ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

The Eucharist: Mystery of Trinitarian Love
“I love the Father” — “The Father loves me”

Father Abbot,
Dear Brothers,
Friends in Christ Jesus,

On this Founders’ Day we render honor to the Rule of Saint Augustine and to the great Eucharistic apostle Saint Norbert, who embraced Saint Augustine’s formula for consecrated life in the Church. Today we joyfully celebrate this anniversary of Daylesford Abbey that takes us back to 1963, to the days of Vatican II, and we commemorate all the saints whom God has raised up over the centuries and sanctified as canons regular.

We are all deeply convinced that to speak about the Eucharist is to speak about what the Second Vatican Council calls “the source and summit of the whole Christian life” (LumenGentium, 10). It is to speak about the center of our faith and about the love of God which has made the Eucharist possible. I would like to begin by turning our thoughts to words of Jesus in the fourteenth chapter of Saint John’s Gospel. Jesus says: “If you truly loved me you would rejoice to have me go to the Father …the world must know that I love the Father and do what the Father has commanded me. Come, then! Let us be on our way” (Jn 14: 28, 31).

These words express the great revelation that Jesus loves His Father. And in another place Jesus will tell us clearly that the Father loves the Son, the Father loves Him. But these words also tell us that Jesus wants the world to know that He fulfills the Father’s will. And because He fulfills the Father’s will, He tells His Apostles: “Come, then! Let us be on our way.” Tonight we hope to enter more deeply into the mystery of the Eucharist, which is the Mystery of Trinitarian Love.

Already in our evening prayer, with Saint Paul we have extolled the mystery of Christ’s emptying Himself and sharing in on our humanity which becomes the matter of His Sacrifice, and, with His divinity, the content of His Eucharistic gift.

There are many profound reasons why Jesus died. There are many profound reasons why He offered up the Eucharist as a memorial of His death on Calvary. Jesus died for His Church. In a special way Jesus died for His Mother in order to merit her redemption and her special privileges. But above all, Jesus died because He loved His Father. He died to fulfill the will of His Father. In other words: “…the world must know that I love the Father and do as the Father has commanded me. Come, then! Let us be on our way.”

I am suggesting that the key to understanding the Eucharist in its most profound dimension is to understand that Jesus went to His death motivated by a great love for His Father. The Eucharist is indeed the mystery of Christ’s love and above all it is the mystery of Christ’s love for His Father.

Some years ago a book came out entitled, Gift and Mystery. It was the short autobiography of Pope John Paul II that he presented to the world on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. And in that book he recounts what he had previously said on the occasion of an interview with one of the journalists who accompanied him on one of his pastoral visits around the world. The interview went something like this.

“Holy Father, as Pope you must have many problems, but also as Pope there must be many joys in your life. Tell us what your greatest joy is.” And the Pope answered that the greatest joy that he has as Pope is to be able, like every Catholic priest, to celebrate the Eucharist every day.

These words show the depth of his faith in the Eucharistic mystery; they show the depth of his love for the Sacrifice of the Mass. Over many years he meditated on the Eucharist. At this point I would suggest: “Let us be on our way” with Jesus, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and the whole Church—on our way to enter the great mystery of God’s love.

The origin of the Eucharist is the Last Supper and the Sacrifice of Calvary—both of which are commemorated and re-enacted in the Eucharist, both of which are different moments in the one salvific reality of Christ’s Paschal Mystery. But if we are to understand this life-giving event proclaimed at the Last Supper and enacted in immolation on Calvary, we must go back to what we have been speaking about: to the relation of Jesus with His Father — in other words to the Most Blessed Trinity.

Here we find the deepest explanation of the Most Blessed Sacrament—the deepest explanation of the Mass. The Council of Trent, over four hundred years ago, defined the Mass as a true sacrifice which recalls and renews Christ’s immolation on Calvary. But why did Christ give Himself over to death on Calvary? Why does He give Himself in the Eucharist? Here of course we must speak of sin and redemption, of Christ’s desire to save the world from sin and to communicate His life to humanity. Here we must speak of God’s love for humanity, just as Saint John does: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3: 16-17).

This is a stupendous revelation that explains the Eucharist—the love of God for us, the love of the Father in sending His Son to redeem the world. But there are two other aspects of God’s love that are even more stupendous and basic, without which we will not understand the Eucharist and all the suffering that Christ endured on Calvary.

