Homily: April 11, Monday of Holy Week

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 There are four poems in the book of Isaiah about the suffering servant. Today’s first reading is taken from the first poem. In it is written, “I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations”.

And in today’s responsorial psalm, we responded four times “The Lord is my light and my salvation”. 

Indeed, our Lord Jesus is our light and our salvation.

There is a book titled ‘Healing Through the Mass’ written by Fr. Robert Degrandis. It is a collection of many miraculous stories and life-changing encounters of the Holy Eucharist. One story was about NASA scientists doing a study on the changes of energy level in the human body. They placed a special camera in a hospital room to observe a dying patient and found that the energy orbit radiating from the body, known as the aura, becomes thinner as the person becomes weaker.

One day, a visitor with a broad aura entered the room and the camera captured another aura from his shirt pocket. When the object was taken out of his pocket, the aura was so bright that the monitor connected to the camera showed that the room was fully illuminated.

The visitor was a priest and the object he took out from his pocket was the holy Eucharist to be given to that patient. The scientist who recorded this observation later became a priest.

In three days, we will once again commemorate the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples on Holy Thursday. The Eucharist is the great manifestation of God’s love for us. Jesus is truly present in the most holy Eucharist. He is our light and our salvation.

When we receive the Eucharist, we receive the fullness of Jesus, He enters our being and becomes a part of us. We become what we eat. Through regular holy communion, we become more and more like Jesus to others, we carry His light and life to others.

In today’s Gospel, Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with perfumed oil before He gave up His life on the cross, may we venerate the body of Jesus with our mind and heart as we receive His life for us in the Eucharist.

In this final week of Lent, this holy week of the Lord’s passion, let us contemplate the last days of our Lord’s earthly life, let us imitate His self-emptying and receive the graces coming through His wounds, and may His light shine through us to others. Amen. 

Fr. Nivin Scaria 


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