Thursday, April 13, 2017

Apr 13 - Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday – April 13, 2017


And the Word [of God] – His Divine Son - to redeem us from sin and deathbecame 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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