LET THERE BE LIGHT

A SERMON FOR MAUNDY THURSDAY

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

Today we commemorate the Last Supper of our Lord, the last time he would sit down to eat with his apostles before the earth would once again be plunged into a darkness unknown since the beginning of time when the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

This new darkness was to last three hours from noon until 3 pm.  It was not a normal darkness.  It was a darkness so complete that the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks were rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves and went into the holy city. 

Today we seem to be facing the imminent return of this darkness.  Often times we hear mentioned the three days of darkness that will precede the coming of our Lord to judge the world.  Many saints have prophesied that this will occur.  And eventually, when it is time for this world to slip back permanently into the void from which God created all things, when darkness comes to cover once again the face of the deep, when heaven and earth shall pass away, we must consider the possibility that we too will be swallowed up and be condemned to the outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, to the everlasting fire that burns with no light, prepared for the devil and his angels. This outer darkness will be as the world before Creation, a world that time will forget, a darkness that will exist only for the damned souls who suffer within it.

In the beginning the Word of God had pronounced the command to dispel that terrible darkness that covered the deep.  “Let there be light!”  Thousands of years later, in the city of Nazareth, a young maiden conceived a Child, and that same Word of God became flesh and dwelt amongst us.  This was the true Light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  He was the Light of the World.  Tomorrow, on Good Friday, when he died, that Light went out.

He who said:  “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,” tomorrow he will die on the Cross.  But before that light of life is extinguished, on the night before he suffered, that is on this night of Maundy Thursday, our Lord took bread into his holy and venerable hands, and lifting his eyes unto God his almighty Father, he rendered thanks, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to his disciples, saying: “This is my Body.”  These are the words of God, spoken by the Word of God.  By the same Word of God who had said “Let there be light”.  This same Word of God today commands his apostles to do this in remembrance of him, to bring down the Light of the world daily on to our altars, renewing God’s presence amongst us, and channeling to our souls the graces of the holy sacrifice of the cross forever and until the end of time.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacrifice of Calvary are one and the same sacrifice, and they have the same purpose.  To open the gates of heaven, and allow man to enter again into the paradise he lost at Eden.  Good Friday was not just another event of history.  It was an event of such crucial import to man that it took on the nature of an eternal act, one which is not confined to history, but which is infinite in nature and thus extends itself throughout all of history, and into the eternal unity with God that exists beyond time for those who save their souls.  That unity is accomplished today as we partake in God’s greatest gift to us, the ability to accept his Body and Blood in the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, by which our eternal unity with God begins now in this our mortal life.  If we wish to save our soul, we must unite with God, we must receive him in our souls, we must follow his commandment to do this in his eternal memory.

We are the people who tomorrow will witness the darkness of the Crucifixion.  But today, before we experience that darkness, we are first the people that walked in darkness who have seen a great light.  Tomorrow, the darkness that covered the face of the deep will once again swallow us as we recollect the horrors of Calvary.  Today we are strengthened by our annual reminder that we have, and will always have until the end of time, the Light of the world present on our altars at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  The Real Presence is with us today.  We must accept this great gift of God by receiving Holy Communion as often as we can, so that we may never experience the Real Absence of God that existed on Good Friday and still exists today in the dark pits of hell.  That darkness of God’s Real Absence is the fate in store for us if we do not strive to receive as often as we possibly can the Real Presence of Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into our hearts.