GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY: Acts 2:14, 36-41; 1 Pet 2:20-25; Jn 10:1-10

 

In today’s Gospel, employing two brief parables, Jesus reveals Himself as a selfless, caring “shepherd” who provides his sheep protection.  He calls his sheep by name and leads them out. This Sunday is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Today, the Church calls us to reflect on the meaning of God's call and to pray for vocations to the priesthood, the diaconate and the consecrated life, reminding us that the entire Christian community shares the responsibility for fostering vocations. Our parish and society can foster vocations if only we have good Christian families who cherish Christian values. Parents need to respect and encourage a child who is interested in becoming a priest or deacon or entering a consecrated life. They also need to encourage and actively support them in becoming altar servants, gift-bearers, lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and ministers of hospitality.  On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, let us begin, or continue, especially in these most stressful times for the Church, local and universal, to pray earnestly for continued conversion and perseverance in the Faith for our bishops, priests, deacons, those living a consecrated life, and all of the laity, for we are One Body and what one member suffers, all suffer.

We need to pray not just for vocations but for pastors who will have the courage to speak the truth. Today it is hard to hear the truth spoken because that is not what people would like to hear. Ours is an age that flourishes in compromise; steadfastness to the truth is hardly tolerated. Thus, pastors are often faced with the tension of either preaching the uncomfortable truth of God’s Word or watering it down to make it more agreeable to the listener. As it says in 2 Timothy 4:3, “The time is sure to come when people will not accept sound teaching, but their ears will be itching for anything new and they will collect themselves a whole series of teachers according to their own tastes.” Sadly, we are living in such times!

Those pastors who choose to pander to the congregation and tell them what they want to hear are robbing them of their right to receive “sound teaching”. They are no less than robbers.   

Today we don’t hear the topic of sin, which is the most important word in religion ever mentioned. Most of us attempt to skirt or soften the topic using a wish-washy euphemistic substitute. We preach consoling, encouraging and invigorating sermons but avoid making mention of sin because we fear that this would make our audience uncomfortable. We have transformed our funerals into canonization rituals while ignoring that one of the main reasons for a funeral is that the deceased sinner needs us to pray FOR him and not TO him. We hide sin under cover of every psychological concept or newly minted syndrome, thus taking away all culpability and liability from the individual.

The good news of the Lord’s death and resurrection means nothing if we don’t have a clear picture of our desperate sinful condition. Christ came to save us from our sins, not just to inspire us and make us feel good. Many of us priests have forgotten that we are called to be shepherds of souls and not just motivational speakers or counsellors. St Peter, in the first reading, fully understood his role as a shepherd of souls - convicting his audience of their sins, calling them to repentance, and saw his mission as participating in Christ’s mission to save his audience from this “perverse generation.” In saving souls, he knew he had to risk losing his audience’s approval and, even worse, losing his own life, which he did.

The second most important topic in the Bible is suffering and the cross. Suffering often leads either to resentment or despair. Many Protestant pastors would offer a Christianity without the cross - what is pejoratively known as the “gospel of prosperity” - and sad to say, many Catholic preachers have likewise jumped on the same bandwagon. The popularity of the prosperity gospel is understandable. Who would not wish for an alleviation of one’s pains and sufferings? The gospel which preaches the cross as inevitable is naturally unpopular.

St Peter spells out in the second reading: “The merit, in the sight of God, is in bearing punishment patiently when you are punished after doing your duty. This, in fact, is what you were called to do because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way he took.” We all suffer to a greater or lesser degree, whether we like or not. But how we suffer and what we do with that suffering makes all the difference. Suffering for a Christian is a priceless opportunity to draw closer to the suffering Christ, to carry His cross and consciously share in His redemptive suffering.

