Message from Fr. Rensch (9 April, 2020):
Mass Intentions:
Today I offered Mass – the Holy Thursday Mass of the Last Supper of the Lord – for all of you, the parishioners.
Important Updates:
Reflection on the daily Mass readings (Based on the homily from Mass)
(http://www.usccb.org/bible/
A certain catechism says that the preparations Jesus made to establish a Church culminated at the Last Supper. At that most solemn moment, he gave the Church the greatest gift he could, his own Body and Blood. Together with this greatest of all possible gifts he also bestows a new commandment – love one another, as I have loved you. His gift of love establishes the model of love for his church. In the Eucharist he gives us his Body and Blood, the life that is about to be crucified for us, and then he instructs us to love in this same way. Finally, he models this self-sacrificial love by washing the disciples’ feet. Instruction, gift, example, all unite at the Last Supper.
Jesus lays a great stress on the commandment, saying, This is how they will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. It is love in action that will give evidence of someone’s being a real follower of the Lord. And this is how people talk, isn’t it? They say, “Now he’s a real follower of Jesus,” or “She’s a real Christian.” They say that when the person’s life evidences the kind of love Jesus commands. Love in action proves discipleship. Even if we had all knowledge and faith, as St. Paul says, without love, I am nothing. Not by wise words, or beautiful art, or even miracles, will people know that we are true disciples, but by love in action.
So what kind of love must we put in action? How can we distinguish the kind of love Jesus means when he says as I have loved you? First of all, it is a love of humble service. Jesus, the master, humbles himself and takes the form of a slave, and washes the disciples’ feet. The master is the servant. For centuries, popes have signed important documents with their name, and then the addendum, “Servant of the servants of God.” Divine love is that of humble service.
The divine love has a further quality. God’s love is shown in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He dies for us while we are still sinners. He loves us before we deserve it. God’s love is the love that loves the unlovable. He loves the unlovable. That is where God’s kind of love is on full display. That’s why Christ insists on loving our enemies – because that means loving the person we have no desire to love. It’s loving the unlovable. That’s how God loves. He is on the lookout, so to speak, for the least deserving person. Why? Because his love for the most wretched sinner, the truly heartless, arrogant, godless soul, shows the limitless generosity of God’s love, the love that loves the unlovable.
Now, Jesus then says, If you understand these things, blessed are you if you do it. It is no benefit to simply understand. To understand the pattern of divine love without imitating it is useless. Blessed are you if, only if, you do it. So we too must be on the lookout for the person whom it is difficult to love. And not necessarily hard to love because of some quirk or misunderstanding or confusion; perhaps the person is legitimately unlovable, for some serious flaw or vice. Good! That’s the one we need to be on the lookout for. That’s the person to whom we must show God’s love. Not because the person’s quality prompts natural love, but because we’re imitating God’s love.
How can we manage to love with this love? By remembering that this is love: that He first loved us.
A blessed Triduum to you all as we enter these most sacred days.
God bless you all.
Fr. Rensch