2026/05/18

248. The Gospel of John and the Priesthood of the New Covenant: The Lord's Prayer and the Seven Blessedness VI

As it is written in the Book of Revelation, "Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent" (Rev 3:19), so too, within the Liturgy of the Word, the words of Jesus—which have come to life through the Holy Spirit—become a sharp sword that pierces the memory of the faithful, cutting away from it the ingrained "human information" so that they may behold it and distinguish it from themselves. Furthermore, the homily of the priest—who, becoming the mouth, hands and feet of the Holy Spirit, follows him, empties himself and collaborates with him to celebrate the Mass—transforms into the "armies of heaven" (19:14) and strongly urges the faithful to remember that they are qualified to become children of God. In this way, the graces brought about by the Liturgy of the Word during Mass are reminiscent of the event in the Gospel of John where Jesus washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper. 

The Gospel of John begins the account of Jesus washing his disciples' feet by stating: "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (Jn 13:1). The phrase "before the feast of the Passover" is used here to emphasise that this event differs from the day of the institution of the Eucharist, which the Synoptic Gospels unanimously record as having taken place "on the first day of Unleavened Bread." This shows that the act of Jesus washing his disciples' feet happened before the institution of the Eucharist. Consequently, in the liturgy of the Mass in our Church, the two Last Supper tables of the Lord are presented in succession: first through the Liturgy of the Word, and then through the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which leads to the Communion Rite. Through these two tables of the Lord manifested in the Mass, the faithful experience the full scope of the New Covenant. So, it is a place where new wineskins are filled with new wine.

We, the Church, are truly the people who have received the priesthood of the New Covenant. Jesus conferred the priesthood of the New Covenant upon the disciples whom he had chosen and made Apostles, along with the institution of the Eucharist, and entrusted his kingship to them so that they might be passed on. Furthermore, the risen Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and granted them the power to forgive sins. Bearing the burden of guilt for having failed to face Jesus' passion and death, they rejoiced when the risen Jesus came and stood among them, saying, "Peace be with you" (Jn 20:19), and showed them his hands and his side. Then Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you." He thus enabled them to experience that peace is brought about when one truly feels that one’s sins have been forgiven, accompanied by the joy of being forgiven. Jesus continued, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (20:21). 

Jesus reminded his disciples, to whom he was conferring the authority to forgive sins, that he himself had continued to forgive sins throughout his life even unto death, and commanded them to follow his example. Therefore, Jesus' words, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (Jn 20:22-23), were stern. That is because "sins of any" means that forgiveness is extended not only to believers but to all people in the world. It must not be the case that sins remain unforgiven on the earth. In this way, our Church has inherited the authority to forgive sins through apostolic succession and has borne that burden. That is because the joy and peace found among believers come from the realisation that they have been forgiven by Jesus. 

In the presence of this authority, believers who seek the sacrament of forgiveness have a clear awareness of their sins. Meanwhile, when reciting the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer—"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us"—in many cases, believers either lack a sense of sin or have only a vague awareness of it. Yet they do recall something that troubles them. That is the possibility of future sin. If "human information" remains clinging to one's memory without being stripped away, it will eventually attract various desires. And when those desires become actions, they become "the work of man," many of which lead to sin. Thus, the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us," is a plea for the forgiveness of sins on behalf of all believers and all people. 

When the Liturgy of the Eucharist moves to the Rite of Communion, no believer recites the Lord's Prayer before the Eucharist with a lukewarm attitude. They are like Peter, who, when Jesus walked on the lake to the disciples' boat, asked Jesus to command him to walk on the water and come to him. The Gospel reads, "He said, 'Come.' So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, 'Lord, save me.' Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, 'O man of little faith, why did you doubt?'" (Mt 14:29–31). It is not a strong wind but the word of Jesus that strips away the "human information" from us. During the Liturgy of the Word, we must not be afraid when we see our "human information" being stripped away, but rather learn to distinguish it from ourselves. 

We, believers, know that the Eucharist awaits us, just as Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught the frightened Peter. That is precisely why I never tire of emphasising, time and again, the blessedness and importance for us believers to call the Holy Eucharist we receive "the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus" to link the Eucharist with that name and inscribe it in our memory, and to receive the Eucharist handed to us by the priest firmly in our own hands.  The Eucharist is the very hand of Jesus reached out to save us. If we believers remain unaware of this, it will be difficult for us even to envision the fifth blessedness of Revelation: "Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years" (Rev 20:6). 

Maria K. M.