Farewell Mass, St. Raphael’s, Rockville, 03/29/03
There can be no better way of saying thanks than in the context of the Mass, for all that we are and have comes to
us as pure gift from the Heart of Jesus. This evening, I want to say goodbye to you all, but I want to do so gratefully, thankfully,
from the Heart of Jesus.
We know that the Last Supper was the occasion chosen by Jesus to say farewell to His friends, and His parting words
took the form of, not one, but two sacraments by which He wanted to be remembered: the ministerial priesthood and the Eucharist
or the Mass. The Eucharist is Jesus’s way of transforming
the Passover meal of the old covenant into the Mass of the New and Everlasting Covenant. Jesus was not merely thanking his
apostles for having spent a good time together! He was thanking His Father for all He had received from Him and for the gift
and the glory of His Divine Will. That Will was that no-one He gave to Jesus should be lost, but that all might be saved.
In a certain sense, Jesus is speaking at the Last Supper both from the earth and from heaven. From the earth, in terms of
the sacrifice He was about to consummate on the Cross. From heaven, in terms of the pure and victorious thanksgiving He was
rendering to the Father as if He had already ascended to His celestial throne. Jesus was fulfilling the words of the Psalm:
“a sacrifice of thanksgiving I will raise.” His beautiful words at the Last Supper were not just a commandment
to love, but a commandment to remember Him and to understand why only in Him, and because of Him, can we truly love and give
thanks to God for the promise of life eternal. That why is that He alone has saved us and can save us from perdition, from
the eternal waste of His gifts, from the hellish dead-end of ingratitude anmd lovelessness.
In some ways, I had been feeling a bit of a fraud when Fr. Bill so thoughtfully and fraternally offered me this opportunity
to say goodbye to you. I was thinking, “most of the folks don’t know me, and my knowledge of them is limited to
the encounter of Mass.” Then I realized I was being dumb - real
dumb! “Magee”, I scolded myself, “what do you mean ‘limited to the Mass’?!! What more is there
than the Mass? Where more or better can you be known as who you really are than when you break the bread of the Word and the
bread of the Eucharist for faithful souls?” For at the end of the day, that is the source and goal of any priest’s
ministry, presence or activity, and it is so for one simple reason: “Do this in memory of me.” The priest exists
to fulfil these words of Jesus, and in carrying them out, the priest becomes known most fully, most deeply, most widely, most
truly for who he is: an “alter Christus”, “another Christ”, Christ’s alter ego.
So maybe you don’t know much about me from a human viewpoint, although I‘m inclined to think you probably
see through us priests pretty quickly. Not just because you’re all so clever and perceptive, but because Jesus Himself
employs our humanity, earthenware vessels that we are, to communicate to you His truth and His grace. Like a skilled swordsman
He handles us at will deftly and penetratingly to reach the depths of your hearts and minds in order to wound you with His
love and draw you into His Heart. So, I thought again, slightly less scoldingly, to myself: “Magee, you know that what
matters is not so much that you know the life and miracles of every single parishioner, but that Christ through you brings
them to know themselves as eternally loved and redeemed by Him. It’s not so much you they want to know, as the Christ
they perceive with the eyes of their souls to be working in you.”
Having confessed, then, that I was being too concerned about myself in feeling fraudulent, I now gladly admit that
I rejoice for your sake, and -now I am being daring- for the sake of Jesus, that for a few small years I have been able to
be a priest and to serve as a priest for you and among you, almost exclusively in serving you from the table of the Word and
the table of the Altar. I give an ocean of thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus for having led me to be with you and for you in
the sacrifice of the Mass.
I give thanks to those whom Providence employed to bring me to this parish of the Patron of Healing, St. Raphael: there is
Bishop Gonzalez who first asked me to come, there is Fr. Mike who bravely tolerated my Scottish accent, initially only because
he knew it would be being used for the long-suffering Hispanic brethren among you, and then later, after Fr. Mateo came along,
when his ear assured him that I could say the Mass validly in English. I give thanks to Fr. Peter for his willingness to endure
the culture shock I certainly caused him; to Fr. Jack for his abrahamitic trust that I wouldn’t occasion diplomatic
or civil unrest by keeping the parking lot too full for too long by my long sermons; to the Rev. Deacons for their agility
and adaptability in following my Scottish flings around the sanctuary; and last among the clergy, but certainly not least,
to Fr. Bill for giving me this opportunity better to realize and to share with you all what marvelous grace the Lord has given
us in the ministerial priesthood and in the Eucharist. Fr. Bill, I too prefer real, fresh garlic!*
I thank all of you for welcoming me as you would Christ Himself, for your faithfulness to Him and to the Church all
through these difficult recent times, for your trust in the sincerity and authenticity of my ministry among you, for your
witness to the Gospel, for your joy, your love and, I think back especially to September 11th, for your tears which
opened your hearts even more fully to the Word and the Consolation of the Risen Lord.
Two final words of mine: one of exhortation and one of petition. The word of exhortation is: keep the faith, true,
integral and uncompromising. No other faith will save you, for all other faiths will, at the appointed time, give way to the
Reality of The Faith. Keep it means receive it as taught to you by the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church; treasure
it with love; deepen it through knowledge, through suffering and through prayer; live it with tenacity and final perseverance
for that is the best way both to understand it more deeply and to teach it to others, especially the young, your children
and grand-children.
The word of petition is: forgive and pray for me, and for all your priests and bishops. When Jesus pronounced the words
of consecration over the chalice He makes a simple but powerful distinction: “it will be shed for you and for all, so
that sins may be forgiven.” For you, my apostles, my bishops and priests; and “for all”. It was as much
to say: “you especially who are my alter egos as priests stand particularly in need of my blood, of my forgiveness,
since the rest, the ‘all’, seek from you a holiness and a beauty of spiritual integrity that will reassure them
and draw them to Me.” There is no need for me to elaborate on the recent events which confirm my reading of the words
of Jesus. But there is the need for me, as an earthenware vessel, to know that I am sustained by your forgiveness and your
prayers, especially as I celebrate the sacred mysteries.
Goodbye means God be with you. So may He always be with each one of you and with me so that one day we may be forever
with Him in the eternal chorus of praise and thanksgiving arising from those redeemed by His precious blood.
Msgr. Peter Magee
Vigil Mass, 5.00 pm
St. Raphael’s,
Rockville, MD
*A reference to Fr. Bill’s first homily at St. Raphael’s when
he wanted the people to know of his desire not just to do things, but to do them well. If my memory is accurate, he used the
comparison of “powdered garlic” (to do things) and “real, fresh garlic” (to do things well).
