Contact your MSP on assisted suicide now!

The Scottish Parliament is expected to vote on doctor-assisted suicide in just one week (Tuesday 13th May).

The Bishops of Scotland have written to the Catholic community inviting them to reject the proposals and to contact their MSPs.

You can email your MSP in a few easy clicks at carenotkilling.scot

The pastoral letter was sent to every parish in the country and distributed at Masses last weekend.

They wrote: "Assisted suicide, allows the state to provide the means of killing our brothers and sisters.

"One of the tests of good law is that it ensures our weakest citizens can feel safe. This law does the opposite and frightens the most vulnerable all around us.

"When vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, express concerns about being a burden, the appropriate response is not to suggest that they have a duty to die.

"Rather, it is to commit ourselves to meeting their needs and providing the care and compassion they need to help them live."

The letter tied in with a day of prayer that took place on Sunday 4 May, including a Mass and Rosary led by Bishop John Keenan (Paisley Diocese) at St Augustine's Church in Coatbridge on Sunday.

 

THURSDAY: Celebrating Fr Tommy Geenan

Come and celebrate the life of the late Fr Tommy Greenan at St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, this Thursday (8 May) at 7:30pm.

Tommy was a priest of our Archdiocese who served the poor in El Salvador at a time when Catholic priests were under threat of execution.

Speakers will share their memories of Tommy and tell the story of how The Song of the Poor came to be published following his death.

The Song of the Poor will be available for purchase at the event and there will be tea/coffee. No registration required, free event.

Prayers for Pope Francis at Requiem Mass

Archishop Cushley today celebrated a Requiem Mass at St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, in memory of Pope Francis.

Kate Forbes, the Deputy First Minister, was in attendance to represent the Scottish Government and read the first reading (Acts 10:34-43)

Kate Forbes reading at the Requiem Mass.

Also attending was Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar and Annie Wells of the Scottish Conservatives.

***

Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh, Funeral Mass for the repose of the soul of His late Holiness Pope Francis, St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh, 28 April 2025.

My dear friends,

Today we gather to thank almighty God for the graces bestowed on us through Pope Francis’s ministry as Bishop of Rome, and to commend him to the Lord’s mercy.

On behalf of the clergy and people of this archdiocese, I’d like to thank all of you for joining us here today, especially the civil and religious leaders of our nation and our capital city, led by our Deputy First Minster and our Lord Provost.

Thank you for many kind expressions of condolence and for mourning with us on this sad occasion.

Kind, open, no-nonsense

In many ways, Jorge Bergoglio was a first: he was the first Jesuit pope, the first American pope, and the first pope from the global south.  From his very first day in office, he struck me again and again as someone who was kind, open and no nonsense.

He was simple and essential, he was personal and pastoral.  He was deciso, the nearest English to it is “decisive”, but with a dash of determination too: he was listening, but he was also someone who knew his own mind.

He usually did all this with a smile, and sometimes even while pulling your leg.

Pupils from St Mary's Primary in Edinburgh at the shrine to Pope Francis.

It's fairly obvious now, but Francis brought who he was to the great office of pope: he was Argentinian, but with a sprinkling of an Italian background.

His family were poor immigrants to a strange country; he was a Jesuit, trained in Ignatian prayer and discernment; when he became a bishop, it was to serve for twenty years the people of the sprawling city of Buenos Aires, some of them very poor, until he went to Rome in 2013 and was elected pope.

He was evidently very close to his people and was committed to them; yet after being elected pope he never returned to Argentina, perhaps because, a little like St Paul, he loved his friends from home, but he was also committed to the mission before him, not just the one behind him.

Pope Francis had many human gifts, but his experience had hardly prepared him for a truly international leadership. And the papacy isn’t just a tiny remnant of an Italian principality on the Tiber.

The Pope is a head of state with a long reach, as was in full view at his funeral on Saturday.

People came from across the Archdiocese to pray for Pope Francis.

Looking to the pope is a world-wide Church of a billion people.

But this is based, first and foremost, on being the Bishop of Rome.

Pope Francis, with all his pastoral experience, naturally preferred first to be a bishop and a pastor of souls, but he also learned how to use the reach of the papacy to make his voice heard on subjects of international importance.

