Dear Friend, 

Reflection by Msgr. Gerard H. McCarren, S.T.D.

The Night Shall be as Bright as Day

We left our hotel very early in the morning, while it was still dark, to walk to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  Streets filled with people the night before were practically abandoned.  Arriving in the church, we found much quiet, except as we passed by the Tomb, where an Orthodox Liturgy was underway and people were gathered in prayer.  We continued past and ascended to Calvary, a stone’s throw away from the Tomb, but very much its own space.

There we contemplated the Crucifixion of the Lord. So accustomed to seeing Crosses and the Crucifix are we that the horror of this torture unto death no doubt eludes our imagination.  For all the thousands of people the Romans executed in this way, we have few descriptions of it in the historical record, perhaps because witnessing it was traumatic, leading witnesses to decline to describe what they had seen, in the manner of soldiers having returned home from combat.

It was dark outside, and it was quite dark in this space in the church.  We placed our hands on the traditional site of the Cross.  Only several feet away we celebrated Mass, giving thanks for the love of our God, the love of Jesus, which led him to give his life for us sinners (Romans 5:8), even in this horrible way.

Cardinal Raniero Cantalamesa, O.F.M. Cap., the official preacher of the papal household since fairly early in the pontificate of Saint John Paul and continuing through Pope Benedict and now with Pope Francis, pondered in his book The Eucharist: Our Sanctification, our desire to be with the Lord during his earthly life.  The sentiments of the African American Spiritual, “Were You There?” might well be ours from time to time.  In truth, whenever we have been at Mass, we were there…“when they crucified my Lord.”  We can be there when we choose to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which the Council of Trent in 1562 told us is one and the same Sacrifice as Calvary, only the manner of the Offering being different.

We were there at Calvary, both when we venerated the traditional site where the upright of the Cross was planted, and when we celebrated Mass right alongside it. In fact, what the eyes of faith perceive, is that the Eucharistic Offering is the more real, where the Lord is more present to us, really present to us.

Not many will have the privilege of traveling to the Holy Land as we did, but Jesus’ Offering of Himself on Calvary is as accessible always and everywhere as the celebration of Mass.

And if the site of instrument of torture is adjacent to the Tomb, reminding those subjected to it, and those accompanying them, of impending death, faith tells us what we proclaim at Mass: that the crucified Jesus is raised to life.  The Tomb becomes a sign of life, a sign of love and the victory of the love of Jesus over death.  Its proximity to Golgotha inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is actually a sign of hope, the hope of Easter transforming our little, daily deaths, and even the death of our last breath, into the fullness of life.

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Reverend Monsignor Gerard H. McCarren, S.T.D., was named Interim Rector/Dean of Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology for a period of one year, effective July 1, 2022.  He earned a B.A. from Yale University with majors in History and in Philosophy (Psychology track), an M.Div. from Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, and an S.T.L. and an S.T.D. in Systematic Theology from The Catholic University of America. He was named Spiritual Director for the Seminary effective July 1, 2004.  In Spring 2005, Monsignor McCarren was named Chaplain to His Holiness. From 2007 to 2016 he served as a Vatican appointee to the Joint Commission for Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Methodist Council.  Monsignor McCarren served as president of the Federation of Seminary Spiritual Directors (United States and Canada) from 2018-2022.