April 17, 2003
Holy Thursday

My dear Missionaries,

“Jesus Christ has made us a line of kings and priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.” With these words from the Book of Revelation (1,6) we begin the Mass of Chrism on this day in which we commemorate the institution of the Sacraments of Orders and the Eucharist. The Collect goes on to say: “O Father, who consecrated your only son with the anointing of the Holy Spirit and constituted him Messiah and Lord, grant that we who share in his consecration may be witnesses to the world of his saving work.” Eucharist, priesthood and mission: these three realities come constantly to the fore and penetrate this holy day; they are that divine symphony we call the Paschal Mystery, the central mystery of our faith.
These liturgical mysteries are addressed to all of us, priest and non-priest alike, not just because they are the heart of Christian worship, but because they give life to our mission. As missionaries we must strive to live these mysteries in the realization that unless our life and the life of our Christian communities is rooted in these mysteries our mission will be feeble and without impact.
This is clearly affirmed by the Second Vatican Council when it calls us to approach the Eucharist, this source of life, and find in it “the source and apex of the whole work of preaching the Gospel” (Presbyterorum Ordinis 5). In much the same vein Paul VI calls on priests to keep their minds and hearts open to the world every time they celebrate the Eucharist: “For each and every Mass is not something private, even if a priest celebrates it privately; instead, it is an act of Christ and of the Church. In offering this sacrifice, the Church learns to offer herself as a sacrifice for all and she applies the unique and infinite redemptive power of the sacrifice of the Cross to the salvation of the whole world. For every Mass that is celebrated is being offered not just for the salvation of certain people, but also for the salvation of the whole world” (Mysterium Fidei, 32). Through the Eucharist the work of redeeming the world continues without interruption.
At this point I do not intend to say more about the subject of Eucharist and Mission but I would like to share what Bruno Forte , the Italian theologian answered to the question, “What meaning does a privately celebrated Eucharist have?” His words are a clear and appropriate commentary on article 63 of our Constitutions: “Called to proclaim the mystery of the death and resurrection of the Lord to the people, we assign the greatest importance to our daily celebration of the Eucharist. We experience this celebration as the ‘most beautiful time of our lives’ (SL 413); it is an apostolic ‘activity’ that expresses and creates our fellowship.
Throughout the day the Eucharist must penetrate our thoughts, intentions and activities; our apostolate, the example of our faith, and our ability to draw others to Christ finds strength in the riches and depth of our Eucharistic life.”

Letter to a Priest Friend

You ask me why one should celebrate the Eucharist every day? Isn’t the Sunday celebration with the whole Christian community sufficient? Why should I celebrate Mass when I am alone or only a handful of people are present? Doesn’t this contradict the concept of a communitarian celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus?
I will try and answer these questions not just from my own theology (convictions clearly expressed by the Church since the beginning of the second millennium) but also from my personal spiritual experience over many years in the priesthood. To begin with let me go straight to the heart of the question: why are we priests? Who made us devote our entire life to serving the Gospel of Reconciliation, the Gospel of the Eucharist, the Gospel of charity? There is only one answer: Jesus. We are priests because He wanted us to be priests; He it is who called us and loved us. He continues to want us and to love us. His love is ever faithful. The meaning of our life and the purpose of our vocation is not some thing – however beautiful that thing may be – it is some one: the Lord, Jesus. We are priests because one day He reached out to us – each of us knows how: a word of witness, a gesture of charity that touched our heart, in the silence of reflection and prayer, in the sufferings of a life that seemed meaningless without Him… He called us, we answered, Yes, and from that moment the flame of true love was kindled in our hearts and through His grace it has not been extinguished. This flame makes us long for Him, desire Him, will what He wills for us – I am not exaggerating nor am I speaking in hyperbole. When we get right down to it we could not have become priests or have remained faithful to our priesthood in spite of everything had He not given us this gift, lived within us and made our love for Him grow. It is this love – as you well know – which has motivated all our work for others: our simple, uncomplicated, heartfelt openness, our patient, abiding sensitivity, our efforts to demonstrate the meaning and beauty of a life lived for God and the Gospel, our works of charity, our commitment to justice, our sharing the poor man’s thirst for justice and our efforts to speak for those who have no voice. If we have done any good for others – and looking back it may not seem like much - but whatever we have managed to accomplish has been because of Him. Jesus has enabled us to perform acts of generosity we would never have conceived or imagined on our own.

