(The tenth in a series of meditations on the Mysteries of the Rosary by Rev. Addisalem T. Mekonnen, Spiritual Director of the Philadelphia Senatus).
Are you weak enough to receive and serve our Blessed Lord?
Our Blessed Lord knew He would die at Calvary following the Last Supper and so He ardently desired to institute the Holy Eucharist because He wanted to empower His disciples with His living presence from within their own soul. Our Lord began this celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with washing the feet of His disciples and it’s no coincidence that we begin every Mass with acknowledging ourselves as sinners in need of God’s mercy. St. Peter protested—thinking that our Lord’s act of humility was disgraceful because He was their sovereign Lord and King. Nevertheless, our Lord insisted this cleansing and act of humility was absolutely necessary even though they were His chosen apostles, they were all sinners in need of His mercy.
I don’t think our Lord chose these twelve apostles to have a participation in His priesthood because of their impressive intellect because most of them were not learned men. They were not chosen because they were particularly strong in their faith or fearless since they quickly abandoned Him after our Lord was arrested. It is a deep mystery of God’s will, but it seems it was because of their human weakness that they were called to become His servants. The apostles were very aware of their human weakness as they kept asking our Lord to explain to them the meaning of His parables and why they were unable to cast out certain demons at one point. They even experienced their human weakness in that they were unable to catch fish after fishing all night in the deep.
These apostles are similar to the bread we use during Mass because they were easily broken, but it was in acknowledging and accepting their weakness that made them ready to receive the gift of the priesthood. They wanted our Lord to stay and He did stay with them through His Eucharistic presence even though He left them at Calvary because just as our Lord said “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” (Mt 19:26) Our Lord poured out His infinite love and mercy upon His apostles by giving them the ability to offer up the Holy Sacrifice of Mass, so that He could remain with them and the faithful they minister to through the Sacraments.
Therefore, our human weakness and struggle with sin cannot be a barrier that God’s grace cannot overcome because God’s love is more powerful than anything and anyone. It is in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that God reveals to us that after we receive Him in Holy Communion we should look not intently on ourselves or any minister, but intently on His presence from within so that we can hear His voice and follow Him like His holy apostles. We all hunger and thirst for the Love of God to strengthen our faith so we can overcome the temptations of the world and so we consume this divine Love through our Lord’s Eucharistic presence.
Fr. Addisalem Mekonnen