homilies

  • EASTER VIGIL 2010

    We began the liturgy tonight with the blessing of the Easter fire and the lighting of the Paschal candle. Our procession into this darkened cathedral behind the Paschal candle symbolized our journey of faith through darkness into light, the light of Christ. Indeed all of human history, like the Israelites’ journey through the desert to the Promised Land, is a journey seeking light, seeking paradise, seeking true happiness and peace. Where do we find it? The answer is a Person: the Lord Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Recall the words I spoke at the beginning of this liturgy in preparing the Paschal candle: “Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, all time belongs to Him and all the ages, to Him be glory and power through every age forever.”

    Our catechumens and candidates here with us have been on a journey as well, seeking light, happiness, and peace. And, yes, they have found the One for whom their hearts longed: Christ the Lord. Tonight they will receive from Him the wondrous gifts of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist, the sacraments of Christian initiation. They and all of us here present have gathered for this Easter Vigil because we have chosen to follow Christ through our journey of life. We believe that He is indeed the resurrection and the life!

    At his holy vigil which Saint Augustine called the “mother of all vigils, we commemorate that holy night when our Lord rose from the dead. I invite you tonight to reflect on what it means to follow the Risen Christ. There are three things I wish to highlight about our vocation as disciples of the Risen Lord.

    Number one: following Christ means being attentive to His words. We cannot live by bread alone, Jesus says, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. We cannot live on money or career or power or success. We live on the Word of God, the Word that illumines our journey through life. God’s Word at times corrects us. It always renews us. It shows us how to live. As followers of Jesus, we need to listen to Him in His Word, contained in Sacred Scripture, to listen to Him in the events of our lives, to listen to Him in His Church, to listen to Him in the liturgy and in our personal prayers. Only in Him do we find the words of eternal life!

    Number two: following Christ means obeying His commandments. Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” His commandments are summed up in the twofold commandment to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. Following Christ means having compassion for the suffering and having a heart for the poor. It means living a life of charity towards all. It is not enough to listen to Christ’s word: we must act upon it. Obeying his voice is the way that leads to the fullness of joy and love. The Holy Spirit received in Confirmation strengthens us to live our faith, to defend our faith, and to share our faith. The Holy Eucharist nourishes us so that we can love one another as Christ has loved us.

    Number 3: following Christ means loving His Mystical Body, the Church. Tonight, here and throughout the world, tens of thousands of people will be incorporated into Christ’s Church. They will become part of the Body of Christ. Though many, we are one Body in Christ. Our unity as Catholics is a result of our union with Christ which happens through the sacraments, especially Baptism, which unites us to Christ’s death and resurrection. The Holy Eucharist deepens our union with Christ and His Church, indeed, it takes us up into communion with Him and with one another. In His Body, the Church, we receive the gifts and assistance by which we help one another along the way of salvation. May we always love the Church, the Body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit!

    On this holy night, our catechumens will pass from death to life through the waters of Baptism. All of us who already received Baptism will renew our baptismal promises. Our candidates and catechumens will be strengthened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation and nourished by Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. These wonderful Easter sacraments help us to follow Christ more closely. We rejoice that the Lord Jesus has risen from the dead and that He shares with us the gift of eternal life. I repeat again the words from the beginning of this liturgy at the preparation of the Paschal candle: “Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, all time belongs to Him and all the ages, to Him be glory and power through every age forever. Amen.”

    Posted on April 7, 2010, to:

  • Good Friday 2010

    On this day, the only day of the year that the Church does not celebrate Mass, we gather to meditate on the passion and death of Our Lord. We gather in the afternoon, at the time when Jesus hung on the cross and suffered the most painful and humiliating form of punishment used by the Roman authorities at that time. In fact, the Romans used crucifixion only for the most serious of crimes.

    Our Lord suffered the excruciating pain of having His hands and feet nailed to the cross. As we heard in the Gospel of the Passion, Jesus was stripped of His garments so He hung naked on the cross, a public humiliation. And the soldiers cast lots for His tunic.

