Holy Thursday
– April 13, 2017
And the Word [of God] – His
Divine Son - to redeem us from sin and death – became Flesh and made his
dwelling among us!
Thus, you have it: the joining
of the Christmas Cycle with the Lenten / Easter Cycle: Incarnation and Redemption as free gifts from God, our loving Father!
When we look around the world
today and see so much disarray, so much mal-contention, so much violence,
hatred and killing – so much dangerously ignorant incompetence in our own
national government – we might ask ourselves – and rightly so – why did he
bother? Why did GOD bother to become ONE OF US – creatures of this type, who do
such terrible things to one another – why did God bother to even try to save
us, to reconcile the situation, to bring peace on earth?
The answer is this: if he did not come, [and quite frankly this
is difficult to imagine] then everything we see, everything we experience would
have been exponentially even worse. We have to remember that what we are
seeing now is already filtered by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus: when he
died and rose, Jesus did it for all
people: and inherently, in every human heart, there is now a sense that this is
so: Jesus is Lord, Jesus is King, Jesus
is Savior of the world. Yet so many, including superiors, bosses,
laypersons, priests, bishops, government leaders refuse to tune-in to this
inherent, onboard GPS [Gesu, Pater, Spiritus} system! and so they lead helter-skelter“ly”!
Or if you will, so many people
on earth are not willing to write out the check that they are entitled by grace
to write: to welcome into their lives not only the idea of Jesus as Savior, Redeemer and Reconciler: but the actual person himself! This is very sad! and in
our day and age now, can even be catastrophic in its consequences.
Jesus provided a way to write
checks: as the final events of his life came fast upon him Jesus knew exactly
what he was about: establishing a permanent and indeed everlasting way for us
to be connected to him as he pours forth grace into our hearts, our souls and
our lives. I love you so much, he
said, that I want you to become and
intimate part of me, and I you. I will then give you a sacramental system of
seven signs of our connection and our willingness to be a part of each other’s’
lives.
The very first two of these
supernatural signs were the Sacraments
of Eucharist and of Holy Orders – which we celebrate the memorial of the
Institution of here and now: the Food of
Eternal Life, supernatural food of spiritual growth and nourishment, real
and essential communion with God and with one another; and moments later the
priesthood, which would be forever linked with his own priesthood and the
source of all sacramental life of the church including primarily Eucharist, the
other sacraments and the proclamation and teaching of the Gospel of his Word to
the ends of the earth.
He did this for love, a very
deep, abiding and amazing love: the
Eucharist is Love made Flesh, Jesus in his Risen state; and the priesthood, as St. John Vianney
tells us is the very love of his heart (which led him to the cross and to
resurrection), his Divine and Sacred
Heart, made flesh really and truly in
the priest at his ordination by the working of the Holy Spirit. The
very being of the priest is changed forever and configured to Christ: Priest,
Victim, Preacher, Teacher, Redeemer and Brother – for the good of all of the members of the Church everywhere.
The priesthood then, modeled
after Jesus’ own actions at the Last Supper is a ministry of “service”! Priests
must “go out” and serve as Jesus served, love as Jesus loved, and sacrifice
as Jesus sacrificed!
On this very sacred and holy
evening we thank God from the depths of our being for the astounding gifts of
the holy Eucharist and holy Priesthood: may we reverence, honor, love and
appreciate each to the fullest especially during this upcoming Easter Season –
and may we tell others the “good news” about the wonderful God-given, inner
workings of our beloved Catholic Church – and even invite them to consider
joining us!
I give you a new commandment:
LOVE
ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU!
Love one another now, before
it is too late!
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