Homily for Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper
April 17, 2025
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15
One of the traps that frequently ensnare us as practicing Catholics is a misunderstanding that the focus of our religious life is to become a good person. The problem is that we begin to assess ourselves by comparison with other people instead of examining our conscience in light of the Commandments and in conversation with Christ. We soon accept the self-assessment that we are good enough because we have not committed the gravely evil actions we see in others portrayed in the sensationalism of contemporary media. We adapt a stance of false humility and soon become tepid in our love for Christ. He soon becomes a casual acquaintance.
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Homily for Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord’s Supper
March 28, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15
As we have just heard in the Gospel, Peter impetuously remonstrates Jesus for suggesting that Jesus should wash Peter’s feet. Peter is articulating a reverence for Jesus but a reverence that has not yet come to accept the truth that the majesty of God revealed fully in Christ strips itself of all earthly power and manifests itself in humble service and true mercy. When Jesus corrects Peter and tells him that without the washing of the feet Peter would not be able to have any part in him, Peter immediately asks just as impetuously that his head and hands be washed. Then Jesus offers Peter a response that should prompt our reflection in prayer. Jesus says, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so, you are clean, but not all.”
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Homily for Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper
April 6, 2023
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15
One of the bitter fruits of the sin of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, was the rejection of the capacity of human beings to trust God. Closely following this loss was the loss of a trusting relationship between man and woman and among human beings in general. Eve, taken by God from the side of the sleeping Adam, listens to the evil one and convinces Adam to disobey God and to eat the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This original sin produced in man and woman a destructive suspicion of God as an adversary towards human freedom instead of humble recognition of God’s sovereignty as the source of human freedom.
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Homily for Holy Thursday
Mass of the Lord’s Supper
April 14, 2022
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, TX
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15
Jesus chose to take our sins upon Himself, and to do this He was not condemned but freely handed Himself over to death. In dying, Christ freed us from sin and manifested how absolutely God loves us. That love is made present in the sacrifice and sacrament we share tonight.
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Homily for Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper
April 1, 2021
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15
In the liturgical life of the Church, the usual practice is for the priests of a diocese to assemble with the bishop and to concelebrate Mass on the morning of Holy Thursday, to bless and consecrate the Holy Oils that will be used at the Easter Vigil and throughout the year, and to renew their promises made at ordination. Because of the geographical expanse of our diocese, we do that as priests and bishop on Tuesday of Holy Week. The Lord has blessed me as your bishop because He gives me the opportunity to renew the promises of my priestly and episcopal ordinations here in this Cathedral where I made my initial promises, where I was ordained a priest, and where I have ordained priests who have made those same promises. Holy Thursday is about promises.
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