the dead. After the Kingdom of God has been fully established here on earth, with the greatest might of power ever shown, then Christ will eat and drink again with his disciples, but in that day in the form of the Holy Eucharist, for the old Passover meal has been replaced with the Messianic Banquet, the Holy Eucharist.

After this first cup which is the fulfillment of the Law, Christ now institutes the Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ. It is the testimony of the Holy Fathers of the Holy Church, Fathers such as Saint Justin Martyr, that this bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Christ, the same body crucified at Golgotha, the same blood straight from his pierced side. It is important to note that Christ did not say 'This represents my body,' but Christ actually said, "This is my Body," and since we know that God is clear in his teachings and makes it easy for us to remember and understand his teachings, Christ really did mean that the bread and wine used in Holy Eucharist is actually his real body and blood. So therefore, early Christians and early saints like Justin Martyr therefore say things like "that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which come from him is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus," (Justin Martyr, circa 150 AD). As we remember the words of Christ as recorded in John 6:54, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day," this belief is supported. The Eucharist is not a symbol of Christ's body and blood, but actually his body and blood. And once we have this correct and Orthodox belief of the Holy Eucharist, we begin to really know and feel the Grace of God within the Eucharist. It is the testimony of many Early Fathers of the Church and of the Holy Church today that when we partake in the Holy Eucharist, we are intimately united with Christ by the Holy Eucharist. Union with Christ is given when we eat of the Holy Eucharist, we are given by God's mercy his wonderful Grace by this Holy Eucharist, and we, partaking in the Holy Eucharist, can become more Christ-like, by God's Grace.

And this wonderful sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, was instituted by Christ, on this day, Holy Thursday, on the night of the Passover meal, given by God's love for our sake, given so that we might have the way back into intimate communion with God, given so that we might be abiding in God's love forever. Let us give thanks to God for this wonderful gift from him, this wonderful gift of Grace, and let us always be attentive, faithful, believing, and loving in the partaking of the Holy Eucharist. For God's love and Grace are truly present in Christ's Body and Blood, the Holy Eucharist, and that is truly all what we need.
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Glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever and ever unto the end of the age. Amen.