Holy Thursday, Last Supper, final days of the honest-to-God savior of the world

From Traditional Latin Mass Propers In English:

Holy Thursday celebrates especially the institution of the Mass at the Last Supper. . . .  On this day, Jesus ordained the Apostles.

Twelve priests. The first class. Told them to say the mass.

"Do this in remembrance of Me.”

More than remembrance, of course. Not a memorial service, as we have for each other when we die or know someone who did, in or out of mass, as devout and heartfelt as that might be.

Or even a milked-down transubstantiation, giving us an enhanced spiritual presence, period.  No. A reenactment

This is a day to think of the great love Jesus showed in instituting the Eucharist and to return that love by receiving Him in Holy Communion.

Indeed.

Through Holy Communion we are united to Christ and to one another.

In that order, of course.

What happened then, per St. John Cardinal Newman in a meditation:

Our Lord's sufferings were so great, because His soul was suffering. . . . before His bodily passion, as we see in the agony in the garden.

A grim scene.

The first anguish . . . was not from the scourges, the thorns, or the nails, but from His soul. His soul was in such agony that He called it death: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death."

A Jesuit friend told me he once had suffered physical and mental pain, both very bad, at different times. Said the mental was worse, hands down. So for our Savior, per Cardinal N.

The anguish was such that it, as it were, burst open His whole body . . .  The blood, rushing from his tormented heart, forced its way on every side, formed for itself a thousand new channels, filled all the pores, and at length stood forth upon His skin in thick drops, which fell heavily on the ground.

After He'd ordained His successors. Ceremony done, supper over, the traitor dispatched, he had gone out out to pray, and we have an idea of what happened.

More from Cardinal Newman here.