Cardinal Timothy Dolan welcomed more than 2,000 faithful to St. Patrick's Cathedral Thursday evening, for the celebration of the Mass of the Lord's Supper.
"How welcome all of you are. We know every Mass is the greatest prayer that we have, but this evening’s is particularly fervent, is it not? On this very night of the Last Supper, of the night before He died, we all thank Almighty God for the gift of the Eucharist. We all thank Almighty God for the inspiration of the loving service that Jesus gave us as He washed the feet of his apostles. And for us bishops, priests, and deacons, a particularly moving evening as we praise Almighty God for the sacrament of Holy Orders," Cardinal Dolan said in his opening remarks.
He then introduced visiting bishops and concelebrants, including Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations; Bishop John O'Hara and Bishop Edmund Whalen of the Archdiocese of New York; and retired Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg-Tampa, who also served as the homilist.
In his homily, Bishop Lynch recalled that his father's dying words were, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" "I think the central theme which courses its way throughout this night is our Lord's desire to ask his disciples hours before his own passion and death: 'Is there anything else I can do for you?'"
"When we Catholics are not at prayer, we must and we do place ourselves at the service of others. Jesus loved us to death. Loving Him and serving Him is our answer to 'what else can we do?' The ball is now in our court," Bishop Lynch said at the conclusion of his homily.
A special feature of the Mass of the Lord's Supper is the washing of the feet, as Jesus washed His apostles' feet as an act of humility, described in Matthew 26. Cardinal Dolan performed this symbolic act, washing the feet of five seminarians and five former prisoners.