    We contemplate Jesus with His arms extended on the cross. He was immobilized. His body had no means of coping with the heat or cold. Insects swirled around him and landed on him. He was parched with thirst. As the three hours progressed, his agony grew. It became more and more difficult for him to breathe. Often those crucified would die of asphyxiation.

    But despite this most painful and humiliating way to die, Jesus on the cross never lost His freedom or true dignity. He hung on the cross courageously, intent on fulfilling the mission His Father entrusted to Him, the mission of redemption. He freely embraced in His human will the Father’s will, His Father’s love for us. On the cross, He trusted in His Father. He endured the insults and calumnies of His persecutors. And, most remarkably, He forgave them. He never stopped exercising His ministry of mercy. In Saint Luke’s account of the Passion, which we heard on Palm Sunday, we read that in the midst of such unjust torture, Jesus hanging on the cross prayed: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” On the cross, Jesus is our teacher. He teaches us by his example what He had earlier taught in words to the disciples: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28). Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if we Christians really obeyed those words? Two of the spiritual works of mercy are precisely these: forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently.

    Today, Good Friday, we also contemplate the pain and suffering of Mary standing near the cross of her son. Perhaps mothers who have experienced the death of a son or daughter know this pain of our Blessed Mother more than anyone. Imagine Mary’s pain as she watched her son suffer this most horrible of deaths. She could only be there with Him – helpless, unable to help him or comfort him. She would only be able to receive his body in her loving arms after He died and was taken down from the cross. The prophecy of Simeon at the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple was fulfilled on Good Friday. Simeon had told Mary: “A sword will pierce through your own soul.”

    On the cross, Jesus entrusted Saint John and all of us, indeed all Christians, to Mary and her maternal care when He said: “Woman, behold your son.” We can always turn to her, especially in times of pain and sorrow. Our Lady of Sorrows was there at the foot of the cross and she is with us in all the sorrows of our life. She is our spiritual mother, a beautiful gift to us from Jesus on the cross. John took Mary into his home. I hope we all do the same.

    According to Saint John, Jesus’ last words before handing over his spirit were: “It is finished.” What was finished? His mission! He had accomplished the Father’s will. He accomplished our redemption. He loved us to the end. And that love revealed so dramatically in the crucifixion has brought the greatest blessing to humanity: reconciliation with God, salvation, redemption. The truth of this victory of love would become evident on the third day when Jesus rose from the dead.

    In this Good Friday service, we will venerate the cross of our Lord. That veneration is not an empty gesture. It is a sign of our love for Jesus who suffered and died for us. Jesus said from the cross “I thirst.” He still thirsts. He thirsts for our love!

    Posted on April 7, 2010, to:

  • HOLY THURSDAY 2010 (Saint Matthew’s Cathedral)

    “Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.”

    With these words of Saint John at the beginning of today’s Gospel, we begin the Easter Triduum. We contemplate and we celebrate during these holy days Jesus’ hour, the hour of the redemption of the world by the redeeming love of Jesus Christ, His love unto the end, to the extreme.

    The Triduum begins with this Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. We remember the Last Supper, the beginning of the drama of the Paschal Mystery, when our Lord instituted the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and the ordained priesthood. It is no mere coincidence nor an incidental aside that Jesus knelt before the apostles and washed their dirty feet.

    When Jesus came into the world, God descended and became a servant, a slave, in taking on, or assuming, our human nature. When his hour had come, He showed us again the humility of His Incarnation which now reached its climax in the humility of the Redemption. This is why He had come. His redemptive Passion was the very reason for His Incarnation. In the washing of the disciples’ feet, the entire mystery of Jesus Christ is expressed. In this, what redemption means becomes visible.

    Jesus took off his outer garments and tied a towel around his waist. When He became man, when He came down from His divine glory, He cast aside the clothing of His divine glory and put on the garb of a slave. At the Last Supper, this is dramatically seen again at the hour of the redemption. He who had come down from heaven, taking the form of slave, kneels before the disciples, kneels before us, and carries out for us the service of a slave. He washes our dirty feet so that we can be admitted to God’s banquet and be made worthy to take our place at His table. God descends and becomes a slave. He washes our feet, purifies us in His love, so that we can come to His table, the Eucharistic table and the table of the banquet feast of heaven.