Guiding the Church

Francis endeavoured to reform the Vatican’s bureaucracy, to set its finances in better order, and to find a way to guide the Church through the other great issues of our days.  But I’m not sure that the Holy See, or its reform, was the primary focus of his engagement with his new role as pope.

I think that he preferred to use the Holy See’s international presence to plea for peace, to draw attention to the plight of migrants, people caught up in war, people on the street, people on the margins.

A woman lights a candle for Pope Francis.

The pastoral heart of the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires always went out more to people, and less to institutions.

In exploring what synodality might mean in the Catholic Church, his attention was drawn above all to having us learn again to listen to each other.

He did everything he could, right up to his visit ten days ago to a Roman prison, to remind us that our God is a merciful God: he said, If we wish to be faithful disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, we must be open towards our fellow human beings, no matter who or what they are; we must accompany them with our time and patience, with our humility and energy.

In the Our Father, Christians undertake to forgive our brothers and sisters their trespasses, just as we pray that God will forgive us ours.

Nothing new in that per se; but it was Francis’s fresh emphasis on the mutuality of mercy that caught our attention.

Clergy at the Requiem Mass.

He had a special care for the earth, and with large and small gestures he called us back to being true stewards of God’s good creation, to be satisfied with less stuff, and to be content with what we already have.

I know that he was minded to accept the invitation to COP 26, and only ill health made him cancel, some ten days before, a trip he had intended to make to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Service to God

Towards us clergy, as individuals, Francis was invariably friendly and welcoming.

That didn’t stop him, however, admonishing us as a group to avoid pitfalls such as clericalism.  In this, I’ve sometimes compared him to a St Ignatius or a St Francis Xavier, urging clergy to be out among their people, rather than being stuck at home with their noses in their books.

We all know that our service to God doesn’t replace our duty to serve God’s people; but the Holy Father was right to remind us that both are equally part of our vocation, and to model our lives on the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.

The Scripture readings we heard today are those that Francis chose for his funeral on Saturday, and we are wearing red, the traditional colour for a pope’s funeral.  The Gospel reading in particular is one that we can connect easily with him in a number of ways.

Archbishop Cushley reads his homily.

The story from St John is of the third time the risen Lord appears to the eleven.  Peter, who has denied the Lord three times, is now invited to erase the memory of that, by affirming three times that he loves the Lord.

Even the fact that he dives out the boat and swims eagerly to the shore to meet Him speaks of his remaining affection for the Lord, in spite of letting Jesus down and running away like everyone else before the Crucifixion.

Jesus now gently asks him if he loves Him more than these others do.  Three times, Peter replies, “Yes, Lord, I love you”, and the Lord says in return, “Feed my lambs”, and “Feed my sheep”.  We can’t hear it in English, but in the Greek original, Peter famously replies “I love you” in a way that means, “You know I can’t love you as perfectly as you deserve, but I’ll love you as best I can”.

But Jesus accepts that: he accepts Peter, with all his imperfections, and confirms him in his task to lead and to care for Christ’s flock.  That’s what Peter did.  That’s what the popes endeavour to honour as Successors of Peter in the See of Rome.  And in his turn, that’s what Pope Francis tried to do too, to lead by example to care for one another, especially the poorest and the weakest.

Justice & Mercy

Francis was interested in justice and in mercy.  Our imperfect human law-making is an endeavour to balance these two things.  Creating legislation and applying it are worthy and important tasks at the service of society.

Often difficult choices have to be made by legislators and magistrates, and we all appreciate what those who represent us in parliament and those who apply our laws must do on our behalf.  Francis was deeply interested in both justice and mercy.

Kate Forbes MSP is welcomed by Archbishop Cushley and Fr Robert Taylor.

He urged us to find better ways to peace than through war; he urged a renewed sense of care for each other, especially the voiceless, and the excluded; above all, though, he brought a fresh focus on mercy, the mercy we owe each other, the mercy that is the glue of healthy relationships in a healthy society.

The world doesn’t always believe in mercy.  But Pope Francis did, and with all his heart.

The memory of him as a man of mercy will surely endure for a long time to come.

Francis’s labours now over, may the Lord now welcome this merciful man into His peace, even as we give thanks for his example as a priest, as a leader, as a disciple of the Risen Lord.

May God be merciful to this merciful man.  Amen.

