In St. Luke’s account of the Last Supper, our Lord tells his disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you… (Luke 22:15)” Your priests have longed to celebrate the Holy Triduum with you particularly this evening when we celebrate the Institution of the Priesthood and of the Eucharist. While we were present here celebrating this night last year, we felt like part of us was missing, for on the night in which we celebrate our unique ministry of making Christ present for you to be able to feed you this Living Bread, we had no mouths to feed. We had no feet to wash.
Tonight, our church is filled once again, and we will take up the traditional custom of washing the feet of 12 of your fellow parishioners who represent you. For me, as your pastor, this is one of the most emotional things that I do all year. It is as if I take my ministry, my priesthood in these poor and sinful hands, when I kneel down, as our Lord did, to wash your feet. What we have just heard in the gospel and what we will see here tonight is the essence of the ministry of the priest: humbling ourselves, serving others, not lording over others, but serving tenderly and lovingly with simple gestures of service.
This morning our Carmelite Sisters came over to our rectory to serenade us and to remind us with song that, as St. John Vianney says, our hearts must be the beating, living heart of Christ. This is a special charism of the Carmelite Order, for St. Teresa of Avila knew that priests needed to be prayed for as they were suffering through the Protestant Reformation back then. Today we priests are a sign of contradiction in a society that has forgotten what is sacred and what is holy. I beg you: never stop praying for you priests.
Nuestra patrona, Santa Teresita del Nino Jesús, oraba insensatamente por los sacerdotes y nos ofrece esta oración:
¡Oh Jesús!
Te ruego por tus fieles y fervorosos sacerdotes,
por tus sacerdotes tibios e infieles,
por tus sacerdotes que trabajan cerca o en lejanas misiones,
por tus sacerdotes que sufren tentación,
por tus sacerdotes que sufren soledad y desolación,
por tus jóvenes sacerdotes,
por tus sacerdotes ancianos,
por tus sacerdotes enfermos,
por tus sacerdotes agonizantes
por los que padecen en el purgatorio.
Pero sobre todo, te encomiendo a los sacerdotes
que me son más queridos,
al sacerdote que me bautizó,
al que me absolvió de mis pecados,
a los sacerdotes a cuyas Misas he asistido
y que me dieron tu Cuerpo y Sangre en la Sagrada Comunión,
a los sacerdotes que me enseñaron e instruyeron,
me alentaron y aconsejaron,
a todos los sacerdotes a quienes me liga
una deuda de gratitud…
¡Oh Jesús, guárdalos a todos junto a tu Corazón
y concédeles abundantes bendiciones
en el tiempo y en la eternidad! Amén.
Yes, our patroness, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, would be constantly praying for our priests, but as a good Carmelite, she would always turn to St. Joseph in her prayers. In this year of St. Joseph, it is only right to turn to the head of the Holy Family as we contemplate what our Lord did for us during these holy days and to contemplate the spiritual fatherhood of the priesthood. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us that: “our meditation on the human and spiritual journey of Saint Joseph invites us to ponder his vocation in all its richness, and to see him as a constant model for all those who have devoted their lives to Christ in the priesthood, in the consecrated life or in the different forms of lay engagement.” (Vespers, March 18, 2009)
In Joseph, Jesus saw a model of fatherhood, a model of a just and holy man, a model of strength and obedience to the Father’s will. Yes, in St. Joseph, Jesus had a supreme model of obedience that he would take with him into his passion.
This past Tuesday, I began doing the Consecration to St. Joseph and it has truly allowed me to draw deeper into the mystery of these holy days and into the spiritual fatherhood that I have as a priest and on how much I draw from my own father as a model as Jesus drew upon the fatherhood of St. Joseph.
I made no secret that this afternoon I escaped ever so briefly to engage in a yearly tradition that my father and I have: going to Opening Day of the baseball season. Last night after prayer, I felt compelled to see one of my favorite movies “Field of Dreams” which has so many rich spiritual undertones as does the game of baseball. People step on to this wondrous baseball field in the middle of a corn field and ask: “Is this heaven?”
Last night, that question resonated with me all the more as I contemplated the mysteries of this holy night. A slice of heaven is what I experience with my father every year on Opening Day or when we sit silently on the seashore casting our fishing lines into the sea or when he would take me as a child, much like St. Joseph, into his tool shed to teach me, albeit unsuccessfully, how to build things because my father started out as a carpenter. But the greatest gift that he gave me, and the greatest slice of heaven that he offered me was his insistence, along with my mother, that we experience heaven itself every Sunday at Mass. Fathers and mothers never stop insisting that your family participate in every Sunday Eucharist. This is the other great gif that Jesus gives tonight.
Yes, today we also celebrate the Institution of the Eucharist where Christ gives us his very flesh and his very blood and in doing so, allows us to experience heaven here on earth. The great preacher St. John Chrysostom tells us: “For when you see the Lord sacrificed, and laid upon the altar, and the priest standing and praying over the victim, and all the worshippers empurpled with that precious blood, can you then think that you are still among men, and standing upon the earth? Are you not, on the contrary, straightway translated to Heaven, and casting out every carnal thought from the soul, do you not with disembodied spirit and pure reason contemplate the things which are in Heaven?”
Yes, this is what we celebrate this evening. So many mysteries in one sublime celebration. If the world truly knew what was contained, forgive me, WHO was in our tabernacles. Our churches would always be filled. The Eucharist draws us ever deeper into the heart of our Lord which is a heart made for others: for the poor, the sick, the distressed. This evening we look upon the Lord and ask him: “Lord, allow me to have a Eucharistic heart. A heart that allows me to take your Divine Presence out into the world.” We thank God for the gift of the priesthood and for the gift of the Eucharist. One cannot exist without the other. As in every Mass, we are not mere spectators tonight, we participate in this heavenly banquet, this divine exchange, and as we look upon this marvelous tradition of the Washing of the Feet, may we always recall the words of our Lord this evening: “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do (John 13:14-15).”