    God gives Himself to us without reserve, to the very depths of His suffering and death. He cleanses us in the sacraments of Baptism and Penance. He is continually on His knees at our feet, carrying out for us the service of a slave, the service of purification, which makes us capable of receiving God’s grace. Why else would He say to the protesting Peter, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” We are sinners – we need His cleansing. That’s why Jesus tells Peter that His washing of his feet was necessary for him to share in Jesus’ inheritance which is eternal life. Jesus is referring to the necessity of His death. His death brings us our heritage with Him and cleanses us of sins. And, of course, this becomes actual for us through the purifying sacraments of Baptism and Penance.

    There are other words said by Jesus at the washing of the feet that are also important for our reflection this evening. He tells the apostles: “You are clean, but not all of you.” Jesus offers this great gift of purification, but not all are made clean. There is the possibility of rejecting His gift. Our Lord’s redeeming love, the gift of Himself, knows no bounds, but people can reject His love. Such rejection is rooted in the sin of pride, when one does not admit or recognize the need of purification. We can freely choose to close ourselves to God’s saving goodness and to reject His love. Judas is the sad and tragic figure who reminds us every Holy Thursday of this possibility. For him, power, money, and success were more important. He was greedy and betrayed His Master, the Lord of love, for thirty pieces of silver. When Jesus said, “You are clean, but not all of you,” He was obviously referring to Judas, but this statement also refers to those coming after Judas who would refuse His saving love, the hard of heart, the proud, who put other things before God and His love. These are the un-prodigal sons and daughters who refuse to convert and return to the house of the Father, the unrepentant, those who refuse to let Jesus wash their feet, those who reject His merciful love. We need to let the Lord remove the dirt from us with the purifying power of His love, which He does with the water of Baptism, but also in confession, the sacrament of purifying love for us who sin after receiving the purifying grace of Baptism.

    The drama of the washing of the feet ends with the important words of Jesus: “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” We are to wash one another’s feet. The service of the washing of the feet illustrates our vocation as Jesus’ disciples to imitate His love and service. This entails forgiving one another, serving one another, loving one another as He has loved us. This instruction of Jesus to wash one another’s feet is but another expression of the new commandment that He entrusted to the apostles: “love one another as I have loved you.” We serve our Lord by the charitable service of loving one another, especially the sick and the suffering, the weak and the poor. We are called to be committed to washing the feet of our brothers and sisters, expressing in gestures of mutual service the love which is the synthesis of the whole Gospel. And this is intimately connected to the Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of the Lord, which nourishes us to love one another as Jesus has loved us.

    In his apostolic exhortation, Sacramentum caritatis, the Holy Father reminds us that the Eucharist is a mystery to be lived. How is it lived? By washing one another’s feet! The grace of the Holy Eucharist transforms us into Christ. Pope Benedict recalls the teaching of Saint Augustine that it is not the eucharistic food that is changed into us, but rather we are mysteriously transformed by it into Christ, into Christ who kneels down and washes the feet of the disciples, into Christ who takes up the cross and gives Himself in loving sacrifice on Calvary. That is why for us Catholics, the Eucharist is so central to our life and embraces our entire life! It equips us to live Christ’s charity in all our thoughts and deeds, to do as He has done for us!

    We firmly believe in the most holy mystery of the Eucharist. We are to devoutly celebrate every Mass and we are to intensely live the mystery we celebrate. An authentic Christian spirituality is a Eucharistic spirituality. This is our way to holiness.

    God’s love is inexhaustible. He has indeed loved us to the end. We see this in the symbolism of the washing of the feet. We will contemplate this love in a very intense way tomorrow, Good Friday. We experience this love every time we celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice. May our lives be immersed in this great mystery of love, the love of Christ present in the most holy Eucharist!

    Posted on April 7, 2010, to:

  • CHRISM MASS 2010

    What a joy and blessing it is for me to celebrate this first Chrism Mass as your bishop, to experience the wonderful communion of my brothers in the same priesthood and ministry of Christ, and also to gather with so many of the deacons, religious and lay faithful of our diocese here present in prayerful support of our priests who at this Mass renew their commitment to priestly service.

