By Fr. Thomas Brouillette
Vicar General
The priests’ convocation that our presbyterate (body of priests of the diocese) recently attended in Kearney was directed by Father John Riccardo, who is a priest of the archdiocese of Detroit and founder of Acts XXIX. There are only 28 chapters in the Acts of the Apostles, a record of the Church in apostolic times and written by St. Luke. We are the next chapter in the life of the Church.
Father Riccardo presented three talks about having a biblical worldview, discipleship in our times, and the primacy of prayer in discerning how God is leading us to lead our flocks. It was very challenging and encouraging.
As we are celebrating this month the 80th anniversary of D-Day, where 160,000 allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, by land, sea and air to begin the operation that would liberate western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control, I borrowed from this diary entry of Anne Frank for the feast of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi that Father Riccardo shared with us:
“This is D-Day,’ the BBC announced at 12 O’Clock. ‘This is the day.’ The invasion has begun! Is this really the beginning of the long-awaited liberation? The liberation we’ve all talked so much about, which still seems too good, too much of a fairy tale ever to come true? The best part of the invasion is that I have the feeling that friends are on the way. Those terrible Germans have oppressed and threatened us for so long that the thought of friends and salvation means everything to us!”
- Anne Frank, diary entry, June 6, 1944
Borrowing from this quote and applying it to our times, we see that Jesus Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is the invasion that has begun. Secondly, the long-awaited liberation of God’s presence we talk so much about, which still seems too good, too much of a fairy tale, is upon us. And third – the best part of the invasion – is that I have the feeling that friends are on the way. The terrible Evil One has oppressed us and threatened us for so long that the thought of friends and salvation means everything to us.
That the invasion by our God and the allied troops has begun is foreshadowed in the Passover and then the reality that takes on flesh in Jesus, when at the Last Supper, he takes bread and wine and changes it into his body and blood, instructing his disciples to do this very thing in his memory. The blood of the lamb on the first night of Passover protected the Israelites from the Angel of Death, and the roasted lamb was food for the journey across the desert to the promised land. The Blood of Christ protects us from the Angel of Death, and the Lamb of God, Jesus, is food for this journey to the promised land.
‘The long-awaited liberation of God’s presence we talk’ and pray ‘so much about, which still seems too good, too much of a fairy tale is upon us.’ The reality is that God seeks to liberate us from a life of slavery and this reality is upon us. God saves us from a life of slavery to the mundane, or a life without meaning and purpose. The life of meaning and purpose is a life after Christ’s life when we lay down our lives for our friends. The Bread come down from Heaven sustains the strength necessary to go into foreign, occupied territory to liberate others as Jesus continues to liberate you and me. This liberation is upon us.
Finally, ‘The best part of the invasion is that I have the feeling that friends are on the way. The terrible Evil One has oppressed and threatened us for so long that the thought of friends and salvation means everything to us!’
Who are these ‘friends’? These friends are the allies of the invasion who are with us in the fight against the enemy and his legions, his armies. The allies we have are the friends who have chosen to enter into the spiritual life of Christ and are willing to lay down their lives that we may live, that we may be free of the captivity to sin and the slavery of the tyrant. The enemy is not the Germans, or the Russians, a presidential candidate, or even the woke culture, as much as we disagree with it and those who subscribe to it. Humanity and the human person are not the enemy, even if some may be taking sides with the enemy. The enemy is Satan, who seeks only to destroy the soul and the human family, serving up disinformation and doubt about whether or not God really loves us.
Our friends are those who will go with us to follow Jesus Christ to the end, where Jesus gave his life to the end and chooses to die that we might live. ‘The best part of the invasion is that I have friends who are on the Way, and on the Way with me.’
‘This thought of friends and salvation means everything to us.’ These friends share with us their lives, and they share with us the life of Jesus Christ. As I celebrated Mass, I reflected on my first Holy Communion, which I received from Msgr. Ray Hain. I was using his chalice for the celebration of the Mass. He was a friend of God and a friend of ours. He gave his life and shared with us the life of Jesus. I thought about my parents, my family and parishioners and friends who have shown me the Way. They always point me to Jesus.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has a beautiful way of pointing us to Jesus in the paragraphs about the Sacrament of the Eucharist (#1322-1419). In paragraphs 1324 and 1325, we read, “The Eucharist is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life.’” And “The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being….” 138
And in paragraph 1323, we read: “At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet ‘in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.’” 135
Does not ‘the thought of friends on the Way and Salvation mean everything to us?’
“This is D-Day,’ the BBC announced at 12 O’Clock. ‘This is the day.’ The invasion has begun! Is this really the beginning of the long-awaited liberation? The liberation we’ve all talked so much about, which still seems too good, too much of a fairy tail ever to come true? The best part of the invasion is that I have the feeling that friends are on the way. The terrible Evil One has oppressed and threatened us for so long that the thought of friends and salvation means everything to us!”
I am so grateful for the many friends who have been a part of the ‘invasion’ and liberation, friends who are ultimately brothers and sisters of our good Father. May the Lord Jesus, who is leading us into the freedom of the children of God, strengthen us with this sacred food of the Eucharist for our journey to the promised land.
