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The Sacred Paschal Triduum is a special time in the Church's liturgical year that focuses on Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection.
While the rest of the year follows a similar pattern, the Triduum breaks nearly every norm.
For example, throughout the year Mass is celebrated in the morning, with various Mass times offered in the evening for those who cannot make it earlier in the day or prefer an evening Mass.
However, for Holy Thursday the reverse is the case. The Mass of the Lord's Supper is always celebrated in the evening.
There may be a Mass celebrated on Holy Thursday morning, but it is the Chrism Mass, when the bishop blesses the sacred oils to be used in the coming year. Most dioceses transfer this Mass to an earlier day in Holy Week in order not to conflict with the beginning of the Triduum. The Vatican, however, has both Masses on Thursday.
The Roman Missal lays this out in its instructions for Holy Thursday:
The Mass of the Lord’s Supper is celebrated in the evening, at a convenient time, with the full participation of the whole local community and with all the priests and ministers exercising their office...Where a pastoral reason requires it, the local ordinary may permit another Mass to be celebrated in churches and oratories in the evening and, in case of genuine necessity, even in the morning, but only for the faithful who are in no way able to participate in the evening Mass. Care should, nevertheless, be taken that celebrations of this sort do not take place for the advantage of private persons or special small groups, and do not prejudice the evening Mass.
Why is that? What is so special about the "evening"?
Commemoration of the Last Supper
One of the chief reasons is because the Holy Thursday Mass commemorates the Last Supper. The Ceremonial of Bishops highlights this primary theme:
With this Mass, celebrated in the evening of the Thursday in Holy Week, the Church begins the sacred Easter Triduum and devotes herself to the remembrance of the Last Supper. At the supper on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus, loving those who were his own in the world even to the end, offered his Body and Blood to the Father under the appearance of bread and wine, gave them to the apostles to eat and drink, then enjoined the apostles and their successors in the priesthood to offer them in turn.
The Gospels are also clear as to "when" this biblical event took place:
When it was evening, he sat at table with the twelve disciples. (Matthew 26:20)
Even the word "supper" typically refers to the "evening meal" in the English language.
It is then most fitting that the Holy Thursday Mass begin when most people sit down to eat their evening meal, or at another similar time when all the faithful can attend.
Another reason for celebrating in the evening is that after the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the altar is stripped and the Blessed Sacrament carried in procession to the altar of repose. This recalls how Jesus went to Gethsemane after the Last Supper.
Most parishes schedule a time of quiet adoration in the late hours or all through the night, commemorating Jesus' request that his apostles keep vigil with him in the Garden of Olives.
