JUDICA ME, DEUS

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI

One of the most dramatic and significant things that ever happened in man’s history was overshadowed by something even more dramatic and significant that happened at exactly the same moment.  I refer to the veil of the Holy of Holies being torn asunder at the very moment our blessed Lord died on the cross.  We must realize, however, that both events occurred simultaneously because they were both actually part of the same event, the bloody and violent transition from the Old Testament to the New.  

As the veil of the Holy of Holies was torn asunder, it opened up that most sacred of rooms within the Temple of Sion, allowing man to set eyes for the first time on the place where God dwelt.  Henceforth, only the High Priest had ever been allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies, and this only once a year.  Henceforth, no High Priest would ever again be required by God to enter this room, into the presence of the Most High, sprinkling the blood of beasts in propitiation for sin.  The Precious Blood of the Saviour had now replaced forever that animal sacrifice.

There was a reason this Holy of Holies was treated with such solemn respect by the Jews.  It was the place where God dwelt among his chosen people. In one sense, God is everywhere, but in a very special sense he actually dwelt in this Holy of Holies, a foreshadowing of the Real Presence.  As the 21^stpsalm proclaims: “Thou dost dwell in the holy place, O thou worship of Israel.”  And what did the High Priest see when he entered into this Holy of Holies?  There before his awestruck gaze he would behold, no less than the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat of God from which God spoke directly to man.

The original Ark of the Covenant was a box made of acacia wood, in which were three things of the highest importance to the Jewish people: the priestly staff of Aaron, the two tablets of Moses that displayed the ten commandments, and a vessel containing some of the manna with they had been fed and kept alive in the wilderness. The Ark was open at the top, ad God gave very precise directions to Moses for the making of a lid.  It was to be of pure gold, with golden cherubim at each end, facing each other and covering the Ark of the Covenant with their outstretched wings.  This lid would be called the Mercy Seat of God, “and there,” he said, “I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment to the children of Israel.”

In the New Covenant, it is we who are the high priests, who accept God’s invitation to enter into the Holy of Holies when we receive the Blessed Sacrament, and God “communes with us” in Communion.  We are called to become ourselves the Holy of Holies, as God himself now dwells within us.  No matter how unworthy we may be, we humbly ask our Lord to pronounce the word of mercy from his mercy seat… “Say but the word and my soul shall be healed.”

And when that Day of Wrath shall come, and we shall ask God that we may enter under hisroof forever, the day when we shall stand in awe before the dreadful Judgment Seat of God, we should pray that this Judgment Seat shall indeed be the Mercy Seat of God.

But the judgments of this life are as nothing compared to the next.  At the Last Judgment, our blessed Lord will speak to us all who come before his presence seeking mercy.  When he is seated on the right hand of God the Father Almighty to judge both the quick and the dead, he will indeed commune with us. And what will he speak to us about when he judges us?  He will speak to us of those three things beneath his Mercy Seat, contained in the Ark of the Covenant.  He will speak to us of the Staff of Aaron, the Ten Commandments and the Manna.

The Staff of Aaron symbolizes not only the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament but even more so its fulfillment in the apostolic priesthood of the New.  Our Church was founded on these apostles, and every priest who offers Mass validly today receives the power to do so from the Holy Orders passed down to him from those same apostles to whom Christ first gave them at the Last Supper.  If we are members of that one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, founded on St. Peter and his companions, then we are invited to commune with God in the Blessed Sacrament.  And on Judgment Day, Christ will hold up the priestly staff of Aaron before us, and he will ask if we hold and practice the Catholic faith in our belief and worship.  Are we truly members of that one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church, which he founded on St. Peter the Apostle?  Do we worship him in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Mass which he gave his apostles at the Last Supper, and which they passed down to their successors to be transmitted to us intact?  If we believe and worship rightly, then we may be at peace.  We have passed the first test.

