Wednesday, May 1, 2024, The Solemnity of St. Joseph the Worker

Matthew 13, 54-58

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

Normally in the course of things, the Gospel for today would be John 6, 52-59, continuing with the words of Jesus in which he describes himself as the Bread of Life, and as the Flesh which would be given up to save the world.  However, the Church disposes that her ecclesiastical seasons be marked with the feasts of important saints, and today’s reading is for the Mass in honor of St. Joseph the Worker.  John 6, 52-59 will be taken up here tomorrow in conjunction with tomorrow’s regular Gospel reading, which concludes chapter 6.  This chapter is so essential for understanding Jesus and also ourselves as his followers, that to understand it we must examine all of it.

All the same, the reading here fits in well with what we considered yesterday in John 6.  In fact, the crowd of John 6 echoes the words of the people of today’s reading: “The Jews therefore murmured at him, because he had said: I am the living bread which came down from heaven. 

And they said: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say: I came down from heaven?” (John 6, 41-42).  Quite inexplicably, these two verses are not included in the Mass readings.  I have many questions of my own about the present lectionary, the book of the Mass readings, that was concocted and adopted in the mid 1960’s and lately revised slightly, and this is one of them.  

The people of Nazareth ask a good question, “They were astonished and said, ‘Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?’ ”  Similar questions were asked wherever Jesus went.  As far back as when Jesus stayed behind in the temple at age twelve, we find him in the midst of “the doctors”, and all were amazed at his wisdom (cf. Luke 2: 46-47).  We also hear the Pharisees and Scribes wondering where Jesus received his wisdom from since he had been educated in their schools.  The people struggle to reconcile his ordinary appearance with his extraordinary words, works, and claims.  They begin with his reputed father, Joseph: “Is he not the carpenter’s son?”  In Judea, he will be hailed as the “son of David”, but the people of Nazareth are not interested in this.  They may not even have been aware of his lineage.  Instead, they refer to Joseph as “the carpenter”.  This is a very odd way to speak about a neighbor.  If you or I were sitting on our front porch and someone walked by and asked us if we knew where the mailman lived, wouldn’t that sound strange, even if we knew that Tom Brown, two houses down, worked as a mailman?  The people of Nazareth almost give the impression that they do not want to speak Joseph’s name.  They do use Mary’s name, but not that of her husband.  Or was there  something wrong with being a carpenter, as was the case with being a tax collector?

Now, English translations render the Greek “teknon” as carpenter, but the proper word for carpenter in Greek is “xylourgos”.  “Teknon” can mean carpenter, but also mason, craftsman, builder, or even teacher.  When the people call Jesus the “son of the carpenter”, they spoke better than they knew, for the Father of Jesus is not only the Craftsman of craftsmen, but also one who created the material from which he fashioned all things.  Of course, we only have the Greek word to analyze, not the original Aramaic or Hebrew.  It might have been “na-gar”, which means “one who works in wood”.  

Whatever the case may be regarding how this righteous man Joseph was perceived by the townspeople, it pleased the Son of God to be thought of as his son, and as one who learned his father’s trade.  

“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?”  Jesus does not stoop to answer their question with with long winded explanations that would not have been understood anyway.  He simply allows the mystery to hang there, for now.  This was not the time to rationalize but to accept, and the gathered folk are unwilling to do this.  The lack of faith on their part so limited their capacity for receiving grace that the Lord’s miracles in his home town are few.  The Evangelists do not trouble to describe them.  Perhaps this lack of appreciation of the Son reflects their reception of the work his stepfather had done: its skillful, unpretentious qualities would be unappreciated by a society that craves ostentation and empty special effects.

Let us imitate this quiet worker, St. Joseph, who set such an example for the Son placed in his charge, and perform our duties conscious that whoever else sees our labor, God most surely does.

The twenty-first article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Our Father

An early document tells how St. Peter said Mass when he was spreading the Holy Faith in Antioch, before he came to Rome.  It says that he said three prayers and the Lord’s Prayer.  It is found in all the western and eastern rites of ancient times and so must have been said at Mass from the beginning.  We know from the second century African writer Tertullian that the Our Father was said in the church in Africa after the Eucharistic Prayer and before Holy Communion.  In other places, however, it was said after Holy Communion.  St. Gregory the Great even seems to say that it was said in some places during the consecration.  It has always been said in Rome just before Holy Communion.  As our principal prayer, taught us by the Lord Jesus himself, “Our Father” is said or chanted just before the reception of the Sacrament which binds us more closely together in our union with Jesus Christ.  Because the prayer asks for the nourishment of grace necessary to persevere until the Father’s Kingdom comes, it is most fit to say it before we are fed with the Body of the Lord and before we are sent forth into the world again.

