BRIDGEPORT—We are only 12 days away from that day we call ‘Good,’ for our sake, when you and I will gather and look upon the Cross of Jesus Christ,” said Bishop Frank J. Caggiano in his online homily for the Fifth Sunday in Lent.
Celebrating Mass from the Catholic Center chapel, the bishop urged all to use the remaining days of Lent to learn “what it means to offer our lives in imitation of our Master and Savior.”
After reading the gospel of John (12: 20-33) 25 “Whoever loves his life loses it…and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life,” the bishop offered a reflection on the need to die to ourselves and become closer to Christ.
“As we prepare ourselves for the coming Holy Days of the Lord’s death and resurrection, the savior speaks clearly to us of what it is we are to be about. He tells us who ever loses his life with gain it and whoever loves his life will lose it.”
“What does that mean for your life and mine?” How can we die to ourselves and be faithful to Christ?” the bishop asked.
If we choose to walk in the footsteps of Christ, we inevitably must take the journey to Calvary and stand before the Cross in wonder, fear and trembling,” because he is asking us to follow in his footsteps and die to ourselves,” the bishop said.
The bishop said that the act of gazing upon the Cross itself becomes a catechism that will teach us the answer to “how we can give ourselves and our lives over to him.”
If we had been on Calvary and stood at the foot of the cross on the day Jesus died, the bishop said we would have notice three things– the height of the cross, the fact that it is deeply rooted in the soil, and that the Lord’s crucified hands are outstretched.
The bishop said cross was planted high up on a hill so that friends or onlookers couldn’t possibly remove the sufferer. For that reason, we must sit with the dying and despairing and give our lives over to them so that they may glimpse in the glory of their baptism the promise of everlasting life.”
“We empty ourselves in sacrifice because we are on the road to heaven and can never forget that goal.”
The bishop said the soil that firmly holds the cross in is the “dust and dirt” of envy, hatred and resentment that accumulate in our lives and reminds us that we are all sinners.
Just as we empty ourselves for others, our lives also depend on others emptying themselves for our sake, and that requires humility because we are all unworthy of Christ’s love, he said.
The bishop said that out of spiritual pride we may decide that “They may be not worth it, but who decided that we were worth it!”
“We empty ourselves through the power of Christ. Humility is the power to lay our own lives down—the dying to the self.”
The bishop said the Lord’s outstretched arms accept every land and nation, sinner and saints alike and people from all walks of life.
The openness of Jesus on the cross challenges us not only to sacrifice for friends, family and neighbors we know, but for all people.
“Empty our lives for all, not just the few. That’s not easy, and that’s why the Lord granted us the gift of the Spirit. What we can’t do from human efforts, the Spirit will help us do in the end.”
The bishop said the parable teaches us that we must offer ourselves in humility and through our action invite all around us to the promise of eternal life
“If we allow those lesson to guide our lives, on Good Friday we will be among the few who will not run away,” he said.
After the Final Blessing the bishop announced that the online Mass for Palm Sunday will be celebrated at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Fairfield, and the remaining sacred liturgies of Holy Week will be live-streamed from St. Augustine Cathedral. Holy Thursday liturgies include the Chrism Mass at 10 a.m. and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7 p.m.; the Good Friday Veneration of the Cross of Jesus, 3 p.m., and the Easter Vigil on Saturday at 8 p.m.
