Maundy Thursday (Year C)
First Reading - Genesis 14.18-20a
A reading from the book of Genesis.
King Melchizedek of Salem
was a priest
of God Most High.
And he brought out bread,
and wine.
And he blessed Abram,
saying, ‘Blessed be Abram,
by God Most High,
the maker
of heaven and earth.
And blessed
be God Most High, who has
delivered you
from the hands
of your enemies.’
This is the word of the Lord.
Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 11.23-26
A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
The teaching
I received
from the Lord
is the teaching
I pass on
to you:
that the Lord Jesus,
on the night
he was betrayed,
took bread;
and when he had given thanks,
he broke it,
and said,
‘This is my body,
which is
given
for you;
do this
in remembrance of me.’
In the same way,
after
they had eaten,
he took the cup,
and said,
‘This cup
is the new covenant
in my blood;
do this, whenever you drink it,
in remembrance
of me.’
So whenever
you eat this bread,
and drink
this cup,
you proclaim
the Lord’s death,
until he comes.
This is the word of the Lord.
Gospel - John 6.22-35
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
according to John.
Some from the crowd
stayed overnight, at the lakeside,
at the place where Jesus
had given thanks over the bread,
and the whole crowd had eaten.
In the morning, when they realised
that both Jesus and the disciples
had left, they went by boat
to Capernaum, to look for Jesus there.
When they found Jesus,
they asked him, ‘Teacher, when did you come here?’
Jesus said, ‘You have come to find me,
not because you understood the meaning
of the sign
that you witnessed,
but because you ate your fill of bread!
Do not work
for the food that perishes,
but work for the food
that endures
for eternal life -
the food
that the Son of Man will give you;
for it is on
the Son of Man
that God the Father
has set
his seal.’
They said to him, ‘What must we do
to be doing
the work of God?’
Jesus said, ‘This is the work of God:
that you believe
in the one
that God
has sent.’
So they said to him, ‘What sign
are you going to give us,
so that we may see it,
and believe in you?
Our ancestors
ate manna
in the wilderness;
it says, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’
Jesus said to them,
‘It was not Moses who gave you
the bread from heaven;
it is my Father who gives you
the true bread from heaven -
the bread of God
that comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.’
They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me
will never be hungry,
and whoever believes in me
will never be thirsty.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord.