“We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our
salvation, life and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered.” –
Entrance Antiphon for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper
With these words, the season of Lent concludes, and we enter into the Most
Holy and Sacred Triduum, in which we shall be led to contemplate the central
mysteries of our Faith and our Redemption. These words also tell us the gate
through which we must pass in order to fully see these Things, and that is, “the
Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” All of the events we are presented with must
be viewed in light of the glory of the Cross; even the horror of the event must
be seen in light of glory, otherwise the Cross will indeed become a “stumbling
block,” and, “a folly (1 Corinthians 1:23).”
Let us note especially a unique feature of the Triduum. From the beginning
of the Mass of the Lord's Supper until the conclusion of the Easter Vigil, the
Sign of the Cross will not begin or end any of the services. This is to
highlight in a clear light that all of the mysteries commemorated during this
time are part of the Mystery of the Holy Cross. While it is true that all
liturgical commemorations function in this regard, for they all begin and end
with the cross, and are thus contained in it, its absence these days are to
draw us to contemplate more fully the central mysteries contained within it.
The sign of the cross, however, is not the only thing which will be absent
from us until the Easter Vigil, and it would be well to consider them, for they
also will help us to meditate upon our Entrance Antiphon. At the beginning of this Liturgy, the church starts to have a feeling of emptiness about it. The Eucharist is not reserved in the church; It is to be removed before the start of the Mass of the Lord's Supper. The crosses and the images and statues of the saints are still covered. The absence of our Lord seems to press upon us, but we must remember that He is never absent from us, for this would violate His promise (Matthew 28:20). Rather, the absence of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is to highlight our walking with our Lord through the Triduum.
If we are to glory in the Cross, we must accept all of its features, and that includes the suffering and desolations it brings. One of these desolations will almost always be the feeling of our Lord's absence from our lives. It is through this that we are able to share in the Passion of our Lord, for He was abandoned by His disciples during it. The difference, of course, is that we are not really abandoned by Him, whereas by sin we truly abandon Him, which is what caused His greatest sorrow in His Passion.
Yet the sorrow of our Lord has become our restoration to life. By suffering abandonment, Christ has atoned for our abandonment, and thus we shall not be abandoned in eternity. By suffering the scourging, crowning with thorns, and disfigurements, the humiliations and the cursings, and bearing the weight of the Cross, Jesus has reconfigured our disfigured nature. He has exalted our nature and turned a curse into a blessing. He has taken the weight and punishment of our sins upon Himself. Thus, by dying, He has brought us life. In Jesus Christ Crucified is truly, "our salvation, life and resurrection," our salvation and deliverance.
As the Cross is part of all the mysteries which we shall celebrate this Triduum, let us consider its place especially tonight, when it is not as apparent. The application of the Cross tomorrow is clear, for it is the instrument of Christ's death, and thus through participation in it, the Elect will die to sin on Holy Saturday in the waters of Baptism, and on Easter Sunday we shall glory in it as the sign of victory! Yet tonight, on Holy Thursday, when the Priesthood and the Holy Eucharist are instituted, when the memory of the washing of the disciples feet is brought to mind, and when we pray with Christ in Gethsemane by going to the altar of repose after the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the mystery of the Cross may remain hidden if we do not look with the eyes of faith.
The Cross is present in all of the aforementioned events commemorated tonight. Let us begin with the Washing of the Disciples' Feet by our Divine Lord. This event is related to us only by St. John, but he gives clear importance to it. He prefaces it with clear indication that this is the first event of Jesus' Passion, for He says:
"Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And during supper, . . . Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet . . . (John 13:1-5)."
We must remember, the Cross is the instrument whereby Jesus fully emptied Himself, as we will hear so often in the Liturgy over these three days:
"Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8)."
As Pope Francis also points out, "In the end, humility also means service. It means making room for God by stripping oneself, “emptying oneself”, as Scripture says. This – the pouring out of oneself - is the greatest humiliation of all (Palm Sunday Homily, 2015)." We see this pouring out in service exemplified in the Washing of the Disciples' Feet in a special way. While the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is the supreme exemplification and fulfillment of His kenosis, His emptying of Himself for our salvation, when Christ washes the feet of His Apostles, He gives the supreme example of kenosis, a self-emptying which we can follow. The Cross shows us the love we must have for others, but the Washing of the Feet shows us how that love is to be lived out.
And our Lord Himself tells the Disciples the meaning of His action, "I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you (John 13:15)." We must serve others with the love of the Cross. While we cannot die to make atonement for the sins of others, as our Blessed Lord did, we can imitate that same love in the service of others. We can die completely to self and live only for others! In this way we shall die the death of the Cross as our Lord did, for His service to others was to die for the sins of all mankind; our service is to proclaim the fruits of that Death to the world. Only by showing ourselves to be His disciples, though, can we proclaim Christ to the world.
This, then, brings us to the next two mysteries we celebrate this day, the Institution of the Priesthood and the Institution of the Most Holy Eucharist. The Cross is most intimately tied into both of these two Sacraments, for it is the Sacrifice of the Cross which the Holy Eucharist makes present, and it is the Sacrifice of the Cross which the Priest offers. Yet the Cross is tied into these two Sacraments in an even deeper way as well.
Let us begin this brief exploration by looking at the Priesthood. As we just noted in regards to the Washing of the Feet, the example given to us is to serve with the love of the Cross, and how even more important this is for the Priest! Venerable Fulton Sheen was so found of reminding seminarians and Priests that they were transfigured to act in Persona Christi, and this included especially in the offering of the Mass. Jesus Christ was both Priest and Victim on the altar of the Cross; He offered Himself to the Father. The Priest, then, must do and be likewise; it is His responsibility to be both a Priest and a Victim.
We have many Priests who do not have problem with being priest. They offer Mass daily; they sanctify the people through the other Sacraments readily. They even do these things with joy! Yet how sad it is that when it comes to being victim, they shun the opportunity! The Priest must be willing to take the sins of his people upon Himself. He must offer himself readily to suffering for the salvation of his flock. Only by being both priest and victim can a Priest fulfill the commandment of our Lord to, "Love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12)."
The Cross, is then, so central to the Priesthood, because the Priest must be nailed to it. While he can exercise his ministry through the Cross, he can only fulfill his ministry nailed to the Cross! It is the responsibility of the Faithful, then, to pray for our Priests. It is our responsibility to support them, not to abandon them as our Lord was. For it is also through union with our Bishops and our Priests that we can remain in the Barque of Peter and come safely to eternal life.
But in order for the Faithful to remain united to our Priests, we have need of the other Sacrament, that of the Holy Eucharist, for it is through Holy Communion that all in the Church are united in the one Faith and become One Body in Christ (1 Corinthians 10:17). Within the Sacrament of the Eucharist is contained the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, truly present. Through participation in It, we are conformed to the image of Christ, for unlike ordinary food, which is transformed into us when we eat of it, through the Eucharist we are transformed into that of which we partake.
By being conformed into the image of Christ, then, we ourselves are made priests and victims, though not in the same way as the ordained Priesthood. The Eucharist is the fulfillment of our initiation into Christ which was begun in Baptism. Baptism is our participation in the Paschal Mystery; the Eucharist is the memorial and fulfillment of that participation. For as we died and rose with Christ in Baptism, so in the Eucharist we are conformed into an ever more perfect union with Him in that dying and rising to new life.
But it is not only participation in Cross which the Eucharist conveys, but It is also called the Sacrament of Charity, because it instills in the souls of those who worthily receive It, the supernatural virtue of charity. And this virtue is nothing else than the love of the Cross. Reception of the Eucharist, then, is the way we may fulfill the commands of our Lord to, "Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12-13)," and, "You also should do as I have done to you (John 13:15)." It is impossible, then, to serve our neighbor with the love of the Cross, if we do not participate often in the Mystery of the Cross.
It is for this reason Holy Mother Church is so solicitous that we participate in the Sacrifice of the Mass, not only every Holy Day of Obligation, but daily if possible. For without going to the Cross, made present to us by the Priest in the Holy Eucharist, we cannot sanctify the world through the Cross. We can only give what we have first received!
And this brings us to the last Mystery which we commemorate this day. It is after the Mass of the Lord's Supper has ended. The Eucharist has been brought to the altar of repose, and the altars in the church have been stripped. Our Lord goes to pray in Gethsemane; here He experiences a most profound agony, so great that He sweats blood (Luke 22:44). We, ourselves, commemorate this event by praying before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament at the altar of repose.
The prayer of this night, however, is not to be confined simply to this night. While the manner of prayer is unique to Holy Thursday, and is meant to fulfill the command of our Lord, "Remain here, and watch [pray] with me (Matthew 26:38)." Our Lord later says, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation (Matthew 26:41)." We must understand that the purpose of our prayer is to strengthen our souls against the temptations of the flesh, the world, and the devil.
We should notice that the Lord goes to pray in the Garden after the Last Supper. We may see in this a lesson for us. After we have partaken of the Food of Life in Holy Communion, we should also enter into prayer. Prayer, in the silence of our own inner room, as our Lord taught (Matthew 6:6), may be likened to the digestion of food. As the body rests after partaking of a meal, so the soul must rest after partaking of the Divine Food!
But let us not neglect to see the Mystery of the Cross in our Lord's prayer in Gethsemane. His prayer is a preparation for the agony of the Cross. We must do likewise. The Holy Eucharist unites us to the Cross and gives us the charity necessary to serve with the love of the Cross, but it is only through constant prayer that we will be able to stay united to this instrument of our Redemption! The entire Passion of our Lord was a prayer. Let us do likewise.
May our every thought and action be a prayer to stay united to the Cross of Christ! The Cross is the means whereby we are made disciples of our Lord (Matthew 16:24). The Cross is the instrument through which we are able to love with Christ's love. The Cross is our glory, "life, salvation, and resurrection!"
In these three days, then, let us not only love the idea of the Cross, but may we be nailed to it with our Lord, so that we may rise to new life with Him.
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