Mass of the Lord’s Supper
“Poder es servir, porque Dios es amor.” “Power is serving, because God is love.” These are the words of the hymn, “Pan
de Vida,” a hymn that many of us have likely sung at some point in our lives
because of its popularity. Power
is serving, because God is love.
Often times we have a backwards
view of power. We consider power
to be the ability to rule over others, to make others do things, to make
changes. But this is not the
reality of power. Like so many
things in our lives, Jesus reminds us that the reality is backwards from the
way we see it. It is the poor in
spirit who are blessed, the meek who inherit the earth, the pure of heart who
see God, the peacemakers who are the children of God. The last is the first.
The Master is the Servant.
This is not just another view from a wise sage. It is the way the world really
works. Granted, on this side of
eternity it doesn’t seem to go that way.
The blessed ones seem to be the rich, the greedy inherit the earth,
those who have darkness and filth in their hearts seem to have “divine” moments
of ecstasy, the warmongers who are favored. The last is the loser.
The Master rules. But what
is more real? Heaven, which is
eternal, or earth, which even now is passing away? Who is more real?
The Creator, who brought all things into existence out of nothing, or
the creature, who without the Creator doesn’t even exist?
Power is serving, because God
is love. One of the major events
that we celebrate tonight is the institution of the priesthood. Jesus, unfettered by social construct
(as we see so many times in the Gospels), utterly free in the choices He made,
chose twelve uneducated men to follow Him more closely than all others, even
than His Immaculate Mother. He
chose one of them, Peter, to lead the others, to speak for the others. Jesus gave to Peter, and then, after
His resurrection, to the others, power to bind things on earth that would be
bound in heaven, and to loose things on earth that would be loosed in
heaven. Jesus gave them the
authority to teach in His Name, such that, as Jesus said, “He who hears you,
hears me.” Jesus gave them
power. But this power was not to
rule over, but to serve under.
At the heart of priestly
service is the ministry of the Sacraments, especially another Sacrament that was
instituted tonight, the Sacrament of Sacraments, the Eucharist. At the heart of the power that priests
receive is the ability to act in Jesus’ Name and to feed His sheep with the
“bread from heaven, having all sweetness within it.” Along with the other Sacraments, priests are to convey God’s
grace, His presence, His love, to the People that God has made His own by the
new and eternal covenant, the shedding of the blood of the truly unblemished
Lamb.
Jesus also gave His apostles,
his first priests, the power to continue His teaching. This, too, is a power which is serving,
as Jesus knew that questions would remain about what Jesus would actually do
and say given new circumstances and situations. Did Jesus really mean “eat my flesh and drink my blood”
literally? Was Jesus serious when
he said that sins don’t begin with our actions, but with the desires of our
hearts? Jesus knew that people
would struggle with this, and would even disagree, and that there would need to
be a way of sorting out the true from the false, the divine wisdom from the
wisdom of the world, and so He gave His apostles authority to teach
authoritatively, from the Author, what He Himself would teach.
Jesus called his apostles, his
first priests, to wash each other’s feet, to serve them, by communicating God’s
grace, God’s word, and God’s love.
But there has been, throughout the millennia, a confusion about the
power. Some have neglected the
words of the Letter to the Hebrews which says that no one takes the honor of
the priesthood upon himself, and have instead demanded that, as a matter of
equality, they be given the right to be priests so that they can have more
power. But the Church does not
have that power, but can only do what Jesus did. Some priests have forgotten throughout the history of the
Church that the power of the priesthood is not a power to rule over and
control, but a power to serve.
In my own
priesthood, I have tried to use the power the Christ has entrusted to me to
serve you by being available to celebrate the Sacraments, especially the
Eucharist and Reconciliation, as well as by preaching the truth. But I also admit that there have been
times when I have fallen into the view of power which simply seeks to rule, and
when I have not been truly a servant to you because my own sinfulness has
gotten in the way. For these times
when I forgot that “power is serving because God is love,” I sincerely
apologize and ask your forgiveness.
Tonight, as we walk to St.
Thomas in Eucharistic procession, we will be a powerful group. Our numbers will not be simply a band
of twelve moving to the Garden of Gethsemane, but will be much larger, moving
with our Lord to the Garden of Adoration.
May our procession witness to the power of Christ over our own lives,
and provide the power of service to others to know the God who is Love, and
draw them in to a deeper relationship with Him. “Power is serving because God is love.”