Mass of the Lord’s Supper 2018 Holy Rosary Residence
Dearest Mother, Sisters and brethren,
I cannot think of a better place for celebrating the Mass of the Lord’s Supper than here with you in this Holy Rosary Residence. It is good to be with you who have welcomed in our loved ones who, through age and infirmity, became
too small in their own household to prepare a Lamb, and who therefore have joined you in your blessed household to share this Sacred Meal.
They eat it among you dear Mother and Sisters who, like those who ate on the first Passover night, are never to be found except
dressed in the habit of the Lord, the
girdle of chastity around your waists, the
sandals of poverty on your feet, and ever ready with the
staff of obedience in hand, waiting upon our Lord’s call wherever it may lead.
It is good to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in this household, whose lintels are marked vibrantly with the Blood of the Lamb, Whom you worship here in the daily celebration of our Holy Eucharist, and which forms the heartbeat of your life and routine in this Convent and Residence. May the Blood of the Eucharist, dear sisters, ensure you that the Lord will protect you from any evil that would pass over this place to threaten it. And yet may the Angel of the Lord not pass you by without leaving many blessings of protection, redemption and salvation.
Saint Paul reminds us how, as this night approached and Our Blessed Lord stooped down, basin and towel in hand, in such tender care of His community, He could not, even so, exclude the reality that one in His midst would betray Him, another resist and yet others deny Him and His mission. In this life of humble service, the Father
did not spare His own Son (Rom 8:32). It seems to be the way that
the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6) and we know well, sisters, how
in the days of His flesh, Our Beloved Jesus had to offer
up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save him from death. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. Yet
His Father heard, at the last,
His Son’s
godly fear and, being
thus made perfect, He has become
the source of eternal salvation for all of us who strive to
obey Him (Heb 5:7-9).
Yes, dear sisters, the Lord will not allow every suffering to pass us over, but we can be sure He will ask us to bear only those anxieties and trials that lead to our perfecting, to the coming of His Kingdom and to His good glory.
In this regard we need look no further than to the quiet example of
suffering that makes perfect lived by our dear Foundress, Saint Jeanne Juganne. She knew, we know well, what it was to be
harshly dealt with and to
bear it humbly, she who, for a time was demoted as foundress, excluded from its first General Chapter, cast out into the streets for collecting and, in the end, retired to a life without duties, there to die unknown as the pioneer of the Congregation. She offered up all these crosses so trustfully and in such humble fashion that those who saw her thought they were in the presence of God.
The truth we know, dear sisters, is that, had she been given the option, Jeanne would always have chosen the littlest place in order to serve the poor, just as Her Lord, though Master, bent down to wash the disciples’ feet as an example to them to wash each other’s.
Saint Paul passed on what he received of that night of service, just as you in your own poor witness of faithful care, pass on what your received from the quiet light of Saint Jeanne, inspired by the lowliness of the Lord Himself. May you be assured, dear sisters, that for as long as you carry out this good service of welcome to the Lord’s little ones in your household, caring for them and washing their feet, you proclaim the Lord’s Death until He comes again.