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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
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Holy Thursday
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Holy Thursday - Cycle B - John 13:1-15
Good
Friday - Cycle B - John 18:1-19:42
The New York Times reported that a
two-time Olympic speed skater gave bone marrow to her brother. He
suffered from aplastic anemia. It was doubtful the skater would be able
to compete in the winter Olympic games because of her weakened
condition. The woman dismissed those wanting to give her a gold medal
for courage. She replied, "I would do this for anybody."
Isn't that what the sacrifice on the Friday that
history calls Good was all about? One student reported that he checked
his dictionary for a definition of Calvary. It advised him: "Check
LOVE." Can there be any other explanation?
When theologian Karl Barth visited the University
of Chicago, fawning students asked, "What is the most profound
truth you learned in your studies?" He replied, "Jesus loves me. This I
know, for the Bible tells me so."
The third century preacher Theodoret summed the case
up well. "The crucifixion is a new and strange method of healing. The
doctor suffered the cost, and the sick received the healing."
He came to pay a debt, we are advised, that He
didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay. Is there any
mother's son or daughter among us who even lightly reflects on the
happenings of the Friday of Holy Week and who still feels he or she is
unlovable or, better, unloved? The actions of Jesus the Nazarene echo
the words of the athlete who opened the homily: "I would do this for
anyone." As a matter of historical fact, the Christ did precisely that.
Is there any wonder that Good Friday along with
Easter is the oldest feast in the Church?
In 1994, Raymond Brown published The Death of the
Messiah. It was fifty plus dollars but worth every farthing. (But
should that sum be too rich for your blood, research Fr Brown's 1986 A
Crucified Christ.)
Brown advises that we should make a serious
attempt to identify with one of the characters in the Passion story.
The plaudits of Palm Sunday might seduce us into believing that we
surely would have been one of the many who shouted their Hosannas
to the Man on the donkey. We would have stood by Him.
But are we being much too kind to ourselves
once again?
Might we have not been among the disciples who hastily ran
away from the Christ as the police closed in? Or, worse, might you and
I have been the poor cowardly Peter who denied ever having set eyes
upon the Accused? Or, worst of all, might we have been Judas who sold
Him out for beer money? Or take Governor Pilate. Would we have been the
Pilate in John's Gospel? He wanted most of all to make no judgment and
to put the whole affair in the back of his file cabinet? Or would we
have been St Matthew's Pilate? Matthew describes the Roman bureaucrat
as attempting to wash his hands of the inevitable murder most
foul of the Christ?
In 1990, the Sulpician Brown gave an eloquent
lecture in New York. I was present. Every time I had heard him speak,
his talk ended with his typically large audience rising to its feet in
applause. The hall was filled with such people. They put their hands
together strenuously for Brown. The maestro blushed.
He spoke of the Teacher's appearance before Pilate
as told in John's account. Since the Church would have us look at John's
Passion today, we might want to check out Doctor Brown's
thoughts. The Christ before the governor you must notice is no victim.
He stands erect and does not flinch before the civil servant. One must
say of Him what Shakespeare said of Lear, "Ay, every inch a king." It
is the Master who controls the questions of the would-be prosecutor. In
Brown's apt words, the rendezvous of these two becomes "the trial of
Pontius Pilate before Jesus. John's Gospel turns every scene into a
triumph for the accused."
Have you found the answer to Pilate's "What is
truth?" If no, consider the answer in John 14:6. "I am the way, the
truth, and the life. Jesus claimed to be the truth and proved it by
rising from the dead. Had he met Christ, Socrates, who sought truth,
would have signed on.
We must fall on our knees as we contemplate
the crucifixion. But even on our knees, we will not understand. Yet,
fret not. The seventeenth century genius John Milton saluted Jesus's
birth in a famous ode titled "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity."
When, however, he attempted to do something similar with Christ's
death, he threw up his hands and put down his pen. An explanation for
such a sacrifice was beyond even his talents
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http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
Holy Thursday
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Holy Thursday: Service, Priesthood, Eucharist
Thank you all for coming to our beautiful celebration of the Mass of the Lord's
Supper. Priests and deacons are instructed to focus their homily this evening
on three areas: the call to Christian service, the institution of the Sacrament
of Holy Orders, and the institution of the Eucharist.At the same time, the
liturgy should be seen as an expression ofone Paschal celebration which begins
this evening, extends to the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday and
concludes with the solemn Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses. At the Last
Supper the Lord transformed bread into His Body which would be given up for us
and wine into His Blood which would be shed for us.On Good Friday the Body was
crucified for us and the Blood was poured out for us. The Gift of His Death was
followed by the Gift of His Resurrection and Eternal Life for we who believe in
Him.Easter celebrates the Eternal Life won for us on the cross by the Savior
who said, "This is my Body, This is my Blood."
Shortly we will perform the symbolic action of washing the feet of parishioners
who themselves represent the entire parish.The rite of washing feet is a
reminder that the Lord was willing to empty Himself to such an extent that He
would perform an action so menial and so distasteful that even a slave could
not be forced to do. As we just heard, in the Gospel of John, this takes place
immediately before the Last Supper.Peter complains that he would not have the
Lord debase Himself this way.Jesus' response was a call to Peter and all of us
to recognize the need we have to accept a Savior who would sacrifice himself
for us. If they, if we, refuse to recognize their need for a Suffering Savior,
we can not be his disciples.This is all well and good and theological, but then
the Lord hits them and us with the mandate: As you have seen me do, so you must
also do.Today is often referred to as Maundy Thursday taken from the word
mandate.To be a Eucharistic People, we must respond to the mandate, the order
to debase ourselves in service to others.
The service of others is the primary way that we mediate the presence of Christ
in the world.Service is theway that we exercise the priesthood of the
faithful.We are all priests in this way.All of us are called to bring God to
others and others to God.This is the work of the priesthood of the faithful.
But there is also another priesthood that we celebrate on Holy Thursday.That is
the sacrament of Holy Orders and particularly the sacrament of the ordained
priesthood.St. Paul in today's second reading and St. Luke in the section of
the Gospel of Luke that presents the Last Supper quotes Jesus as saying to his
disciples, "Do this in remembrance of me." From the earliest days of the
primitive Christian Church, in the years immediately following the Resurrection
of the Lord, the apostles took bread and wine and transformed them into the
Body and Blood of the Lord.The were empowered to do this by Jesus.They
themselves called upon God to empower others to do this.That is why we believe
that the ordained priesthood was instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper.
Last Tuesday, at the Chrism Mass, we priests of the Diocese re-committed
ourselves to the service of Christ in his people. A week from today, I'll
celebrate my 32ndanniversary as a priest.As I am sure you know, I love being a
priest.I feel very young in the priesthood.Sometimes I feel that the oil is
still wet on hands.The ordained priesthood is not a job, although we priests
certainly have a lot to do.The ordained priesthood is not a way of life,
although we priests are required to live a certain way, as committed, celebate
Christians.The ordained priesthood is much more than that.It is not a job.It is
not a way of life.It is a way of being. We ordained priests have been changed
by our ordination into "alter Christi's" so we can make Christ present in a
sacramental way for you, His people. This transformation is permanent.Even if a
priest leaves ministry, even if he is removed from the priesthood by the Pope,
he is still interiorly a priest.Priesthood is a state of being conferred at
ordination.
I am still shocked that when I say, "I absolve you," Christ forgives sins, and
when I say, "This is my Body," Christ changes the bread into His Body. I am
humbled that somehow this takes place through me.But I also am realistic enough
to know that I am not doing anything: it is Christ acting through the gift of
Holy Orders that allows the finite to become infinite. Throughout my life I am
confronted with my shortcomings, my humanity, my own sinfulness. It is quite
humbling to be a priest.I deal with the sacramental presence of the Lord
everyday and still question, "Why me?" One thing I am certain of: God has a
good sense of humor.
