ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

Pope Benedict XVI in his second volume of Jesus of Nazareth , commented on how the resurrection utterly exceeded the disciples’ expectations. The fact was clear. He was alive. They had heard him, seen him, looked upon him and touched him with their hands; this they could not deny. But they still struggled to express and make sense of their experience. However, little by little they could pick up resonances with the Scriptures, most especially, the fact that he did not experience corruption in the grave and that the suffering servant of Isaiah seemed to correspond exactly with what happened to him. The more they returned to the Scriptures and re-read them, and the more they kept his memorial in the breaking of the bread, the more they understood the immensity of the mystery. Our vigil this morning is intended to help us move through this same progression. We, too, by listening to the Scriptures and by gathering for the memorial of what Jesus did in the breaking of the bread, will recogn...

Through Christ dying on the cross, the humanity which he bore whole and entire in his own person renounces itself and dies. But the mystery is deeper still. He who bore all men in himself was deserted by all. The universal man died alone…. This is the mystery of solitude and the mystery of severance, the only efficacious sign of gathering together and of unity: the sacred blade piercing indeed so deep as to separate soul from spirit [Heb. 4:12], but only that universal life might enter. HENRI DE LUBAC Catholicism

There is no common ground between what happens in the Gospels and what happens in myths, particularly the more developed myths. Later religions diminish, minimize, soften, and even totally eliminate sacred guilt as well as any trace of violence; but these are minor dissimulations and bear no relation to the system of representing persecution. This system collapses in the world of the Gospels. There is no longer any question of softening or sublimation. Rather, a return to truth is made possible by a process which, in our lack of understanding, we consider primitive simply because it reproduces the violent origin once more, this time in order to reveal it and thus make it inoperative. [Peters denial, the murder of John the Baptist, and the Passion itself] are all examples of this process. They correspond perfectly to the way in which Jesus himself, and after him Paul in the epistles, defines the effect of disintegration that the crucifixion had on the forces of this world. The Passion r...

On Palm Sunday I spoke about the scene from Mark’s gospel in which an unnamed woman poured out costly perfume on the head of Jesus. It was an extravagant gesture, described by Jesus as her anointing of his body for burial. Today we focus more closely on Jesus’ extravagant gesture—pouring himself out as food for the Church. He had already set aside his honors by washing the feet of his disciples. Then he patiently endured the presence Juda at table plotting to betray even as they ate. What more could Jesus do? Could he humble himself any further?   Well, of course, the answer is yes. His love always reaches deeper. He always takes a lower place so that whatever depths we find ourselves in, he has already gone lower to meet us there. This is what we celebrate today. Our Lord pours himself out further to draw us closer to himself: first, by pouring out his very self into a bit of bread and wine; and second, by manifesting how close God is to us by revealing his holy name.   T...

The miracle of [Jesus’] Eucharist: he is in you and you are in him —a wedding-feast without end between you and him, compared with which the union of man and wife is but a brief and poor effort. HANS URS VON BALTHASAR Heart of the World , 128 

What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. FLANNERY O’CONNOR The Habit of Being

Christ wished to suffer for us. The Apostle Peter says, “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.” He taught you how to suffer, and he taught you by suffering. Words would not be enough, unless example were added. And how, precisely, did he teach us, brothers and sisters? He was hanging on the cross…. He was hanging by the harsh nails, but he never lost his gentleness. They were raging, they were barking and   snarling all round him, they were jeering at him as he hung there. He was hanging there, and healing them. “Father,” he said, “forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). He was praying, and yet he continued to hang there; he would not come down, because with his blood he was making a medicine for the frenzied mob. ST. AUGUSTINE Sermon