The very early document called the Didache, or, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (ca. 100), gives us the ritual the first Christians used for baptism, and also describes the Mass, though not fully.  In the course of this description it adds a response to the Our Father which Protestants use as though a formal part of the prayer: “For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, now and forever.”  This has its place in the Mass after the priest reiterates to the Father the petition that he protect his Church from all evil and distress.  

Due to the familiarity of Catholics with this prayer, one of the first they are taught in parochial school or in CCD, it is often said very quickly — and thoughtlessly — both by priests and by their congregations.  It must be kept in mind that this was THE prayer the Lord taught his Apostles.  It is most solemn and holy, so much so that the Church has hardly altered its English translation in all the centuries it has existed.  When we pray it, we are praying according to the mind of Christ.  It should be said, then, slowly and with recollection.  If those around us insist on disrespectfully hurrying through it, we can say it quietly, as though shutting the door of our private room and praying in secret so that Our Father who sees in secret will be pleased.

Next: the Sign of Peace

 Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Easter, April 30, 2020

John 14, 27-31a

Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”

Jesus offers real peace, which he insists is distinct from what the world offers.  When Jesus and, later, St. Paul and St. John, talk about “the world”, they are referring to everything that tugs at us and tries to compel us to look away from heaven.  It is the temporary, the sordid, the sensual.  It is secular society, from which God has been purged to allow greater individual “freedom”.  It is a siren luring us on to the rocks of sin and destruction.  The “peace” which the world offers is a lie: that if only we buy one more thing or pursue one more activity, our hearts will rest easy.  But in reality, the more we have, the more we want.  The peace of the world is not a swimming pool in which we can drift happily, but a raging whirlpool in which we must always struggle, and ultimately fail.  The peace the Lord offers is the cessation of every desire.  He alone is the true object of our yearning: our hearts were made for him alone.  We feel this increasingly as we practice self-denial and mortifications.  When we have cleaned out our hearts with the help of his grace, when we expel the world from them. they are capable of receiving him and he takes up his abode there.  Thus, the Prince of Peace reigns from our very interior.  There is nothing left to desire, no more ambition to fulfill.  Christ alone is our peace.  It is how we are made.  As St. Augustine famously says in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.”

The Church uses the Lord’s words at Mass, in the prayers following the Eucharistic Prayer: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  After speaking them, the priest addresses the congregation, one of the few times during the Mass he actually does so: “The peace of the Lord be with you always.”  And the people respond, “And with your spirit.”  It is the peace of Christ that is offered through the priest.  This is not a good wish for someone’s well-being or success, it is a prayer for the spiritual growth of the Christian that Christ may fully dwell in him.  When the people exchange this with one another, it is likewise a prayer for the other person’s peace in Christ.  Unfortunately, the exchange of “the peace” at Mass has devolved into a purely civil ceremony and wishes for the other person to feel happy.  It has become a sort of recess period during which people turn their attention away from the God who is sacramentally enthroned upon the altar.  Ironically, in many places it has become a distraction from the Source of the peace which we allegedly desire for one another.  Still, this exercise is optional, and a person is free to continue to pray, directing his attention to the altar.

Let us cast aside the demands of the world, the itch of fallen human nature, to seek fulfillment and peace in false gods and to find complete joy and rest in the love of God alone.

I will write on the place of the Our Father at Mass tomorrow as I have become ill.

 Monday in the Fifth Week of Easter, April 29, 2024

John 14, 21-26

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.  I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

The Lord Jesus is speaking to his Apostles at the Last Supper, speaking openly to those who have been made ready to hear — if not to fully understand — the full truth of his Divine Sonship, of his intimacy with the Father, and of how they, the Apostles, may attain eternal life and share in his into,act with the Father.

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.”  The Greek word translated as “has” which means both “to possess” and “to consider”.  A person who has the Lord’s commandments understands them and is committed to carrying them out.  They belong to him as a gift he has gratefully received.  The commandments of Jesus mark the recipient as a member of his Body and a partaker of the New Covenant in his Blood just as surely as circumcision physically marked a person as a child of Abraham and a sharer in the Old Covenant.  And while circumcision is a sign normally kept hidden, carrying out the commandments of Christ is a sign that is quite prominent.  They show a person not only as acting in a distinct way, but as being inwardly a distinctly different kind of person — a Christian.  And obedience to the Lord’s commandments is an act of love of him.  This reminds us that love is not so much an emotion as an action.

“Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”  This is the essence of the spiritual life. Love of Christ through the carrying out of his commandments prepares a person for Christ to reveal himself to him, so that the person experiences the love Christ has for him so that he can say with St. Paul, “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

“Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”  St. Jude asks a very good question.  “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”  The Lord does not seem to answer St. Jude’s question.  What Jesus is telling him is that there are not enough years in a human lifetime for him to do this, but that through the Apostles and their successors the world will know him so that the Lord will come to anyone who  loves him and will make him his dwelling.

“Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.”  Many will say that they love the Lord Jesus, but if they do not obey his commandments, they show that they do not.  They are liars.

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”  Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be as real a presence in their lives and in the lives of those who love him as he himself has been in the time before he ascends into heaven.

The Lord tells all of this to the Apostles just hours away from his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  They will have these words to console them on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, for in them the Lord speaks not only of the present but of the future.  They will cling to these words at that time and one day soon the Holy Spirit would teach them everything and remind them of everything the Lord had told them.  This has all been passed on to us so that we may ponder, and wonder, and love.

The twentieth article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Doxology and the Amen

The Eucharistic Prayer is concluded with the priest chanting or reciting a prayer called the Doxology, a word that comes from the Greek word for (glory).  This prayer is the culmination of the consecration of the bread and wine, making them the Body and Blood of the Son of God.  It is a outburst of praise, as though all of creation must cry out at the wondrous news of this miracle and of the infinite love manifested by it.  As the Lord said to the Pharisees with respect to his followers rejoicing in his entrance of Jerusalem: “I say to you that if these shall hold their peace, the very stones will cry out!” (Luke 19, 40).  The prayer is as follows: “Through him and with him and in him, O God Almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours forever and ever.”  At the same time as the priest says this, he holds the chalice and the Host about chest high.  This elevation is not made for the benefit of the congregation but is part of the praise offered to God, for it is through his Son, and with his Son and in his Son, present in the priest’s hands, that all glory is given to him.  The elevation acts as a sort of emphasis:  “Through this, your Son, in my hands”.  The prayer should be chanted or spoken so that the words are clear and distinct.  Though brief, it is full of the most profound theology and so ripping through it, as is often done, deprives the congregation of even the most basic understanding of what it means.

The Amen spoken in response by the congregation concludes the Eucharistic Prayer.  It seems that priests often join in the Amen, especially if it is sung or chanted, but this is the people’s prayer.  The priest offers the praise of the Doxology and the people affirm it on their part with the Amen.  Sometimes the Amen is called “the Great Amen”, but this is not correct.  “The Great Amen” is a nickname for a musical setting for the Amen also called the Dresden Amen, since it was composed for use in the royal chapel in that city in the 1800’s.  

Next: The Our Father

 The Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 28, 2024

John 15, 1–8

Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

As we approach the Feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost, the Church presents to us readings from the Gospels in which the Lord Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit and the Church.  We are reminded of the unity we enjoy with the Lord through our baptism into his Body, and we are prompted to meditate on the meaning of this mystery.

During the Last Supper, the Lord emphasized the unity of the Apostles with him in order to offer them consolation for their separation from him in his coming Passion and Death, and also for the long years ahead in which they would go abroad, proclaiming the Redemption which he wrought for the human race.  

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.”  In this way, the Lord likens a plant to himself, not himself to a plant.  Thus, characteristics we see of the vine we can understand as signs for the reality of Jesus.

“He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”  Jesus speaks of the Father examining his Body, the Vine, and determining that certain branches do not bear fruit.  He then takes these away and the angels “will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.”  The fruit of the branches of the earthly vine is the grape, but the fruit of the branches of the heavenly Vine, that is, the members of the Body of Jesus, are converts, which the Father greatly desires.  To this end, the Father “prunes” the branches so they may bring forth the most produce.  This “pruning” strengthens the members in their virtues and faith and enables them to persevere despite inclement weather.  We members may experience this “pruning” as trials and sufferings, but the Father does not abandon us in them, for we are set in them for a purpose.  He holds us tight, for he rejoices in us: “My delights are to be with the children of men” (Proverbs 8, 31). 

