What the Church is Living Today

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.  

“Do this in memory of me.” We just heard those words from the Gospel from as Jesus was about to begin His passion, and those words are why we’re here today. “Do this in memory of me.” But it has perhaps some other meanings that we’re not as aware of, because the Church, the Mystical Body, as we’ve often said, is following Jesus in His what’s called the paschal mystery, the mystery of His suffering death, but also His resurrection. And so, this passion that we’re listening to today, helps us understand what the Mystical Body of Jesus, the Church is living right now.  Because the Church is going through a great crisis, a great crisis that has been proposed, and which, as we’ve said, so many people are leaving the Church. I just saw the most recent statistic in the United States, I think they said for every person entering the Church, there’s eight persons leaving the Church. And so, so many, we all know, so many people have left the Church. And the Church, for a lot of people, the Church seems defeated, becoming irrelevant, dying. But if we understand what’s happening In Church in the light of this paschal mystery, we realize that in this moment which seems so dark for the Church, the Holy Spirit is actually working deeply and preparing a great victory. And the victory won’t be because of synods and human commissions, but it will be by God’s own action, as Jesus’ resurrection was, it’s God’s action. But God calls for our own cooperation, and that’s why we’re here today, because we’re part of this. He is the major one doing it, but all of us are called. All of us have our own particular mission, because it’s such a great mission. And so let’s look a little bit at this, at the gospel today, and see what light it sheds on what the Church is living today. Because the gospel, so much of the gospel is, this Gospel is about evil. It’s the authorities as the gospel today said they took Jesus into the house of the high priest, the high priest who should have been a model of holiness and faith. But it’s that taking him into his house as a sign also that he and the Sanhedrin are the ones behind, the religious authorities, are the ones behind this. They are the true authors, after satan, of this, of this murder. And they who are the powerful, who are considered the elite, these religious authorities, and that’s very important, and it’s important in the Church, the position of many consider the religious authorities in a Church kind of like irrelevant as I said today. But because of the role of the God’s mission for the Church, they have an extremely important role. And yet we see again, it’s the religious authorities who are condemning Jesus.  And then there’s Judas. Judas probably began not with evil intentions, but he was a very ambitious person, ambitious young man. And he was contaminated. He became compromised. He was divided. There had been a part of him which was really trying to follow Jesus, but so divided and so vulnerable then to the temptations, which ends with him betraying Jesus with a kiss. And so, it’s a false love, a pretended love, a deception, using a kiss to betray Jesus. And then there’s the apostles and the disciples. And there the apostles we see, you know that the normal human response in danger is either fight or flight. And the apostles begin by wanting to fight, and Jesus doesn’t want that, and so they end up fleeing in weakness and in fear. So that’s the human response, fight or flight. And Jesus was calling for something else. So we know that they flee in weakness, but it’s only temporary. We had that passage from the Last Supper, “Simon. Simon, behold, satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat.” So satan and the other evil spirits are very active at this point, and the apostles are being especially attacked, attacked by these evil spirits, which kind of overwhelmed them for a time. and with this, we can’t imagine the intensity of this. It’s not just the human weakness, and it’s not just that the soldiers who come, but it’s also the way the evil spirits are attacking them and bringing upon them this weakness and this fear. You know all of us are – that’s one of the temptations of the evil one is to cause us to fear and panic. And so, “satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat. But I have prayed that your own faith may not fail, and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.” So that’s it says, Jesus, “I pray that your own faith may not fail.” And we could have thought, well, it did fail. Well, it didn’t really fail, but there was a moment of weakness and fear. “And once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.” So that’s the apostles and disciples, and then there’s all the crowd. The crowd, which we remember was on as Jesus entry in Jerusalem was acclaiming Him, and so many of them, just a few days later, the crowd can be so changeable, are now condemning Him. And so, Jesus says, “this is your hour, the time for the power of darkness.” So, this is the hour of darkness that they are experiencing. And the Gospel says “darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun.” And so this moment, it seems like Jesus has, and His Church have been defeated. But it’s because it’s such a dark moment and that the weakness and the sinfulness of even of the very leaders of the Church is manifested, but it’s only temporary, and that’s why this is so important. This eclipse is like a symbol. This is a moment of great darkness. It has destroyed the sun, right? If you didn’t know at all, that’s what it would look like. It would look like the sun had been destroyed, the sun had been defeated, the sun had been wiped out. But we know that that’s only temporary. And this was like an eclipse of the Church of Jesus, the apostles needed this to be humbled and to become ministers of mercy. And so Jesus Himself seems defeated. You know, people are saying, well, if you’re the Son of God, cry out and He’ll save you. And Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” And God didn’t come to save Him. It seemed like God had abandoned Him. And Jesus is experiencing this trial that so many people have experienced, of feeling abandoned by God, of God not seeming to respond, not seeming to come to our aid. That the reading we had from St Paul says, “Jesus emptied Himself.” Emptied Himself. Jesus has been emptied. And so Jesus could have – Jesus doesn’t do fight or flight. He could have destroyed His enemies. He could have fled, but He doesn’t do either one, it says, And St Paul says, “He became obedient to the point of death,” obedient to the point of death. But who is Jesus obeying? He’s not obeying the religious authorities. He’s not obeying the Sanhedrin. For them, they consider Him a criminal who is causing problems, disturbing the peace, a troublemaker. He’s not. He’s not obeying the human authorities who have become so contaminated and so corrupt that they are enemies of God. But he’s obeying God. He’s obeying His Father. Jesus is considered by the authorities, by those who consider themselves the religious experts, He is considered disobedient, because He is perfectly obedient to God, the Father. And He seems to be defeated, but He’s already victorious. His victory is just beginning. It’s still hidden, but it’s already won. The battle really is already won. It’s not apparent right away. God’s victory is not yet apparent, but by His sacrifice, the victory is won. Jesus says, “From this time on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” And He’s saying that in His trial, from this time on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. And for those who heard it, that would have sounded like that’s proof that He’s crazy. He says, “From this time on, he’ll be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” He’s dying as a miserable criminal on the cross. It seemed for a moment during this eclipse to be false, but then it will be manifested forever. And with Jesus, there is also others, above all, His mother and some others who are faithful, women and men, disciples and John, the apostle, who continue to believe when almost everyone has abandoned Him or rejected Him, who hope against hope in God and await His action. And I want to finish by sharing with you a message. This was a message – so some people have said that they appreciate it when we share some of the messages that haven’t been published. This was a message given to our community June 14, 2021.  We were making our community retreat, like every religious community where we make a retreat once a year. So we’re making a retreat and Sister received this message for us. And so I’m sharing this. I think this is the first time this has been shared publicly, but I’m sharing it with you all because I think the Lord is making you part of this mission. So here’s this excerpt. “Our work is strenuous, our offering,” –  so it’s God himself saying our work is strenuous – “our offering is crushing, our prayer unceasing and exhausting. We taste ashes that others may drink living water. We do these things together, my coworkers, my friends, my beloved. It seems to you that things, my work has stalled. My work never ceases, never rest. It unfolds, second by second, age by age, from eternity to eternity, inexorable. But my plan has its stages. One stage ends and another begins. One stage is action, another is pain. Another is waiting in patience. Another is breathing before the last effort. Each stage is necessary. Each stage has its hurdles and its graces. I say to you again, my work has never ceased, does not cease, will never cease. What has been announced will come to pass. The promises spoken to you will be fulfilled. I am faithful. Leave to Me the fulfillment of all things. You draw ever closer to my heart. Anchor yourselves to my heart through your trust, your trust in Me is constantly under siege, My children, My soldiers, constantly attacked. Every effort made to crumble it, crush It, erode it, confuse it. And yes, because you share in the pain of the abandonment, the terrible abandonment, you feel that it is I who crush your trust, your hope, your love. Can I forget or abandon you to the dogs to be eaten and destroyed? No, 1000 times. No. You are mine. But in these attacks, in these battles, lie the glory, the grace, the mercy that must be obtained to restore all of humanity to my heart, to restore all of creation to its original state, to restore the Church to its Glory and purpose. My children, our work is great, all encompassing, and so the pain, exhaustion, darkness, fear that must be experienced in the fulfillment of this work is therefore great and all-encompassing as well. I will not let you be destroyed. You are mine. You are my fragrant offerings. You stand in the breach for your brothers. I bless you, and through you, I bless multitudes more. Your Jesus who loves you.” Amen.  

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Luke 22:14-23:56