    We are truly blessed by the presence of our beloved Bishop Emeritus who is concelebrating this Chrism Mass. Thank you so much, Bishop D’Arcy, for your presence and for your continuing devoted ministry here in our diocese. (In South Bend: I wish also to thank Father David Tyson, the provincial superior of the Holy Cross Fathers, and all the Holy Cross Fathers and Holy Cross Brothers, and all the religious sisters here present).

    Last week, during a Holy Hour of Eucharistic adoration, I addressed our priests on the mystery of the Holy Eucharist in the life and ministry of priests. And now our concelebration at this Chrism Mass is a beautiful manifestation of our fraternal unity and deep communion as priests of Jesus Christ as we celebrate together the Eucharistic sacrifice.

    Pope Benedict proclaimed this Year for Priests in order “to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world.” It has been a year of grace for us priests, thanks especially to the amazing support and prayers of so many of you, deacons, religious and lay faithful. I think this Year for Priests is a wonderful time also to focus on the promotion of the discernment of priestly vocations. That is what I wish to preach about in this homily this evening.

    As many of you know, one of my highest priorities as your new bishop is promoting priestly vocations. This should in no way be perceived as a neglect of the great need for an increase of vocations to the consecrated life, which is also a high priority and very close to my heart. Nor should it be perceived as a lack of attention to the great dignity and beauty of the vocation of marriage, the promotion of which is also one of my highest priorities. But the Chrism Mass is particularly focused on the gift of the ministerial priesthood, and thus I am focusing this evening on the priestly vocation. I am convinced in the bottom of my heart that God is calling many young men throughout our diocese to the ministerial priesthood, to become living icons of Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, the head and shepherd of the Church.

    I am very grateful for the presence here at this Chrism Mass of our seminarians. I want them to know that we support them, that we pray for them, and that we are proud of them. We thank them for answering the call of the Lord. (Applause).

    Without priests, the Church would not be able to fulfill her mission. Without priests, there would be no Eucharist, since by the will of Christ the Eucharistic mystery cannot be celebrated in any community except by an ordained priest. In this Year of the Priest, it is particularly important for us to think about this and to consider that the promotion of priestly vocations is a duty of us all. For example, parents have a very special responsibility in this regard, especially by inculcating in the home an awareness of piety and prayer and of love for the Church and the priesthood.

    Priests themselves have an essential role in promoting vocations. I ask our priests this evening as they renew their priestly promises also to consider their responsibility in this regard. In fact, the priest’s faithful living of his priestly promises is a powerful means to promoting the priestly vocations. I say to all the priests present here this evening: it is our very life, our unconditional dedication to God’s flock, our witness of loving service to the Lord and to His Church…. our fraternal unity and zeal for the evangelization of the world: these are the first and most convincing factors in the growth of vocations. I know from my experience as a seminary rector that this is true. And statistics time and time again show that it’s the example of good and holy priests which influenced young men to pursue a priestly vocation.

    The theme for this year’s World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which will be celebrated on April 25th, Good Shepherd Sunday, is Witness Awakens Vocations. This is a very appropriate theme for this Year for Priests. The personal and communal witness of our priests, of those who have already answered the Lord’s call to the priesthood, can awaken in others a desire to respond generously to God’s call. In his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Benedict writes about three aspects of the life of a priest which are essential for an effective priestly witness.

    First is friendship with Christ. The Holy Father says that “prayer is the first form of witness which awakens vocations.” This is something that needs continual renewal in our lives which are often filled with so many busy activities. Above all, priests need to be “men of God,” to belong to Him, to make space in their lives to hear His Word ever anew and to abide in His love. Friendship with Christ is fundamental to priestly life and ministry. It is truly a form of witness which awakens vocations.