Gallery: Encounters with Pope Francis

On the eve of the funeral of Pope Francis, we've gathered images of those based in the Archdiocese who came face-to-face with the Holy Father.

Prayerfulness: Fr Jamie McMorrin, of St Margaret's, Davidson's Mains, Edinburgh, was a Deacon when he assisted at a Papal Mass in St Peter’s Basilica to celebrate the Feast of the Chair of Peter, February 2016. At that time he said: "The biggest lesson and the most deeply-engraved memory which I will take away from the experience of Monday was the careful, recollected prayerfulness with which the Holy Father celebrated Mass.”

Moment of grace: Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer who is a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes in Blackburn, West Lothian, met Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2019, ahead of her performance at the Vatican's annual Christmas Concert. Vatican Media.

Smiles: A joyful and poignant image of the late Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow Archdiocese, with Archbishop Cushley and the Holy Father in the Vatican in September 2016. The event was to mark the 400th anniversary of the Founding of The Pontifical Scots' College as a Seminary.

Blessing: A lovely photo of the Holy Father and Amelia from SS Alphonsa & Anthony Syro Malabar Catholic Mission Edinburgh, at a Papal audience at St Peter's Square in October last year, posted on Pope Francis' Instagram. He wrote: "Let us pray the Rosary daily, entrusting ourselves confidently into the hands of Mary!" (Instagram)

Whisky gift: William McQuillan, now priest at St John the Baptist in Fauldhouse, watches on as Charles Coyle presents a bottle of whisky to Pope Francis during a visit of seminarians and staff from the Pontifical Scots College to the Vatican in 2018. Both were deacons at the time of this picture and Charles is now a priest of Motherwell Diocese. (Vatican Media)

Blessing: After their wedding in Scotland in 2022, Emma and Jamie McGowan, of Culross, went to Rome and were delighted to meet Pope Francis.

Special moment: Pope Francis congratulates Leo Cushley after his nomination as 8th Archbishop and Metropolitan of St Andrews & Edinburgh by Pope Francis in 2013. (Vatican Media)

St Andrew's Day: Fr Nick Welsh, Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Scots College in Rome, and a priest of the Archdiocese, shared the above photo of priests and seminarians meeting Pope Francis on St Andrew's Day in 2023. (Fr Nick is second from left) (Pontifical Scots College)

Happy encounter: Fr Tony Lappin (St Joseph's, Peebles, and St James', Innerleithen) posted the above photo on Facebook and wrote: "My brief meeting with Pope Francis on 18 April 2013 when, after being elected Pope, he took possession of the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls, one of the four papal basilicas in Rome."

College update: Archbishop Leo Cushley and Fr Mark Cassidy, Rector of the Pontifical Scots College, had a Private Audience with the Holy Father in October 2023. The meeting was in response to the Pope's enquiry into the progress of the efforts to relocate the College. (Vatican Media).

Rosary: Fr John Adesotu, priest at St Kessog'a Parish (Balfron and Blanefield) said: "I met Pope Francis on November 11, 2022. It was on the occasion of my College’s (Pontifical Collegio Nepomucenum) visit to him while I was a student in Rome. On that occasion he gave me a beautiful Rosary that I still use to this day."

Patience and kindness: Fr Jock Dalrymple of St John's and St Mary Magdalene's in Edinburgh, shared the above video from a papal audience in 2022. He wrote: “At the end of the audience, although already in considerable pain from a knee (from the following week, he was forced to use a wheelchair) Pope Francis spent nearly an hour meeting members of the audience, taking time with each.

Eventually, he came to a religious sister standing directly in front of us: as the video clip shows, he took enormous trouble with her, giving his full attention as she asked him if he knew when a book about ‘The Disappeared’ in Argentina (in General Pinochet’s time) would be translated into Italian, and duly responding, before finally moving on to the many others wanting to have a word with him.

For me their encounter was a kind of ‘icon’, illustrating his humility, humanity, patience and kindness. May he rest in the peace he so richly deserves.”

A Requiem Mass for Pope Francis will be celebrated by Archbishop Cushley at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh on Monday 28 April at 12:45pm. Read Archbishop Cushley's reflection on Pope Francis here.

Archbishop's tribute to Pope Francis

On the news of the death of Pope Francis, we will all have various reactions.

