By Fr. Simione Volavola, MSC (Pennsylvania Community, Center Valley, PA)Father Simi professed his first vows on February 20, 1995, and was ordained on January 27, 2001.
They all ate and were satisfied. (Luke 9:17)
Dear Friends,
The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament our Lord Himself instituted on the evening of Holy Thursday.
It is the sacrament of our Lord’s very own person who emptied Himself out on Good Friday once and for all so that we, who experience the pain of our broken relationships with His Father and one another, could now be raised from the death of those relationships to eternal communion with Him in heaven.
In commanding us at the last supper on Holy Thursday night to do this in memory of Him, He was making present for us in the time and space of all gathered disciples His whole self-emptying love of Good Friday.
All our betrayals He continues to embrace and the consequent sufferings that come from betrayals He suffers with us still, all our dying He still dies with us, never to ever leave us on our own but to transform our earthly mortal flesh and blood existence to a resurrection immortal existence, a life thoroughly imbued with the Eternal Love that He had always enjoyed with His Father from all eternity.
This is why the Mass is so important for us because by celebrating it, we who are still journeying on earth are here and now being embraced by the same body that died and rose for us and still dying and rising with us.
(CNS photo/Christopher M. Riggs, Catholic Advance)