The ordained priests make the Eucharist present for the people. This evening we
also celebrate the institution of the Eucharist.I am convinced that the
extended periods of Eucharistic Adoration we have celebrated here at St.
Ignatius in the last few years, the Forty Hours and the longer adoration
periods on First Fridays, all have held us come to a deeper appreciation of the
Gift of the Eucharist.It is true that we can never fully understandthe
Eucharist because it is a gift infinitely superior to our powers of
comprehension.But we do know this: The Eucharist is Jesus, the Lord. The
Eucharist is the Lord offering himself on the cross to his Father for his
people.When we receive the Lord, we receive him nourishing us and saving
us.When we pray before the Blessed Sacrament, process with the Blessed
Sacrament, when we celebrate Benediction or Eucharistic Adoration, or Forty
Hours, we celebrate Jesus living among us in His Eucharistic presence,
continually saving us on the cross.
The Vatican Council's Constitution on the Liturgy succinctly stated the mystery
we remember this evening: At the Last Supper our Savior instituted the
Eucharistic Sacrifice of his body and blood to perpetuate the sacrifice of the
Cross.He entrusted to the Church a memorial of His death and resurrection,
.....a sacrament of love,
.....a sign of unity,
.....a bond of charity,
.....a paschal banquet in which
.....Christ is consumed,
.....the mind is filled with grace,
.....and the pledge of future glory is given to us.
Charity, Priesthood, and Eucharist.As we continue with this solemn liturgy,
please pray that all priests may recognize their commitment to act in the
person of Jesus and do so not just when administering the sacraments but
throughout their lives.Please pray that people come to a greater understanding
of the Eucharist as a sharing in the cross. And please pray that we all may
demonstrate our sharing in the Eucharist by celebrating our lives with
sacrificial love, the love of Jesus, the love of Christians.
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see Spanish homilies
Holy Thursday
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Join the Nearest Household
(April 9, 2009)
Bottom line: We join others families and people throughout the world - as well
as the angels and saints - in worshiping Jesus, the Lamb of God.
For sure you remember the snow and ice last December. We natives of Western
Washington don't have much experience driving in icy weather so for two
Sundays, I had a small congregation. But nothing like one priest I heard about.
Only one person showed up for Sunday Mass! The young man took his usual spot in
the back of the church and made the Mass responses the best he could. Afterward
the young man asked the priest if it was hard saying Mass in an empty church.
"Empty!?" the priest said, "No, I saw an army of angels and saints worshiping
when I lifted up the Host."
The Mass, in a true sense, is always full. By its nature, one cannot celebrate
it alone. We see that impulse in the Jewish Passover, which prefigures the
Mass. The Passover was a family celebration - and it required a large family.
The LORD told Moses, "If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join
the nearest household..."
In Christ's Passover the family would grow geometrically. It would extend to
all nations - and it would include an army of angels and saints worshiping
Jesus - the Lamb.
Cardinal Mindszenty saw that multitude during his years in prison. The
Communists often kept him in solitary confinement. With a tiny portion of bread
and wine, Cardinal Mindszenty would celebrate Mass. "Praying with me," he said,
"were Catholic Eskimos, inhabitants of Patagonia, France, Africa and Malaysia."
He saw fellow Hungarians who were refugees in America. They were celebrating
Mass with African-Americans and people who had come the four corners of the
world.
What Cardinal Mindszenty saw in his prison cell we see realized here at Holy
Family. It began with Moses telling Israelites to join the nearest household.
Now the Mass unites people from every place on the globe.
At the conclusion of the Mass, we will have a solemn procession with the
Blessed Sacrament. We join others families and people throughout the world - as
well as the angels and saints - in worshiping Jesus, the Lamb of God.
**********
Spanish Version
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
Holy Thursday
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
Holy Thursday
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html
Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
Holy Thursday
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
Holy Thursday
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself time for
other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies for Cycle B) is
available at www.clydebonar.com.
Holy Thursday |
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These homilies may be copied and adapted for
your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of the
author.
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