16th Week in OT 2018 - Monday - Catholic Guilt (nursing home mass)

Life-long Catholics might recognize portions of our first reading today from the liturgy of Good Friday. On Good Friday, during the Veneration of the Cross, the cantor chants what are known as the “Reproaches” which borrows passages from the prophet Micah.

O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me!
I led you out of slavery under Pharaoh…and you handed me over to the chief priests.
I opened up the Red Sea for you, and you opened up my side with a lance.
I rained down manna for you in the desert, but on me you rained down scourges and lashes.
I raised you up from your lowliness, and you hung me on the Cross.

The Reproaches are presented as Jesus crying out to His people for the injustices they have showed God after all that God had done for them. And they cause us to reflect, don’t they, on how we have squandered our blessings, how we’ve failed to use well the time we’ve been given, how we’ve failed to pray as we ought, practice virtue as we ought.

The Good Friday liturgy doesn’t present us with the truth of our sinfulness because it wants to make us feel bad, but because acknowledging guilt for our sins is a fundamental Christian disposition.

People will often talk about “Catholic Guilt” as if it’s a bad thing. But guilt is very good when it leads us to repent, to get our souls in order; guilt is good when it gets us to stop living only for ourselves and gets us to start living for God and for others.

Jesus condemns the Pharisees in the Gospel for their failure to repent. Jesus exposes their selfishness and calls them a wicked generation, an unfaithful generation, for failing to admit their guilt for using their religious authority for their own personal gain.

On Good Friday, unlike the Pharisees who refuse to kneel to Jesus, we kneel before the cross acknowledging our guilt. Then we come forward and kiss the cross, for from it God showed and showered upon us His boundless mercy. And then we come forward to receive the Body and Blood of mercy Himself in the Eucharist.

And that ritual is repeated every time we come to Mass: we begin Mass by practicing that fundamental Christian disposition, calling to mind our sins and asking God for mercy. We then kneel before the altar, which becomes for us the cross of Calvary, and we then receive Mercy in the Eucharist, which becomes a fountain of living water springing up within us to eternal life.

May this and every Holy Mass help us to experience the salvation Christ won for us, as we acknowledge our guilt and acknowledge Christ as Savior, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That Christians may be a sign for the world of God’s boundless mercy, by striving to practice Christian virtue in every circumstance.
For all those who suffer from violence, war, famine, extreme poverty, addiction, discouragement, loneliness, and those who are alienated from their families.  May they know God’s mercy and be gathered to the eternal kingdom of peace. 
For all those who suffer illness, and those in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice care, that they may be comforted by the healing light of Christ. 
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, the deceased members of our families friends and parishes, for those who fought and died for our freedom, and Joseph, John & Anna Perish, for whom this mass is offered