Holy Thursday 2023
I have heard
it a lot from various people inside and outside the Catholic Church that the
Mass should be much more like the Last Supper.
These persons say that the Catholic Church has added lots of unnecessary
trappings to the Mass…incense, bells, candles, high altars…and that none of
those things were present at the First Mass which was the Last Supper. These persons say the Catholic Mass should be
celebrated as close as possible to the Last Supper.
But you
never hear people make that argument about Christmas (Which means Christ’s
Mass)…no one thinks that we should celebrate Christmas in a cave nor a barn…we
have added lots of things as the world has come to appreciate Christmas (Christ’s
Mass) more…we have added evergreen trees, a symbol of unending life that Christ
came to bring…we have added lots of lights…which remind us of Christ being the
light of the world…we give gifts as a reminder of the greatest gift of all time…
The fact is
that it took the Catholic Church about 400 years to work out the Doctrine of
the Trinity…and so lots of other things…like Chirstmas and the Mass in general, have added things through the centuries.
When people
see the Mass taking place, they need to recognize, instantly, that this is
something that is not just a circle of friends…this is not just a prayer
service…this is a participation in the one sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary.
And
therefore our charity, symbolize by my washing the feet of 12 people tonight,
needs to flow from and lead us back to the Catholic Mass. It is a consistent upward spiral, if we
continue to participate in Mass and then go serve the poor.
May the Mass,
and our charitable works that flow out of each Mass, continue to draw more and
more people home to the Catholic Church…the Church that Christ has established
for the salvation of every person on Earth.
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