The Eucharist flows directly from the love of the Son of God for His Father, in response to the eternal love by which He is loved by the Father in the Holy Spirit.

The Second Vatican Council tells us that the Eucharist contains all the riches of the Church (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5), and that it is the source and summit of all Christian life. Why? Because the Eucharist is the expression of the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus took great pleasure in proclaiming to the world—it was His greatest proclamation—the love that the Father has for Him and the love that He has for the Father. These, I would dare say, are the most sublime words of divine revelation:
“The Father loves the Son” (Jn 3:35; 5:20).
“The Father loves me” (Jn 10:17).
“I love the Father” (Jn 14: 31).

Jesus’ Sacrifice and the Father’s Acceptance

Regarding this last revelation — “I love the Father” — what is the context? We have already seen it at the beginning of this talk. Jesus is ready to go to His hour. The prince of this world is at hand. He has no hold on Jesus. The world must know that Jesus loves the Father. And therefore He says: “Come, then! Let us be on our way.”

And so Jesus goes forth to Calvary, to death and immolation. There is an explicit connection between Calvary and Christ’s loving His Father. In other words, Calvary is motivated by His love for the Father and His obedience to the Father. Calvary—with Jesus hanging on the Cross—is the divine plan of the Father for the redemption of the world. Calvary, and therefore the Eucharist, is the Trinitarian response to sin. But it remains the exchange of love between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.

This exchange of love is so great, the Son’s acceptance of death is so full of love, that the Father wants the world to know of His acceptance. The Father’s response of love is the Resurrection of His Son. This is the meaning of Easter. The Father raises the sacred humanity of Jesus to life in order to confirm the redemption of the world and to proclaim His eternal love for His Son, His acceptance of the obedience of the Son, His acceptance of the Sacrifice.

Saint Paul tells us in his Letter to the Philippians, in speaking of Christ, that “he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father” (Phil 2: 8-11). All of this shows us how profound the mystery of redemption; how great Christ’s love for His Father; how fruitful Christ’s obedience; how glorious the Father’s acceptance of the Sacrifice, His ratification of Christ’s death by raising Him to life! With Saint Paul, we exclaim: “How deep are the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!” (Rom 11:33).

The Sacrifice and Worship of the Community

In the exchange of love between Jesus and His Father we see explained the great mystery of the Sacrifice of Calvary, even as it is anticipated at the Last Supper. We also note that the Sacrifice of the infinite divine love of Christ becomes, in the Eucharist, by God’s loving design the Sacrifice of the Church, our Sacrifice.

As the Sacrifice of Christ and His Church, the Eucharist is our worship and we are privileged to partake in the Eucharistic Sacrifice every day of our lives. We are privileged to be able to do this as a community, to offer God praise as foreshadowed in the Old Testament, in the great assembly.

Let us never forget that the offering of the Church’s Sacrifice is a great hymn of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and supplication on the part of the entire assembly. We are in this together.

Sent Forth To Adore and To Serve

At the end of Mass we are sent forth in order to serve in the name of Jesus. We are sent out from the Eucharist in order that, by the power of the Eucharist, we may contribute to the building up of the Body of Christ.

As soon as we go out, our thought is to come back; to come back to the Eucharist at the time appointed by Christ. In the meantime we profess the Eucharistic faith of the Church as expressed throughout the centuries. The liturgy which we have celebrated as an act of adoration—as the Second Vatican Council calls it: “the worship of the divine majesty” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 33)—is prolonged in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the Real Presence of Christ in our midst.

We believe and we proclaim the faith of the Church that, after the celebration of the Eucharist, Jesus Himself remains in the Blessed Sacrament in His glorified flesh, in His glorified humanity, in His divinity, to be adored and loved and to be a permanent source of union and life for His Church. And to the Blessed Sacrament present on the altar, or in the tabernacle, the Catholic Church attributes latria, which is the adoration that is owing only to the living God. And this Eucharist, which contains all the treasures of the Church and is “the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 14), is at one and the same time a sacrifice, a banquet and the sacred presence of the Lord Jesus. And the sacred Eucharistic presence of the Lord, whom we adore, constantly directs our hearts back to the celebration in the assembly, when once again we will all be together in order to renew the Eucharistic celebration and to be sent out once again on our mission to the world.

This mission to the world takes its origin from the Eucharist and receives its dynamism from the Eucharist to embrace charity and service in the Church.

We have seen in the history of the Church not only people like Pope John Paul II with an immense love of the Eucharist, but we have also seen the martyrs, the imprisoned confessors, the holy priests, virgins and Religious who have understood the Eucharist and have been willing to give everything in order to participate in the celebration and in order to possess the sacramental presence of Christ. The saints and heroes of our Church have given us an example of the effort that we must expend in order to participate in the Eucharist, in order to adore Christ’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Millions of holy priests, lay people and Religious in the Church, over the centuries, have made supreme efforts to demonstrate their faith in the Eucharist and to avail themselves, amidst difficulties and tribulations, of the Eucharistic celebration and of Eucharistic adoration.

How inspiring to think of all the Saints formed in the tradition and Rule of Saint Augustine, which is perpetuated in the Norbertines. Today we recall centuries of adoration, centuries of “worship of the divine majesty,” centuries of the imitation of Christ’s kenosis in the Incarnation and the Eucharist perpetuated in a religious order that exists in the independent status of an abbey within our local Church. Today we think of and reconfirm the Eucharistic challenge of total commitment in integrity of life, fidelity, and “the service of love.”

The Eucharist is undoubtedly the center of our life, because Jesus is the center of our life, just as He is the object of the Father’s eternal complacency—the Father’s eternal love.

In our prayer let us not forget the importance of spending time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Let us realize how important it is for us to keep Jesus company. The saints understood and accepted this challenge. Certainly the Order of Premontré glories in this legacy.

In 1997, in the Synod of Bishops for America, it was my privilege to be a participant and my privilege to speak. The topic of my intervention was prayer. I mentioned at the time that it is my conviction and the conviction of other bishops throughout the world that there is a new emerging sign of the times and it is Eucharistic adoration. In the most recent Synod of Bishops a whole new impetus emerged in promoting Eucharistic adoration as it flows from the Eucharistic action and leads back to it.

Powerful Incentive and Challenge to Service

There are many indications in the world that God wishes to draw further attention to His beloved Son present in the Eucharist. There are many indications that Eucharistic adoration is a form of prayer particularly adapted to this present moment. It is a particular form of manifesting faith in the total mystery of the Eucharist, which is sacrifice and banquet, sacred presence and viaticum. Eucharistic adoration is a powerful incentive and challenge to ever more generous service to those in need. Many of our young people are able to grasp this.

The Second Vatican Council has been an enormous grace in the life of the Church, particularly in emphasizing over and over again the role of the Christian people as a Eucharistic people. There have been some aberrations of interpretation of the Second Vatican Council. There have been some exaggerations and misinterpretations of the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist. Many of these difficulties have now passed. It is time to get on in the life of the Church with traditional Eucharistic piety as enriched and explained and exalted by the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar implementation of the Popes.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of every community in the Church having full, conscious and active participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice! I cannot over-emphasize the importance of the graces that are received for the living and the dead by this internal and external participation of all the members of the Church in the Eucharistic assembly, especially on Sunday. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, of Eucharistic adoration, Eucharistic exposition, the Eucharistic holy hour for reparation and renewal, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the recommitment of ourselves in faith, day in and day out, to the words of Jesus who says: “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn 6: 55-57).

There is much more that we could say about participation in the Eucharist, about external reverence, about the internal dispositions that we bring to the Eucharist, about our community singing and about the dignity of every form of Eucharistic participation and ministry. We have just completed the Year of the Eucharist. This emphasis in the life of the Church urges us to be faithful, to grow in the love of the Eucharist so as to be an ever more fervent Eucharistic community committed to the service of the world.

I am happy to have this occasion to thank the Norbertine Community past and present for their fidelity to the charisms of Saint Augustine and Saint Norbert. I am grateful for the spirit of unity and pastoral solidarity that they have manifested with our local Church. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia renews its deep appreciation for the valued contribution of their service but most of all for their ecclesial identity according to the mind of Christ and His Church. Here in this local Church, dear friends, under the powerful action of the Holy Spirit, the charism of Saint Augustine and Saint Norbert interact in you with the charisms of Saint John Neumann and Saint Katharine Drexel, serving and benefiting the people of God.

An important goal still lies before us, and it is the glory of the Father. Our Eucharistic journey beckons us on. Jesus is with us to lead us. He says to us: “Come, then! Let us be on our way.” And our common response to him is: Jesus, I trust in you!