Let us hold fast to the Body of our Lord, whose ingrafted members we are, knowing that the Father has desired us so much that he sent his Son into the world for us, and in clinging to the Son may we bear the fruit of many conversions through our words, works, and prayers.

The nineteenth article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Memorial Acclamation

This feature of the Mass really does not have a name but has come to be called “The Memorial Acclamation” as a way to talk about it.  It is a vocal response by the congregation to the changing of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  The committee in charge of reforming the Mass in the 1960’s created this, having in view its goal of increasing what it considered a more active participation in the Mass by the laity.  The words, “The mystery of faith” which the priest states before the acclamation are taken from the ancient words of the consecration of the Blood of Christ and are meant to respond in faith to the divine mystery which has just taken place on the altar.  Of three options for the acclamation, one is taken directly from Scripture and the other two are inspired by Scripture.  A fourth (“Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again”) did not appear in the authorized Latin version of the Roman Missal, from which all translations into modern languages must be made but was placed in the Missal for use in the U.S. subsequently it was dropped from the latest revision of the Missal by the U.S. bishops for this reason.

Next: the Doxology and the Amen

 Saturday in the Fourth Week of Easter, April 26, 2024

John 14, 7-14

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to Jesus, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

Today’s Gospel Reading is taken from St. John’s account of the Lord’s Last Supper Discourse to his Apostles.  He teaches them about the perfect unity he shares with his Father.  When we read his words, we should keep in mind the ancient Jewish understanding that a father was always primary with respect to his son but that the son, especially if he was first-born, could represent his father officially, as we see in the Parable of the Tenants (cf. Matthew 21, 37) and act in his stead.  Nor is this understanding limited to  legal or business matters, but is to be equated with identity, for the son was the father to a degree unimaginab in today’s Western world with its extreme notions of the individual as autonomous, etc.

“If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”  The Greek has, If you have known me, with the verb in the perfect tense, indicating a completed action that has produced results that continue to the present time.  The Lord is saying to the Apostles that if they have grown to know him as he is, then they will come to know the Father too.  The closer we grow to the Son, the closer we grow to the Father.  This has as among its practical effects knowing the Father’s will and more ably carrying it out.  

“How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”  Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him not so that their identities are mixed or confused but that Jesus and the Father share an intimacy that is quite apart from than any human conception of intimacy: “The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.”  The Lord knows very well that what he is revealing goes beyond what the Apostles were taught in the Torah: “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.”

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”  That is, Whoever believes that I am in union with my Father.  Jesus is speaking of his divinity, that he is God.  Those who believe that he is God will do his works — preaching and healing — and do “greater” ones in the sense that they will be required to have faith to do them, whereas the Lord had perfect knowledge.  They will accomplish these works not only outside of his proximity, as they hid when he sent them on mission, but when he is in heaven with his Father.

“And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”  This is a tremendous promise.  The Father, who “dwells” in the Son, does his works, and the Son will perform these works through his Apostles and those who firmly believe in him.  God will do these works through the cooperation of the believer.  Now, the Lord is not saying that he will grant us whatever it is we ask for, for he will hardly grant something immoral that is asked for, but for that which will lead to the salvation of souls, for which purpose the Lord came into the world and for which he died.

How dearly Jesus loved his Apostles — and loves us — in revealing the intimacy he shared with his Father.  He shares his very self with them in the hours before he suffers on the Cross, earnestly desiring to know the One who was about to lay down his life for them!

The eighteenth article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Consecration

The approved English translation of the consecration of the Body of Christ in the current Roman Missal: “Take this, all of you, and ear of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you.”  And that of the Blood of Christ: “Take this, all of how, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.  Do this in memory of me.”  These differ from the words of consecration in the previous Missal, that of 1962, which essentially goes back to the third or fourth century.  The translation for the consecration of the Blood of Christ in that Missal: “Take and drink from this, all of you: This is the chalice of my Blood, of the new covenant: the mystery of faith: which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  The main point here is that it is the Church which gives us and authorizes the words, as we say, of institution, according to the power of binding and loosing, granted her by Jesus Christ.  That it is necessary and right for the Church to do this arises from the fact that in the Sacred Scriptures we receive four versions of the consecrations.  For instance, St. Matthew records: “Take ye and eat. This is my Body . . . Drink ye all of this. For this is my Blood of the new covenant, which shall be shed for many unto the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26, 26-28).  However, St. Luke presents the consecration this way: “This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of me . . . This is the chalice, the new covenant in my Blood, which shall be shed for you. ” (Luke 21, 18-20).  St. Paul hands on the rule of the consecration in 1 Corinthians 11, 24-25.  The differences may seem slight but they are important, and so the Holy Church combines the versions into one so that the fullest sense of what the Lord intended is provided us.

