I know I shouldn’t be blogging right now. I’m supposed to be patiently awaiting the resurrection of my Savior with hope and silence. I worked out my Lenten resolutions in a similar way. I gave up secular television, except for the weather (which is useful and informative, not entertaining) and Jeopardy! (which is inherently edifying and intellectually stimulating, not just mindless staring). So, though I have neither signed on to AIM nor done homework during the Triduum, I opened my feed reader to check Zenit and the Sunday Sunday Sunday podcast.
I’m glad I did. Zenit published notes from the Holy Father’s Chrism Mass homily and the whole text from Holy Thursday. At the Chrism Mass, he used an example from Tolstoy. Gotta love a secularly well-read Vicar of Christ.
The Holy Father illustrated God’s actions using a narration by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, about a severe ruler who asked his wise men to show him God so that he could see him.
“The wise men did not know how to do this. So a shepherd, who was just returning from the fields, offered to take the place of the priests and the wise men,” the Pontiff recalled.
The king learned that his eyes would not suffice to see God, Benedict XVI added. But the shepherd offered to show the king how God acts. To do this, we must exchange clothing, said the shepherd to the king.
“Hesitantly, but urged by curiosity, the king consented, giving his regal clothing to the shepherd and dressing himself in the simple clothing of the poor man,” the Pope related.
“And then came the answer: ‘This is what God does,”" he continued. “In fact, the Son of God—true God from true God—left his divine splendor […] took on the condition of servant and became a man.”
Isn’t that wonderful? That’s what Jesus did: He came to Earth as a poor, helpless baby so that His divine nature would not separate Him from us. He was like us in every way except sin, so that we could relate to Him. Even Tolstoy’s shepherd understood that (though Tolstoy himself is considered a “Christian anarchist”).
The Holy Father’s Holy Thursday homily wasn’t quite as literary, but one section toward the beginning caught my eye.
The words of the [Passover] memorial service were surrounded by words of praise and thanksgiving taken from the Psalms. Giving thanks and blessing God reached its apex with the “berakha,” which in Greek is called “eulogia” or “eucaristia”: To bless God becomes a blessing for those who bless. The offering donated to God returns blessed to man.
During the Mass, we bring bread and wine as gifts to offer to God. In Eucharistic Prayer I, which is used on Holy Thursday, the celebrant says:
Almighty God, we pray that your angel may take this sacrifice to your altar in heaven. Then, as we receive from this altar the sacred body and blood of your Son, let us be filled with every grace and blessing.
This is definitely reflected in the Holy Father’s homily. We give the offering to God, but He gives it back as so much more. We give him thanks, and He gives us the Bread of Life. And how wonderful is that redeeming gift!