This long premise – a humble description of our lives as called and loved by Christ – leads to the reason I feel the need to celebrate the Eucharist every day. It is not an obligation but a need, and not just an emotional need (sometimes I have no feelings at all) but a genuine, deep and inescapable need. I feel the need to fill every day of my life with Him: Jesus told us that each day has its own concerns (Cf. Mt 6,34) – each day is just long enough to sustain our struggle to preserve the faith. Each day the sun rises for us and each day our hearts long for the sun-like warmth that comes from our Beloved. If He is our life, the meaning and beauty of our existence, the explanation of our identity, the reason for our service of the Gospel we must go and encounter Him there where He offers Himself for us. Would someone who is genuinely in love pass up the chance to meet his beloved – even every day? And if this is true for human love – so often fragile and transitory – how much more true is it of that love which never disappoints, never betrays, the love that lasts through time and eternity, the love of God in Christ Jesus, our life? This is why I feel the need to encounter Him every day, again and again. Where else will I find Him except the place He has promised and guaranteed His presence: “This is my body – this is the chalice of my blood of the new and eternal covenant, poured out for you and for all in remission of sins.” Yes, I need You every day, Jesus. On Sundays I meet you on the feast of the first and last day, the eighth day of Your resurrection, the day You give new life to the Church and the world. Through Your grace I am able to celebrate the memorial of Your Easter every day and this fills me with joy and peace. I am not alone in my ministry: You are always at my side with words of life; it is You I encounter in the brothers and sisters I meet on my journey; it is You who seek my love in every poor man I meet, in everyone who seeks my attention; You are the living source of this river of love and life. I bring about Your presence in the Eucharist so that I may be nourished by You, live with You and love You, today and forever.
Why do I celebrate the Eucharist every day and do everything possible to avoid missing a day? Why do I celebrate when my only companions are the Virgin Mother Mary, the angels, saints and one or two of the faithful – and sometimes not even they show up! I celebrate every day to encounter You, Jesus, my life. You give meaning to everything and transform me entirely. Your love can make even someone like me worthy of grace and pardon. I celebrate daily in the hope that everyone will come to know and love You in the way that You alone make possible. I celebrate every day to meet my beloved, to live with You, Lord Jesus, to be ever more transformed by Your beauty, to become – in spite of myself – a poor but loving reflection of You, the Good Shepherd. Through my encounter with You I can genuinely affirm that I am celebrating with and for others – even if they are not physically present. In You I find all the people you have entrusted to my care. I return their love and suffering to You – even though many of them may never know of this transaction. This is the mystery of intercession that You have entrusted to my care. I pray for and in place of others – even others I do not know nor will ever know. I can only do this united to You, in You and through You because you are the Priest of the new and eternal covenant established for the life, joy and beauty of all your creatures.
Yes, Jesus is not just true and good, He is also beautiful. His beauty saves, He is the beautiful shepherd who leads us to living pastures where beauty never fades. By celebrating every day I hope to become a little more authentic, a little better, a little more beautiful through Him. In His Church I find the only good, perfect goodness, the beauty which transforms everything. I believe, my friend, that in the depths of your priestly heart – as a servant of reconciliation and a witness to the Gospel - there is this same need. I invite you to our daily encounter at the altar of life. You will be with me and I with you and Christ with both of us. He will bear our cross and the crosses of all those in our care; He will share His risen life; He who has conquered sin and death will conquer them again for us and for our fellow travellers in time and eternity.

I would like to thank Don Bruno – on your behalf as well – for this beautiful witness. In conclusion I send you my best wishes. In the words of the Easter Liturgy, “Go and bring the joy of the Risen Lord to all people, alleluia, alleluia.”
Fraternally,