Homily to the Confraternities of Catholic Clergy
Votive Mass of the Most Holy Eucharist
Papal Basilica of Saint John Lateran
Rome
16 January 2025
Rv 1, 5-8
Ps 116, 12-13. 15-16. 17-18
Jn 6, 51-58
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
By His Discourse on the Bread of Life, Our Lord announced the great mystery of the Holy Eucharist, by which He feeds us and “many”[1] with the Heavenly Bread of His true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, until the day of His Final Coming. His teaching is unmistakable in its meaning:
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”[2]
Reflecting upon His words, we contemplate the Most Blessed Sacrament which is, in the solemn teaching of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, “the source and summit of the [whole] Christian life.”[3]
In the Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, the Council Fathers, drawing upon the teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas, illustrated the truth that the Holy Eucharist is the fullest and most perfect expression of our life in Christ. They declared:
But the other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate are bound up with the Eucharist and are directed towards it. For in the most blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church [St. Thomas, Summa Theol. III, q. 65, a. 3, ad 1; q. 79, a. 1, c, et ad 1], namely Christ himself our Pasch and the living bread which gives life to men through his flesh – that flesh which is given life and gives life through the Holy Spirit. Thus men are invited and led to offer themselves, their works and all creation with Christ.[4]
For us, dear brothers in Christ, the Holy Eucharist is the heart of our priestly life configured to the person of Christ the Head and Shepherd of the Father’s flock at every time and in every place. It is Christ Himself Who acts through us, in the most perfect manner possible on this earth, in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Holy Eucharist is the Mystery of Faith. Pondering the Blessed Sacrament ever anew, we grow in our understanding of the immeasurable and unceasing love of Our Lord for all men, for whose salvation He has called us and consecrated us as His brothers in the priestly office. At the same time, the Holy Eucharist is the ultimate goal of our daily thoughts, words and deeds which find their fulfillment in our worthy reception of Holy Communion and our Eucharistic devotion, and in the worthy reception of Holy Communion, at least, spiritual communion, by the souls in our priestly care, and by their Eucharistic devotion.
Blessed Ildefonso Schuster, in his commentary on the Feast of Corpus Christi, gives expression to the mystery by which the Holy Priesthood is inseparably bound to the Holy Eucharist:
Jesus has willed to institute the Holy Eucharist under the form of a sacrifice, in order thereby to satisfy his love; and being no longer able, after his resurrection, to immolate himself daily and hourly in bodily suffering for us, he has ordained that the merits of his Passion and death shall be continually applied to our souls, and that his ministers, the priests, shall offer him up unceasingly on the altar in an unbloody manner to his Father for the salvation of mankind until the day of his final coming to judge the world. Nor is this all. As the act which appeals to the human heart most deeply, and shows most clearly the love of Jesus for men, is precisely the mystery of his death upon the cross, so almighty God has disposed that his immolation shall not be merely an event which took place in the remote ages of history, and consequently now no longer making the same profound impression on men’s minds, but that, on the contrary, this act of his greatest love for his creatures shall be unceasingly renewed upon the altar.[5]
When we offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Christ, “the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of earth, … loves us”[6] in the most extraordinary manner possible. He who “has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”[7] nourishes us with the Heavenly Bread of His true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. In the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we share in the apocalyptic vision of Saint John Apostle and Evangelist, giving glory to God the Son Incarnate, Our Lord and Savior, and anticipating the consummation of His saving mission when He comes on the Last Day.[8]
Christ alone satisfies man’s deepest hunger and thirst, the hunger and thirst for truth and love. Christ alone feeds man with the Heavenly Bread of His very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, healing hearts wounded by sin and inflaming them with divine truth and love. We see this truth reflected in the crowds who flocked to Christ to hear His teaching and to receive His ministrations of divine pastoral charity. Thus, we understand what man seeks from us, priests of Christ. Through us, notwithstanding our unworthiness, Christ, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father, never ceases to pour out from His glorious-pierced Heart the gift of His very life to be the Heavenly Food of man’s earthly pilgrimage which brings man finally home to Him in Heaven forever.
