Homilies for the Easter Triduum

Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Easter Vigil
Easter Sunday

Holy Thursday “In Coena Domini” 

Love and Always More Love

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

What a contrast we find on Holy Thursday! On a night marked by his betrayal, denial, and abandonment, Our Lord is lavish in His love! He gives to his apostles and to the Church the gift of the Holy Eucharist. The Passover table of the Old Covenant becomes the Christian altar of the New Covenant. From this altar we receive Jesus Himself under the form of bread and wine. Yet, we celebrate and receive the Eucharist with such regularity or so routinely we might ask, “What more do we need to know or understand?”
 
Yet, this evening, it is not a matter of wanting to “know” more about the Eucharist, as much as believing and loving the Eucharist. It is a matter of deepening our sense of amazement and gratitude for such a gift.
 
Deacon Clarence Enzler, in his book, “My Other Self,” reflects on the Eucharist and puts these words on the lips of Jesus:

“When you begin to understand the Eucharist…you will begin to comprehend the depths of my love for you. Look at the Host…a wafer of bread. Never were appearances so deceiving! The host is myself…healer of lepers, giver of sight…he who wept at Lazarus’ grave, who asked drink of the Samaritan woman…who forgave the adulteress…the Teacher, the Savior…Can you think of a better way for me to give you spiritual sustenance? Do you not see the love that prompts your God…how zealously I work to bring you close to me? To give myself to you…I had to make myself unlike you. I hid myself under the likeness of common food because I did not want you to shrink from coming to me. When I come to you in the Eucharist…I am in you! You are in me! In the Eucharist we become one flesh. You work …not alone, but I work in you. You serve others…not alone…I serve in you. You suffer, …not alone, but I suffer in you. You adore with me; you give thanks with me; you love with me; you live now, not yourself…but I live in you!”

The Lord’s love does not end there. This extraordinary gift comes through the priesthood whose institution we celebrate today. It is a day for priests to renew their commitment and love for their vocation as well as a day for the faithful to renew their appreciation for this sacred gift.
 
No priest will ever be able to understand to the full, the significance of the power that has been given to him at Ordination. At the very core of his ministry is the privilege and duty of acting at Mass “in the person of Christ”…to carry out the Lord’s command, “Do this in memory of me.”
 
He is a priest, not through his own skills and abilities but by the gift of the Lord, a gift that always remains a gift and never becomes simply his possession, a power of his own. He receives the gift from Christ and recognizes that he is but a “steward of the mysteries of God.”
 
How beautifully Pope Benedict captured the central aspect of the priest’s ministry at Mass:

“The priest is not there as a private person but stands in the place of Christ. What is merely private, merely individual about him should disappear and make way for Christ. ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.’ These words of St. Paul, in which he describes the newness of every baptized person, apply in the special way to the priest. It is not himself who is important, but Christ. It is not he himself whom he is communicating to me, but Christ. He makes himself the instrument of Christ.”

Let us pray that every priest reveal faithfully in his ministry—the Lord Jesus.
 
Finally, this night, Christ’s love is reflected in the gesture we shall reenact in a few moments: the Mandatum—the command of humble service we heard proclaimed in the Gospel. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. St. Peter had to learn, as must we, that the Divine Master came to serve and not to be served. He had to learn that a disciple is one who stoops low in humility. One who acts “in persona Christi” must be at the same time, the “Servus Christi.”
 
Brothers and sisters, what great gifts of love are bestowed on us this Holy Thursday night! We can indeed be confident then, that when we enter into an intimate relationship with God we shall receive love and always more love.

Good Friday

The Pulpit of the Cross  

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio
 
Today’s solemn liturgy places these words on the lips of Jesus:

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I grieved you? Answer me.
I exalted you with great power
and you hung me on the scaffold of the cross.

Yet from the cross we receive nothing but love. It is found in the seven amazing utterances of Christ. The cross became a pulpit from which we hear a sermon of divine love.
           
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” These are the first words of that sermon – a prayer for those who condemned him. One thinks of Stephen the deacon, and the whole army of martyrs among the first Christians, men and women able to forgive their persecutors. There is a power in these words of Jesus, a power we can have. If he could love from the cross, why do we find it so difficult to love, to forgive?
 
Our Lord’s second word was to a lost and broken man seeking help . “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” The first words of forgiveness had their impact in the heart of one of the criminals crucified alongside Jesus. He had cried out: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
 
Only one person, in the whole of human history, could make the promise, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” It is never too early or too late to turn to the Lord. Jesus’ love flows out to all who ask for it. Pope Francis has said, “God never tires of forgiving.” Here Jesus teaches us that life triumphs over death; that goodness is more powerful than wrong doing. No matter the sin, no matter our condition, the Lord lovingly and patiently waits for us to return to him.
 
Then looking down Jesus saw his mother and his apostle, John. How his divine heart must have ached for their own sorrow but what comfort he found in their presence. To these most beloved he extends his love. “Behold, your mother, behold your Son.”
 
Mary becomes the Lord’s precious gift to the Church. It is from the cross that we, the Church can call the Mother of Christ, “our” Mother. How consoling to have Mary as a mother and companion on our pilgrimage of life.
 
Then from the darkness that overtook Calvary two cries broke forth: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” and then, “I thirst.” These too are words that reflect the immense love of Jesus for us. He calls out to His heavenly Father because he has given Himself over entirely in love for us. His humanity is revealed so dramatically here. His thirst was not only a physical thirst but also a yearning for souls, a desire to draw all humanity to himself.
 
