Acolyte Installation
Bishop Glen John Provost
Bishop of Lake Charles
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
Maplewood
August 10, 2013
“[U]nless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.” John 12:24
True love knows no bounds. If we truly love someone, we will do anything for that person. We will remember birthdays and anniversaries. We will visit when sick. We will offer comfort when saddened or distressed. We will send gifts at Christmas, write notes, and converse by telephone. We want to hear that person’s voice. We want to be in that person’s company. It is this quality of love that God wants. It is this quality of love that Jesus gave His Father.
Jesus came to do the Father’s will. This entailed dying the humiliating death of the crucifixion. In the Gospel of St. John, just before speaking the words we hear Jesus speak in today’s reading, the crowds had welcomed him with loud acclamation into Jerusalem. This cheering would soon turn into shouts of condemnation. A few verses following, Jesus accepts the Father’s will. He will say, “[I]t is for this purpose that I came to this hour” (John 12:27). The grain of wheat must fall to the earth and die, if it is to yield fruit (John 12:24). Jesus is addressing His words to us, but He is speaking of himself. He is engaged in an act of love, a love that know no bounds until it has exhausted itself to death.
Today I am installing acolytes. Their primary duty is to distribute the Holy Eucharist, to the sick and the homebound. They are to take precedence over Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion in the Divine liturgy. They are set apart for a sacred ministry. They are to be in love with our Lord Jesus Christ, and they are to venerate His Eucharistic Presence.
The Divine liturgy is not about us. It is about God, giving God the worship that is His due, giving Him thanksgiving—which is what Eucharist means—that lies at the core of all true worship. Sometimes I think with our desire to be sociable we forget what worship is all about. We talk. We visit. Our focus seems to be skewed. I will give one small example.
When I was a child, I recall being taught that one never applauded a hymn or song directed to God. Religious music had one purpose, it was explained to me, and that was to offer praise to God. Applauding after a religious song was as absurd as applauding after reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Perhaps for that reason, I still feel a little awkward when it occurs after the choir sings something, as beautiful as it might be. As Cardinal Ratzinger once wrote, “Whenever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of the liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment” (The Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 198).
But worship of God, “in Spirit and truth” (John 4:23), is not entertainment. The Eucharist is not a symbol. The Eucharist is heaven touching earth. Our thanksgiving to God should never be mundane. It is vested, sung, other-directed, and lifted up in such a way that it is like nothing else that we do. It is the most perfect and the most beautiful that we have to offer.
The Eucharist that these acolytes will hold in their hands is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Saving Lord. They are to insure that their behavior is in total conformity with the reality of what it is they carry with them to the recipient of Holy Communion.
There are some who might say the Bishop is exaggerating. I think not. When you are in love with the Lord, everything is directed to Him. “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life” (John 12:25). Those are not entertaining words. They are the reality and express the total gift of fulfilling love that embraced the Father’s will. It is to that sacrificial love that we are called, and it is that sacrifice that we celebrate in the Eucharist.