    The second aspect of the priestly life which the Holy Father highlights is “the complete gift of oneself to God.” Pope Benedict says that “the story of every vocation is almost always intertwined with the testimony of a priest who joyfully lives the gift of himself to his brothers and sisters for the sake of the Kingdom of God.” My favorite image of priestly life and ministry is that of Jesus washing the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper. We are reminded of this amazing scene on Holy Thursday at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus “rises from the table, lays aside his garments, takes a towel, girds himself with it and stoops to wash the feet of the Apostles.” This action “expresses the sense of service and gift manifested in Jesus’ entire existence, in obedience to the will of the Father.” It is the priest’s giving of himself completely to God, and to those whom the Lord entrusts to him in his pastoral ministry, which can and does inspire young men to consider that God might be calling them to this way of life.

    The third aspect of the priestly life which the Holy Father highlights is “a life of communion.” The priest is to be “a man of communion.” This means being “open to all, capable of gathering into one the pilgrim flock which the goodness of the Lord has entrusted to him.” In a talk to a group of priests in Italy, Pope Benedict said that “if young people see priests who appear distant and sad, they will hardly feel encouraged to follow their example. They will remain hesitant if they are led to think that this is the life of a priest. Instead, they need to see the example of a communion of life which can reveal to them the beauty of being a priest. Only then will a young man say, ‘Yes, this could be my future; I can live like this.’”

    In a few minutes, our priests will renew their priestly promises. As we do so, I invite our priests to be mindful that our faithful living of these promises, our witness of prayer, self-giving love and service, and joyful communion of life indeed awakens vocations. We are reflecting a lot this year on the holy Cure of Ars, Saint John Vianney. How did he teach his parishioners? Primarily by the witness of his life! We can only imagine the number of priestly vocations he inspired by his example!

    All of us, priests, deacons, religious sisters and brothers, and lay faithful need to have a renewed appreciation for the priesthood as a gift to the Church which needs to be safeguarded and loved. This is necessary if we hope to have an increase in priestly vocations.

    In the synagogue at Nazareth, our Lord proclaimed that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, anointed Him, and sent Him forth to announce the Gospel. My brother priests, when we were ordained, the Spirit of the Lord came upon us, anointed us, consecrated us, and sent us forth to announce the Gospel, to sanctify through the sacraments, and to shepherd God’s people in love. My brothers and sisters, fellow disciples of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of the Lord is upon all of you, upon the entire people of God, through our Baptism and Confirmation, calling all of us to the work of the new evangelization, and calling all of us to holiness. My brothers and sisters in consecrated life, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you who have made vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Your many charisms have been bestowed on you by the Holy Spirit. Your consecrated life is a beautiful gift to the Church, an example for all of us, priests and laity, of greater fidelity to the Gospel.

    In this Year of the Priest, on behalf of all the people of our diocese, I wish to thank our priests for their devoted ministry, for their pastoral charity, and for their untiring service of God’s people throughout our diocese.

    Let us together lift up the vocation to the priesthood here in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Please join me in the pressing pastoral task of the new evangelization which requires more priests, new evangelizers, who with the cooperation of our deacons, religious sisters and brothers, and lay faithful, will help to invigorate the Church and extend Christ’s kingdom. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us. Let us open our hearts to His grace. And may the Blessed Virgin Mary, with her example and intercession, watch over us and the growth of priestly holiness and priestly vocations in the Church.

    Posted on April 7, 2010, to:

  • PALM SUNDAY 2010

    Today, as we begin Holy Week, let us remember the words of Jesus: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34). We just heard the story of the passion and death of Jesus from the Gospel of Saint Luke. In the account of our Lord’s passion and death, we learn how Jesus has loved us. In the cross of Jesus, we see the depths of God’s love for us. There is no greater event of love in human history than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the manifestation of God’s total and perfect love for us. In the words of Saint Paul, “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

    Each one of us can say in the words of Saint Paul: “Christ loved me and gave himself up for me” (cf. Ephesians 5:2). We have been redeemed by his precious blood. “Each of us is loved personally by Him with a passionate and faithful love, a love without limits” (Pope Benedict XVI).

    The story of the Passion begins with the Last Supper when Jesus gives us the amazing gift of the Holy Eucharist, His very Body and Blood. So much does He love us that He desired to leave us this great sacrament so that we can share in His sacrifice and be strengthened by this spiritual food in our journey through life. So much does He love us that He allows us to participate, like the Apostles, in the sacred banquet which gives nourishment for our souls. Pope Benedict calls the Eucharist “the great school of love.” He says that “When we participate regularly and with devotion in Holy Mass, when we spend a sustained time of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it is easier to understand the length, breadth, height and depth of his love that goes beyond all knowledge.”

