Dear Friend, 

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Reflection by Rev. Msgr. Joseph Reilly, S.T.L., Ph.D.

I have been celebrating Mass at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament parish in Roseland for nearly thirty years.  The first couple of years it was the 6:45 a.m. weekday Mass before heading over the Prep. Later, as the years rolled along, I began assisting on Sundays as well.  I have always found it a joy to celebrate there amidst such a caring and welcoming community of faith.

When I am not the celebrant and just spending a few moments in personal prayer, I always end up sitting in the same place in church (perhaps you can relate!!) – halfway up on the left side of the church.  Many years ago, I was sitting there all alone and I noticed something for the first time: the mosaic Stations of the Cross are comprised primarily of faces – the face of Jesus, the face of Mary, the face of Pilate, the face of Simon, the veil of Veronica, etc.  On almost all the stations, only faces are depicted, except for the 11th and the 13th stations.  The images on those two stations are of the hands and feet of Jesus.  We come to recognize Jesus through his wounds that he suffered out of love for us.  Holy Week is the time when we become most poignantly aware of this truth.

I was reflecting about Jesus’ face and his wounds and a book I received late last year came to mind.  The book is entitled God’s Unrequited Love and is written by a dear friend, Father Jimmy McCaffrey, OCD, who passed away on Christmas Day in 2017.  After his death, this manuscript was discovered and subsequently published.  It is a reflection on a poem written by Saint John of the Cross entitled “The Little Shepherd Boy” and it speaks about God’s unrequited love.  The epilogue of the book focuses “on the face of unrequited love” that we see in a particular way in Christ on the Cross. 

The final stanza highlights the “radical demands of sacrificial love, crucified love, God’s gift of himself to each of us and to the Church – pure, self-giving, and forgiving love.” 

After a long time he climbed a tree,

and spread his beautiful arms,

and hung by them, and died,

his heart an open wound with love.

St. John of the Cross

Father McCaffery considers these lines among the most moving in all of St John of the Cross’ writings.  “In Jesus, our God is always lavishing his love on the Church and on each of us, however unwilling we may be to respond.”

As we are making our way through the Lenten Season now in this week, we call holy and are approaching the most Sacred Triduum, we turn our gaze to the face of Jesus on the cross.  St. Edith Stein tells us that Christ died “in order to win our hearts.”  Father McCaffrey concludes his reflection: “To look and to listen before the Cross of Christ soon leads to wanting to do as he did; to resemble the model we contemplate.” 

May Jesus Crucified give us the grace to love in the manner he showed us: unrequited love. 

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Rev. Msgr. Joseph Reilly, S.T.L., Ph.D., Vice Provost for Academics and Catholic Identity Seton Hall University and Rector/Dean Emeritus, Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. He holds a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, a licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) from Pontificio Istituto Teresianum, Rome, and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Fordham University. He has served as a member of the Archdiocesan Priest Personnel Board, the Advisory Committee on Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, the Archdiocesan Vocations Board, and the Board of Trustees of Seton Hall University. Pope John Paul II named him a Chaplain to His Holiness in 2005, with the title of Reverend Monsignor. In 2016 during the Holy Year of Mercy, the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization sought priests who were living signs "of the Father's welcome to all those in search of His forgiveness." He was the only priest from the Archdiocese of Newark formally commissioned as a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis.