Notes for a Holy Thursday homily

1. The rubrical instruction to the preacher for this Mass is that he should “explain” the principle mysteries that we celebrate tonight: Eucharist, priesthood, and the command that we serve one another. I want to know who writes these things, and what preacher they had in mind. For these truths are mysteries and can only haltingly and inadequately be approached.   

And so tonight, having set the task high and expectations low, allow me to comment on these mysteries.  

2. Eucharist – is a gift to the church whose very name means ‘thanksgiving.’  Jesus’ last meal becomes our first meal, the meal at which he gives us his body and his blood, to feed on.  For his body is real food, and his blood is real drink.  And he who does not eat of this food and drink of this blood has no life.  But we, who receive this gift – who “receive” and never “take” the gift – have life within us.

This life sustains us.  Natural food, such as our dinner this evening, is transformed into us.  This spiritual food is different.  For when we receive it, we are transformed into it – we are transformed into lights of Christ in the world.  We are transformed and configured more closely to Christ, if we allow the grace of this sacrament to penetrate the darkness of our hearts. If we do not allow it to do so, it remains ineffective, for the poor and humble Christ who comes to us in the form of bread and wine is so gentle, so meek, so unwilling to force us, that he yields to us even as he comes to us in this sacrament.

Our meal together calls us to bow down and worship.  Our meal together calls us to see with the eyes of faith, the inner truth of Christ’s body and blood.   We eat here, so that we may be sustained by this sacramental presence, that we may be divinized, that we may be prepared to join him in bodily presence at the eternal banquet.

3. “Do this in memory of me.”  These words were first spoken as Jesus created the first priests - priests who are - or should be - servants of the sacraments, servants of this sacrament particularly, and servants of all God’s people. Priests have received this gift from God through orders to be Christ-bearers, to bring Christ to the members of the Body of Christ, to bring Christ in Holy Communion, in the Word proclaimed, and most astoundingly, in their own person. Conformed to Christ, priests are to be icons of Christ, within their own person windows who reveal something of the heavenly banquet.

For two millennia priests have come to altars much like this one to perpetuate the one sacrifice of Christ. The priest is a man hung between earth and heaven. The priest gathers the prayers of the community, leads the community in its address to heaven, raises the offerings of the community, praises and addresses God on behalf of the whole community, in a way that no one else can.

On the heavenly side, the priest acts in the person of Christ. He pronounces the words that make the difference, that change the substance, that transubstantiate the bread and the wine. The priest acts in the name of Jesus the High Priest, so that Jesus the High Priest consecrates simple wheat and wine into his body and his blood. 

4. All Christians are servants, but the priesthood is uniquely an order of servants. The priest does this, not from any personal quality of his own, but because of the grace of ordination.  Individually and personally, always, he is an unworthy servant. There is no question about it: no one is worthy of this call.  That having been said, priests should in their weakness aspire to live a life worthy of our calling. And people expect this. They expect the priest will act in an exemplary manner, and never betray the trust which people place in him.

We do not live in a vacuum. We cannot think or preach about priesthood and servant priesthood this Triduum without mentioning the renewed attention being given to scandalous conduct, sometimes very old stories reprinted, and sometimes new messes for the Church to deal with.

The challenge in our era of priesthood is being played out in the media, in water cooler conversations, at Catholic dinner tables, in court rooms, and in the halls of chanceries and the Vatican. In our moment of history, the major failings seem to involve sexuality and forthrightness.  In other historical periods it was greed – the accumulation of vast wealth, the buying and selling church possessions and access to the sacraments.  In some other times the major failings were matters of acquiring temporal power: when clergy tried to obtain political power, to hobnob with the power elite and to become temporally powerful themselves. We are not immune to those other issues, of course, to politicking and favor currying, to careerism and soft living. But improper use of sexuality is the prevailing sin, it seems, in our generation.

In our time, it is often the poorest and the weakest who are the victims of sinning priests - priests who are supposed to serve, not to be served.

[ And I don’t know what to make of it.  Frankly.  And I am shamed and appalled by the priest who abuses the young and vulnerable -- and by those who deny or hide the crimes, or who attack those who attack us. Better to turn the other cheek, I think, than to  do anything else. I am inclined to agree with one bishop, who said at his Chrism Mass earlier in the week:

“We should be grateful for the attention which the media devotes to the sins of Catholic clergy, even if constant repetition may give the false impression that Catholic clergy are particularly sinful. That attention is a profound tribute to the priesthood .... People instinctively expect holiness in a Catholic priest, and are especially appalled when he does evil.”]

  

We always have had and always will have, sinful priests. There have always been debates about what to do with them. For this reason, St. Francis told his followers to honor and respect every priest, even the worst of them, because he brings to us the most sacred and holy body and blood of the Lord. We will always have some bishops who do or say ill advised things, things that seem to reflect badly on the Church, which they strive to manage, rather than to inspire and lead.  But the sins of these men will not change the truth of the Church, the body of Christ, the institution built on the preaching of the apostles, about the life, death and resurrection of the Lord.  

Despite the human weakness of its clergy, in every generation the gospel is preached, babies are baptized, men and women are married, the poor are cared for, and the church adores God who is one and three, 

As it has always done, and as it always will until the end of time.  Through times of persecution from without, and through times of stupidity and cupidity from within, the good work of the Lord will be done. Things have been difficult, even desperate before.

When Peter’s little barque was sinking on the sea of Galilee, with Jesus and the apostles in it, Jesus saved.

When the Roman Emperors threw Christians to the lions, Jesus saved.

When clergy turned over the holy books to be burned by persecutors, and then when those same clerics wanted to return to the Church when the persecution was over, Jesus saved.

When avarice and political alliances distracted its ministers from the practice of the Gospel, Jesus saved.

It is always Jesus, Jesus, Jesus – not the bishops, not the priests, not the friars nor the nuns, not the lay faithful, not ever, it is never those groups who save, though all should have a role in the saving work of Jesus.

Jesus it is, he who gives us the priesthood, who gives us the Eucharist, who gives us the call to service. It is he who saves. He gives us these three great gifts --  given to us so that we might give them to others.

It is he in whom we live and move and have our being.