Through our communion with Our Lord in the Eucharistic Sacrifice we now offer, may we always center our lives, our response to God’s call, in the Mystery of Faith, in the mystery of God the Father’s immeasurable and unceasing love for us in His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God our Father has given us no greater sign of His love! God the Father has given us no greater sign of our high calling in Baptism and Confirmation, and in our vocation as ordained priests! Let us entrust into the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus, ever open to receive our hearts, all that we are and all that we have. Let us place our hearts daily anew into His Most Sacred Heart, living the priestly consecration with which He has anointed us. Let us live ever more fully in Christ, so that we can bring Christ ever more effectively to those for whose salvation He has consecrated us.
Let us all now lift up our hearts, together with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus. Let us seek the joy and peace of our hearts in the pure and selfless love of His Divine Heart. May our Eucharistic Lord receive us into His Heart, purifying us of all sin, and filling us with the divine love which disposes us to be, in Him and through the outpouring of His Spirit, faithful, generous and pure brothers in His Holy Priesthood.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] Mt 26, 28; Mk 14, 24.
[2] Jn 6, 53-56.
[3] “… totius vitae christianae fontem et culmen.” Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, “Constitutio Dogmatica de Ecclesia, Lumen gentium,” 21 Novembris 1964, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 57 (1965) 15, n. 11. English translation: Austin Flannery, ed., Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, rev. ed. (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Company, 1988), p. 362, no. 11.
[4] “Cetera autem Sacramenta, sicut et omnia ecclesiastica ministeria, et opera apostolatus, cum Sacra Eucharistia cohaerent et ad eam ordinantur. In Sanctissima enim Eucharistia totum bonum spirituale Ecclesiae continetur [S. Thomas, Summa Theol. III, q. 65, a. 3, ad 1; q. 79, a. 1, c, et ad 1], ipse scilicet Christus, Pascha nostrum panisque vivus per Carnem suam Spiritu Sancto vivificatam et vivificantem vitam praestans hominibus, qui ita invitantur et adducuntur ad seipsos, suos labores cunctasque res creatas una cum Ipso offerendos.” Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, “Decretum de Presbyterorum Ministerio et Vita, Presbyterorum Ordinis,” 7 Decembris 1965, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 58 (1966) 997, n. 5. English translation: Austin Flannery, ed., Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, rev. ed. (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Company, 1988), p. 871, no. 5.
[5] “Gesù ha voluto istituire l’Eucaristia sotto forma di sacrificio, per dare così sfogo al suo amore, il quale, dopo la sua resurrezione, non potendo più ogni giorno, anzi, in ogni momento immolarsi passibilmente per noi, ha disposto almeno d’applicarci continuamente i meriti della sua passione e morte, ordinando perciò ai sacerdoti, che incessantemente, sino alla sua finale venuta nel giorno del giudizio, l’offrissero in modo incruento a Dio Padre sugli altari, per la salute del mondo. Nè questo soltanto. Siccome l’atto che più impressiona il cuore umano, e che meglio dimostra la carità che Gesù ha avuto per gli uomini, è appunto il mistero della sua morte in croce, perciò il Signore ha disposto che questa immolazione non fosse semplicemente un fatto avvenuto nei remoti secoli della storia, e che ora non desta quindi più un’impressione profonda, ma ha ordinato invece che l’atto della sua massima carità verso le creature venga incessantemente rinnovato sugli altari.” A. I. Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum. Note storiche e liturgiche sul Messale Romano, Vol. V (Torino-Roma: Casa Editrice Marietti, 1930), pp. 84-85. English translation: Ildefonso Schuster, The Sacramentary (Liber Sacramentorum): Historical and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal, Vol. III (Parts 5 and 6), tr. Arthur Levelis-Marke (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1927), p. 83.
[6] Rev 1, 5.
[7] Rev 1, 5-6.
[8] Cf. Rev 1, 6-8.
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