The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today's Gospel reading (St. John 16.16 — 32) is part of Our Lord's final discourse to the Apostles on the night before He died on the Cross. Jesus is preparing them for His Death and Resurrection. They see Him now, speaking and walking among them, but soon they will not see Him, because He will die upon the Cross. Yet, in a little while, they will see Him again, because He will rise from the dead.

Even though we are now more than three weeks past Our Lord's death on Good Friday, the Church asks us to look back to the night before He died and to reflect upon His words and their fulfillment. This deepens and confirms our belief that Jesus is truly God made Man — True God and True Man — our Redeemer and Savior. His words are not mere human consolation; they are the infallible promises of the Son of God.

Though Jesus is not visible to us as He was to the Apostles, He remains truly with us in the Holy Eucharist. We see Him veiled under the appearances of bread and wine, but His sacred Humanity is hidden from our bodily eyes. It is with the eyes of faith that we behold Him in this great Sacrament. We believe because He has said it is so, and because He has proven Himself true in both His words and His miracles.

The beauty and wonder of Jesus' Presence in the Holy Eucharist never cease to fill believing hearts with love, joy, and gratitude. Yet many in the world misinterpret His words. They would have Jesus mean that He is only symbolically present in the Eucharist, not really and truly present, as He has so clearly told us. But Our Lord did not say, "This represents My Body" He said, "This is My Body."

Jesus is in the Holy Sacrament for the continuation and application of the perfect Sacrifice of Calvary. The miracle of His Eucharistic Presence is first and foremost for Sacrifice, not merely for a supper or a meal. We receive and eat His Body not as an ordinary meal for sustaining our physical bodies, but as a Sacrificial Food for the sanctification and sustaining of our immortal souls. Jesus offers Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist, not simply to be united to us on our terms, but so that we may be transformed and become one with Him on His terms.

Many confuse the Mass with the Last Supper, and this is a serious mistake. If we look carefully at the Gospels, we see that the Passover supper was concluded. It was after they had eaten that He washed the Apostles' feet and then instituted the Priesthood, the Holy Eucharist, and the Sacrifice of the Mass. After this, Jesus gave His farewell address to the Apostles, part of which we hear in today's Gospel. The sacred liturgy is therefore not a mere "reenactment" of a meal, but a participation in the one Sacrifice of Christ made present on our altars.

As the chain of events unfolds, we see a rising crescendo of Jesus' love for the Apostles and for us. He first eats the Passover meal (commemorating the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery) with them as friends, celebrating with thanksgiving God's love and mercy for His people. More intimately still, Jesus then washes the Apostles' feet — performing the most humble and servile task. He commands them to do likewise for one another.

Thus the Apostles are not only to express their mutual love by sharing a meal or by observing the Passover, but to love one another more deeply by humbly serving one another in the lowliest ways. From there, Our Lord draws their love (and ours) to an even higher degree by instituting the Priesthood and the Holy Eucharist, so that His Sacrifice and His Presence might remain with the Church until the end of time.

And just when Jesus' love seems to have reached its fullest, He reveals an even greater depth of love in His Passion: He suffers agony in prayer, endures imprisonment, false accusations, ever-increasing torture, and finally the ultimate agony on the Cross. There He teaches us the perfect act of love: "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Jesus' love for us knows no limits — it is infinite, because He is God and He is infinite.

Though we may not always see Him as we walk through this life, we can always be assured of His Presence and His love. For a little while, we see Him with the eyes of faith; we even receive Him in Holy Communion. Then, in a little while, we do not see Him, as the sacred Species are consumed and our attention returns to the world around us. Yet His grace remains at work invisibly within the soul that receives Him worthily.

These "little whiles" continue throughout our earthly life — moments of consolation and moments of seeming absence — until, by God's mercy, we are eternally united with Him in the clear vision of Heaven, where faith will give way to sight and hope to perfect charity.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us, and lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of her Son's Eucharistic love.

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