Third, the Good Shepherd offers us objective truth instead of just one opinion, direction, or path among many. Living in an increasingly globalized and multicultural society, there is a great temptation to succumb to the heresy of relativism - that all truths - even those that seemingly contradict each other - are equally valid. Revealing a religion that promotes Satanic work is considered intolerance and as promoting disharmony. The true Shepherd offers us saving truth “so that they may have life and have it to the full.”

Now if this is what true shepherds are called to do what does our vocation as sheep entail? St John provides us with a mature image of the sheep. His are the sheep who recognize the shepherd’s voice and know how to distinguish between counterfeits and the real thing. His are sheep that are so tuned in to their shepherd that they will follow him, trusting him that he will bring them to no harm. His are the sheep who understand that they will enjoy true freedom only when they submit themselves to the authority of the Shepherd. And they do so knowing that only the Good Shepherd alone can offer them “life and have it to the full.” The pastors in the church are not exempt from being sheep within the fold of Jesus the Good Shepherd. As we pray for our shepherds in the church, the bishops and priests, that they will take after the heart of the Good Shepherd, let us also pray for ourselves that we will all have the confidence and faith to place our lives in the hands of the One who alone has assured us that we will be safe.

 

 

 

 EASTER III [A] Acts 2:14, 22-33 1 Pt 1:17-21, Lk 24:13-35

This story of the appearance of Jesus, as given by Luke is very familiar to us. Two little-known disciples, Cleopas, and an unnamed disciple are trudging along the road towards Emmaus, a town located seven miles northwest of Jerusalem. Some speculate that the unknown disciple may have been Luke himself. It was the day of the Resurrection, but these two wandering disciples did not grasp the entire situation. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that they are quite disillusioned. Like the other disciples, they did not clearly hear or fully understand Jesus’ earlier predictions about his death and his resurrection. They were totally perplexed and confused, and their hope was shattered. Disbelief has overpowered them. They are leaving Jerusalem and its disturbing events because Jesus’ death was an unmitigated tragedy for them.

Like many of Jesus’ followers, these two disciples tried to make sense of their pain and loss. Their walk to Emmaus must have felt like a walk in the desert, in the darkness of death, where hope had been abandoned. Our Lord appears to them and accompanies them on this path of darkness. They fail to recognize him. St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) reflects on the dimness of their perception: "They were so disturbed when they saw him hanging on the cross that they forgot his teaching, did not look for his resurrection, and failed to keep his promises in mind" (Sermon 235.1). They told him about the crucified Jesus and how they had hoped in him. They had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. They could see the cross as only a defeat and could not comprehend the empty tomb.

Then Jesus recounts the whole story to them again, but this time invites them to enter that story, and he walks along with them. He helps them see that the entire fabric of scripture is focused on him, finds fulfillment in him, and can only be understood in him.

In terms of their faith, as the Lord begins to expound on the scriptures and open their minds to the secrets therein, their faith becomes brighter. And then, at the breaking of the bread, they fully recognize him.

The Emmaus story is the Eucharist explained. The Word of God must ultimately lead to the Sacrament. It is in the Eucharist that the Word becomes flesh. And so, St Luke is using the very same words which he had used in Chapter 22 to describe the Eucharistic meal. At the table, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

It is in the communion of this broken Body, that they can truly meet the Risen Christ. The opening of the Scriptures was necessary, but it was not sufficient. Our non-Catholic brethren have only the breaking of the bread in their services, not the full recognition of the Lord in the breaking of the Bread. They do not see the real presence of the Lord in their breaking of the bread. In the Mass, the Word becomes flesh, dwells among us, and feeds us with his real flesh and blood, not symbolic ones.

Every Mass follows the pattern of Emmaus journey. We are enlightened by the word of God recounting God’s plan of salvation starting from the Old Testament, going through the Psalms, and then to the Gospels, and when our faith in the risen Lord is strengthened, we profess our faith and ask him for the needs of the world and the community of the believers and eventually leading to the breaking of the bread. And at the end, we are told to go and announce that the Risen Lord.

