Maundy Thursday

Life without the Holy Mass is the worst thing about a pandemic, during which everyone stays at home. Live streaming or recording services for people to watch or listen to at home is no substitute. Of all things for which we pray and hope, we must place this as the most important: to be privileged to gather together again, to receive Christ at the altar as a congregation. For there are two parts to the Gospel. There is the death of Christ which redeems us and reconciles the world to God, and there is this also: that in the Blessed Sacrament we receive by mouth the very body of Christ which he gave into death, and his very blood which was shed. He who gave himself for us also gives himself to us. His sacrificial once-for-all death is brought to us over time and space wondrously, that we may be partakers in it. We must pray, and expect, that our most holy convocations might be made possible again, knowing that all things he works out for our good. Sermon for Maundy Thursday.