Holy Thursday
Mass of the Lord’s Supper
April 17, 2025
Sacred Heart, EGF – 7:00 PM

Tonight is one of the rare days where Holy Mother Church tells the priest what he is say in his homily.

After the proclamation of the Gospel, the Priest gives a homily in which light is shed on the principal mysteries that are commemorated in this Mass, namely, the institution of the Holy Eucharist and of the priestly Order, and the commandment of the Lord concerning fraternal charity.

I have to say, I’m glad to be told what to say.

I love being a priest.  It’s a beautiful vocation. I love to talk about it at vocation camps, in discernment groups, in conversations.

But I struggle to preach about it at parish Masses.

I am a priest, after-all, and so it somehow seems self-referential or self-serving,
as if I am looking for a pat on the back,
and that’s not the case at all.

Tonight, on the night before he will offer his life for us,
Jesus gives us the gift of the Priesthood and the Eucharist,
along with the command and example of fraternal charity.

These are beautiful gifts. And they are all connected.

You cannot have one without the other.

Without the priesthood, there is no Eucharist.
But without the Eucharist, there is no Priesthood.

The two are ordered to each other.

And charity – love – is the reason for both of them.

Did you know that a priestly ordination must take place within the context of a Mass for it to be a valid ordination?  That is the only sacrament where that is the case.  I can confirm someone who is dying in a nursing home, and I can do it outside of a Mass.

But a priest must be ordained within a celebration of the Eucharist.

The priest is ordained, and then he immediately concelebrates the Eucharist with his Bishop and the other priests who are present.

This is because the priest is ordained precisely to celebrate the Eucharist.  It’s the most important thing that he does.

A few years back, one of our seminarians asked me this question:
“Fr. Matt, what is your vision of the priesthood.”

I thought for a second, and then said:
“The priesthood exists to extend the Incarnation.”

The Incarnation: the Son of God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus. 
He walked among us.  Divine power flowed through him. 

And tonight, as his time on earth among us ends as his disciples have known it,
he leaves but he also has a way to stay with us until the end of time.

He gives us his Body in the Eucharist.

And he gives us the way for the Eucharist to be with us throughout all ages,
present in our own day here and in our own lives.

He gives us his apostles as the first priests to continue to make him present.
But they also make him present in their person.

They act in the person of Christ when they celebrate the sacraments.  Christ acts in and through them. The Holy Spirit directs the course of a priest’s ministry. Just this past week:

1. Leaving the hospital, almost to my vehicle.  Meeting a person whose friend was dying.  Going back into the hospital.  Praying with her friend, who had been unresponsive, but who opened her eyes, showing that she could hear us.  It brought comfort and peace for the family.
2. At an outing, greeting some people, medical emergency happens within one minute of my arrival.  I prayed for the person with my hand on her should as she is stabilized.  She later sent me a message: “Thank you for being there, your presence brought me comfort and let me know it was going to be ok.”
3. On Monday, after the Chrism Mass, I waited to take a phone with a group of our youth from Sacred Heart. After the picture, I went to the gathering space. One of the Pastoral Center staff came up to me and handed me the Holy Oils for St. Francis of Assisi (one of my parishes). I moved into the social hall and was visiting. Within 5 minutes a parishioner approached and said, “I need to come see you sometime this week to be anointed.”  I held up the box of oils and said, “How about now?” She sent me a message: how much peace it brought her and her anxiety was removed.

Jesus’s heart burns with love for us.  Jesus shows his love for us through the priesthood and the Eucharist. 

“He loved his own who were in the world, and he loved them to the end.”

Love goes outside of itself and seeks to lay itself down.  He will lay his life down on the cross tomorrow.  But tonight, he desires to show his love for his apostles.  So, he washes their feet.

He serves them.

He serves them because his heart beats with love for them.
His heart beats with love for us.

The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.
The Eucharist is the heart of Jesus, beating with love for us.

And so he gives his very self: “This is my Body which will be given up for you.”

He asks calls some men to follow him as priests. 
In calling them, he asks us to make these words of institution our own:
“This is my Body, which will be given up for you.”

And in giving up our bodies, in giving up our lives, we find ourselves.

That is true for all of us, but it especially true for the man who is called to the priesthood.

I cannot help but think of the Apostles tonight.  Peter.  Andrew.  John.  Thomas.  Simon.  Thaddeus.

Real men with real lives.  They had families.
James was Zebedee’s son.
Andrew was Peter’s brother.
Thomas was probably someone’s uncle.
Thaddeaus was someone’s friend.

Philip had a life.
Nathaniel had dreams.

Jesus called them. He called them.

They all, in their own say, had to say, “This is My Body, given up for you.”

…

I feel compelled to say something tonight.

The time has come for the vocations drought in this parish to end. 

The Eucharist and the Priesthood are deeply connected.  They cannot be separated.

A parish community centered on the Eucharist produces priests.

The Eucharist is important to all of us here, or we wouldn’t be here tonight.

But are we willing to sacrifice to spend time before the Eucharist?  To partake of the Eucharist?  To go above and beyond, to give that time to God, and to do so while asking him to call men from this parish to serve him as priests?

A former vocation director in our diocese once said:
“How can we expect a man to sacrifice his whole life for us if we are not willing to sacrifice an hour a week praying before the Eucharist for his vocation?”

We just finished a National Eucharistic Revival.
It has affected many of you sitting in this church tonight.

I believe, I really do, that we are on the cusp of a revival of the Priesthood – in the Diocese of Crookston, yes, but here at Sacred Heart in particular. 

God has always been calling.
The seeds of those vocations have been nourished here in recent years.
They need the watering of your prayers and support.

All that’s needed is for you to step out and to offer a word of encouragement, and to offer your time in prayer praying for someone in whom you sense the Lord’s call. 

You actually need to think about someone that you think would be a good priest, you need to pray for him, and then you need to look for the opportunity to personally tell him what you see in him.

They need to hear it.

God wants to call them through you.
God wants to call him through you.

You are going to want someone to baptize your great grandchildren.
I want someone to absolve my sins.
I want someone to sanctify my suffering with the Anointing of the Sick when the Cross comes.
And I want someone to commend my soul to God when the time comes for me, like Jesus, to journey from this world to the Father.

Our future priests are among us.

Some of them are behind me (altar servers). 
Some of them are in front of me (in the congregation). 
Some of them are not here.

To the young men of our parish, I say:
If the Lord is calling you, do not be afraid!
We would be incredibly proud to have God call you from our parish family to serve us as a priest.
Our community would stand with you.
Our community would support you.
Wouldn’t we?

In the next 5 years, I’d like to see 5 men from our parish enter the seminary. 

That is a very real possibility, if we center ourselves around the Eucharist in Charity on their behalf.

This is my Body, given up for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.