Memorial Mass
Feast of St. John Vianney
Knights of Columbus Convention
August 4, 2022
Nashville, TN
The Prince of Life Who Died Reigns Immortal
Throughout these days of our Convention, we have returned many times to our theme – “Into the breach” – a clarion call from the Lord to engage in the struggle, indeed the battle, to attain virtue and holiness, so as to defeat evil with goodness and hatred with love.
But the battle is not ours, first or solely. It was Jesus Christ, the Victor over sin and death, who first went into the breach, into that humanly unbridgeable gap between God and ourselves, produced by sin, into the chasm between life and death, time and eternity, heaven and earth. Our Savior waded into the drama of human existence first by assuming our humanity, then by taking upon himself our sins, and finally by undergoing his Passion and Death, only to rise on the Third Day. Jesus Christ went where no one else could go. Armed only with the Cross, he plunged into the depths of sin and death, emerging victorious. As the Church exults at Easter, “Death and life have contended in that battle stupendous. The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal . . . Have mercy, Victor King, ever reigning!”
Now it is our turn to engage the battle, to go into the breach…but we go not alone. Life’s Captain, the Victor King, does not merely draw up plans and strategies, and then send us into battle to fend for ourselves. Nor is he like a commander who remains at headquarters while his troops battle it out with the forces of sin and death. No. The Lord Jesus leads the way. He enters into battle with us. He remains with us, always at our side, through the Mass and the Sacraments. For on the night before he died, the Lord Jesus established the Eucharist as “the saving memorial” of his Cross and Resurrection. You see, in the Eucharist, we do not merely recall what the Lord did for us so long ago, and then vainly try to do the same thing ourselves. Rather, in the living memorial that is the Eucharist, the Lord Jesus is with us, and his saving death and resurrection become contemporaneous with us. The Eucharist re-presents, makes present again, Christ’s victorious sacrifice so that you and I can participate in it, share in its fruits, and obtain the strength we need to go ourselves into the breach, to win the victory “through him, with him, and in him.” So it is that we enter into the struggle between sin and grace, vice and virtue, death and life, armed not with the weapons of the world, but rather with the only love that is stronger than sin and more powerful than death, the love of the crucified Shepherd, encapsulated in the Eucharist, his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
Shepherds of God’s People
Today, we celebrate the feast of a great shepherd of God’s people, St. John Vianney. In 1818, he was appointed pastor of the little French village of Ars. It was a dying parish. Few people went to Mass and fewer to Confession. St. John Vianney transformed that parish. He made it a spiritual powerhouse. And how did he do it? The answer is not complicated. His whole life and priesthood was centered on the Eucharist. He preached often about the Eucharist out of the fullness of his priestly heart. For the saintly Cure of Ars celebrated Holy Mass devoutly and spent many hours in silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament reserved. United to the Eucharistic Lord, he went into the breach, his own battle with the forces of evil, as also the spiritual struggles of the people he served heroically. Because of his ministry, the people of Ars were not “sheep without a shepherd”. No, they found in this priest someone who spent long hours in the confessional, helping them & countless pilgrims to Ars to confront the forces of sin and death, and in Christ, to overcome them.
The same is true of our founder, Blessed Michael McGivney, a holy parish priest, a true shepherd for his parishioners at St. Mary’s in New Haven. The Eucharist stood at the heart of his priesthood and precisely because he was close to the Eucharistic Lord, he knew his people well and he understood their struggles and challenges. Indeed, the Knights of Columbus came into existence because this priest grappled with the challenges the men of his parish faced – the battle they had to wage against all that pulled them away from their faith, the battle they had to wage to keep bread on the table and to provide for their families, especially in the event of their death. With them, Father McGivney entered into the breach, deeply aware that he himself could not win through to victory unless and until he brought his people to victory in Christ. Such is the power of the living memorial we call the Eucharist: the power of Christ’s Presence, the power Christ crucified over sin and death.
Remembering the Dead
It is fitting, then, that in this Eucharistic memorial we remember our beloved dead. United with them through the power of Christ’s death and resurrection, we enter into the breach with those who have gone before us, with those who have walked through “the valley of the shadow of death”, on their way, God willing, towards the realms of eternal life and unending joy. As is our custom, we will listen in reverent silence as the names brother knights who have passed away are read. We will remember them as colleagues and as friends, but most of all as those with whom we shared the faith, bound together as we are by ties of charity, unity, fraternity, and love of country. We pray that they may share in the victory Christ has won for us all.
So too, in this memorial of Christ’s Paschal Mystery, we remember those who have lost their lives and their livelihood in Ukraine, especially those numbered among our brother Knights and their families. Even if the Ukrainian struggle for freedom has receded from headlines, we, the Knights of Columbus, do not forget. No, in and through the Eucharist, we join with them as they enter into the breach, a struggle that is not only military and political but also spiritual. May those who have lost their lives in this struggle, rest in the peace of Christ!
Conclusion
Through the Eucharist, we join with St. John Vianney and Bl. Michael McGivney in giving the God of our salvation thanks and praise, honor and adoration. Today, as we remember and celebrate their pastoral zeal, may our prayers help those who have died to share fully in the victory of Christ and may we one day attain with them eternal glory. Vivat Jesus!