Sunday Homily, 12 October 2025 - Fr Paul Rowse, OP

The first Mass, the original Mass, the one which Jesus himself offered, took a whole day to say: from sunset on Holy Thursday to sunset on Good Friday.  Over those 24 hours, our eternal high priest gave all of himself, that all of us might be saved for the eternal life through the forgiveness of sins.

But not all the events of those 24 hours are directly commemorated in the Mass.  There’s no reenactment of Gethsemane.  The scourging is omitted.  The thorn-crowning and cross-carrying are left out.  Though not forgotten, those events give way to the more important, the moments in which the Lord’s entire sacrifice can be most clearly seen.

“This is my body which is for you,” he says at table on Holy Thursday, and on the cross on Good Friday completes the offering: “This is the chalice of my blood … poured out.”  Like two brackets around those 24 hours, the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s Cross find their way into the Mass as we know it.

We re-present the first Mass especially on Sunday.  Why?  Because that is the day the Lord rose from the dead.  The Lord’s resurrection is the reason why the Church obliges us to assist at Mass on Sunday; it is our weekly Easter.  It’s the day of the week when we consider what union with Christ does.  Joining ourselves to him, becoming one body with him in Holy Communion, we too rise with him.  What happens in his sacred body happens, we pray, in ours too.

Today, we’re going back to that moment when the Lord came through for us.  Entering the Church, we take the place of the Tenth Leper: “Thank you, Lord, for hearing us call, for seeing our situation, and for meeting our need.”  The Son of God died for all the sins of the world; and we are healed and restored to his Father’s favour.  So, every time we come to the altar, we proclaim what Jesus has done for us: given us life, given us a future in God.

Thanksgiving is therefore the original Christian prayer.  Without controversy, the earliest Christians called their table ritual, the Eucharist, the Thanksgiving.  By it, we show “good grace” towards God, that is, we have everything from good manners to great devotion.  We thank him in the way he has chosen, that is, by re-presenting the marvellous deed by which Christ redeemed us.  Our Eucharist is a prayer in ritual-form, expressing the Church’s gratitude for her freedom by re-presenting the events by which that freedom was won: the Supper and the Cross of the Mass.

That leper, that Samaritan leper, knew what we know: that God’s mercy and grace comes to us from Christ.  He was told to show himself to the priest.  And show himself he did.  He went not to his tribal kinsman, but to the eternal High Priest: he showed himself to Christ in thanksgiving.  And we, like him foreigners to God’s covenant, show ourselves to Christ who healed us.

So now, we let the common thanksgiving of the Church shape our personal prayer.  We come to God, knowing that he has already worked such wonders in our mortal life.  We place every other personal intention on the altar of that common thanksgiving.  So, we first thank him.  Then make our petition.  And thank him for having heard us.

Thank you, Lord, for being with us and hearing us.  We entrust our personal needs to you, Lord, knowing you to be trustworthy: you died and rose again for us.  In your mercy, grant also this little request of mine, and we shall thank you for ever.  To you be all glory for ever.  Amen.

Fr Paul Rowse, OP Parish Priest