Holy Thursday

Tonight the Church celebrates Christ’s enduring presence in the world.  At the very end of the Gospel of Matthew, we hear Our Lord say, “Lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world.”  “I am with you always.”  There are many ways in which Christ’s presence remains in the Church.  But the most powerful way, the deepest way, the most staggering presence of Christ in our lives, is the most Holy Eucharist.  The banquet of his body and blood.  A meal, but so much more.  Because of what the meal contains: it contains the cross of Christ.  That evening in the Upper Room seemed at first to be a gathering for dinner.  But then, see what happens.  The Lord takes an unexpected turn: he starts talking about his own imminent death.  A very awkward topic for polite dinner conversation.  But this is something else.  Christ himself insists upon the connection between tonight and tomorrow, between Thursday and Friday, between the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Cross.  In this great ritual, this sacrament, he provides his apostles and us with constant access to his saving cross.  The Eucharist is how the cross is made real in our lives.  His words over the bread and wine: this is my body which is given up for you; this is the chalice of my blood.  The Lord takes bread and wine; ordinary food and drink at what had seemed to be an ordinary meal with his friends, and he transforms the experience into something completely different.  He knew what was going to happen the next day, and he connected those Good Friday events in advance to this sacramental meal.  And in that, we have the Eucharist.  The ceremony is given on Thursday.  The content, the true meaning, becomes clear only on Friday.  And so, for us, now, in the Eucharist we come face to face with the Cross; we willingly digest the Cross and open ourselves to be transformed by the Cross: we come face to face with our sins and our weakness; we see what our sins do: they lead to suffering.  But we also find our salvation: we let Christ transform the crosses we bear into the Resurrection.  When we receive Holy Communion, or even when we are just present at Holy Mass, the power of the Cross is made real in our lives, our sins are washed away, and Christ’s triumph over sin and death becomes powerfully present for us. 

On this night Our Lord also institutes the great gift of the holy priesthood: the priesthood is the instrument that God uses throughout the ages to give this great gift of the Eucharist to his people.  The priest is many things: he is a Shepherd, an advisor, a comforter, a father.  But above all, at his core, a priest is one who offers sacrifice, and a priest of the Christian Religion is one who offers this specific sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ’s Cross in the Eucharist.  That’s why it’s so appropriate that we celebrate the institution of the priesthood this evening as well: the anniversary of the Eucharist is also the anniversary of the priesthood.  Today we priests renew our dedication to be men of sacrifice: men of the sacrifice, men who stand in the middle of this great dynamic of the Cross and the Eucharist.  On Tuesday, at the Mass of the Holy Chrism with our Bishop, Monsignor Gideon and I, along with all of the priests of our diocese, renewed our connection to this sacrifice; we renewed our dedication to live lives of complete service to the Holy Sacrifice.  On this day we priests ask you for your prayers for us, that we may be faithful to the sacrifice which we offer daily, which is the center of our lives.  

Finally, this liturgy calls to mind our Lord’s command to love one another.  There are so many shallow and twisted ideas in our world today of what love is.  Our Faith teaches us that the Cross is our sign of love and our path to meaning and true peace.  The Cross is the icon of true love.  Emotions come and go, but the choice to live lives of selflessness and sacrifice for others: that’s where true love is found.  When we’re not sure what love truly is, we look to the Cross.  The Lord gives us the command to love, and he helps us understand what that means, what love truly is.  It’s his cross.  But the cross is hard; this is a hard teaching; and so he gives us a way to embrace it.  And that’s the Holy Eucharist, sweet and grace-filled food to help us to truly know how to love, and to find the strength to do it.  We look to the cross as our guide and we gather strength from Christ’s Body and Blood, as we strive to live the great adventure of the Christian life, redeemed by the blood of Christ and brought to new life in his Cross and Resurrection. 


Good Friday

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.  Our Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us.  Paid the price of sin, though he had bought none for himself.  By his stripes we are healed.  Today the powers of hell have done their worst.  Creatures tortured and murdered their creator.  A moment ago, we all shouted “Crucify him”: because we did, because we have.  By our sins, we have put to death the one who gave us life.  But this day, this Friday, is called Good.  Because what seemed to be evil’s greatest triumph was actually his final and glorious defeat.  At the meeting point of those two beams of wood is the center of all human history; from those beams hang every sin and all sin; the perfect God and perfect man has made the perfect sacrifice, for us all, and for us each.  We adore the cross which we ourselves constructed for our Lord.  Because it is our life; it is our hope; it is our salvation.  We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.


Easter Vigil

Alleluia, Our Lord is risen and dies no more: sin and death are now powerless and we truly have nothing to fear.  Light has overcome darkness.  A new creation has sprung into being on this night.  We began the liturgy by remembering God creating all things in the beginning of time: the original creation.  We heard God say “Let there be light.”  In the beginning, God’s creative power brought light and life out of darkness.  In the early hours of Easter morning, God uttered those words again, “Let there be light” as the single flickering light of the resurrection overcame the darkness of the world, the darkness of Christ’s death; the light of this candle can never be put out; it overcomes all darkness.  Jesus’ passion and death was a solar eclipse: the Son was blotted out.  But this dark night has passed.  Now it is the day once again; creation is begun anew.  “Let there be light,” says God once more.  Jesus rises from the grave.  The Son re-appears.  Life is stronger than death.  Good is stronger than evil.  Love is stronger than hate.  Truth is stronger than lies.  The darkness of the previous day is driven away in a moment, as Jesus rises from the grave and shines with God’s pure light.  And the Good News doesn’t stop there: this light is not just a brief flash in the darkness of that one day.  With the resurrection of Jesus, light itself is created anew.  The new light of the resurrection shines throughout the entire world and conquers all darkness.  His Resurrection conquers the darkness in my own life.  His Resurrection conquers the darkness in my own heart.  His Resurrection banishes the darkness that had been at home in the world since the Fall of man.  None of us needs to fear the darkness of sin and death any more.  

Through the sacrament of baptism and the profession of faith, the Lord’s light shines upon us individually and personally.  The Lord says to the baptized: Fiat lux: let there be light.  God’s new day, the day of indestructible life, comes also to each one of us.  From now on we walk with Christ in the light, and we want that light to shine forth in us and through us as well.  The Church reflects upon this mystery of light using a unique and very meaningful symbol: the Paschal candle.  This is a powerful symbol of Christ, because this is light that shines only because of its own sacrifice.  The candle gives its life to shed light: as it burns, it is burnt up, it is burnt into nothing.  It will have sacrificed its life to give light.  This is a powerful symbol of the paschal mystery of Christ, who gives himself, who sacrifices himself to bestow his great light upon the world.  And we are called to do the same.  We are called to be shining lights for the world: sacrificing ourselves, spending ourselves, all the way down, for the glory of God and in sacrificial love for our fellow men and women.  We are all part of the light.  Each of us has his own candle.  We are all called to contribute to spreading the light of Christ.  God wants us to do our part, to spend ourselves, like the candle does willingly and joyfully, to spread the light of Christ’s love in the world.  May the Lord allow us to experience the joy of his light; and may we ourselves may be bearers of that light, so that through the Church, Christ’s radiant face may shine in our world.  Amen, alleluia.