The priest is instructed by the Missal to speak these words clearly and distinctly so that all might hear them.  This was true even during the centuries when the rest of the Eucharistic Prayer were said quietly.  After the priest himself adores the Lord now present upon the altar, he elevates him for all to adore, first the Body in the form of the Host, and then the Lord’s Blood within the chalice.  These two elevations began to be done between 1100 and 1200 in response to a controversy regarding the nature of the Lord’s presence in the Sacrament.  By raising the Host and the chalice and giving them to the people to adore, the Church reaffirms her belief that the bread and the wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

Next: The Memorial Acclamation

 Friday in the Fourth Week of Easter, April 26, 2024

John 14, 1-6

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass is taken from the Lord’s words at the Last Supper in St. John’s Gospel.  Immediately before the words of this reading, he has foretold the denials of Peter, and the Apostles are greatly disturbed.  The Lord tells them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”  A better translation might be, Do not let your hearts be agitated: believe in God and believe in me.  As St. John will elaborate in his First Letter, written years after the Resurrection, “Fear is not in love: but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with sin. And he that fears is not perfected in love” (1 John 4, 18).  The Apostles are to fix their hearts on the Lord and not to keep looking back at themselves, which those do who remain attached to this world to one degree or another.

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”  The Lord also offers them the consolation of their heavenly destiny, which he will go from this world “to prepare” for them.  This has the sound of a father who leaves the family in their old dwelling in order to get their new dwelling ready for them to move into.  In the context, it could mean setting up the tent they would live in, or making repairs to a house in a town.  The Greek word translated here as “going” properly means “to make a journey” or “to travel”.  This implies all the work necessary in making the journey. Much more is involved than simply “going”.  Traveling meant toil.  The Lord speaks of “preparing” or “making ready” the rooms or lodgings in his Father’s house for them.  This is a way of saying that he will return to heaven to make them, the Apostles, ready for eternal life.  The eternal halls of the heavenly courts have always stood ready for us, but not until the time of grace with the coming of the Lord have we been prepared for them.  From heaven he and the Father will send the Holy Spirit upon them, and there, ever before the Father, he would intercede for the salvation of the world: “He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7, 25).  

The Lord Jesus tells them: “Where I am going you know the way.”  He reveals to them that they, in fact, do know the way to his destination.  There was then a pause as the Apostles considered this.  Then Thomas burst out with, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”  Thomas speaks three times in the Gospel of John.  When the Lord announces to his disciples that he will return to Judea, where he was recently nearly killed, in order to go to the death bed of Lazarus, Thomas said to the other Apostles, “Let us go with him that we may die with him” (John 11, 16).  And then when the Lord appears to him after he has risen from the dead, he told him to put his fingers into the wounds in his hands.  Thomas responded, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20, 28).  Here, we see Thomas determined to follow Jesus, and he does not want to be separated from him.  The outburst of Thomas is like that of a child seeing his beloved father leaving for some unknown destination and no time given for his return.  But the Lord comforts him: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  The Lord himself is the road to the Father.  The Lord Jesus is himself our life.  Through faith, Thomas and the other Apostles would be closer to the Lord than they ever were before he ascended into heaven.

There is no place or time or situation in our lives where we will not find the Lord already there with his arms open for us who believe in him.

The seventeenth article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass:: The Fourth Eucharistic Prayer

In the late 1960’s, the committee in charge of reforming the Mass considered using, for a Eucharistic Prayer, a prayer written for this purpose by the eastern Father St. Basil (d. 379), but the order of this prayer did not fit the order of the western prayers and it could not be altered, so the idea was dropped.  This prayer did influence the composition of a completely new prayer, however.  The Fourth Eucharistic Prayer is rich in biblical history, presenting the Sacrifice of the Lord’s Body and Blood in the context of God’s plan for the salvation of the human race.  It is a “seamless garment” in that it proceeds very smoothly and logically, almost like a narrative.  It has its own preface which must be used with it, which limits its use to Sundays and weekdays in Ordinary Time that are not feast days.

Next: the Consecration