Personally, I knew him and worked with him, so it’ll take a while for me to sort out my own memories of him.

When he was elected, I remember his first day in the office, welcoming him into the library where the popes receive the great and the good in the Apostolic Palace.

He had never worked in the Vatican before that, so he had it all to learn.

Because there had been no time to brief him beforehand, I was asked to put before him a couple of draft speeches for his official meetings that morning, with the College of Cardinals, Christian leaders from all over the world, and so on.

He dutifully sat down in the big chair, picked up a draft speech, read a few lines and then put it down.

Another priest and I waited to see if he wanted something but, instead, he looked up and gazed silently towards the other end of the room, where there is a serene painting of Christ by Perugino.

And he took a minute to be still and to pray instead.

It felt like he was still absorbing what had just happened to him, and was calmly getting ready for what was next – the rest of his life as the Bishop of Rome.

He never looked afraid.

In fact, I always found Pope Francis warm, confident, personable, and always humorous.

He had to meet fellow heads of state and heads of government, he had to meet endless numbers of VIPs, but his real warmth and passion was always for people, not personages.

He was interested in real people, their welfare, their sufferings.

Pope Francis was a man of our times, and through his closeness to the poor and the weak, he made us ask again whether we want a world governed by mere self-interest or one built on care and respect for each other as fellow pilgrims.

May the Lord show mercy to this merciful man.

A Requiem Mass for Pope Francis will be celebrated by Archbishop Cushley at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh on Monday 28 April at 12:45pm.

'He wanted to bless our broken world'

Father Gerard Maguiness, who met Pope Francis in February, writes in The Scotsman about what the first Jesuit to be Supreme Pontiff meant to him. Father Maguiness is the general secretary of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland and a priest of the Diocese of Motherwell.

***

It was with great sadness but not surprise that I heard the news of the passing of Pope Francis on this Easter Monday morning.

I was blessed to meet Pope Francis at his last general audience on February 12, just two days before he was admitted to hospital – he was a very ill man (see title image).

These past few weeks struggling with illness and the frailty of old age summarised the determination and commitment of Pope Francis; even yesterday on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis made an appearance to bless the city and the world, urbe et orbe.

Father Gerard Maguiness, right, met Pope Francis in February in Rome.

Despite the burden of his illness weighing on him, he wanted to bless our broken world and invite all of us to pray for peace and healing.

In a world characterised by polarisation and conflict, Pope Francis was a unifying figure who reached out to all Catholics, all Christians, to the Jewish people, to Muslims, and all the major world religions.

None should be excluded

He was a great believer that nobody is excluded from the loving mercy of Jesus Christ and this extended to those who don't have an explicit belief in God and those distant from the Church because of the failings of members of the Church.

Where did this vision of Pope Francis have its roots? Pope Francis was the first Jesuit Pope. The Company of Jesus or Jesuits were formed by St Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century to reach out to a world that was changing rapidly due to the Reformation.

The motto of the Jesuits is ad maiorem Dei gloriam, meaning for the greater glory of God. Pope Francis endeavoured to make the glory of God present in our world, a glory that is revealed by the love of Christ crucified on the cross.

From a crucifix, Jesus spoke to the young Saint Francis and told him to rebuild His church in the 13th century. Undoubtedly Pope Francis, in choosing this name, saw his role to rebuild the Church in our time, especially given the crisis of faith caused by abuse.

His response to the challenges facing the Church and also our world was not despondent. The first letter published by Pope Francis was The Joy of the Gospel. Our world needs the Good News of the Gospel, it needs joy, it needs light in the darkness, it needs healing and a way to look forward.

Almost in exile during Argentina’s dictatorship

As the Jesuit priest Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis experienced personal difficulties during the dictatorship in Argentina. He found himself almost exiled to Germany to study theology. Fortunately in that difficult period, Pope Francis also discovered a prayer, a devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus, known as ‘Our Lady, untier of knots’.

He was able to untie the knots of his ministry and see that life is never so desperate that the loving mercy of Jesus Christ cannot overcome the problems that we cause through our human failures. He would go on in the Joy of the Gospel to describe the Church and the world as a field hospital.

Human beings are wounded and hurting and the role of a follower of Jesus is to bring healing, not condemnation. He warned the clergy that they are not guardians of the grace of God but channels of God’s grace and forgiveness.

