November 22, 2020

Remember man that passeth by,
As thou art now, so once was I,
And as I am now, so thou must be,
Prepare thyself to follow me.

The man replied to that warning by scratching beneath it: “To follow thee is not my intent, unless I know which way thou went.” The path we take, the direction we travel should be of supreme importance to us. St. Paul reminds us, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive his recompense according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.”  (Cor 2 5:10)  

What was said of St. Anthony the Abbot should be said of us: “He endeavored each day to present himself as the sort of a person ready to appear before God.” This is the goal, the challenge of the spiritual life. 

In his love, Our Lord does not leave us without guidance. Today’s Gospel is not only a scene of judgment and final reckoning, but also an appeal to an active charity.  St. John of the Cross reminds us that “In the evening of life we shall be judged on love alone.”  

Our Lord is very specific about this love. “Whatever you did  for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me” and “What you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.”  Christ reigns in the hearts of those who understand this and who practice the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Service of Christ the King is found in the needy, the marginalized, the most vulnerable among us. In them we find the face of the Lord. They are the “mirror,” the reflection of Christ the King. Listen to how St. Vincent DePaul expressed this Gospel truth:  

“Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearances nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor…He went so far as to say that he would consider every deed which either helps or harms the poor as done for or against himself…Since God surely loves the poor, he also loves those who love the poor. With renewed devotion, then, we must serve the poor, especially outcasts and beggars. They have been given to us as our masters and patrons.”

Today in our Eucharistic procession which concludes the Mass, Christ our King will be passing by.  We can truly repeat the words of Martha to Mary, words that are  above the doors of my home parish church:  “Magister adest et vocat te”—The Master, the Teacher, is here and is calling you”— calling us to serve his Majesty in our love for our brothers and sisters. 

 

Mass in Suffrage for the Deceased of the Year 2020

“They Never Stop Needing Our Love”

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

It is love that has drawn us here today.  It is love that brings us to the altar of the Lord.   At nearly every funeral Mass I celebrate, I quote the consoling words of our Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI.  He reminded us, “Those who precede us to the other shore, never stop needing our love.”  This morning’s celebration is the most powerful expression of love that we can offer to our loved ones who have died. 

Today we recall two fundamental truths of our faith:   The first is that death, as cruel and fearsome as it is, is neither a disaster nor a defeat, but the passage that leads us into the fullness of life with God—love’s greatest experience.  Cardinal Basil Hume referred to it as the “moment of ecstasy.” 
The second truth is the commemorating our beloved deceased is not just a simple remembrance, as placing a photo on the mantle.  Through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, our commemoration we practice a strong and active love, a love that is effective because it helps the faithful departed so that all wounds be healed and that our loved ones be purified  of all that is not Christ so that they might enter swiftly into eternal joy and glory. 

We do this because our faith assures us that we have not lost those we love.  They are alive, although in a new and different dimension of life that we once shared with them.   Their life is “changed not ended” the liturgy reminds us.   This is what we mean when we speak about the “communion of saints.”  The blessed in heaven, the souls in purgatory, and we upon this earth are all united in Christ.   Those who have passed from this life to the next await us and look to us to continue that love we experienced on the journey we made with them in earth.

We grieve still, to be sure.   Grief is the fruit of love.  We grieve because we have loved and have been loved.   But heeding, St. Paul, we “should not grieve like those who have no hope.”   A disciple is a person of hope.   A disciple knows that behind our sorrow lies the reality that our beloved is in the hands of a God who is infinite mercy and love. 

The sadness of death gives way to the bright promise of immortality.  These are the truths that sustain us all as we lovingly commend our brothers and sisters to the Lord.   I like the way St. Teresa of Calcutta expressed it:

“The most beautiful is to come, the greatest things are yet to come.   We cannot even imagine what in his infinite love God will do for his children.  We can only stammer thinking about the beauty of a new heavens and a new earth.”