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     Tonight, St. John tells us that the hour had come for Jesus to pass from this world to the Father. For many of us, an hour is simply a period of time, 60 minutes. We sually tend to think in days or weeks or even years, but John tells us that everything hinges on the Hour of Jesus. Jesus’ Hour is the moment for us and for him is the moment of truth. Jesus’ hour is the moment in which God in Jesus Christ opens himself to the world even more fully to receive it, transform it and then return it full of his divine life. It is an hour of anguish, love, suffering and glory. It is an hour of communion.

     Jesus teaches us that God at the very center of his love is unconditional Love that serves his people. He knows us before we are born. HE has given us every goft to help us live joyfully with him in this life and the next. We have chosen at times to reject this lasting love and service and focus on ourselves. We tend to believe in self-service, serving only ourselves and our wants and desires. We have cut ourselves off from God and have changed the garden of our souls into a desert. We can find our souls to be dry, dusty lands with no hope of a gentle rain to relive them.

     As a God who serves, the Father looks into our hearts and sees our doubts, anxieties and fears. He hears our cries for help and chooses to do something about it. He sends his only Son, Jesus Christ, to show us how to serve in love. St. John shows us that first Jesus us IN his body. He washes us, cleanses us making us beautiful and pleasing to the Father and worthy to come into the Father’s presence. Before he will bow his head in death on the cross, tonight God bows down humbly and wrpas a towel around his waist to serve us. He offers us consolation, love, hope and peace.

     After Christ has served us, he now serves us HIS VERY SELF. He first refreshes our bodies and now through the gift of His Body and Blood, he is going to revive our souls. The Son of God who once fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish now offers to us his Body and Blood, under the humble appearances of bread and wine, to revive our hearts and bodies. He reveals to us that when we eat his Body and drink his Blood, we receive LIFE itself. This life is not a passing one, but an everlasting one.

     When Jesus speaks those saving words, “This is my Body,” “This is my Blood”, he opens up his heart to a world devastated by the famine of sin, death and despair. He has lived our abandonment and isolation. He knows our true hunger and thirst and it is in THIS HOUR that he does something that changes things forever.

     By making this gift of Himself  for the whole world, he makes it spossible for divine grace to flow in our hearts again. God desires that our souls be luscious gardens, places of awesome beauty, where we can walk with the Lordand share our lives with him, free of all the obstacles caused by our sins. For this reason, JESUS’ HOUR has never ceased. The Eucharist restores our spiritual beauty and enables us to show that beauty to those who have know the ravages of pain, ugliness and fear.

     By the institution of the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for the salvation of the world is revealed in the world to this day. Jesus hour has not passed. IT IS NOW! His hour continues in the Church when, in the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ chooses men to be united with as unique servants to continue his saving mission. Priests are to feed Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church by both Word and Sacrament. The priests, whose lived are consecrated for selfless love are to teach others how to serve Christ by serving one another.

     Tonight, after the celebration of the Eucharist, we are invited by the Lord to keep watch with him as we await his coming crucifixion and death. St. Luke tells us that Jesus admonished Peter, James and John for not waiting up with him during his Hour. May we spend some quiet time with him tonight and thank him for giving us his Body and Blood to give us real life. Let us ask him to water and enliven our hearts hardened by sin and life’s crosses. Let us allow him to teach us how to better love those around us.

     Finally, let us remember that the Hour of Christ, which we relive tonight, lasts a lot longer than 60 minutes. It lasts a lifetime and will ultimately lead us to everlasting life with Jesus in paradise.