The Eucharistic celebration was led by the Archbishop Coadjutor of Vrhbosna Msgr. Tomo Vukšić in concelebration with the Archbishop of Vrhbosna cardinal Vinko Puljić, provincial of the Franciscan province of Bosna Srebrena OFM Jozo Marinčić and eight other priests, among whom were Vicar General, Msgr. Slađan Ćosić, Rector of Cathedral Msgr. Ante Meštrović, Secretary General of the BK BiH Msgr. Ivo Tomašević and Cathedral parish priest and Dean of the Sarajevo Deanery venerable Mato Majić.

At the beginning of the Holy Mass Msgr. Vukšić thanked the staff of BHRT and Radio Marija BiH who directly transmitted the Eucharist and emphasized “that we are all together tonight, even though we are physically far from each other.”

“We are spiritually together to celebrate the Eucharistic Prayer and give gratitude to Christ on Maundy Thursday, the day the Eucharist was created, when priestly order was created, and when Jesus, in the same act, together with the two sacraments, gave His command of brotherly love to His disciples in the phrase ‘I gave you the example to do as I have done to you’. This is the birthday of the sacrament of the Eucharist, the birthday of the sacrament of the sacred order and the birthday of Christian brotherly love”, said Msgr. Vukšić emphasizing that Jesus did all this to remain with us in the sacrament of the Eucharist after leaving this world.

He then emphasized that the sacrament of service to brothers and sisters is a great honor for the priests, but also a great obligation, “which we perform in the fear of God, which we perform in the spiritual care of all the brothers and sisters, preferably as Jesus did”.

“This is an evening in which we priests thank God for the gift of the priestly vocation with which we are endowed without any merit. Just as He gave us physical life, He also gave us a form of spiritual life, of course with our consent. As we give thanks, we ask the Lord to bless us all and to pray for one another to persevere in both piety and faithfulness and to grow steadily in goodness and holiness. This is the day on which the priestly ministry was created in the church of Jesus. It is one of the few services in this world that is established primarily for the good of others and their salvation, not forgetting their own salvation of course”, added Msgr. Vukšić, reminding that Maundy Thursday is the day when all believers are called to pray for priestly vocations so that the Lord may bless the congregation with spiritual vocations.

Talking about the “invisible virus” that made this situation where there are no people of God in churches, he also pointed out the existence of another virus which he called spiritual.

“The spiritual virus breaks the soul of the modern man and the souls of the faithful and the faithful community, and very often empty altars appear on many sides of the world. Unfortunately, today we have an empty church and a full altar, thank God. We ask the mercy of God for the people to return to the churches as soon as possible and for the altars never to be empty”, said Msgr. Vukšić ending his homily with a brief prayer to God for the congregation to expand and that God always gives it a priest who will serve the congregation in Jesus' example.

Then the prayer of the faithful was prayed by sister Zrinka Barišić.

This year, due to the state of emergency with the coronavirus pandemic and the decisions of the Crisis HQ of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the washing of the feet of the believers, as Jesus washed apostle’s feet, was not organized.

The liturgical singing was animated by regens chori, rev. Marko Stanušić.

The Eucharist transmitted directly, as in previous days, was commented by the deacon rev. Vedran Ćosić.