Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper
April 09, 2020 7:00 pm · Sergio Muñoz Fita
Dear St Anne family,
1. We begin with this Holy Mass a Paschal Triduum very different from what we have ever known. Today, the day when Jesus gifted us his presence in the Eucharist, I wish to begin by congratulating Father Joal and Father Job on the day that our priesthood was born. Having them at St. Anne is a great gift that God has given to our community and, as pastor, I want to tell you that I am most grateful for your ministry, your simplicity, your joy and your love for Christ and the Church. Thank you for everything, brothers. It is an honor to serve the People of God with you.
2. In Spain yesterday my father's only brother, my Uncle Jaime, died suddenly. The cause of his death is unknown and our family will never really know, since they did not do an autopsy, and within less than 24 hours he had been buried. Some of the symptoms, such as cough, respiratory failure and muscle pain point to the coronavirus, but, on the other hand, my uncle was already ill, so this is something that we cannot confirm. I beg you to hold him in your prayers.
3. The first time I spoke to my father after hearing the sad news of my uncle’s death, I did not know what to say. His crying was that of a person pierced by deep suffering, and I, his son, could do little to ease the burden that Providence had placed on his shoulders. Personally, listening to a man express himself in tears has always overwhelmed me. When that crying man is your own father, that sound stays with you and never leaves you. It is like an echo that resonates and rebounds incessantly on the innermost walls of the heart.
4. My father was suffering because of the loss of his older brother, whom he loved so much, and because the current situation in Spain, the infamous lockdown, did not allow him to be with his brother or accompany his mortal remains to the cemetery in his town where my grandparents are also buried. My Uncle Jaime died less than 10 miles away and my father could neither say goodbye, nor see him one last time, nor pray at his grave. Everything has happened so fast that it almost seems it never happened. Is this all just a bad dream that we're about to wake up from?
5. Since a funeral Mass could not be celebrated for him, it occurred to me that I could offer it from the chapel in the rectory, here in Gilbert, which I did at 12:30 at night. My parents followed the celebration from home, through the Internet. I tell you this because yesterday I became more aware of what you are experiencing from your homes these days. Few things could have comforted my parents more than to participate in the Holy Mass and receive Holy Communion. However, they were only able to attend Mass for the eternal repose of my uncle's soul through the Internet. It is not the same. How can it ever be the same? Today's first reading reminds us that the lamb is prepared so as to be eaten. The cup of the new covenant of which St. Paul spoke, is prepared so as to be consumed. What great helplessness I felt yesterday, as I watched my parents make a spiritual communion from home! A precious spiritual communion in which each word seemed to come out of the most profound depths of their souls.
6. I think that yesterday, the Lord let me feel something similar to what you are experiencing since you cannot come here, to the church, and participate with us in the sacrifice of the altar. I'm so sorry that you have to go through this.
Yesterday, while reflecting on my father's suffering, I thought that one of the most lacerating causes of his pain was the distance that separated him from his brother. He wanted to be with him and couldn't be. Later, in prayer, this thought came to me: “in your father's tears and crying for his brother, your uncle, you can glimpse, even a little, the pain of Christ at the distance that has been imposed on him from his brothers and sisters, all of us." I know that for many of you, this exercise of obedience, of not being able to receive Communion, is a source of enormous suffering. Well, here comes what is truly impressive: it’s not that we have to obey, it’s that God obeys! The impressive thing is that He, who is our teacher and master, as Jesus himself has reminded us in the Gospel, who is our Maker, submits to the decisions of his creatures, the bishops, and accepts what they decide. The impressive thing is that God is so humble that he has chosen the path of obedience and humiliation to redeem us. So humble that he has hidden himself in a small white host so that we can feed on him. So humble that the one who has washed the feet of his disciples, is He before whom every knee bends and all the angels and saints of heaven bow down. The humility and obedience of God!
7. I want to end by saying that just as my father cried because he could not see and be with his dying brother, the Lord suffers because he cannot be in the hearts of his living brothers and sisters in Holy Communion. He misses you more than you do. He, who said, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer" (Lk 22:15), ardently desires to eat with you who listen to me from home, this Passover that is the Eucharist. As a priest, today I want to convey to everyone, personally, this burning desire of the Heart of Jesus: He loves you, and He wants you to receive him in Communion. He also wants us to be obedient as He was, because obedience in that which is not sin is always the best antidote against pride. Do not forget the words of St. John of the Cross: “To be taken with love for a soul, God does not look on its greatness, but on the greatness of its humility.”
May God grant us on this Holy Thursday to learn the great lessons of humility, obedience and love. May we learn them from a God who today humbly places himself at the feet of his apostles, tomorrow will become obedient until death, death on the cross and is always by our side, loving us, in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.