A few years ago, the Oratory House provided wall space for a beautiful picture of the Last Supper by the Neapolitan baroque master Luca Giordano, whose work adorns the interior of the Oratory church in Naples. The painting belonged to a dealer, and the Provost had it hung in an obscure parlour in the vain hope that all memory of its current location might eventually evaporate. Unfortunately it was not long before it captured the attention of a discerning parishioner who made the owner a fair offer, and a sooty outline left by its frame on the wall is all that remains.
The Last Supper is surely one of the scenes most cherished by Christians of all denominations. For us Catholics it is the occasion on which Our Lord instituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, whereby we are united with His Passion and Death, and the Sacrament of the Eucharist. How blessed are we to have been given faith in this wondrous mystery and to gather as one body around the altar, praying “Thy Kingdom Come”, as we await and pray for His return in Majesty, when His glorious presence will fill the skies from East to West and He will judge the living and the dead. How blessed are we on this earthly pilgrimage to be nourished with food that is nothing less than His own living and risen Body. He transforms bread and wine into Himself so that we might in turn be transformed into His likeness. When we leave Mass as living tabernacles of His divine presence, we are sent out to transform the society around us.
If we are true to our Catholic Faith, then we should expect to find opposition to our mission. This last summer the inaugural ceremony of the Olympic Games, which was watched around the world, featured what appeared to be a grotesque and blasphemous parody of the Last Supper that was calculated to mock and insult not only Christians but every human being with any shred of decency. The peculiar depravity and squalor of that degenerate spectacle suggest that its inspiration was demonic.
We might think of France as the Eldest Daughter of the Church, and Paris is a city that has produced many great saints. However, during the French Revolution a naked prostitute was declared to be “the Goddess of Reason” and enthroned on the High Altar of Notre Dame Cathedral. And earlier this year the current President of the French Republic, who likens himself to Jupiter, marked the enshrining of the right to abortion in his country’s constitution with a ceremony that simmered with religious intensity. With an attempted air of Napoleonic imperialism, he announced: “Today is not the end of the story, it’s the beginning of a combat. If France has become the only country in the world whose constitution explicitly protects the right to an abortion in all circumstances, we will not rest until this promise is kept throughout the world.”
It would be strange if a society which has taken such a disastrous turn did not feel compelled to throw mud, or worse, at the Church. Indeed, we can be glad if the Church is an irritating thorn in the flesh of such a beast. Of course we shall be mocked and discriminated against for our Faith. Our Saviour Who was crucified did not promise us popularity and acclaim. He did, however, assure us that we shall forever be partakers in the glory of His Resurrection if only we remain faithful to Him.
In France, Deo gratias, all is not lost. We can praise God for the eighteen thousand young pilgrims who walked on the Paris to Chartres Pilgrimage earlier this year on the Feast of Pentecost, to show their love for Christ, and especially for His presence with them in all the Masses that were celebrated along the way, and for His Real Presence with them in the Blessed Sacrament. The offending scene at the opening of the Paris Olympics conjured up a fetid atmosphere of sterility and wretchedness – nothing could have manifested more starkly the despair that afflicts a society that has unanchored itself from its Christian foundations and from the source of all wholesome nourishment. Those many thousands of young pilgrims singing hymns on their way to Chartres, meanwhile, represent fruitfulness and hope in all their beauty.
We should take inspiration from their zeal and dedication. Pray that our faith in Our Lord's presence, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament is deepened, and that this faith may bear great fruits of hope and charity in our daily lives. It is said that the devil's greatest trick is to keep himself hidden, because then men will cease to believe in him. That gives him a definite power over us. But in our day God is allowing the evil one to reveal himself in his ugliness. That gives us power over him. We need not, must not, become discouraged. We know where and with Whom the final victory lies.
Father Julian Large