It is Holy week and today being Maundy Thursday which commemorates Christ's Last Supper, the initiation of the Eucharist, and the institution of the priesthood. Its name of "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning "command." This stems from Christ's words to the Apostles in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you." After the Last Supper, Jesus went outside the Old City of Jerusalem, crossed the Kidron Valley, and came to the Garden of Gethsemani (the Garden of Olives), where His passion begins. Likewise at the end of the Mass the Holy Eucharist is carried in the Ciborium to the "Altar of Repose," also known as the "Holy Sepulchre," where it will remain "entombed" until the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday. While the Holy Eucharist is in the “Altar of Repose” Catholics usually spend some time here with Our Lord in adoration, meditating on His Passion, keeping Him company making up for what the Apostles didn’t do. So alternatively we shall do it in our homes. Sadly the majority of Catholics are unable to attend this solemn occasion as we are all locked down at home during this pandemic the world is going through. This Easter period of 2020 will be long remembered by all of us as we recognize that God has allowed this trial for us to be closer to Him despite not being able to be with Him at Mass. How this situation makes us value, no treasure the Mass even more as we have been deprived of it the whole of Holy week and Easter Sunday just around the corner. Nevertheless we are thankful that we are still able to participate digitally through the live streaming videos so kindly organized by the various S.S.P.X. centres around the world; and also the edifying sermons by priests of the Society. Below is one such sermon by Fr. Etienne Demornex which I feel should be shared for the benefit of all Catholics. Sermon about the Importance of the Mass (Maundy Thursday 2020) by Fr. Etienne Demornex Introduction We are celebrating Maundy Thursday this year under special circumstances. God has allowed that most of Catholics in the world are deprived of attending Holy Week ceremonies: instead of going to church, they have to stay at home. Probably lukewarm Catholics whose worldly spirit keeps at the borders of hell, are quite happy of having a good excuse for not going to church for several weeks; but Catholics who are true followers of Christ cannot not suffer of the current situation. In these days, God reminds us the vital importance of the Mass and gives us some hint of what would our spiritual situation be without it. 1. Redemption gained by the Sacrifice of the Cross Out of goodness, God decided to redeem mankind after Adam’s sin, and He decided that this redemption would be gained by the offering of the Sacrifice of the Cross: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, offering his human life by dying voluntarily on a cross. Certainly, there were other ways of realizing the Redemption. God who had been offended could have just forgiven Adam and restored mankind in its original holiness. However, God decided that the Redemption would be through the Sacrifice of the Cross because it was the most appropriate way to reach the purposes which God had in view regarding us, regarding Christ and regarding Himself.
The Sacrifice of the Cross is of infinite value, because Christ, who is the victim and the priest thereof, is of infinite perfection, being God the Son. Therefore, the Sacrifice of the Cross is perfect and complete by itself, it is unique: it gives God full adoration and thanksgivings, it is a full satisfaction for all the sins of mankind, it merits all graces of sanctification for the whole mankind. As St Paul said: “Christ was offered once to exhaust the sins of many” (Heb 9;28) “By one oblation He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb 10;14) “Christ rising again from the dead dies now no more. Death shall no more have dominion over Him. For in that He died to sin, He died once” (Rom 6;9). This being the situation, we can wonder: what is the Mass for? 1. Sacrifice of the Cross actualized by Holy Mass The Mass is the mysterious actualization of the Sacrifice of the cross in time, so that all people of all nations and of all times can unite themselves to it and benefit from it. But how is it possible to actualise something which happened 2000 years ago? When we consider the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist, we face a mystery pertaining to location: the same Jesus Christ is physically present and in the same time in Heaven and in all the places on earth where the Holy Eucharist is. This is made technically possible because Christ is present in the Holy Eucharist by way of substance and not by way of His physical dimensions and qualities. When we consider the Mystery of the Mass, we face a Mystery pertaining to time: the same Sacrifice which happened 2000 years ago is actualized