It has been said that the words of those who see the face death are ones that carry special truth. Perhaps that is the reason why The Gift of Peace: Personal Reflections by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin , completed just thirteen days before he died on November 14, 1996, has been treasured by its readers. In the preface to his book, Cardinal Bernardin invites those who read his book to walk with him the final miles of his life’s journey. The diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer provided the unique opportunity for him to speak with special urgency of the precious gift of reconciliation and peace and how his own life as a man of the Gospel, a priest and shepherd of God’s people has been at the service of these important realities in our world and church today.
In the final chapter of his book, Cardinal Bernardin writes:
What I would like to leave behind is a simple prayer that each of you may find what I have found - God’s special gift to us all: the gift of peace. When we are at peace, we find the freedom to be most fully who we are, even in the worst of times. We let go of what is nonessential and embrace what is essential. We empty ourselves so that God may more fully work within us. And we become instruments in the hands of the Lord.
Each of us in our own special way longs to leave a legacy, to leave behind a gift to others that will hopefully make a difference and be a lasting remembrance of our lives on earth.
My brothers and sisters, tonight our thoughts go to remembering and celebrating the parting gift and the lasting legacy that the Lord Jesus left us as he prepared to embrace the face of death in, paradoxically, the City of Peace - Jerusalem. In God’s Word for Holy Thursday we hear the great story of God’s continuing desire to bring freedom to those victimized by the chaos of this world. For it was into this world of broken promises, alienation and lives torn by hatred and dissension that Jesus came to bring a new commandment, “to love one another as I have love you”.
Tonight, the Church in its great act of thanksgiving calls us to remember the three parting gifts that the Lord gives to us who have come to know Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life. We remember the gift of the Eucharist, the gift of the priesthood, and a new commandment to love one another.
Our lives are ultimately shaped by the relationships that feed us. No wonder then that on the night before the Lord would himself pass over the waters of death, he gave to his disciples the gift of himself as food - bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation. For 2000 years, it is the Eucharist, that has shaped our identity as followers of the Way. The Eucharist is the anchor of our faith and a perpetual sign that we are loved unto death by the one who gave his all for each of us.
Tonight, we remember the continuing presence of the Servant Jesus who calls others to be good shepherds in his name. The gift of the ministerial priesthood continues the presence of Jesus who came not to be served but to give his life in service to others. Called from among the people of God, the greatest privilege of every priest is to be a bearer of mystery to God’s Holy People - the mystery of new life through the waters of baptism, the mystery of healing and reconciliation in the sacrament of penance, the mystery of comfort and consolation in anointing of the sick, but most of all, the mystery of bread broken and cup share through his own life lived Eucharistically.
For each priest is reminded on the day of his ordination: ...Imitate the mystery you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord’s cross. My brothers and sisters, pray for your priests that we might always be faithful stewards of this ministry of service entrusted to us.
And finally, tonight we remember and celebrate the mandantum novum - the new commandment “to love one another”. In a world saturated with cynicism, enmeshed in cycles of violence and recrimination, torn by prejudice; where power, control and manipulation of others can so often be a way of life for many - this new commandment may come as a shock to a world exploited by selfishness. The dramatic power of this new commandment is normally ritualized in this liturgy as the shepherd among us kneels in humility before his people, washes their feet in imitation of him who has given us this new way of life. As members of the Body of Christ, we need to hear and take to heart this message- this new commandment - perhaps now more ever. While dissension and discord have always been a sad dimension of the all too human face of the Church, in this utterly unique moment of pandemic, it must be our loving solidarity as brothers and sisters in Christ, our charity for one another, that must be the distinctive hallmark of our lives. If not, then we run the risk of never being able to speak with credibility the message of him whose name we bear. The words of the father of modern India, Mahatma Gandhi, must challenge us to an ongoing examination of our collective consciences when he said, “There would be a lot more Christians, if you Christians were a lot more like your Christ.”
And so, as we enter into the mystery of the Lord’s death and resurrection in the Sacred Triduum that has begun, may we embrace the living legacy that the Lord left to us the night before he died. May our sharing in the Eucharist continue to shape our minds and hearts so that we might indeed become more like Christ, our Teacher and Lord. And may our solidarity be grounded in compassion and forgiveness, in charity and love - for where charity and love are found, there is God.