Holy Thursday Sermon

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Hebdomada Sancta, Feria V in Cœna Domini

Sacellum Immaculatae Conceptionis

Seminarium Sancti Philippi Neri

Gricigliano

28 Martii 2024

Epistola: 1 Cor 11, 20-32

Evangelium: Jn 13, 1-15

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on the anniversary of its very institution signifies for us the truth that the Great Mystery of Faith which we solemnly celebrate throughout the Sacred Triduum and in its consummation on the Sunday and throughout the Season of the Resurrection of Our Lord is fully contained in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. It is the mystery expressed by Saint John the Evangelist at the beginning of his account of the Passion of Our Lord: “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.”^[1] How did the Divine Love perfectly manifested in the Incarnation of God the Son attain its consummation? By the death of God the Son Incarnate on the Cross, by the pouring out of the water and blood from His pierced Heart for the eternal life, the eternal salvation, of countless souls. Most fittingly we have prayed in the Introit: “But it beho[o]ves us to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: in whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection; by whom we are saved and delivered.”^[2]

The Sacrifice of the Cross brings to perfect expression God’s love for man. In the words of Blessed Columba Marmion,

All is perfect in the sacrifice of Jesus: – the love that inspires it, and the liberty with which He accomplishes it. Perfect, too, in the gift offered: Christ offers Himself: Semetipsum tradidit.^[3]

The consummation of Divine Love in the Sacrifice of Calvary, in accord with its perfection, is fully contained in its sacramental renewal, in the Eucharistic Sacrifice which Christ unceasingly offers through the ministry of His priests, in every time and place, until the Last Day. At the Last Supper, Christ instituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by which He nourishes us with His true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, by which He unites our hearts to His Divine Heart in the daily offering of our very being to Him and to our neighbor in pure and selfless love.

This is the Mystery of the Cross, the Mystery of Faith. In his commentary on Holy Thursday, Blessed Ildefonso Schuster, taking inspiration from the Introit declares:

We must not allow ourselves to shrink from the mere thought of the cross. It is like a medicine which is bitter to the taste but which is certain to restore health. St Paul says that in Jesus crucified est salus, vita et resurrectio nostra. He is our resurrection, because his death merits for us the grace of rising again from the sepulchre of our sins; he is our life, because for his sake the eternal Father gives us the Holy Ghost, who is the vital source of all our spiritual life; he is our health, because, according to the word of Isaias, the blood which flows from his wounds and the bruises on his limbs, torn by the scourgings, are as balsam to heal our souls from all vices and evil passions.^[4]

At the Last Supper, Christ fulfilled the promise He made during the Discourse on the Bread of Life:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh…. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”^[5]

It is the reality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice as the fulfillment of the promise of Christ to feed us with His true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, the reality of our dwelling in Christ and His dwelling in us through Holy Communion, the sublime fruit of the Sacrifice.

Profoundly conscious of the reality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Sacrament, Saint Paul insisted, with the greatest possible severity, that the early Christians at Corinth cease their sacrileges against the Holy Eucharist. After having recalled to their memory the institution of the Holy Eucharist by Our Lord, Saint Paul tells them directly and unequivocally:

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.^[6]

With what awe we should approach the Holy Sacrifice and its fruit: the Sacred Host and the Most Precious Blood! Throughout the Sacred Triduum, which begins with this Holy Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the Sacred Liturgy, with evident austerity, reflects the incalculable sufferings of Christ during His cruel Passion and Death, but, on this night, the Church cannot restrain her most beautiful expressions of faith in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Sacrament: the procession with the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Altar of Reposition in all its rich decoration, and the vigil of prayer before the tabernacle in which the Sacred Host is reserved.

Inherent to the most sublime reality of the Holy Eucharist is the Holy Priesthood, the Sacrament of the Pastoral Charity of Christ. Our Lord sacramentally conforms men to act in His person as Head and Shepherd of the Church, of the flock of the Father dispersed throughout the world. The highest and fullest expression of His Pastoral Charity is the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Commenting on today’s Eucharistic feast, Dom Prosper Guéranger writes:

The institution of the holy Eucharist, both as a Sacrament and as a Sacrifice, is followed by another: the institution of a new priesthood. How could our Saviour have said: ‘Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you,’ unless He had resolved to establish a ministry upon earth, whereby He would renew, even to the end of time, the great mystery He thus commands us to receive? He begins it to-day, in the cenacle. The twelve apostles are the first to partake of it; but observe what He says to them: ‘Do this for a commemoration of Me.’ By these words, He gives them power to change bread into His Body, and wine into His Blood; and this sublime power shall be perpetuated in the Church, by holy Ordination, even to the end of the world. Jesus will continue to operate, by the ministry of mortal and sinful men, the mystery of the last Supper. By thus enriching His Church with the one and perpetual Sacrifice, He also gives us the means of abiding in Him, for He gives us, as He promised, the Bread of heaven. To-day, then, we keep the anniversary, not only of the institution of the holy Eucharist, but also of the equally wonderful institution of the Christian priesthood.^[7]

Our awe before the Most Blessed Sacrament is always, at the same time, awe before the Holy Priesthood. In a particular way, in this house dedicated to the preparation of men for Ordination to the Holy Priesthood, we who are priests and those who are preparing for priestly ordination should be filled with awe that Our Lord chooses us, notwithstanding our deficiencies and failures, to be the sacrament of His Pastoral Charity, above all in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Filled with gratitude for the Great Mystery of Faith consummated during these holiest days of the Church Year, let us now give anew our hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Let us rejoice to take up with Him His cross, to be one with Him “in whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection; by whom we are saved and delivered.”^[8]

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke

^[1] Jn 13, 1.

^[2] “Nos autem gloriari oportet in Cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi: in quo est salus, vita et resurrectio nostra: per quem salvati et liberati sumus.” “De Missa Solemni Vespertina in Cena Domini: Antiphona ad Introitum,” Missale Romanum ex Decreto Sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum Summorum Pontificum cura recognitum, editio iuxta typicam (Tornaci: Typis Desclée & Sociorum, 1962). English translation: Gaspar Lefebvre, “Maundy Thursday, Mass in Commemoration of the Lord’s Supper, Introit,” Saint Andrew Daily Missal (Bruges, Belgium: Biblica, 1962).

^[3] “Tout est parfait dans le sacrifice de Jésus : et l’amour qui l’inspire, et la liberté avec laquelle il l’accomplit. Parfait aussi dans le don offert : le Christ s’offre lui-même : Semetipsum tradidit.” Columba Marmion, Le Christ dans ses mystères (Belgique: Les Éditions de Maredsous, 1947), p. 282. English translation : Columba Marmion, Christ in His Mysteries, tr. Mother M. St. Thomas, 8^th ed. (London: Sands & Co., 1939), pp. 252-253.

^[4] “Non dobbiamo lasciarci rabbrividire alla semplice apprensione della croce. Essa è come una medicina che è un po’ amara al gusto, ma conferisce certamente la sanità. L’Apostolo dice che in Gesù Crocifisso est salus, vita et resurrectio nostra. Egli è resurrezione, perchè la sua morte ci merita la grazia di risorgere dal sepolcro dei nostri peccati; è vita, perché è a riguardo suo che l’Eterno Padre ci accorda lo Spirito Santo, il quale è principio vitale di tutta la nostra vita spirituale; è salute perchè al dir d’Isaia, il sangue delle sue piaghe e i lividi delle sue membra solcate dai flagelli sono come un balsamo contro i vizi e le passioni.” A. I. Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum. Note storiche e liturgiche sul Messale Romano, Vol. III (Torino-Roma: Casa Editrice Marietti, 1933), p. 207. English translation: Ildefonso Schuster, The Sacramentary (Liber Sacramentorum) Historical & Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal, Vol. II (Parts 3 and 4), tr. Arthur Levelis-Marke (Waterloo [Ontario]: Arouca Press, 2020), pp. 199-200.

^[5] Jn 6, 51. 53-56.

^[6] 1 Cor 11, 27-29.

^[7] “Dans le Cénacle, de même qu’il y a plus qu’un repas, il y a autre chose qu’un sacrifice, si divine que soit la victime offerte par le souverain Prêtre. Il y a ici l’institution d’un nouveau Sacerdoce. Comment Jésus aurait-il dit aux hommes : « Si vous ne mangez ma chair e ne buvez mon sang, vous n’aurez point la vie en vous », s’il n’eût songé à établir sur la terre un ministère par lequel il renouvellerait, jusqu’à la fin des temps, ce qu’il vient d’accomplir en présence de ces douze hommes ? Or voici ce qu’il dit à ces hommes qu’il a choisis : « Vous ferez ceci en mémoire de moi. » Il leur donne par ces paroles le pouvoir de changer, eux aussi, le pain en son corps et le vin en son sang ; et ce pouvoir sublime se transmettra dans l’Église, par la sainte ordination, jusqu’à la fin des siècles. Jésus continuera d’opérer, par le ministère d’hommes mortels et pécheurs, la merveille qu’il accomplit dans le Cénacle ; et en même temps qu’il dote son Église de l’unique et immortel Sacrifice, il nous donne, selon sa promesse, par le Pain du ciel, le moyen de « demeurer en lui, et lui en nous ». Nous avons donc à célébrer aujourd’hui un autre anniversaire non moins merveilleux que le premier : l’institution du Sacerdoce chrétien.” Prosper Guéranger, L’Année liturgique, La Passion et la Semaine Sainte, 27^ème éd. (Tours: Maison Alfred Mame et Fils, 1924), pp. 410-411. English translation: Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, Passiontide and Holy Week, tr. Laurence Shepherd (Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications, 2000), pp. 371-372.

^[8] “… in quo est salus, vita et resurrectio nostra: per quem salvati et liberati sumus.” “De Missa Solemni Vespertina in Cena Domini: Antiphona ad Introitum,” Missale Romanum ex Decreto Sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum Summorum Pontificum cura recognitum, editio iuxta typicam (Tornaci: Typis Desclée & Sociorum, 1962). English translation: Gaspar Lefebvre, “Maundy Thursday, Mass in Commemoration of the Lord’s Supper, Introit,” Saint Andrew Daily Missal (Bruges, Belgium: Biblica, 1962).