By Deacon Jerry Franzen Cathedral 6/19/2016
Zechariah 12: 10-11, 13:1 Gal.
3:26-29 Luke 9:18-24
Praised Be Jesus Christ – Good Evening
During this week, as I considered today’s readings,
I was having trouble getting a clear focus
on what I wanted to say in this homily.
Nothing specific stood out; sources of inspiration I
usually look at weren’t
particularly inspiring.
I took one more look at the readings.
®Would the
focus be on all that God has provided for us,
such as
the victory over sin and uncleanness
that
would come through the spirit of grace and petition?
In the first reading God said He would pour these out
on the
house of David.
®Would the
focus be on St. Paul’s declaration that we, the baptized,
are all
children of God clothed in Christ Jesus?
®Or would it
be on Jesus’ question in St. Luke’s Gospel:
“But
who do you say that I am?”
with
the requirement that to be a follower of “Christ,”
each
of us would have to “take up our cross daily?”
After these considerations, my focus became clearer!!
The focus of the readings is really on us, as it
always is.
It is on who WE are as defined by what WE have and
what WE do.
I
Little is known about the mourning described in the
first reading
but
there must have been great cause for grief.
The Lord told the house of David that,
even though they would one day mourn
the fact that they had killed a person,
they would at the same time be given
“a
fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.”
We are the religious descendants of that house of
David;
we are
followers of Christ, who was of the house of David.
Each Lenten season, we have a special opportunity
to
mourn the suffering and death of Jesus, the “pierced” one,
as
Zechariah described Him.
But at the end of that same season we also celebrate
the greatest feast of the Church Year, Easter,
when
the risen Christ opened for us that
“fountain to purify
from sin and uncleanness.”
So who are we?
We are a sorrowful, mourning, people,
sorrowful
for the fact that God had to send His only Son
to
suffer and die for our sins.
But we are also people for whom God has unbounded
mercy,
that
“fountain to purify” us “from sin and uncleanness.”
So, who are we?
We, sinners though we are, are the beneficiaries of
God’s mercy.
II
St. Paul says very clearly who we are.
We are children of God.
We are heirs to the kingdom of God, our Father;
he is our “Abba,” our “Daddy.”
The younger of us who still have their fathers alive,
have
already celebrated with them in some way today.
The older of us may have connected with our fathers
today
in our
memories of them or in prayer for them
or
in prayer to them
should they be saints in the heavenly kingdom.
So, who are we?
God has adopted us as his children
and made it so that we can join him in heaven.
At our baptism, we put on the white garment of
salvation
and were
charged, as stated in the baptismal rite,
with
bringing that garment unstained
into the everlasting life of heaven.
And God has made it so that we can do that through
Jesus Christ.
We are a redeemed people.
III
And in the Gospel there is Jesus’ question:
“Who do
you say that I am?”
We are the people who, like Peter, say that Jesus is
the Christ.
In Greek, “Xristos” means “Messiah: or “anointed one,”
the one
anointed by God and sent for our salvation .
And we can give OUR answer to that question in words
as Peter did
or by
our actions in carrying our daily crosses for Christ.
We all respond to that question
in one special way at every Mass,
although you may not have ever recognized
the question
or your answer.
It is at the great “Amen” at the end of
the Eucharistic Prayer.
The Eucharistic Prayer begins right
after we sing the “Holy, Holy.”
It is the heart of the sacrifice of the
Mass.
There are several forms of the
Eucharistic Prayer
but
each is our prayer of offering
Jesus, the Divine Victim, as we once again
make present,
in an unbloody manner, the sacrifice
of Calvary.
Notice I said that the Eucharistic
Prayer is OUR prayer.
and that WE make present again the sacrifice
of Calvary.
The priest, standing in for Christ, the
true celebrant at every Mass,
leads
us in the Eucharistic prayer.
But, take note today how many times
the priest uses the first person PLURAL forms
of
“we,” “us” and “our” in the
Eucharistic prayer.
Those words mean all of us.
The priest is leading us in that whole
prayer,
and
we should all be listening intently
and praying the Eucharistic Prayer
silently along with the
priest.
Each of the Eucharistic Prayers ends
with the Doxology
which
is a Greek term meaning “an expression of praise.”
The Body and Blood of Christ are
elevated and the priest says:
“Through Him, and with Him, and in Him,
O
God, almighty Father, all glory and honor is yours,
forever
and ever.”
That is the Doxology.
In that prayer the priest is addressing
God,
and
saying that it is through Christ, with Christ and in Christ, that God is glorified and honored forever and ever,
And everyone responds “Amen!”
Some think that “Amen” means “The End,”
because it is always at the end.
There is a story about a particular
preacher going on and on
in his sermon and the heat was building in the
Church.
In his sermon he interjected the
rhetorical question:
“What
else can I say?”
Someone in the congregation stood up and
offered:
“Just
say ‘Amen.’” Just end your sermon.
“Amen” is always the end, but it doesn’t
mean ”The End.”
The word “Amen” means “So be it.” or
“May it be so.”
It is a form of agreement, a way of
saying,
“I
agree with what has just been said.”
We begin many prayer activities with the
sign of the cross.
After the Opening Hymn at Mass, the
priest says
“In
the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.”
And we all reply, “Amen”
which
means, “Yes, I agree that what we are about to do
is to be done ‘in the name of the Father and
of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.’”
One priest has even said that “Amen” has
a deeper meaning:
not
just like “Yea, I agree”, but more like,
“I’d stake my life on it.”
At the great Amen we are agreeing with
all that went before in the Eucharistic Prayer.
We are acknowledging that Christ through
His suffering, death
and resurrection, won salvation for us,
and
that Christ, our King and Savior,
is
present to us on the altar
under
the form of bread and wine.
By our “Amen” we proclaim that, through Jesus
Christ,
we now have a relationship with God the Father,
and
that we’re preparing to receive
Christ’s
saving presence and power in the Eucharist.
Though you may not have recognized it,
the Great Amen
is
a truly peak moment in the Mass,
because
it is our way of acclaiming Jesus as the Christ.
Our “Amen” after being presented with “The
Body of Christ”
is also an agreement and material for
another whole homily.
May we be a people who truly appreciates
the fact that
God
sent His only begotten Son
to
suffer, die and rise from the dead for us.
May we mourn His death and be sorry that
God had to do that.
May we recognize that by Jesus’ death
and resurrection
we
have been clothed in Christ
and must strive to bring those baptismal
clothes
unstained into the everlasting life of
heaven?
And finally, may we take every
opportunity to acknowledge Jesus
as
our Messiah so that our Great Amen may ring true.
