Holy Thursday Bilingual 2026

For today’s Holy Thursday homily, Father Eamon shares a reflection in English, followed by Father Martin in Spanish.
 Para la homilía de este Jueves Santo, el Padre Eamon comparte una reflexión en inglés, seguido por el Padre Martin en español.

In this reflection, we enter into three key mysteries of Holy Thursday:

The Blood on the Doors & the Blood of Baptism
From the Book of Exodus, we recall how the blood of the lamb marked the doors so that death would not enter. This points forward to Baptism, where the Blood of Jesus washes us and brings us new life. Each time we bless ourselves with holy water, we remember this saving grace.

The New Covenant & Holy Communion
Saint Paul reminds us that Jesus establishes a new covenant—not with the blood of animals, but with His own Body and Blood. In receiving the Eucharist, we receive His very life. This is why Sunday Mass and Holy Communion are essential to our spiritual life.

The Service of Jesus & Our Call to Serve
In the Gospel of John, Jesus humbles Himself to wash the feet of His disciples. Through this powerful act, He shows us that true greatness is found in love and service. We are invited to follow His example in our daily lives.

The liturgy continues with the Washing of the Feet, inviting us not only to witness Christ’s love—but to live it.
 La liturgia continúa con el lavatorio de los pies, invitándonos no solo a contemplar el amor de Cristo, sino a vivirlo.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:24

For today's homily this evening, Father Eamon and I are gonna do a tag team. Um and I forgot to mention at the beginning of the mass today, Semol De Cir, just to introduce uh the clergy who are here with us today, todo el clero que está con nosotros hoy día. Of course, we have our priests, nuestros sacerdotes que están con nosotros, uh Father Eamon, uh Father Zan, and then uh Father Dick Delhante, and as well as our uh esteemed deacons who are here with us as well. So why don't we uh welcome them with a round of applause for them on the and you may also see we're trying something a little bit new on the screens. So hopefully when Father Eamon speaks uh in English, it should translate a little bit to Spanish. Um I know you have to be kind of close to see it, right? As a little bit small. And then hopefully, when I speak in Spanish later, it will translate to English on the screen for you to see as well. So uh at this moment, uh Father Eamon will share his reflection on the Word of God today.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

With that introduction, I'm not nervous at all. But I go back to the 1980s when I was pastor at St. Columbus in Garden Grove. We were used to visiting the local hospital, the Garden Grove Medical Center. We were accustomed to visiting there. And one Saturday afternoon stands vividly in my memory in that regard. I went to the room where the man was. He's surrounded by his family. He was alert but dying. I went to him and I asked him if he would like to receive communion, viadicum actually, food for the journey to the next world, to heaven. An extraordinary gift. And his family said yes. So I did. I took the host, I broke it. His mouth was very dry. So I needed to moisten the host. Jesus did use saliva. I did on that day, and then placed the Eucharist into his open mouth. I commended him to the Lord, and then I was leaving. As I was leaving, I was stopped at the door to the room by an infant in his father's arms. The father had been feeding him bread. White bread. The child took some of the white bread in his mouth, which at this stage had become the texture of his flesh, and reached it out to me. His father looked at me and said, You better. And I did. The child placed the moistened bread in my mouth, and then I continued on my journey. It was many years later. I was officiating at a very tragic service. A vigil service. An awful act of violence. The vigil was an open wound, was the best way to describe it. And I was walking out afterwards into the dark. There were a group of young men standing around in a circle. One of them turned toward me and walked in my direction. And he said, I remember you. Do you remember me? Now challenging my memory is a very dangerous exercise at the best of times. He said, I was the child. He need not say any more than that. He was the child who gave me the bread. I remembered. In the midst of that horrifying tragedy, I forget the shape of it. But he remembered. And so we were able to cast our mind forward to the following day. And the gift that would be given. The flesh of Jesus would be given. The memory of a child who fed me and insisted on feeding me in my open mouth continues to remain with me. Because in a matter of speaking, that has become my Eucharistic posture. I, in a manner of speaking, receive communion through my open mouth. I in my hand, of course. But you know how I'm referring to it. And through the passage of time, the open mouth becomes the mouth of God. We pride ourselves on being an oral tradition. And to a certain extent, we might have lost touch with that. But as long as we're a Eucharistic people, we will be an oral tradition. Because it is all about the mouth of God. And not only that, but the word of God reflects it. There was a time when the proclamation of the word was somebody do the readings, perhaps? Not anymore. The proclamation of the word in your midst, and I hear it, is the open mouth of God. And I hear it that way. That is the strength of this. You feed me in more ways than one. And that in some respect, marvelous respect, becomes actually at my age a form of viadicum. No exaggeration there, I suppose, but realistic. Another growth among you, not growth is the word, but the way in which you embrace adoration. I heard a Benedictine monk refer to adoration. He said, never in the history of the church has there been more adoration among the people of God. You are becoming adorers. What does that mean in this day and age that your posture is one of adoration? And that is your growing posture. And when you embrace that life style, if you want to put it that way, do you know who you become? You become the song of songs. A book that has been a closed book to us in many ways. Through adoration has become an open book. And I use these sentiments from the Song of Songs to describe you as adorers. My beloved speaks. Arise, my love, my fair one. For lo the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The time of singing has come, and the turtle dove is heard in our land. The turtle dove is heard in our land.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

I will compare algunas palabritas in español for las personas que hablan español. Ahora, en la primera lectura del Éxodo, escuchamos que la sangre del Cordero estaba rociada en las puertas, pero específicamente las dos jambas y el dentel de las puertas. Y donde la sangre estaba marcada, no entra la muerte. No entra la muerte, ¿verdad? Les dije antes de la lectura de que este es un anticipo de un sacramento. ¿Cuál sacramento será? El bautismo. En el bautismo somos marcados, lavados con la sangre de Cristo. Y cuando somos marcados, no entra qué? La muerte. Por lo tanto, es tan importante recibir el sacramento del bautismo. Si tienen hijos, nietos, familiares que no han recibido ese sacramento, anímenlos a que reciben ese sacramento. Ese es el primer punto. Secondo punto. La segunda lectura de la palabra de Dios de Pablo a los Corintios les dice a los corintios que Jesús establece una nueva alianza. Ya no con la sangre de cabritos ni corderos, sino con la sangre de quién? De Cristo mismo. La sangre de Cristo mismo. Y con esa nueva alianza, como los israelitas recuerdan, comieron el Cordero. ¿Cuántas personas aquí les gusta comer el Cordero? Muy pocos. Muy pocos, ¿verdad? Comían el Cordero. Y la vida tuvieron un barbecue, ¿verdad? Del Cordero. Y la vida del Cordero entró en la persona. Así también nosotros con la nueva alianza. Hay un nuevo Cordero. Quién es ese Cordero, Cristo mismo, el nuevo Cordero. Y como los Israelitas comieron del Cordero, nosotros comemos el Cordero también. Ah, no en el barbecue, ¿verdad? Sino donde en la Eucaristía, la Santa Misa. Ustedes ven las conexiones. Primero con el bautismo, segundo con la Eucaristía, el cuerpo y sangre de Cristo, las conexiones. Por último, último punto. Jesús, en el Evangelio, se puso a hacer qué con sus discípulos. Lavar los pies. Imagínense, Dios mismo echó carne, lavando los pies de sus propios discípulos. Los discípulos deben estar lavando los pies de Jesús, pero Jesús se humilló de sí mismo, se arrodilló y lavó los pies de sus discípulos. Fíjense, cristianos católicos, este es nuestro llamado también servir como Cristo nos sirvió. Humildad de rodillas, servicio. Piensen, piensen en su corazón, su mente, todo su ser, Señor, cómo puedo servirte hoy día y cómo puedo servir a mi prójimo como tú lo hiciste con los disciples. Short homily. Now, vamos a revivir ese momento cuando Jesus la voy a los pies de los disciples. At this moment, we are going to relive the moment when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, giving them the new commandment of love and showing how we should serve as well. So at this moment, I'm going to invite our hospitality ministers. They're going to bring up the chairs.