every time a Mass is celebrated validly. And this is made technically possible because Christ is eternal, out of time. A sacrifice lasts as long as last together the victim which is offered and the priest who offers and the act of oblation by which the priest offers the victim. Now, Christ the Victim of the sacrifice of the Cross lives for ever; Christ the Priest of the sacrifice of the Cross lives for ever; and the act of oblation by which Christ offered Himself to His Father on the Cross goes on constantly in His Heart. And so, the Sacrifice of the Cross which was done historically 2000 years ago goes on for ever, not the same as to its bloody aspect but the same in its constitutive elements. Holy Mass is the actualisation down in time for us now, of the everlasting Sacrifice of the Cross. This actualisation is not done in a bloody way, as it was 2000 years ago. It is done in a sacramental way. The word “sacrament” has two meanings which are “mystery” and “sign”. The actualisation of the Sacrifice of the Cross in time is done by way of signs, gestures, prayers and every time a priest performs them, the mystery happens: the priest and all the faithful united to him penetrate for a short while in the eternity of God to join Christ in His everlasting reparatory adoration to the Father, and through this supernatural contact they are applied the merits of Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and the obtention of all the graces which they need. Now comes the question: was it necessary to have such actualization of the Sacrifice of the Cross by the Mass? Was it not enough for us to join in spirit, in commemoration, the Sacrifice of the Cross made 2000 years ago? Theorically speaking, it would have been enough. But practically speaking, not enough. Our Lord Jesus, so good and merciful to us, knew perfectly that we would have been in practice unable to unite ourselves to the Sacrifice of the Cross just in spirit. We human beings we forget the past and distort it too easily and quickly: how would we have been able to keep a proper understanding and commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Cross? Our intelligence is so blind, our will is so weak: how would we have been able to maintain our union of mind and will to the Sacrifice of the Cross until the end of the world? We would have miserably failed. Very wisely and mercifully, Our Lord Jesus has instituted the Mass to make present to us the Sacrifice of the Cross and to apply to us the merits which He gained 2000 years ago. Conclusion: Importance of the Mass As the Sacrifice of the Cross is the necessary means by which Redemption is gained, so the Mass is the necessary means by which this same Redemption is applied to each one of us. Without the Mass, we can still offer in spirit Our Lord crucified to God, but how more difficult it is to be recollected and to pray with devotion! Without the Mass and sacramental Communion, we can still do a spiritual communion, but how more difficult it is to produce the acts of Faith and Love which are necessary to realize such spiritual Communion! In this period of confinement, when Holy Mass has been taken away for a while from many Catholics all over the world, one lesson should appear to us clearly: the importance of having the Mass. The disarray and spiritual difficulty which Catholics are experiencing in the current situation should give them a hint of what would happen to them if Holy Mass would disappear. So, it is time for an examination of conscience: which place do we give to Holy Mass in my life? How much are we ready to sacrifice in order to attend a Mass? Mass is a gift from God: we should not take is for granted. If we don’t value it properly and neglect it, God will rightly take it away from us, because Our Lord said: “Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine” (Mt 7;6). There is a second point which we can consider: for the faithful to attend the Mass and to benefit from it, Mass must be celebrated; but to have Mass celebrated, it is necessary to have a priest. No priest, no Mass. What Catholics are experiencing in the current situation of the corona virus, being deprived of Mass and Sacraments, it is what will happen to them if the number of Priests continue decreasing. Priests are lacking. Is it because Christ is not calling anymore? No, it is because the ears of too many Catholics are blocked with worldly earwax, that is to say the enchantress and vain promises of the world promising a happiness which actually cannot be found but in God. If young men have no generosity to make the voluntary sacrifice of their natural desire to found a family in order to give themselves to Christ the Priest, then there will be no more Mass, the spiritual desertification of the world will continue and the damnation of souls increase. So tonight, let us especially be thankful to Our Lord Jesus for the gift of the Mass, and let us pray for more vocations.
