Maundy Thursday

On "Maundy Thursday," the Christian churches commemorate the "Last Supper," which Jesus is said to have celebrated with his disciples in Jerusalem on the eve of his crucifixion.

Both the derivation of the term and the nature of the meal are unclear. Perhaps the term "Gründonnerstag," commonly used in the German-speaking world today, originates from the Middle High German verbs "gronan" or "grīnan," which mean "to weep" or "to lament." If this derivation is correct, then the term would either refer to the fact that Jesus was arrested after the meal in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is why "Maundy Thursday" is considered the first day of the so-called "Triduum Paschale," the three days of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection, which initiates Jesus' suffering that the faithful "mourn" or "lament"; or the noun would indicate that according to ancient church custom, on this day, sinners who had been excluded from the community were "readmitted under tears" to the fellowship of believers. It could also be that the term "Maundy Thursday" derives from the liturgical color "green," which was worn in some regions on the day before Good Friday until its standardization in the 16th century.

Just as the origin of the term "Maundy Thursday" is not clearly defined, it is equally unclear whether the meal that Jesus celebrated was a Jewish Passover meal, as the three synoptic gospels assume. According to the chronology of the Gospel of John, the Passover meal begins only after Jesus' death on the cross, as Jesus was crucified on the "Preparation Day," i.e., the day on which the Passover meal was first prepared.

In both cases, the "Last Supper" that Jesus celebrated on "Maundy Thursday" serves in all Christian traditions as a model for the Christian celebration of the Eucharist, which, in terms of its proceedings, bears great similarities to a Jewish Passover celebration. Thinking in the categories of a "holy time," every Christian Eucharist celebration "brings to the present" Jesus' "Last Supper," which is why each such celebration not only remembers Jesus' "Last Supper" but also makes it present, so that, according to Christian understanding, Jesus himself is admitted at the meal. With the celebration of the "Last Supper" in the Roman Rite, in the liturgy of the Orthodox Churches of the Byzantine tradition, and some Protestant congregations, the ritual of the "washing of the feet" is associated, with which the celebrant, usually a bishop or priest, washes the feet of 12 people as a sign of charity, just as Jesus himself did for his disciples according to the account in the Gospel of John.