At the Last Judgment, having determined that we are truly members of the Church, believing in all her teachings, and worshiping God rightly, just as our Lord had taught the apostles, then what?  Then Christ will take into his sacred hands the two tablets containing the ten commandments, and he will hold them up before us, and he will show us how every sin of our life is etched in stone next to each of these commandments. From his judgment seat, he will pronounce us guilty of all our sins, and then it will be for us to show the extent to which we have repented our sins, made reparation for them, and done our best not to repeat them.  And if we are in the state of grace, we have nothing to fear.  Ours sins are forgiven and again, we may be at peace.  We have passed the second test.

And then finally, Christ will reach down one more time into the Ark of the Covenant, and this time he will hold up the vessel containing some of the manna that our fathers in the faith, the Hebrew children, had gathered up in the wilderness.  Christ’s words will suddenly echo in our minds, perhaps with a thud of guilt on our part, “Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat…  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.”

Our judgment now hangs in the balance.  We have shown ourselves to be members of the Church, following the true faith, attending the true Mass.  We have shown ourselves to be sorry for our many and multifold sins.  But now, in this third and last test, dare we look upon the bread that Christ holds up before us in his sacred and reverent hands, dare we listen to those words he pronounces as he offers us himself in all his love: “Take ye, and eat ye all of this, for this is my Body.”  How will we feel then when we remember all those times we could have gone to Mass but didn’t, all those times we could have, shouldhave received Holy Communion, but didn’t?  And maybe there were times when we most certainly should nothave received Holy Communion, but did anyway. Will we be able to look our divine Judge in the eyes and at least be able to tell him that we may have done such terrible and ungrateful things, but that we repented of them, and went and sinned no more?  Or will our futile excuses be nothing more than bitter memories of how we squandered our salvation, the only real gift worth having?  “I can’t go to Mass this week, too busy, too tired, it’s too far, I pray thee, have me excused… can’t go to Communion this week, needed my coffee, my breakfast, didn’t have time to go to Confession, don’t want to go to Confession… I pray thee, have me excused.”  

We shall then be judged for the third and last time, irrevocably, with a judgment that will last forever.  By now, we should know what to expect.  Our Lord has told us already: “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day… Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”  But unfortunately there are those other, less comforting words: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”  Every Communion we make, or don’t make, is fraught with danger. We must be well prepared to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord in a manner befitting the Holy of Holies, and to do so on a regular basis.  

Those three little items contained in the Ark of the Covenant are there, waiting for our judgment day.  They will beour judgment.  For this reason, before we take Holy Communion, to remind ourselves of these three things, we cry out three times to the Lamb of God who sitteth on the right hand of the Father on his Mercy Seat, “O Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world…”  Twice we ask for mercy, and lastly for that final and eternal peace that only a merciful judgment can bring.

One final point, so that you know I’m not merely making all these connections out of thin air…  Read the three prayers that come after the Agnus Deiat Mass.  The priest reads them silently just before he receives Holy Communion.  In the first prayer, as Christ spoke to the apostles “Peace I leave you, my peace I give unto you,” imagine him holding up the staff of Aaron as we pray to him to “regard not my sins, but the faith of thy Church,” and ask that we should never be separated from that holy Church, her faith and her true Mass.

In the second prayer, imagine Christ holding up the ten commandments as he reminds us of our sins, and listen to the prayer of the priest: “Set me free from all my sins, and from all evil things: and make me in such wise ever to abide in thy commandments that I may never be separated from thee.”

Finally, our blessed Lord holds up before us the manna.  “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him that taketh away the sins of the world.”  And let us make the most profound and humble act of love we can, and when our Lord invites, or rather commands us “Take ye, and eat ye all of this,” let us pray, most earnestly, the third prayer with the priest  “O Lord Jesu Christ, I thine unworthy servant, do presume to take thy Body: but let not this act be unto my judgment and damnation: rather let it, through thy mercy, become a safeguard and remedy, both for soul and body: who livest and reignest, God, world without end.  Amen.