Trusting and having faith in God during difficult times can be incredibly hard. Often it comes to a point where one thinks of why does God allow such sufferings ? Why me Lord? But those who know their faith, well, know how and where they can seek solace. During such tribulations, we should not forget that Our Lord suffered the most during His Passion and his ignominious death on the Cross for the love of us; and how the Saints suffered as well for the love of Him. We can be consoled, in reflecting on quotations from the Bible and the Saints, during our trials or sufferings, such as these: Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” “The Christian’s motto is the cross. You will recognize God’s love by this sign, by the sufferings He sends you.” “I do not know what will happen to me; I only know one thing for certain, that the Lord will never fall short of His promises. “Do not fear, I will make you suffer, but I will also give you the strength to suffer,” Jesus tells me continually. “I want your soul to be purified and tried by a daily hidden martyrdom”. . .”How many times,” Jesus said to me a little while ago, “would you have abandoned me, my son, if I had not crucified you.” “Endure tribulations, illness, and pain, for the love of God and for the conversion of poor sinners.” – Padre Pio “Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.” “Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul except sin. God commands you to pray, but He forbids you to worry.” “If God sends you many sufferings it is a sign that He has great plans for you, and certainly wants to make you a saint.” “In proportion to our willingness to suffer for anyone is the measure of our love for Him. This, then, is the first thing that God desires to effect in sending us suffering - “that our souls may turn to Him alone”; “His thorns, as they wound us, spread abroad the perfume of our love.” But God sends us suffering also because “He longs to give us a “magnificent reward.” What is this reward? “He knows that suffering is the only means of preparing us to know Him as He knows Himself, and to become ourselves divine” through Sanctifying Grace. What does this imply? “O my God what shall we then see? What will be this life which will have no end? Our Lord will be the soul of our souls. O unsearchable mystery! “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love Him.” How do sufferings effect this? By conforming us to Christ Crucified, for “they greatly help to detach us from this earth, they make us look higher than this world; besides, life and pain are short; “tomorrow, in a brief hour we shall be at rest”; nay, even now “God already sees us in glory and rejoices in our every lasting bliss. I understand now why He lets us suffer.” St. Therese of Lisieux. According to St. Therese, another effect of suffering is the ransom of souls. “Jesus has for us a love so incomprehensible that He does not wish to do anything without making us His cooperators. He wills that we should have a part with Him in the salvation of souls.” How? “From the day He raised His standard of the Cross, all must fight and win in its shadow. Far more by suffering and persecution than by eloquent discourses does Jesus wish to build up His Kingdom. “ St. Therese esteemed every cross as a “mine of gold for us to turn to account”; and being overwhelmed with crosses, she cried out: “Jesus heaps favours upon us as upon the greatest Saints… Ours is an enviable lot, and the Seraphim in Heaven are jealous of our happiness. We must suffer in patience all the tribulations of this life - be they outbreaks of diseases, infirmities, sorrows, poverty, loss of goods, deaths of loved ones, injuries, persecutions and all contradictions. We must understand, too, that the trials of this life are signs that God loves us and wishes to save us hereafter. Let us also understand that involuntary mortifications (e.g. the trials during this pandemic), are more pleasing to Him than the voluntary mortifications that we undertake ourselves. Should we suffer illness, we must seek to resign ourselves absolutely to the will of God; this is more pleasing to God than any other devotion. If at this time we are unable to apply our minds to meditation, let us fix our gaze on our Crucified Saviour, offering Him our sufferings and uniting them to the sufferings which He bore on the cross for us. If we are burdened with poverty, we must conform to the will of God, all the inconveniences that come with poverty - cold, hunger, hard work, contempt and scorn. We must be resigned to trials, sufferings, in all adversities to accustom ourselves to say: “As God wills, so do I.” “Thy will be done O Lord, Thy will be done. The Lord givest and the Lord takest away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1, 21 We can better appreciate these crosses when we recall in our minds the evident love of God for us in giving us a soul, made us in His image, the beauty and wonders of His creations and above all the gift of His own self - in His Son, to die for us all on the Cross. “God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son” John, 3, 16. It was when the Eternal Father saw that we were all dead and deprived of His grace because of sin, moved by His immense love for us, His excessive love for us, that He commanded His beloved Son to make satisfaction for us (for our sins). “Because of the excessive love he bore us, he brought us to life in Christ, even when we were dead in our sins.” (Eph, 2, 4-5.) In the same way, Jesus, His Son, has given Himself unreservedly to us, because of His love for us: “He loved us and He sacrificed Himself for us.” (Gal., 2, 20) In this we behold the Lord of the world humbling Himself to such a degree as to take the nature of a servant, and subjecting Himself to all the miseries that other men suffer. Astonishingly, it would have been easy