By Joe Pisani
April 2, 2026 – During the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Bishop Frank J. Caggiano in remembrance of Jesus’ act of humility and service, knelt and washed the feet of 12 parishioners, including a little boy.
The ritual of Mandatum recalls Jesus’ command to “love one another as I have loved you.”
“My friends, he who is the master washed the feet of his apostles, which was the job of a slave,” Bishop Caggiano said. “The Lord did that to remind us we who are love are to love. We who are brave are to set people free. We who are exalting cannot forget those who are in pain, enslaved, embittered, disappointed, lonely and abandoned. Among us, there are no servants and there are no masters. There are only sisters and brothers in love.”
The liturgy at St. Augustine, The Cathedral Parish, brought many faithful to the start of the Sacred Paschal Triduum for evening Mass, commemorating the Last Supper, when Jesus instituted the sacraments of Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders.
It was then that he took bread and wine and blessed them to became his Body and Blood and offered himself as a new Passover sacrifice. He also commissioned his Apostles to “do this in remembrance of me,” and established the priesthood.
During his homily, Bishop Caggiano said: “Consider the great mystery that brings us here. Consider the love we are celebrating. Consider the reckless and generous love of Our Savior who made himself the Lamb of God. Consider what it is we receive every time we come to sacred Mass. And how often we forget that which we receive is not a ‘what,’ it is a Who … and it is our Passover to eternal life.”
Bishop Caggiano described the celebration of the traditional Passover, when our Jewish sisters and brothers recall their liberation from Pharaoh. During his Last Supper, as Jesus was about to enter into his Passion, he and his Apostles shared bread, wine, roasted lamb and bitter herbs in the traditional meal.
Jesus, however, gave the world “a Passover of immense and divine consequence, not freedom from the slavery this world can impose, but freedom from sin and death.”
“Tonight, my friends,” he said, “we are reminded of this great gift, which is the foundation of our life. So let us leave this church renewed as we receive, as we watch, as we adore. Let us be renewed in believing with all our hearts and minds and souls that we are worth everything to Christ, who gave us everything in return. And may we leave this church willing to give to others what he has given to us.”
In his homily, the bishop discussed the significance of the four cups of wine during the Jewish Passover service — the first reminded them of the liberation from Pharaoh in Egypt, the second cup they drank as the events of Exodus were being retold; the third cup was a blessing for the liberation and redemption Yahweh gave his people. And it was this cup, the bishop said, that Jesus shared, as he broke the bread which became his Body and the wine which became his blood.
The fourth cup was traditionally one of praise from the Psalms for what God accomplished, but Jesus shared no fourth up at the meal.
“In that last act, the Lord was teaching us the mystery of what you and I celebrate here at the altar every day in his grace,” the bishop said. “For the Lord chose not to end the Passover meal at the table, but he continued the Psalms of praise in the Agony in the Garden, as he walked beaten into the praetorium, in the palace basement of Herod, in his interrogation with Pilate, in his brutal beatings and being nailed to a cross. There, the Passover continued for the Lord. And when did he drink the fourth cup? Scripture tells us the soldiers at the very end of his life, raised a sponge filled with vinegar and placed it to his lips. That, my friends, is the fourth cup.”
During that moment the Lord was making himself the eternal Passover, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Bishop Caggiano said. “He breathed his last and gave us a Passover that will never end, so that you and I may have a Passover from death to life, from sin to glory.”
He told the faithful, “When we gather here tonight, we see the awesome mystery that you and I celebrate in his name, for he invites us to enter into the very mystery of his death, leading in three days to the Resurrection of new life. Then, we enter into the gift of his life that we receive in his sacred Body and Blood — the sacrament of his Passover.”
After Mass, the congregation followed Bishop Caggiano as he carried the Blessed Sacrament in a solemn procession through the cathedral to the altar of repose at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, where there was a statue of Jesus in the Garden with an angel. The faithful knelt in the pews and the aisles before the altar, and throughout the evening, some stayed for prayer and adoration.
Ilda Depine, who has been a parishioner at St. Augustine since 1972 when she came to America from Cape Verde, said she attends the Holy Thursday liturgy every year and is always moved by it. To her, it is a reminder that Jesus is truly alive in the Eucharist.
She was joined by several relatives, including her twin sister Idalina, who said, “I believe 100 percent Jesus is present in the Eucharist.”
Their cousin Maria Batista also reaffirmed her faith in the Real Presence and said, “Jesus is in the Eucharist, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.”
Eileen Masaryk, wife of Deacon Thomas Masaryk of the Cathedral Parish, did the second reading from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 where St. Paul recounts the tradition of the Lord’s Supper.
“It’s special for us to be here tonight,” she said, “and remember that the Lord gave us his Body and Blood so we could have eternal life.”
The cathedral is a very special place for her because of the friendship of the parishioners. “They will greet you and show kindness even though you may not speak the same language,” she said. “Everyone embraces you, and it is so special here, especially tonight.”
