Hebdomada Sancta, Feria V in Cœna Domini
Sacellum Immaculatae Conceptionis
Seminarium Sancti Philippi Neri
Gricigliano
17 April 2025
Epistola: 1 Cor 11, 20-32
Evangelium: Jn 13, 1-15
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
With immense and abiding joy and peace we honor today the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at which He instituted the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of the Holy Priesthood. Today, on the Vigil of His Passion and Death by which He has freed us from sin and its fruit, death, and won for us eternal life, Our Lord anticipated sacramentally His saving Sacrifice. He instituted the Sacrament by which He unceasingly and immeasurably pours out His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity for men at every time and in every place. At the same time, He instituted the Sacrament by which He consecrates priests, conforms men to His person as Head and Shepherd of the Father’s flock, to make new the same Sacrifice at every time and in every place.
Pope Saint John Paul II, in his last Encyclical Letter, published on April 17, 2003, Holy Thursday, expressed anew the Church’s unchanged and unchanging teaching on the Holy Eucharist, the Mystery of Faith:
When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord’s death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and “the work of our redemption is carried out” [Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, no. 3]. This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits. This is the faith from which generations of Christians down the ages have lived. The Church’s Magisterium has constantly reaffirmed this faith with joyful gratitude for its inestimable gift. I wish once more to recall this truth and to join you, my dear brothers and sisters, in adoration before this mystery: a great mystery, a mystery of mercy. What more could Jesus have done for us? Truly, in the Eucharist, he shows us a love which goes “to the end” (cf. Jn 13:1), a love which knows no measure.[1]
The great Mystery of Faith, of the Real Presence of Christ with us in the Most Blessed Sacrament, is entrusted into the hands of ordained priests for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. For that reason, dear brothers, priests and those responding to the priestly vocation, today, our hearts are filled with particular joy and gratitude for the priestly vocation.
To make clear that the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Priesthood are acts of Our Risen Lord in our midst, there is only one Mass of the Lord’s Supper in each church today, illustrating the truth declared by Saint Paul:
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the chalice, after supper, saying, “This chalice is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the chalice, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.[2]
Even as Christ embraced totally the work of our salvation at the Last Supper, so He continues to embrace the same work when His priests, acting in His person, offer the Holy Mass, that is, offer, in an unbloody manner, the Sacrifice of Calvary, the Sacrament of our salvation.
Today’s Feast of the Lord’s Supper leads all the faithful and, in a particular way, those who are called to the Holy Priesthood, to reflect on the reality of the Holy Eucharist in our daily life. Through the offering of the Holy Mass, we are identified with Christ and share with Him in His sacrifice for the glory of God and the salvation of the world. We are given the grace to live His Sacrifice in each moment of the day. Let us take inspiration from the reflection of Blessed Columba Marmion on the Mystery of Faith in our daily life:
To assist at this Holy Sacrifice, or to offer it with Christ, constitutes an intimate and very efficacious participation in the Passion of Christ. Indeed, upon the altar the same Sacrifice as that of Calvary is reproduced; it is the same High Priest, Jesus Christ, Who offers Himself to His Father by the hands of the priest; it is the same Victim; the only difference is the manner in which He is offered. We sometimes say: Oh! if I could have been at Golgotha with the Blessed Virgin, St. John and Magdalen! But faith brings us face to face with Jesus immolated upon the altar; He there renews His Sacrifice, in a mystical manner, in order to give us a share in His merits and satisfactions. We do not see Him with our bodily eyes; but faith tells us that He is there, for the same ends for which He offered Himself upon the Cross. If we have a living faith, it will make us cast ourselves down at the feet of Jesus, Who immolates Himself: it will unite us to Him in His love for His Father and for mankind and in His hatred of sin: it will make us say with Him: Father, behold I come to do Thy will: Ecce venio, ut faciam, Deus, voluntatem tuam.[3]
May the grace of today’s most solemn and joyous memorial of the Lord’s Supper inspire us and strengthen us to live more perfectly in union of heart with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. May the outpouring of the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit into our hearts from the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus inspire and strengthen us to live faithfully and generously in response to the call of Our Lord: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”[4]
As Our Lord makes sacramentally present His Sacrifice on Calvary, offering us on earth the Heavenly Bread of His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, let us rest our hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in His Eucharistic Heart. Heeding Our Lady’s counsel: “Do whatever he tells you”[5], let us give our hearts totally and forever to Him, praying with Him: “Father, behold I come to do Thy will: Ecce venio, ut faciam, Deus, voluntatem tuam.”[6]
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
[1] “Cum Eucharistiam celebrat Ecclesia, mortis et resurrectionis Domini sui memoriam, hic praecipuus salutis eventus re vera praesens redditur et « opus nostrae redemptionis exercetur » [Conc. Oecum. Vat. II, Lumen gentium, 3]. Hoc sacrificium ita funditus afficit generis humani salutem ut Iesus Christus illud compleverit et ad Patrem redierit tantummodo postquam nobis instrumentum reliquit ut participes essemus ac si tibi praesentes adfuissemus. Quisque sic christifidelis partem capere potest eiusque fructus inexhausto percipere. Haec fides est, ex qua christianae generationes per saecula vixerunt. Hanc fidem Ecclesiae Magisterium sine intermissione inculcavit gaudens gratiasque agens de dono inaestimabili. Rursus cupimus hanc veritatem revocare Nosque iuxta vos, carissimi Nostri fratres ac sorores, in adoratione adstare ante Mysterium hoc: Mysterium magnum, misericordiae Mysterium.” Ioannes Paulus PP. II, “Litterae Encyclicae Ecclesia de Eucharistia, de Eucharistia eiusque necessitudine cum Ecclesia,” 17 Aprilis 2003, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 95 (2003) 440, n. 11. English translation: “Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia on the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church” in Pope John Paul II, Encyclicals (Trivandrum, Kerala, India: Carmel International Publishing House, 2005), p. 11, no. 11.
[2] 1 Cor 11, 23-26.
[3] “Assister à ce saint sacrifice ou l’offrir avec le Christ constitue une participation intime et très efficace à la passion de Jésus.
Sur l’autel, en effet, vous le savez, se reproduit le même sacrifice qu’au calvaire ; c’est le même pontife, Jésus-Christ, qui s’offre à son Père par les mains du prêtre ; c’est la même victime ; seule diffère la manière de l’offrir. Nous disons parfois : « Oh ! si j’avais pu me trouver au Golgotha avec la Vierge, S. Jean, Madeleine » ! Mais la foi nous met devant Jésus s’immolant sur l’autel ; il y renouvelle, d’une façon mystique, son sacrifice, pour nous donner part à ses mérites et à ses satisfactions. Nous ne le voyons pas des yeux du corps ; mais la foi nous dit qu’il est là, aux mêmes fins pour lesquelles il s’offrait sur la croix. Si nous avons une foi vive, elle nous fera nous prosterner aux pieds de Jésus qui s’immole ; elle nous unira à lui, à ses sentiments d’amour envers son Père et envers les hommes, à ses sentiments de haine contre le péché ; elle nous fera dire avec lui : « Père, me voici, pour faire votre volonté » : Ecce venio, ut faciam, Deus, voluntatem tuam.” Columba Marmion, Le Christ dans ses mystères. Conférences spirituelles (Montréal : Librairie Granger Frères Limitée, 1946), p. 291. English translation: Columba Marmion, Christ in His Mysteries, tr. Mother M. St. Thomas of Tyburn Convent, 8th ed. (London: Sands & Co, 1939), pp. 260-261.
[4] Mt 4, 19.
[5] Jn 2, 5.
[6] Heb 10, 7.