Joint trip with Kirk Moderator

Pope Francis would develop this openness to others through his pastoral visits to countries with small Catholic communities, such as Iraq and Mongolia, and also through his letter Fratelli Tutti – we are all brothers and sisters.

Furthermore, Pope Francis realised that – as well as the need for Christians to work together, expressed particularly for us through his joint trip with the Moderator of the Church of Scotland and the Archbishop of Canterbury to South Sudan, and the desire for dialogue with others of all faiths and none – our planet, our common home needs all men and women of good will to work together, as summed up in his letter, Laudato si’.

Pope Francis will be remembered as the Pope who loved our world, who loved people especially the young, the elderly, the frail and the wounded. He would not allow anyone to limit the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

A shepherd with the smell of the sheep, who reminded his flock not to be miserable but to be merciful, to be joyful and to always look for the way forward when we are lost.

'He shared Christ's mercy to all'

The Vatican has announced the death of Pope Francis at the age of 88.

Archbishop Cushley said: "I am deeply saddened to hear of The Holy Father's death this morning.

"He shared Christ's mercy and compassion to all, especially the poor and the vulnerable.

"He emphasised our duty to protect God’s creation for future generations and he worked tirelessly, often through illness and infirmity, to seek unity in a divided world.

"Through the synods held during his Pontificate he wished us to learn again to listen to each other as children of God and heirs to the same life of grace.
Archbishop Cushley with Pope Francis at the Vatican in September 2023.

"He called for peace on earth: may the living Lord now grant him the peace of eternal rest."

The Holy Father died at his residence in the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta on Easter Monday morning.

A Requiem Mass for Pope Francis will be celebrated by Archbishop Cushley at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh on Monday 28 April at 12:45pm.

 

Easter Sunday: 'Jesus our Life'

Happy Easter! Here is the homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh, The Easter Vigil, 19 April 2025, at St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh.

***

My dear friends,

A very happy Easter to you all!

The readings that we hear over the Easter weekend, from Genesis to Exodus to St Luke at the Vigil, to Peter and John running to the tomb on Easter Sunday, all these readings speak of life: the creation of life, the restoration of life, and the fulness of life that every human being seeks.

The story of Genesis and its first pages describe the creation of the universe and of life in particular, life in abundance and life’s essential goodness, and it is always heard at this time of the year.

Life is good, whether it begins in the stars above or in standing water in a field, life is always, ultimately, a gift from God, and a reflection of our God who is good.But what is life without the freedom to enjoy it to the full?

In Exodus, the children of God are in Egypt; they’re alive but they’re not free, and so their passage from slavery to liberty, from death to life, becomes an iconic tale, to be treasured for all time, and that we always listen to willingly at Easter.

The passage through the Red Sea is symbolic of the liberating passage of Christ, leading us through death to life in Him, and it is always thrilling and deeply moving to hear it again, especially in the Easter vigil, as those who are about to be baptised are numbered among those crossing through the waters from death into life.

And, once we are free, what are we to do with our freedom, now that we have it? The Prophet Baruk tells us of the guard-rails that keep us safe in our freedoms: he tells of the laws of God, and he underlines that the God’s laws are the “commands of life”.

Tonight, as we gaze in fear and awe into the empty tomb...we begin to realise that Jesus is also our Life.

He says, Learn where there is wisdom, where there is strength, where there is understanding, in order to decide where to find length of days and of life. Length of days and of life. The laws of God are there to help us. And how to go forward with them? We need a path, a way to get there.

But the Way that leads to life, where are we to find it?

If we return to last Thursday night, and the Lord’s Supper, we first saw how The Way that leads to life isn’t a what, but a who. We heard Jesus describe Himself as the Way.

By following Him along the course of our lives, by staying close by Him, we will be following the way. The way to life is to follow Him, and to remain with Him.

On Holy Thursday, at the Last Supper, He becomes the Way, and He shows that, by accompanying Him on His passage through death to life, He is the Way.

On Good Friday, we saw Him stand before Pilate, and surrounded by falsehood and injustice, Jesus is seen clearly to be the only truth, the only reality.

Jesus is the truth of God, the reality of God, condemned, falsely and cruelly, the Son of God, the creator of the universe, who takes the place of a murderer to give us life, who takes the place of a revolutionary to bring us peace. Jesus is the Way and the Truth.

And tonight, as we gaze in fear and awe into the empty tomb, and wonder what it all means, we begin to realise that Jesus is also our Life.

We accompany Mary Magdalene to the garden and find the body has gone.

With Peter and John, we go right into the tomb, we are struck silent, and it dawns on us, as it dawns on them all, that whatever happened here, Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life.

These words that He said to Thomas at the Last Supper, in front of all the other Apostles, the night before he died, become a stunning reality over these three days. Yet it is only now, at the empty tomb, that all the pieces fall finally into place.

With Peter and John, we now see, and we believe. We realise with growing conviction and joy that Jesus Christ is our Life. He is the Life and the Lord of all creation.

On Holy Thursday, Jesus is the Way, our Eucharistic viaticum for our journey through death, even as He goes to the Cross.

On Good Friday, Jesus is the Truth that sets us free, even as He is helplessly nailed up to die.

Tonight, in the empty tomb, we realise that Jesus, the Way through death and the Truth of all time, is also the Lord of all Life – and we rejoice that through our faith and our baptism into His death we come to share in His life, and a life that we can live to the full.

A very happy Easter to you all!

Good Friday: 'Jesus the Truth'

Here is the Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley on The Passion of the Lord, Good Friday, St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, Edinburgh.

***

My dear friends,

Last night in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper we accompanied the Lord as he began to tread the Via Dolorosa, the way of pain that leads Him to the Cross.

Today, he continues along that Way, humbly, willingly, for us.

Externally, he appears powerless, a victim, an innocent, powerless lamb led to the slaughter with no one to vindicate Him.

There is no one to rescue Him, no one to argue on His behalf, or offer a word or a gesture that can save Him.

There appears to be nothing he Himself can offer to say or do that will spare His life.

In mockery he takes the place of Barabbas, a murderer, a revolutionary, and yet he is the precise opposite: he is someone who brings life, not death, someone who wishes, not to destroy but to build up and to bless and to heal.

Jesus appears powerless in the face of raw power: three very different, competing interests combine to destroy Him:

The injustices and falsehoods pile up and triumph. Where is the truth in any of this?

At a crucial moment, Pilate poses this very question, the question about truth.

Pilate’s question appears at first almost casual, but it is a well-placed one.

In interview with Jesus, Pilate asks Him: “Are you the king of the Jews? […] Your own people have handed you over, what have you done?”

Jesus says, “I have stood up for the truth.”

And famously, Pilate replies “Truth? What is truth?”

This being St John’s Gospel, there are of course several things going on here all at once.

Pilate is an educated man, he knows philosophy, he knows that this could make for an interesting academic conversation.

But here, his comment is ultimately rhetorical, and he can hardly be thinking of conducting a discussion about truth.

This is not the place and time.

He can see that truth is secondary to what is unfolding here.

More likely is that he is working out how to keep the peace; if he should spare Jesus from death, and if it’s going to lead to a riot, and less about if it’s the right thing to do.

So, at first, he tells the mob that he finds no case.

By this, he tests the water, but he quickly realizes that Jesus’s death is the only way to restore calm - and so Jesus is condemned to death for pragmatism, convenience, for the sake of the peace.

What this also means of course is that truth is irrelevant. The authorities press their demands, the mob threaten a riot, and the innocent die. Truth is nowhere to be seen.

Except that in the midst of this injustice, Truth is present; but it is hiding in plain sight. Truth is standing there before them all.

St John is telling us that Jesus Christ is the Truth.  He not only speaks the truth, or represents the truth.

Jesus is the Truth. He tells us that He came into the world for this.

Jesus Christ is the Truth of the Most High God, and the truth will set us free.

And it’s not 24 hours since Jesus, the night before, told Thomas and the Apostles “I am the truth”.

Jesus Christ is the Truth of the Most High God, and the truth will set us free.

So that, even as Jesus is bound, arrested, and condemned before Pilate, even as He is shortly to be taken, bound, to the Cross, and to be nailed to it in mockery and to die an impotent spectacle, He is the one setting everyone free.

On the Cross, Jesus reveals Himself as the Truth, and that Truth sets us free.

The objective, simple truth, the reality here, is that the Son of God willingly and purposefully dies and does so for us all.