The journey to Emmaus begins in blindness, gloom, disillusionment, and despair. It ends with the warming of the disciples’ hearts, the opening of their eyes, and their return to Jerusalem. It begins with the shattering of an immature faith and ends with the disciples giving witness to a mature faith.

Emmaus, again is wherever we meet the Risen Christ in ordinary moments, and Easter comes to dwell in us. The Emmaus story helps us understand the Lord’s presence where, often before, we had experienced his absence. In light of the Emmaus story, we all recognize that we do not walk alone.  This story can also be seen as a symbol of the Eucharist. The disciples encounter Jesus on the way. They express their disillusionment and sense of helplessness as they walk the road to nowhere.

Today God challenges us to meet the Risen Christ who comes to us in ordinary life situations.  All of the Easter accounts suggest that Christ comes to us in the places where we live our lives. The risen Lord told the disciples to go to Galilee, where they will find him. Galilee was where they lived their everyday lives. The Easter story and the story of the Emmaus journey hover around us all the time. God never forces himself on us, but Christ joins us as a consoling letter from a friend.

The Risen Lord is ever ready to speak his word to us and to give us an understanding of his ways. Do we listen attentively to the Word of God and allow his word to change and transform us?
Let’s pray that the Lord may open the eyes of our hearts to recognize his presence with us and to understand the truth of his nourishing us with his saving word and the Eucharist.

 

 EASTER-A-II:  Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9;  John 20:19-31

Both appearances of Christ described in today's Gospel occur on the first day after the Sabbath. The insistence on the chronological date of the two appearances shows John's intention to present Jesus' meeting with his followers in the cenacle as a prototype of the Church's Sunday assembly. Sunday is regarded as the "little Easter" or "the weekly Easter." By extension, the verse of Psalm 118, in which the Jews and Christians referred to the Passover, is applied to Sunday: "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it" (118:24).

Several things happened on this day. Our Lord breathed the Holy Spirit onto His disciples and offered them the gift of peace, which the world cannot give. Our Lord offered them pardon and mercy for their betrayal, courage in place of their fear, peace to their troubled hearts, and the Holy Spirit, the advocate to be their “forever” companion. But there was one more thing he offered them on this day: the gift of his wounds, the one thing which would have shamed them to their core because these were the most condemning evidence of their lack of commitment and cowardly betrayal.
Christ came to these disciples with his opened wounds. He could have concealed them under layers of clothing; he could have cauterized and healed them without leaving any trace of a scar. But he left them visible and opened. The Glorified Lord carried the marks of his passion. His resurrection did not obliterate these signs of his great act of self-sacrifice. This is because the wounds of his crucifixion are the means by which we are saved. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises” (Is 53:5). We cannot understand Jesus without understanding the significance of his wounds. His identity is tied to his passion and death. His wounds are the marks by which humanity is reconciled to God. His wounds testify to God's mercy towards humanity, a mercy beyond our comprehension.

Those wounds on the Body of the Glorified and Risen Lord teach us several things. First, they show that Jesus is not a ghost but a real flesh-and-blood Person. Second, they serve as powerful reminders of the great love of God for us, a love so great that in Christ God died so that our sins might be forgiven. Third, those wounds illustrate the continuity between the earthly life and ministry of Jesus and his eternal high priesthood, by which he lives to make continual intercession for us before his Heavenly Father (cf. Heb 7:25). In Revelation 5:6 John says he saw a lamb as though it was slain, meaning with marks of wounds.

It is not by accident that St Thomas comes to faith, not by simply seeing an apparition of Jesus, but only after being instructed to pay heed to those sacred wounds, which are not scars of defeat and ignominy but, as the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich puts it, noble “tokens of victory and love.” This is why medieval art will show Christ at the Last Judgment showing us once again those sacred wounds. What purpose do they serve? When we meet Christ face to face on Judgment Day, he will look just as he did during that first Easter season: We will behold him in glory, but glory that still teaches us the price of sin. Seeing his wounds on that day will bring us to the full awareness of what our sins have done and this will either move us to loving gratitude as expressed by all the saints in heaven or to utter shame and unrepentant guilt in the fires of hell. No one can stay neutral in the face of these wounds. We will either experience mercy and forgiveness or be condemned to despair by our shame and guilt.

But our Lord’s wounds are not confined to the visible parts of his body, his hands and feet and his side, which would have necessitated lifting his tunic. The biggest wound is the wound to his heart. In his account of the crucifixion, St John alone among the evangelists, tells us: “One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.” (Jn. 19:34) This was a pivotal moment of revelation for St John. The wound at his side was not a superficial flesh wound. The spear penetrated deep into the very core of our Lord - his heart.

What we can only imagine with our mind’s eye is now made visible in the iconic image of the Divine Mercy. The image opens a mystical door into the inner core of his being, allowing us a peek into what remains a mystery. It shows the pierced heart of the Lord from which the streams of red and white light flow, representing the blood and water which the evangelist saw. This is the grace of salvation flowing upon humanity. The piercing of the heart was the means by which the floodgates of mercy were opened upon a sinful, broken, and suffering humanity. The piercing of our Lord’s heart gave us the two foundational sacraments which made the Church and make us members of the Church - Baptism and the Eucharist.

Devotion to the holy image of the Divine Mercy as our Lord communicated to St Faustina is not just confined to his handsome and beautiful visage. It is also an invitation to gaze upon his visible and hidden wounds. Contemplating the wounds of Jesus can move cold and obstinate hearts. It can bring about conversion. It can open doors that are sealed shut by our obstinacy. It can heal wounds that have been opened by our sins and the sins of others.

As the Lord said to Thomas, he says to us, “Put your hands into the holes that the nails have made.” These holes are the wounds by which we are healed and saved. These holes are the means by which My Divine Mercy will be poured forth upon humanity. Don’t be afraid to touch these wounds and believe. Touch these wounds and hear our Lord’s accompanying words: “Peace be with you”, “your sins are forgiven,” and “I am sending you.” Touch these wounds and, like Thomas, bow in adoration while professing: “My Lord and my God.

 

 

 

 EASTER SUNDAY:Vigil Mass: Rom 6: 3-11; Mt 28:1-10; Easter Sunday: Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4; Jn 20:1-9 or Mt 28: 1-10 

There arose a great question in the world as to who is the strongest in this universe. Everybody thought “iron” is the greatest because all the weapons and ammunition are made of iron. So, everybody went to Iron and said Oh, Iron, you are the mightiest in the world. We would like you to become our king. Iron thought for a moment and said, well, I am strong, but there is someone stronger than me, I know. It is Fire. Before the fire, I melt. So, fire is stronger than I am. So, everyone went to the fire and requested it to be their king. But fire said I am not the strongest. Water is the strongest. When water falls on me, I am out. So, everyone went to the water and said Oh, water, why won’t you become our king because you are the strongest in this world? Water then said, oh no. I am not the strongest. The Sun is the strongest. When the Sun hits hard on me, I am evaporated and gone. So, it is the sun, the strongest. Everybody went to the Sun and asked him to become the king of the universe. The Sun said I am strong but not the strongest. The cloud is stronger than I am. When the cloud comes in front of me, I am powerless. I cannot pierce through the cloud. So, everyone went to the cloud and made their request. The cloud said, no I am not the strongest. The wind is stronger than I am. When the wind blows, I am blown away. I cannot even stand up against the wind. So, everyone went to the wind and said oh wind, why don’t you become our king? He said, no, I am not the strongest. The mountains are stronger than I am. They just stop me on my track. I cannot go any further from the mountain. So, everyone went to the mountain and made their request. The mountain said it is the man who is stronger than I am. He uses machines to level me and crushes me down. So, finally, everyone went to the man and said, you are surely the mightiest and should rule over the world. The man said, yes, I am strong. And I like to rule everybody, but I am not the strongest because I am motionless before death. Death is the strongest. So, everyone went to the death and said, you are the mightiest of everyone we know. You should rule over the world. The death said, Yes, I am the strongest, at least; that is what I thought so far. But there is one who defeated death and came out of the tomb. It is Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, we are rejoicing today because we found the mightiest person of all, and he is none other than the God-man Jesus who conquered death.

Life and death are two inevitable realities of human existence. If life comes to an end with death, the reality of life is meaningless and absurd. But for a Christian believer, death is only an inevitable door through which one has to pass to attain a fuller and richer life because Jesus conquered death and rose from the dead and shares that risen life with his followers.

Paul says, "Death has been swallowed up in victory. He asks, Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Cor. 15:54–55). Like a serpent whose poison can only anesthetize its victim for a short time but cannot kill him, death has lost its sting. Our physical death here is not the end anymore, and we will rise from that at the powerful words of Jesus, the same powerful words he spoke at the tomb of Lazarus.

St. Paul writes again: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your faith is in vain.  And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion, and you are still lost in your sins.  But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (I Cor 15:14, 17, 20). If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, then the Church is a fraud and Faith is a sham. But if Jesus really did rise from the dead, his message is true!  All the basic doctrines of Christianity are founded on the truth of the Resurrection.  “Jesus is Lord; He has risen!” (Rom 10:9) was the central theme of the kerygma (or “preaching”), of the apostles.  

Jesus assured Martha at the tomb of Lazarus: “I am the Resurrection and the Life; whoever believes in Me will live even though he die” (Jn 11:25-26).  Christ will raise us up on the last day, but it is also true, in a sense, that we have already risen with Christ.  By virtue of the Holy Spirit, our Christian life is already a participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ (CCC #1002, #1003).

The Resurrection of Jesus had certain special features. First, Jesus prophesied it as a sign of His Divinity: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”(Jn 2:19).  Second, the founder of no other religion has an empty tomb as Jesus does.  We see the fulfillment of Christ’s promise in the empty tomb. The angel said to the women at Jesus’ tomb: “Why are you looking among the dead for One Who is alive?  He is not here but has risen” (Lk 24:5-6). The real proof, however, is not the empty tomb but the lives of believers filled with His Spirit today. The third special feature is the initial disbelief of Jesus’ disciples in his Resurrection, despite his repeated apparitions.  This serves as strong proof of his Resurrection. It explains why the apostles started preaching the Risen Christ only after receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  

Easter is not just a past event; it is a present reality. We are called to be an Easter people. The feast of Easter is as much about life before death as is life after death. It assures us that death and darkness are not the ultimate realities of our lives. The light of the risen Lord has entered every experience of darkness. We are not supposed to lie buried in the tomb of our sins, evil habits, and dangerous addictions.  No tombs can hold us down any longer – not the tombs of despair, discouragement, doubt, or death itself.  Instead, we are expected to live a joyful and peaceful life, constantly experiencing the real presence of the Risen Lord in all the events of our lives.  It assures us that the place of death, whatever form death takes, can also be the place of new life.

The angel's first words to the women visiting the tomb were, ‘There is no need to be afraid’. The violence done to Jesus generated a great deal of fear among his followers. Now that Jesus has risen there is no need for fear. Easter is a feast of courage.

Resurrection awaits each one of us after our short earthly sojourn. It is this certainty that keeps us going in the midst of all the experiences of day-to-day dying. May the hope of resurrection give meaning to our lives and help us to look forward to the fullness of life with the Lord.

 

 

 GOOD FRIDAY-2023

C.S. Lewis said, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice, there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. 

Thomas Merton said "Why should anyone be shattered by the thought of hell? It is not compulsory for anyone to go there. Those who do do so by their own choice and against God's will and can only get into hell by defying and resisting all the work of Providence and grace. It is their own will that takes them there, not God’s. In damning them, He is only ratifying their own decision – a decision which He has left entirely to their own choice. Nor will He ever hold our weakness alone responsible for our damnation. Our weakness should not terrify us: it is the source of our strength, Power is made perfect in weakness, and our very helplessness is all the more potent a claim on that Divine Mercy Who calls to Himself the poor, the little ones, the heavily burdened.”

St. Catherine of Siena said, “If we were not free, we would have an excuse for sin. But we can have no excuse because there is nothing, neither the world nor the devil, nor our own flesh, that can force us to any sin at all against our will…What is this thing that is ours, given us by God, that neither the devil nor anyone else can take from us? It is our will. Certainly then, we can be secure and fearless.” 

Was Pilate responsible for Jesus’ death? Was he not free to liberate Jesus? He declared Jesus’ innocence a couple of time saying, I find no guilt in him. Why did he get Jesus then flogged if he was innocent?

 Pilate was not all good nor all bad; his greatest sin was self-preservation and not defending his conscience. Elected to be a steward of the people, Pilate was forced to do something he didn’t believe in because that’s what the people wanted. Wasn’t that the whole point of democracy after all, to do what the people want? Wasn’t he just doing his job? Right to the end, we see Pilate trying to appease his own conscience, eg when he washes his hands and when he writes ‘King of the Jews’ on Jesus’ plaque and defies the crowd who demand that he change the wording. Pilate must have realized that a great injustice had happened on his watch, and he sensed his role in it. His own wife had cautioned him against condemning Jesus to death. But he was one man against a mob, and there was so much on the line for him. The emotional conflict must have been impossible to bear. Faced with the angry mob outside the praetorium, Pilate chose to save his own life. What would we have chosen if we were in his shoes? Would we have strongly defended the innocent using our free will?

How many times have we yielded or compromised to situations we knew for sure we were wrong? Rather than being sorry for the suffering of Christ today, which he chose upon himself as the will of the Father for him, or being angry over those who condemned him, let’s mourn for our own failure in not acting in accordance to our conscience and failing to do the good we are called to do.

 

 HOLY THURSDAY (Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15)

On Holy Thursday, we celebrate three anniversaries: 1) the anniversary of the first Holy Mass; 2) the anniversary of the institution of the ministerial priesthood in order to perpetuate the Holy Mass; 3) the anniversary of the promulgation of Jesus’ new commandment of love: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). Today we remember how Jesus transformed the Jewish Passover into the New Testament Passover. The Jewish pass-over was instituted by the Lord God, Who commanded all Israelites to celebrate the Feast yearly as their thanksgiving to Him for His miraculous liberation of their ancestors from Egyptian slavery, their exodus from Egypt, and their final arrival in the Promised Land. Jesus had foretold them what he would do; they would not understand then, but they would understand later. What Jesus did on Holy Thursday has many overtones of what the Jewish people did during the Paschal celebration. It was Jesus’ paschal celebration for that year.

Every Holy Thursday, we have this reading from John’s gospel of Jesus washing the feet, which happened during his last supper. Where John describes the washing of the disciples' feet, the Synoptic gospels describe the institution of the Eucharist. John makes no mention of the establishment of the Eucharist because his theology of the Eucharist is detailed in the “bread of life” discourse following the multiplication of the loaves and fish at Passover, in Chapter 6 of his Gospel. Jesus, the Son of God, began his Passover celebration by washing the feet of his disciples (a service assigned to household servants), as a lesson in humble service, demonstrating that he “came to the world not to be served but to serve.” (Mk 10:45).

What are the significance of foot washing?

In John’s account of the Last Supper, this is just the first gesture showing the importance in Jesus’ mind of his commandment to love. It was a perfect image of what this Christ-like love is all about. It is loving others, even people like Judas, who was going to betray him for the value of a slave’s price.