The sermon draws to a close as we hear: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” and then, “It is finished.” These are words of trusting love, the love of a suffering child who runs to safety and consolation found in the arms to a mother or father. He had fulfilled his Father’s will. The first recorded words of Jesus were his response to his distraught Mother Mary and foster father, Joseph, “Did you not know that I had to be about my Father’s business.” His final words were to confirm that his entire life was one of complete obedience to the Father: “I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” The divine plan of love has been accomplished.
 
Today we venerate the cross because of reverence and gratitude for the precious agony endured by the Lord but also because it is the preeminent sign of God’s love for us…from it, from the worst that humans could do, love is poured out. When we want to be assured of God’s love, let us look at the cross. We would never dare dream of the depth of God’s love for us had there been no cross. The final verse of a hymn says it well:

Were every realm of nature mine,
My gift would still be far too small:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

 

Solemn Easter Vigil

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio
 
Baptism is very much at the heart of our Lenten journey we have completed—listening more intently to the word of God and devoting ourselves to prayer and works of penance, we have prepared to renew our baptismal promises. Our “Yes” to the new life of baptism, our desire to be born again is a demand of this glorious solemnity of Easter.
 
It is a vigil that we began in darkness—symbolic of the darkness of the world affected by sin—darkened by so many forms of hostility and injustice, so many forms of suffering and attacks on the dignity of human life.
 
Yet we lighted and blessed a fire—an image of God, the fire of love, the fire of tenderness, the fire of compassion, the fire of mercy. Through our readings, we recall the persistent work of God to bring humanity into heavenly light. It is a work that continues still.
 
At a certain point in the darkness of history, God spoke to the heart of Abraham and told him that he would be the father of many nations. But the descendants of Abraham, our father in faith, the people of Israel would find themselves slaves in Egypt. God then sent Moses to free them and to lead them to the freedom of the Promised Land with the gift of the Law.
 
Still, the people did not understand the value and the beauty of the commandments of God. They lost their freedom and were exiled to Babylon. There the Israelites longed to return to the holy city of Jerusalem.
 
Yet, the fire of love was not extinguished in the heart of God. Through the prophet Ezekiel, he promised the people, a new homeland and a new heart; not a heart of stone, hardened by egoism, but a heart of flesh capable of love. He promised a new humanity, a New Jerusalem, of a new heavens and a new earth!
 
How would God accomplish this? God would send his Son—light enters the darkness, egoism is overcome by love, violence is met by meekness, pride is conquered by humility—into a world of sin, God sought to be welcomed. but he would be crucified! Love itself took on our humanity and so began our redemption and salvation.
 
Baptism joins and immerses us into Christ’s act of love, and that love in us is the beginning of the life we hope to share in the glory of heaven.
 
Life changes when we encounter Christ and we are open to the power of his love. Saul, the persecutor, became the apostle of love and would author the great hymn to love. The lustful Augustine became the “poet of chaste love.” Francis, the son of a greedy merchant, became poor to become rich in the sight of God. Fr. Damien of Molokai became capable of loving lepers, transforming an infernal island colony into a paradise of fraternity. Therese of Lisieux, although cloistered in a convent, became a lighthouse that attracted so many thousands to the Christian life.
 
Why? Because Jesus rose and in them began a new humanity.

Today, we renew our “yes”
     to him who is here among us
     to him who is the meaning of life
     to him who is the light for our path
     to him who is the fire that warms us
     to him who is our safe harbor.
 
He is the first born of the New Jerusalem in which we all hope to dwell in the joy and freedom of God’s children. Let us now open the door of our heart to him, that the baptismal water will restore us to the life of love.

Easter Sunday

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

What is Easter? It is a day different from all others, a day absolutely new, the day in which a tomb was found inexplicably empty. St. John records very precisely that going into the tomb of Jesus they found “the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.”
 
This fact, alone, however does not reveal the complete news of Easter. In fact, not only was the tomb found empty, but Jesus appeared alive, with a transfigured body, immune from the suffering and pain. Mary of Magdala saw him and spoke to him. The apostles also saw him, spoke to him, ate with him, touched his transfigured body and from that moment, they became witnesses of our Easter faith.
 
Not only this. The Risen Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and the fierce persecutor became a disciple faithful to the point of martyrdom. The Risen Christ spoke to St. Francis of Assisi in the tiny church of San Damiano and the frivolous youth became a great charismatic disciple of peace, goodness and humility. The Risen Lord would return to speak to Francis years later, and impressed on his body the stigmata, the wounds of his passion, as an authentic sign of that encounter. Closer to our time, the same occurred in St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) as he prayed before the crucifix. He would bear the stigmata for fifty years until his death in 1968. The Risen Christ spoke to Mother Teresa of Calcutta—an encounter that set in motion the great apostolate of the Missionaries of Charity.
 
What does all this mean? It means that because of Our Lord’s Resurrection, our human life does not end with death, but that we are destined for another life. It means that history is not definitively in the hands of the bullies and liars of this world. The Risen Lord will return and will judge the living and the dead.
 
This is the great comfort and assurance of our Christian faith. What is important in the eyes of God is that we enter into this new life through our goodness, our charity, purity of heart, being victorious over our egoism, conquering our vices with virtue. God offers us the grace to realize this.
 
The great gift is baptism itself. This was the moment we began this new life. Our challenge is to be faithful to our baptismal promises. This life is then nourished through the Eucharist. It is renewed through Penance and Reconciliation.
 
On the glory of this Easter Day, let us with gratitude and love profess our baptismal promises to keep vigorous and enthusiastic our “yes” to the gift of the Risen Christ so that our Christian life be renewed and flourish.