    In the Gospel of the Passion, we heard how Jesus was ridiculed and beaten by the soldiers who arrested him. They reviled him. He was insulted by the chief priests and scribes and by the Sanhedrin. He was condemned to death by Pilate after the crowd refused to have Jesus released instead of Barabbas. In anger and with hatred, they shouted out: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” We heard how Jesus was then flogged, scourged and led away to carry the cross to Golgotha. But through it all, Jesus continued to love, not only the women who mourned and lamented him as He carried the cross, but also the soldiers and those who crucified Him. In the midst of terrible agony and suffering, He prayed from the cross: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” And from the cross, He revealed the depth of His merciful love when He forgave the thief who was crucified next to him. He said to the good thief who asked to be remembered in His Kingdom: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

    There is no greater story of love than the story of the Passion of Jesus Christ. When we look at the cross, we see the great truth that “God is love,” that the very being of God is love. Pope Benedict says: “Christ is the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the sins of the world and eradicated hatred from the heart of humankind. This is the true ‘revolution’ that He brings about: love.”

    As Catholics, as loving disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to join in this revolution, the revolution of love. Remember the words of Jesus: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love on another.” This is our calling; this is our common vocation, to love as Jesus loved. This is how people are to know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ, by our love for one another. This includes loving our enemies as well as our friends. And true love means sacrifice, especially for the poor and the needy, the sick and the suffering, the rejected and the outcasts. It includes love for our unborn brothers and sisters, for our immigrant brothers and sisters, for our Jewish and Muslim neighbors, for all people created in God’s image and likeness. We are to proclaim the Gospel of love in word and in deed. This is how we testify to our love for Jesus, by loving one another as He has loved us. As followers of Christ, we are called to imitate the One who vanquished hatred and death forever through love. When I was in the Holy Land two weeks ago, I prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and walked the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross, and I prayed at the site of Calvary and at the holy sepulcher. When I was there, there was a lot of tension and fears of an eruption of violence. There is such great animosity between the Israelis and the Arabs. I asked myself: will there ever be peace in the Holy Land, the land of Jesus, the Prince of Peace? Christ teaches us the way to true and lasting peace: it is the way of mercy and reconciliation, the way of love. And this applies not only to the situation among nations and peoples, it applies to each one of us in our individual lives, in marriage and family life, and life in the community of the Church and in society. We need to learn to love as Jesus loved, which includes love of enemies. Yes, it can be difficult. We can only love in this way with the help of God’s grace. The Holy Eucharist, the sacrament of love, gives us the strength we need to love as Jesus loved. It takes a lot of courage to love as Jesus loves, because we may not always receive love in return. Look at what Jesus experienced as He was led to crucifixion. Even while hanging on the cross, loving and forgiving those who were crucifying him, He was sneered at. The rulers cried out: “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.” The soldier jeered at him: “If you are King of the Jews, save yourself.” Jesus could have. He could have come down from the cross. But he endured the mockery and the suffering out of love for us. He desired to do the will of the Father and to redeem us by His death.

    Today we begin the celebration of Holy Week. Try to make this week special, a truly “holy” week in your own lives. I encourage you to take extra time in prayer. Perhaps, you can take the Gospel of the passion and read it slowly and meditatively this week, reflecting on the great mystery of the passion and death of our Lord. I encourage you to come to the Chrism Mass Tuesday evening and to come to church during the Easter Triduum: participating in the beautiful liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. My prayer is that the Lord will fill you with a greater awareness of His love, that you will experience deep in your hearts the depth and intensity of God’s love for you. This is what motivates and empowers us then to love one another. The cross of Jesus Christ is the sign of the victory of God’s love! Next Sunday we will celebrate that victory as we rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. In the meantime, let us embrace the cross of Christ, the holy cross by which He has redeemed the world!

    Posted on April 7, 2010, to: