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Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary-
Homilies |
"Following the Lord
Closely with the Acceptance of the Cross"
Homily for the
3rd Sunday of Lent
Fr. Jonathan L. Reardon
27 March 2011
Year A
These past few Sunday’s I
mentioned that the prayers and texts of the Mass have changed –
changes that will be implemented on the First Sunday of Advent
of this year. The gestures and the overall rites of the Mass
have not changed but the language has been heightened to a more
profound and dignified way of speaking. To understand these
changes we have to first understand the nature of the Mass
itself. The Sacrifice of the Mass – also called the Celebration
of the Holy Eucharist – is the way in which God breathes His
divine life into our souls. There are three main aspects of the
Eucharist – it is at one and the same time a sacrifice, a
presence and a food.
As food, the Eucharist is food
for the soul. Our Christian lives are fueled by this food and we
are brought into a profound union with God. As a presence, the
Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ is present in the form
of bread and wine – present, not absent. Thus, each and every
time we come to Mass and prayerfully participate in this sacred
act of worship we have a real and true encounter with the living
God in an experience of a loving union no greater on this side
of heaven. This experience of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist
touches the heart, propels us to greater devotion and love,
forgives our venial sins, heals our spiritual wounds, recognizes
our need for continued renewal and conversion and leads to great
joy.
There is still one more aspect
of the Eucharist yet to be discussed – that is the Eucharist as
a sacrifice. Here, we have come upon the great mystery – the
paradox – of the Eucharist in that it is both the remembering of
a past event and making present that same event, which is none
other than Christ’s saving sacrifice on the Cross. It is to this
climatic point that all of Christ’s life on earth is directed.
He revealed to His disciples His desire to give His life for us
– leaving us with a testimony of the true meaning of love –
total self-giving. In this sacred context, a sacrifice is to
offer something to God to honor Him, to thank Him, to gain
communion with Him and to make atonement for our sins. Since
Jesus is both God and Man, His sacrifice achieves these aspects
of the nature of a sacrifice in the most perfect way, has an
eternal significance and gains mercy for the entire world. In
the OT we read of the many animal sacrifices that were made by
the priests in order to atone for the sins of the Israelite
people. These, Pope Benedict explains, were not sufficient to
satisfy for the sins of human beings – only a human being could
make true atonement for human sin and at that, one without sin
himself. Jesus confirmed this when He spoke of Himself as food (Jn
6:51) and when He gave us the Eucharist as food at the Last
Supper, saying: “do this in memory of me.” It is this very
sacrifice that is remembered and yet at the same time made
present to us on this altar. By His grace, He makes this mystery
a reality through the prayers, gestures and rites of the Mass –
which are carried out through His minister, the priest, who is
called “alter Christus,” another Christ.
In the twilight of his life,
the French writer, Francois Mauriac, recognized how in his youth
he preferred his anguish; he preferred his suffering because he
preferred his sin. As a youth he chose these torments over and
above the love of God. He could not imagine a God that could
deliver him, save him from his anguish and it left him with
reasons and excuses to escape having an encounter with the
living God – he escaped His presence because he preferred
unhappiness. Over the course of his life, what he discovered was
the gift of God – the gift of which Jesus speaks about to the
Samaritan woman – the complete opposite of anguish. Thus he
discovered the mystery of the cross.
In this saving action we find our full identification with
Christ – giving deep meaning and value to all of our own
personal sacrifices and acts of penance. And it is in this way
we must follow the Lord – to Calvary. This is the journey of
Lent – it is the journey of life, following the Lord closely
with the acceptance of the cross. None of us are without are
crosses, none of us go through life without having to make
sacrifices, and none of us are without our own personal anguish
– but apart from Christ we are left in torment, apart from Him
we become consumed by our anguish; united to Him we find joy,
forgiveness, healing and the true meaning of love. It is this
love for Christ that moves us to come to Mass each and every
Sunday, to go to Calvary with Him, and thus united to Him our
anguish is consumed by His, our suffering is taken up into His
suffering – touched by His grace, by the saving power of His
sacrifice, we are filled with great joy. United to Christ in
this way, trials, suffering, anguish and difficulties of all
kinds are not oppressive, not burdensome, on the contrary, they
dispose the soul to prayer and the ability to see Him in the
events of daily life.
This is what we experience
here, at Mass, if we but open our hearts to God’s grace, if we
lose our fear of sacrifice, banish from our minds and hearts the
fear of drawing closer to Him because it is too challenging or
too difficult. Rather, through our prayerful participation in
this saving sacrifice, through our acceptance of the cross,
through our small acts of penance, we must open our hearts to
Him and recognize that in this, the Holy Sacrifice of Mass, the
Eucharist, this is the gift that God gives to unite us to His
heart.