The Truth revealed in the person of Jesus stands before Pilate.  Today, that Truth is not to be found in Roman law, or the caprice of the mob, or the expedient politics of the day.

Jesus Christ, is the Way, our way through death to life.

And today He is the Truth: He the dazzling reality of the God who sets us free in His victory on the Cross.

Holy Thursday: 'Jesus the Way'

Archbishop Cushley tonight celebrated Mass of the Lord's Supper, which marks the beginning of the Easter Triduum.

It is an important time for the Church because at the last supper Jesus instituted the Eucharist, the source and summit of our Faith.

He also washed the feet of his disciples as an example of loving service to others and that is what priests do at the Holy Thursday Mass.

Archbishop Cushley said: "Tonight we accompany Jesus on his way to Calvary.

"We anticipate his sacrifice on the Cross; we do so solemnly this evening in communion with him and with all Christians throughout the world; and we keep in mind its intimate links with what will take place tomorrow.

"Tonight, in the Eucharist, Jesus becomes for us not only food for the journey, but the very Way for us."

***

Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, 17 April 2025

My dear friends,

Tonight we accompany Jesus on his way to Calvary.

We start with the Lord at table at the Last Supper, the origins of the celebration of the Eucharist so central to our memory of the Lord, keeping his memory alive and his presence among us in the Eucharist.

As Catholics, we see clearly the link between the Lord’s Supper and the Cross on Calvary and, knowing the trajectory of the story, we can see that it is a way that leads from the Upper Room, to Calvary, to the tomb, and indeed to the empty tomb.

And the whole three days are a kind of a “way”.

The Way

We sometimes refer to events tomorrow, Good Friday, in Jerusalem as the via Dolorosa or the via Crucis or the Way of the Cross.

But the term “the way” was also one of the very earliest equivalent names for “the Church”, and we find it in the Acts of the Apostles and elsewhere.

But the use of the word the “way” that we find even there, and about being faithful to the “way” has overtones of something else.

Clearly “the way” can suggest a manner of living, or a means to reach a place or purpose or object.

In that case, “the way” becomes an early stand-in for a word like “community” or “assembly”, it works well, and did so for a time in the early days of the Church.

But “the way” as a term also takes us back to something very important that Jesus says to the Apostles, while talking with Philip and Thomas at the last Supper, in fact tonight.

Just before the passage we heard in tonight’s gospel, Jesus says to the Apostles, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me […] and you know the way where I am going”.

Thomas replies to this, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?” And Jesus replies, “I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one can come to the Father except through me.” He then turns to Philip and adds, “From now on you know the Father and you have seen him.”

Two essential things for us emerge from this that we ought to keep in mind across all these three days.

First of all, we should remember that Jesus is the Son of God and that in him we see God himself. To see him is to see God.

Not only that, this means that God himself is going to his death for us on Calvary tomorrow, and that he anticipates the sacrifice of the Cross here and now, at the Last Supper, tonight.

The second thing for us to keep in mind is that Jesus is the Way: he is God among his people, showing us, not just a way to live but a way to life, the way to life eternal in Jesus Christ.

This Way, the way to life, does not eliminate the pain of life or the necessity of death, but it transforms death from a dead end into a passage, a passing through death that leads us to life in Christ.

Food for the journey

One of the most beautiful rites that we have as Catholics is when we are able to receive holy Communion before we die.

The prayers are particularly powerful and describe the Eucharist as “food for the journey”, the journey through death and into life.

For this reason, we call it Viaticum, that is, quite literally, food for the journey.  And tonight, we have a chance to see how this fits perfectly into our understanding of what the Lord does here at table, the night before he dies.

Our Eucharist tonight is viaticum, it is food for the journey, as we anticipate and associate ourselves with the Lord’s terrible and wonderful journey through suffering and death, and into life.

Tonight, then, Jesus anticipates his passage through death on the Cross tomorrow, in the Last Supper celebrated now.

In it, we can anticipate his sacrifice on the Cross; we do so solemnly this evening in communion with him and with all Christians throughout the world; and we keep in mind its intimate links with what will take place tomorrow.

Tonight, in the Eucharist, Jesus becomes for us not only food for the journey, but the very Way for us.

The Lord’s Supper tonight is not just a way to live but a way to life, the way to life eternal in Jesus Christ.