for Him to save us without dying and suffering; but He chose a life in which afflictions and sufferings would abound and His death would be one that would be bitter and steeped in shame; for He would die on a cross, a gibbet of infamy destined for criminals: “He humbled Himself becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Phil., 2, 8) St. Paul exclaimed: “The love of Christ presses us.” (11 Cor., 5, 14) The Apostle wants to tell us that not only the fact that Jesus Christ had suffered; but still more the love, which he had shown in His suffering for us, oblige us and even compel us to give our love to Him. St. Francis de Sales said: “ When we know that Jesus, has loved us so as to suffer death for us, and the death of the cross, does it not come to this: that our heart have been placed under a press, and it feels itself forced to pour forth its love by a violence that is as strong as it is alluring?” In so understanding the love God has for us, should we not reciprocate by loving Him with all our might by resigning to whatever trials or adversities that come to us in our lives? The story of St. Catherine of Sienna in one of her severest temptations will be a consolation for us to know that Our Lord Jesus is always with us during our trials. St. Catherine had yet to pass through the fires of temptation. Our Lord seemed to have forsaken her, while her cell was haunted by frightful figures who whispered evil thoughts in her ear and who pursued her even to the church with their hideous suggestions. "Why chastise your body thus?" they said, "you will never have courage to persevere. Life is for enjoyment, not for suffering. You will lose both the joys of this life and the happiness of the next; you will never endure to the end." Then Catherine set herself to fight bravely and not to look for comfort, for she remembered Our Lord's words to her when she had prayed for strength: "If you suffer with Me, you will also be rewarded; accept all adversities with a willing and cheerful heart." But the evil spirits beset her more and more strongly. "You cannot resist us," they said; "we will give you no peace until you give in to us; we will make your whole life unbearable by our torments." Then Catherine answered quietly, "I have chosen pain for my comfort; therefore, it will not be difficult for me to bear for the love of my Lord all that you shall do to me." At these words the evil spirits left her, and in the midst of a glorious light she saw Our Lord Himself standing before her. "Mine Own daughter Catherine," He said, "I have suffered for thee; think it not much therefore to suffer for Me." But Catherine asked Him where He had been all the time when she had been beset by such horrible temptations. He replied: "Daughter,I was in your heart, taking great delight to see love and holy fear and faith so strong in it. The pains of My servants are no delight to Me, but I rejoice to see their readiness to suffer patiently and gladly for My sake. Now that you have so bravely fought your battle, I will be with you more closely and will visit you more often than before." Then Catherine was filled with a great joy and gladness, and all her pain was forgotten. Love of God consists in doing God’s will. It is therefore necessary to be resigned to all God’s dispositions in our regard. This means we must welcome in peace everything that happens to us in both prosperity or in adversity, just as God wills: in the state of life where God wishes us to be, and in the state of health that God wishes us to have. All our petitions to God must be directed to this end - that His will may be perfectly fulfilled in us. To live well, it is necessary to imprint upon our souls the following general maxims of eternal life: Everything in this life comes to an end - both joy and sorrow; eternity alone never comes to an end. Whatever comes from the will of God -prosperity or adversity - is good and for our good. We must sacrifice all to gain all. Where there is not God, there is no peace. Love God and save our soul, nothing else is necessary. Fear nothing but to sin. You lose all if you lose God. Look on Jesus Crucified, then you will bear anything. Anything is painful that is not done for God. To want God alone, is to possess all wealth. Happy is the man who can say from his heart: my Jesus, I want you only, and nothing more. He who loves God, finds joy in everything; he who loves not God, finds joy in nothing. In times of adversities we could offer these prayers: Oh my Jesus, I offer this for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen. ............................ Dear Lord, Help me to remember in these troubled times The cross you carried for my sake, So that I may better carry mine And to help others do the same, As I offer up (whatever your concern or problem here) to you For the conversion of sinners For the forgiveness of sins In reparation for sins And for the salvation of souls. Amen ............................. Grant me grace, O merciful God,
to desire ardently all that is pleasing to You, to examine it prudently, to acknowledge it truthfully, and to accomplish it perfectly, for the praise and glory of Your name. Amen. .............................. Behold me, my beloved Jesus, weighed down under the burden of my trials and sufferings, I cast myself at Your feet, that You may renew my strength and my courage, while I rest here in Your Presence. Permit me to lay down my cross in Your Sacred Heart, for only Your infinite goodness can sustain me; only Your love can help me bear my cross; only Your powerful hand can lighten its weight. O Divine King, Jesus, whose heart is so compassionate to the afflicted, I wish to live in You; suffer and die in You. During my life be to me my model and my support; At the hour of my death, be my hope and my refuge. Amen. |
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