St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 2 April 2026
Welcome to the Mass of the Lord’s Supper beginning our three-day long commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. On the night before He died, Christ gave us a lasting example of Christian service, through washing the disciples’ feet; He gave us ministers of His word and sacraments, through establishing the Sacred Priesthood; and He gave us a perpetual memorial of His all-sufficing sacrifice by instituting the Holy Eucharist.
We celebrate the Triduum at a time of great suffering in the Lands of Israel and its neighbours. We pray for peace in the region of our Saviour’s life and for religious freedom everywhere.
We also pray at this time for the forthcoming Archdiocesan Synod, where we will explore ways to make our liturgies and lives be more prayerful, our parishes and communities more Christ-centred, and our priests and people more missionary.
Recently we received the bitter-sweet news that Bishop Anthony Randazzo, former Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney and until now Bishop of Broken Bay, has been appointed to an important role in the Vatican, and that Bishop Danny Meagher, until now Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, will go to Rockhampton as their new bishop. We pray for them both during this Triduum.
I acknowledge concelebrating with me Bishop Terry Brady, Vicar General Terry Brady, Dean Don Richardson with the cathedral clergy, and Seminary Rector Fr Michael de Stoop with the seminary faculty; the seminarians are assisting at this Mass with the deacons and choir.
As we accompany Christ at His last supper and garden prayers tonight, and as we join Him on His way to cross and tomb tomorrow, we ask Him to ready us to rise with Him from the graves of our sins and anxieties to new life at Easter…
“Where were the Women at the Triduum? 1. The Maundy Thursday Women”
Homily for Mass for the Lord’s Supper, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 2 April 2026
Where were the women on the first Sacred Triduum? The Gospels tell us that the apostles were sent to find a room in Jerusalem and prepare the Passover (Mt 26:17-19 et par.). In the first-century participants at a Passover would recline on cushions around a low table, retell the story of the Exodus and sing the psalms as we did tonight (Ex 12:1-14; Pss 113-118), and drink at least four toasts. The meal involved roast lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and aromatised wine. There might also be a fruit and nut paste, bean stew, and various dips. The men might have found and furnished the room, but only women would have known how to source and cook such a meal. So, acknowledged or not, the women of Jesus’ company probably did most of the work!
Jesus’ disciples had to find a dining room because they did not have a Jerusalem address. In the days before the Last Supper, they came in and out of Jerusalem, evading the authorities as best they could.[1] Their secret base was in Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, in the home of Jesus’ friends Lazarus, Martha and Mary.[2] There, on an earlier occasion, we glimpsed the women serving (and squabbling over serving) the food (Lk 10:38-42), while their brother Lazarus focused on eating. In those days meal prep was women’s work!
Back to the Last Supper and the invisible women. When, as we heard in our Gospel tonight (Jn 13:1-15), Jesus knelt to wash His disciples’ feet, it scandalised them. This was not how masters behaved with their disciples in that culture. It was work for a slave. Or for a woman, as we saw when Jesus’ own feet were washed in Bethany (Jn 11:2; 12:1-3; cf. Lk 7:36-50). But to teach them a lesson about Christian authority as service, Jesus assumes the role of a servant girl Himself.
Next, He institutes His Eucharist. He utters strange and portentous words. “Take and eat, this is my Body, given up for you… Take and drink, this is the chalice of my Blood of the new and eternal covenant… Do this in memory of me.” (1Cor 11:23-26) The men are agog at these words, as they are at His talk of arrest and abandonment. They respond with assertions of their self-importance, fidelity and fears. How about the women?
On the wall of a cell in the Dominican Priory of San Marco in Florence, Blessed Fra Angelico frescoed his Last Supper. It’s not as well-known as Da Vinci’s one for the Dominican Priory in Milan. But Angelico managed to fill a small room with life-sized figures of the apostles at the seder table or kneeling to receive Communion. Christ stands in the middle, placing a Host on John’s tongue; the others wait their turn in prayer. Unusually, that most orthodox of theological painters and patron saint of artists has the Blessed Virgin also present, kneeling and ready to receive. Point is: she was there, as were the other women who accompanied Jesus from Galilee to grave.[3]
After supper it was different. The men went out for air and prayer. The women were left behind for their safety and no doubt to clean up. Too inebriated to stay awake and pray, then shocked into ham-fisted defence, then deserting the scene altogether: it was not the men’s finest hour (Mt 26:36-56 et par.). I suspect the women would have made better prayer companions for Jesus in Gethsemane, and that once word of His arrest reached them, they would have spent the night in prayer.
So, where were the women that night? They were organisers and intercessors, while the men were concelebrants and witnesses. Both roles are necessary. Both are acts of discipleship. But the women outperformed the men that night.
The next woman we hear of in the Gospel is a servant girl in the high priest’s courtyard who challenges Peter about his identity (Mt 26:69-71 et par.). Ironically, Peter had been first to profess Jesus as the Christ; had been renamed ‘Rocky’, a solid foundation for the new Church; had only just declared his willingness to die for Jesus (Mt 16:13-29; 26:33–35). But he crumbles when a young woman asks whether he belongs to Jesus! It’s a moment that should humble us all, a reminder that the faith we can declare on our best days must still be lived on our worst. And so, for all their boldness and loyalty, the men could not be relied upon that night alone. They needed the women, interceding but also to holding them to account, asking the hard question: who are you really?
This will be confirmed in the days ahead. Tomorrow Jesus’ Mother and favourite ‘brother’ will stand together at the cross (Jn 19:25–27)—a woman and a man, side by side in faithfulness. On Easter morning it will be Mary Magdalene and Peter who, in their different ways, testify to the empty tomb and risen Lord (Lk 24:1-12; Jn 20:1–18). In the lead up to Pentecost, Mother Mary will be back in the cenacle with the men, calling down the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14). The pattern is unmistakable: the mission of Christ and His Church is carried forward by all of us, both men and women, each one discerning and contributing their gifts, each calling the other to fidelity.
Many women generously share their gifts in Church and society. Consecrated women established much of our social infrastructure in Australia, and women still lead many Church agencies, orders and lay organisations. In the Archdiocese of Sydney women head up our Chancery, Catholic Schools, University Chaplaincies, Early Childhood, and Caritas; are deans of the Seminary and Catholic universities; manage our departments for cathedral precinct, disability, ecumenism, indigenous, legal, safeguarding, and uni chaplaincy. They lead most of our preschools, schools, health and aged care, catechetics, and welfare services. At the most local level a man leads the parish and a woman usually leads the school, while a man and woman lead the domestic church. Thousands of women take part in our retreats, teaching, worship. We could always do more to ensure the right people lead and serve in the right places, but we can be proud of the contributions of Catholic women and men to Church and society.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we want a more prayerful, Christ-centred and missionary Church, we would do well to look to the holy woman on Jesus’ last betrayed and ever since. They did not need vestments or a place in the sanctuary to serve with authority in the Church. They showed their fidelity to Christ by following His selflessness, serving in their homes, workplaces and communities, praying for those in need, and giving a lead by proclaiming His resurrection.
Where were the women that first Holy Thursday night? Exactly where the Gospel always places the faithful disciple: close to Christ, at work, at prayer, and ready for whatever the morning will bring…
[1] Mt 20:17-18, 29; 21:1,8-11,17-18,23; 23:37-39; 24:1-3 26:6,18-20,30,36,57; et par.; Jn 11:1,54-55; 12:1,12,36.
[2] Mt 21:17; 26:6; Mk 11:1,11-12; 14:1-3; Lk 10:38-42; 19:29; 24:50; Jn 11:1-45; 12:1.
[3] Mt 27:55; Mk 15:40; Lk 8:1-2; 23:49,55.