When we refuse to wash the feet of others or, like Peter, refuse to be washed, we mean we do not like to serve others and love others as Christ did. For Christ, love is not feelings; it is active and costly, paid for by life. That's what the washing of the feet teaches us.

In laying down his outer garments to wash the feet of his disciples, Jesus was anticipating the laying down of his life in love for his disciples and all humanity.

Another thing we can learn from Jesus washing His disciples’ feet is that we all need daily cleansing through forgiveness to have fellowship with the Lord. So, at every Mass, we do a cleansing at the beginning of the Mass by saying the Confiteor.

By the washing of the feet of his disciples before a Passover meal, Our Lord is teaching a lesson he expects his disciples to imitate, which is why he is so hard on Peter when he balks at having his feet washed by Our Lord. Our Lord’s response is interesting: “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Our Lord is teaching them to serve one another by this command. He also added I have given you a model to follow. If Peter had refused, would he ever have done it either? Perhaps an inheritance would have been lost, the inheritance of loving one another, in this case, through service, just as Our Lord did. Inheritance can also mean salvation which he was going to give us through his sacrificial death, the greatest cleansing, and service to humanity.

In instituting the Eucharist, Jesus asks us to perpetually commemorate his sacrifice: “Do this in memory of me.” It was just like the Old Covenant with Moses to remember their Passover every year. But this one is to be done as often as we can, as Paul mentions.

 Jesus asked them to do what he did in remembrance of him. Therefore, we are not doing a separate sacrifice when we do the Mass every day. In every celebration of the Eucharist, we offer in an unbloody manner what he once offered on the Cross: himself. The sacrifice we offer is not different from the original Sacrifice of Jesus, but the same one, because the offerer and the offering are the same. There is only one Sacrifice of Christ. To stress the concept of this unity of the celebration in the early church, when the Popes said Mass in Rome, the neighboring parishes received a consecrated piece of the host from the celebration of the Pope, which they used in the Masses around Rome. That unity of each Mass with other Masses is still preserved when we use the consecrated species from the previous celebration preserved in the Tabernacle. And the unity with the following day’s mass is also maintained when we reserve the remaining hosts for the next day’s Mass. Thus, we keep the unity of the Mass with the one of yesterday and of the one tomorrow, except for Good Friday, as there is no Mass celebrated in honor of the First Mass of Christ.

This sacrifice is made sacramentally present at every Mass—not for the sake of God, who has no need of it, but for our sake. Because it has a benefit for us. Aside from offering thanks to God for the great salvation, we are given a share in the life of Christ by Holy Communion.

Why do we need to repeatedly celebrate it? The repeated celebration should go deeper and deeper into us and become part of our life, reminding me every day that my eternal life gets its effect from this one celebration. Eating physical food one day is not enough for us to grow, we need to eat everyday to satisfy the hunger and get nutrition and grow. The same here.

Since he knows that we're slow learners, he is going to repeat the lesson even more graphically by the suffering and death of his passion, which he says to do in his remembrance.

It is not enough to attend just once to dive deep into that mystery. Because our capacity is limited to draw enough grace for our lives from attending just one celebration, that is why the Church tells us to attend Mass at least on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligations in keeping with Jesus’ command: do this in memory of me.

 When someone asked the great artist Leonardo da Vinci why everybody is on one side of the table in his painting of the Last Supper? The other side is empty. His answer was simple. “So that there may be plenty of room for us to join them.” Well, we can join them like Judas, who betrayed the Lord in spite of getting his feet washed and given adequate warning to step back from his resolve to betray him. Or we can be like Peter, who said Jesus that even if everyone abandoned him, he would not do that, and was willing to die for him, still shivered before a slave girl and disowned his master. If we are joining the table, we should join like the unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved and stayed on with the Lord till the foot of the cross. He was the only male follower present under the cross. But it will require love and faith in us. Are we willing to join them and get our feet washed today?