Years ago, my brother, Billy, and I went to a punk rock concert together with some of my friends at the Newport Music Hall near OSU campus. One of the other people in the group was a bubbly blonde girl named Maura. Although Maura and Billy had met briefly before, he didn’t remember it. But that night, Billy and Maura began a friendship.
Fast forward multiple years later. That friendship had flowered into genuine love and Billy was going to propose. He planned a whole day’s adventure where they would go from place to place throughout Columbus, visiting spots that were significant to their relationship. The finale of the tour was at the Newport Music Hall. Billy had learned that you could actually rent the Newport by the hour, so he had put down the money to rent it for an hour on the evening of his proposal. As he was out with Maura at other places, he sent my cousin Andrew and me to the Newport ahead of time. We climbed up onto the stage and scattered fresh flower petals all over, creating a lovely, romantic spot for Billy and Maura.
When they arrived at the Newport, I hid out in the lobby as Billy and Maura entered the concert hall and Billy led her up to the stage. It was there, right where their friendship had begun, that he dropped to his knee and proposed to her. I can only imagine Maura’s delight and surprise at entering the Newport and seeing the stage all littered with rose petals. I bet by that point she had some idea of what was going on. She said ‘yes!’
I love thinking back on that evening. I remember the excitement and anticipation I felt for both of them as Andrew and I transformed that stage into “proposal central.” It was such a cool moment to see Billy pour out his love and gratitude for Maura and ask her to marry him. Praise be to God, Billy and Maura just recently celebrated ten years of marriage.
Tonight we get the privilege of celebrating together that feast set before us because of the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We gather together here and all over the world tonight to commemorate the final feast that Jesus celebrated with His apostles in the Upper Room and invites all of us to join in at every Mass.
God knew what He was doing throughout history. When He lovingly led his people out of the spiritual and political bondage of Egypt, the final plague brought judgment on all of the firstborn of the peoples who had enslaved the Hebrews, but death passed over God’s chosen ones because of the blood of the Passover Lamb smeared on their doorposts. The Father knew that this lamb was the forerunner of an even greater Lamb. Not just an unblemished male animal, but an unblemished man, One who was not only a sinless human, but also God, and whose blood would save and nourish us all.
So Jesus, knowing of His coming self-offering in love on the Cross, sat down to that Passover Feast all those years ago and gave the world two great and precious gifts. He transformed that feast commemorating the deliverance of the Hebrews into a feast which draws us into the deliverance of all humanity, not just from Pharoah, but from the Devil and the sin and death that he brings. All of us now enjoy the privilege of feasting not on the roasted flesh of the Passover Lamb, but on the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, given to us under the appearance of bread and wine. Jesus, with the power of His Divinity, transformed the simple elements of bread and wine at that meal into Himself and gave us the priesthood through His apostles, commanding them to “do this in memory of me.”
I am humbled to be the recipient of such a rich and beautiful heritage. St. Paul speaks in the second reading we heard tonight about this great gift that he himself received as an Apostle and handed on: “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” St. Paul’s letters are some of the earliest written Christian documents, and already we see him acknowledging the centrality of the Eucharist. He saw it as his duty as an Apostle to faithfully celebrate and hand on the Sacrament that Jesus instituted at the Last Supper. This same sacrament has been faithfully handed on throughout the centuries by the Apostles, their successors, the Bishops, and their co-workers, us priests.
On the day of my ordination almost nine years ago, the Bishop asked me: “Do you resolve to celebrate faithfully and reverently, in accord with the Church’s tradition, the mysteries of Christ, especially the sacrifice of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the glory of God and the sanctification of the Christian people?” And I responded, “I do.” I can honestly say that it has been the greatest privilege of my life to celebrate the mysteries of Christ, above all the Eucharist. I stand before you today with even deeper resolve to celebrate these mysteries for the glory of God and your sanctification. Thank you, Jesus, for choosing me, in my unworthiness, for this awesome vocation!
What we enter into and celebrate tonight is that great mystery of Christ’s love for all of us, His willingness to bow Himself low to serve us all, and His setting aside men to continue His service. He bowed low to wash the Apostles’ feet, telling them to do the same. And now we who have been called to carry on that ministry humbly offer our lives to serve you and bring you Christ through the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
My brother Billy, by his love for Maura, transformed that concert hall into the beautiful place of his proposal. So it is in an infinitely greater way with our Heavenly Bridegroom. Jesus, because of His great love, transformed the Passover meal into something incredible and supernatural, for us–His beloved! St. John reminds us tonight with his beautiful, inspired words that Jesus “loved his own in the world and loved them to the end.” He was present, in His Divinity, with the Father and the Holy Spirit as the first Passover was instituted. Then, out of Divine Love, He humbled Himself, and came in the flesh, so that by His Love, that Passover meal might be transformed for all of us into the meal in which we feed on Him, and are thus joined intimately to Him. He became the Lamb of God, for all of us to consume and thus have new life. Praise be to God!
It is His love which transforms bread and wine into Himself at every altar all over the world, His love which allows every Catholic church to be more than just a place of prayer, but a place of encounter between Heaven and earth, His love which sets aside men as priests to make Him personally present at every Sacrament, His love which allows each of us to be intimately united to Him at every Mass, empowering us to go forth in His Love to transform the world. Brothers and sisters, what more could we ask from our Divine Lover? He has lavished us with all that we need to be made holy in this life and to be drawn to the fullness of life with Him and all the angels and saints, beyond death, suffering, pain and change.
So let us praise and thank Jesus for His superabundant love tonight and all the great gifts He pours out on us as Christian people. Let us pray that we would always be nourished by Him in the Sacraments, above all in the Eucharist, so that we might live the abundant life now and follow Him to eternal life in Heaven.
+ Father, thank you for the gifts you so generously give us through your only begotten Son. Jesus, thank you for the feast of the Eucharist which unites us to you, and for the priesthood by which you continue to humbly serve the Church. Holy Spirit, help us all to be so filled with the love of Christ in the Sacraments that all those we meet may encounter Jesus through us. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +