20 - Holy Thursday
Chrism Mass

Readings and Gospel

Lectionary for the Holy Thursday Chrism Mass - This has all the readings and Gospel

Lectionary for the Holy Thursday Evening Mass - This has all the readings and Gospel

Lectionary for the Holy Thursday - This has all the readings and Gospel

The details below are for the Chrism Mass.

Isaiah 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9 - The Anointed Bearer of Glad Tidings

• Verses 1-2 - The prophet proclaims that he has been anointed by the Lord to bring good news (cf. Isaiah 40:9) to the afflicted and to comfort Zion. The background to the “year of favor” is the jubilee year of release from debts (Leviticus 25:10–11; Isaiah 49:8).

• Verse 6a - The bestowal of a new name suggests a new identity and mission. The whole people will be priests (cf. Exodus 19:6), even ministering to nations who will serve God’s people.

Revelation 1:5-8 - Greeting

Luke 4:16-21 - The Rejection at Nazareth

Who / What / Where is...?

Isaiah

• His name means "God is Salvation".

• Isaiah is one of the prophets in the Old Testament -- around 742 BC to 701 BC, and it may have continued even longer, until 687 BC. He appeared at a critical moment in Israel’s history. 

• More information here.

Zion

• Jerusalem

• Sometimes pertains to the land of Israel

The Alpha and the Omega

• The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In Revelation 22:13 the same words occur together with the expressions “the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End”.

Luke

• He was a physician. He was a disciple of St Paul. 

• He wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts (or Acts of the Apostles).

• Short video about St Luke (2 minutes 21 seconds)

Nazareth

• Where St Joseph and Mother Mary lived

• Where Angel Gabriel appeared to Mother Mary (the annunciation)

• Where Jesus grew up.

• This is located in today's Israel's northern district.

• It is near the Sea of Galilee (also known as Lake Tiberias)

According to his custom

• Jesus’ practice of regularly attending synagogue is carried on by the early Christians’ practice of meeting in the temple (Acts 2:46; 3:1; 5:12).

  • • Synagogue

    • A place for prayer and study of scripture. In the time of Jesus, this is open to all Jews where one (who is not a priest) can read the scripture to the assembly. This is different from the temple (where the Jews offered sacrifices).

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me

• See note on Luke 3:21–22. As this incident develops, Jesus is portrayed as a prophet whose ministry is compared to that of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Prophetic anointings are known in first-century Palestinian Judaism from the Qumran literature that speaks of prophets as God’s anointed ones. To bring glad tidings to the poor: more than any other gospel writer Luke is concerned with Jesus’ attitude toward the economically and socially poor (see Luke 6:20, 24; 12:16–21; 14:12–14; 16:19–26; 19:8). At times, the poor in Luke’s gospel are associated with the downtrodden, the oppressed and afflicted, the forgotten and the neglected (Luke 4:18; 6:20–22; 7:22; 14:12–14), and it is they who accept Jesus’ message of salvation.

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Saints