Sacred Heart Parish

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HOLY THURSDAY – 2010

  1. Several significant changes are made in the First Eucharistic Canon which we will pray this solemn evening at this Holy Thursday Liturgy. Two of the changes involve the Latin word “trado, tradere”, from which comes the noun “traditor” which enjoys a variety of meanings. “Tradere” means to give, to deliver, to hand over, and so we will pray: “Father, accept this offering from your whole family in memory of the day when Jesus Christ, Our Lord, handed over the mysteries of his body and blood for his disciples to celebrate.” In this prayer, Jesus is the “traditor”, the one who does the handing over. The word “tradere” also means to betray, so we will pray – “In union with the whole Church, we celebrate that day when Jesus Christ was betrayed, was handed over for us.” In this prayer, Judas is the “traditor”, the one who does the handing over, the one of whom it was said – “It would have been better if he had not been born”. Judas betrays his Lord, but all is great mystery here for Jesus says in John’s Gospel – “The Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one can take it from me, but I lay it down myself”. The Easter Mystery, then, is the story of the two who do the handing over – Jesus who is the very grace of God and Judas the very hour of darkness. Each one of us here this evening has within us, we might say, something of Jesus and something of Judas, the self-giving love that seeks to hand itself over for God and neighbor, the self-seeking love that is tempted to betray the love of the cross. Jesus obeys; Judas does not.

  2. The directives that guide our worship this evening provide the homilist with precise instructions: the homilist should explain the principle mysteries which are commemorated at this liturgy: the institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the ministerial priesthood, and Christ’s command that we who follow Christ love one another as he has loved us. The priesthood is for the sake of the Eucharist and the Eucharist is the sacrament of charity – a sacrament which makes present here and now Christ’s paschal mystery, and empowers us to live the paschal mystery by our obedience to the command of love. Each mystery is constitutive of the church. Without the Eucharist there is no Church; without the ministerial priesthood there is no Church; without the Lord’s command to love and the obedience thereto of the saints, there is no Church. I should underscore the expression “the obedience of the saints”, because, as G. K. Chesterton reminds us – “In the end, one cannot judge the Church by the actions of sinners but only by the actions of the saints, since only the saints uphold in practice the teachings of the Church”. This evening I would like to say a few words in praise of Christ, our great high priest. Before doing so, however, I should say something about the dark and foreboding clouds that overshadow the ministerial priesthood at this time in Church history and thus diminish the joy that flows from the deep truths of faith which we call to mind and celebrate in this holiest of weeks.

  3. Since sin’s first appearance in human history, light and darkness, good and evil, saints and sinners have been omnipresent at all times. Saints and sinners are in every corner of the world, in the Church and in society, omnipresent because such contrasts mirror the good and evil in every human heart – a heart described by the psalmist as an unsearchable abyss. Theologians and others constantly wrestle with the problem of holy Church that is also a church of sinners. Did not the Lord instruct us to pray – “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”? As we wrestle with the problem of sex abuse in the Church and in society, massively present throughout all strata of society, it is good to bear in mind what a friend of mine has pointed out with reference to the mosaics in the catacombs in the City of Rome. He said to me – the most frequent image archeologists have discovered in their catacomb excavations is the image of Christ the Good Shepherd. After Christ’s image the most frequently found other image is that of St. Peter – not Peter receiving the keys, not Peter preaching as described in the Acts of the Apostles, but the image of Peter and the rooster – “Amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you have denied me three times”. The image of Peter the penitent became in those days a sign of hope for those who had failed the test in early persecutions, and a call for compassion from the Church at large. On this Holy Thursday celebration of the Lord’s great gifts to us, should we not keep asking ourselves where we can find, not the admixture of light and darkness, but the light that knows no darkness, that is, the light which is Christ, our great high Priest?

  4. Priesthood refers primarily not to some thing but to some one. Priesthood refers to the Lord Jesus himself. Priesthood refers to the Lord Jesus, not in terms of his divinity, but because of his humanity, his coming among us as our unique mediator with the Father. At Christmastime, do we not say – “Marvelous is the mystery proclaimed today: man’s nature has been made new as God becomes man. He remains what he was equal to the Father and the Spirit; He becomes what he was not – our priest, our mediator, our pontiff, our bridge-builder. St. Augustine puts it this way – “In that he is born of the Father, God is God, he is not a priest. God is a priest because of the flesh he assumed, because of the victim he received from us for the purpose of offering it in sacrifice. Being priest, we have said means being a bridge-builder. Catherine of Siena tells us in one of her writings how God the Father revealed Christ the bridge-builder to her: I want you to understand the bridge, the Father says to Catherine, I have built a bridge for you who is my only-begotten Son. It reaches from heaven to earth, from the greatness of divinity to the earth of your humanity. This was necessary in order to restore the road that was broken and to make it possible for men and women to pass through this world’s experience and attain eternal life. In order that you may have eternal life, it is not enough, the Father says, that my Son should have become the bridge. It is essential that you pass over this bridge to attain your final goal.

  5. Our celebration of the paschal mystery begins with this evening’s Eucharist. May this year’s celebration lead us not only to understand but also to experience that our redemption in Christ is not so much a past event but a present reality. Yes, Christ himself, in his body, died on the cross and rose from the dead in a new and powerful light. Since that glorious moment, he is alive, he is present as he promised. Through his Holy Spirit he is at work at every moment of time and in every place. It is by faith and by the power of the Eucharist that we appropriate for ourselves the light and power that Jesus offers. He desires now to celebrate in each one of us his Passover from death to life. Let us prepare to experience this from within. Let us prepare to encounter love, to “taste” love and in some humble way make it known through the lives we live. Let us close no doors to Christ, the Redeemer, our Great High Priest.