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.

Clergy gather for Chrism Mass

More than 70 priests gathered at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh last night for the annual Chrism Mass.

The Chrism Mass is where the bishop consecrates the sacred chrism (a mixture of olive oil and balsam) and blesses the other holy oils (oil of catechumens and oil of the sick). 

Deacon John Smith hold aloft one of the oils that is blessed by Archbishop Cushley.

These oils are then taken home by priests and appointed parish volunteers for use in the parish over the year.

The Chrism Mass is a sign of the close bond between the bishop and the priests of the diocese, and priests renew their commitment to their ministry. 

Clergy from the Archdiocese renew their priestly promises.

In his Homily, Archbishop Cushley said: "As the clergy renew their promises this evening...may we who already have the gift of the Spirit learn again to let the living Lord speak to us in the depths of our hearts; and, encouraged and strengthened by that indwelling gift, may we in our turn give the warmest of welcomes to those joining us this Easter."

Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh, Chrism Mass, 15 April 2025, St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh  

My dear brother deacons and priests, dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

A very warm welcome to our Chrism Mass in this Jubilee Year, dedicated by the Holy Father to the theme of hope.

This celebration not only distinguishes us in our various services to each other, it also gathers us in unity around our High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Archbishop Cushley welcomes the hundreds of people who attended last night's Chrism Mass.

We have all been anointed, we all share the same Spirit, we have all been called, ultimately, to the same dignity, that is, Life with Christ.

We take our different places, as St Paul says, in Christ’s Mystical Body, but always with a view to the same end, the same good, the same purpose: union with Christ, and its essential corollary, union with each other.

And union with each other is no mere optional extra.  Christianity is not a private relationship.

The sign of peace that we offer each other, during Mass, is no mere handshake or peck on the cheek.

The Spirit is at hand in each one of us, to comfort and encourage, and to strengthen hearts and limbs that are weary.

It is a sign of communion with Christ and with each other, a modest token to be sure, but the sign of an eternal and solemn pledge of love, of loyalty, and of union with all present as we gather in the Spirit around our living Lord Jesus Christ.

The Spirit that we receive then, especially in the Sacrament of Confirmation, is like the mortar that builds us poor, small, living stones into a great spiritual house, fit for the Most High God to dwell in.

Front from left: Fr James Cadman, Fr Davide Redaelli, Fr Adrian Porter SJ, Fr Jamie Boyle, Fr Robert Taylor.

That loyalty towards each other often goes unremarked, unsaid, until tests of it come along, and of course, tests do come, sometimes from within and sometimes from without.  They come in the form of words and gestures and actions, intended or not.

They come in scandal that dismays us, they wound a pride or self-regard that is never far from the surface.

Then our love and loyalty can be tested bitterly, but at such times, we need to remember that the Spirit, which was poured so generously into our hearts, is not a distant souvenir of an event long past; the Spirit is alive and active among us.

It is a Spirit of comfort, of healing, of gladness; it is a Spirit that brings good news, and a joy to be shared by the whole people.

The Spirit is at hand in each one of us, to comfort and encourage, and to strengthen hearts and limbs that are weary.

If only we would learn to be still again before the Lord, to be trusting, humble and open in His presence, and to listen to the Spirit that is within us, ready to refresh, console and inspire us anew.

As we hear today, in a passage from Isaiah, sought out and read to us by the Lord Himself as he stands in the synagogue in Nazareth, the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, today, here and now.  It is a Spirit of comfort, of healing, of gladness; it is a Spirit that brings good news, and a joy to be shared by the whole people.

This year is a Holy Year, and so it is also a time of liberty from the bonds of sin and sadness, as the Holy Father has emphasised, a Jubilee Year dedicated to hope.

We see deeply troubling events unfolding in the world in these days, and we must wonder sometimes what there is to be hopeful about, but the Lord is still at hand to assist us.

Men and women of goodwill, inside the Church and outside it, still work to identify the common good, and having identified it, to pursue it and to promote it.

The bullies, and the powerful will one day reap their just desserts.

Deacon Douglas Robertson (Ss John Cantius & Nicholas, Broxburn) reads the Gospel.

And the just will receive the reward of their patience and their labours and their goodness.

This is the message of this jubilee year, and it is the message of our Chrism Mass texts.

The spirit of the Lord has come abundantly upon our Lord Jesus, as he has shared that same Spirit with all of us here today.

As the clergy renew their promises this evening, and as the whole diocese prepares to welcome hundreds of new Catholics into the Church this Easter Vigil, many of them young adults, may we who already have the gift of the Spirit learn again to let the living Lord speak to us in the depths of our hearts; and, encouraged and strengthened by that indwelling gift, may we in our turn give the warmest of welcomes to those joining us this Easter.

Thank you for listening, and may God bless all your preparations for the Triduum!

Chrism Mass

The Chrism Mass is when the holy oils are blessed and the sacred chrism is consecrated. It is traditionally celebrated on Tuesday of Holy Week at St Mary's Cathedral, with Archbishop Cushley. Priest of the Archdicoese join him to renew their priestly vows

What is the Chrism Mass?

The Chrism Mass is a significant event in the Catholic Church, where the bishop consecrates the sacred chrism (a mixture of olive oil and balsam) and blesses the other holy oils (oil of catechumens and oil of the sick). 

Why is it important?

The Chrism Mass is a sign of the close bond between the bishop and the priests of the diocese, and it is a time for priests to renew their commitment to their ministry. 

When is it celebrated?
Traditionally, the Chrism Mass is celebrated during Holy Week, on the morning of Holy Thursday, but it can be celebrated on another day of the week, or during the Lenten season, as close to Holy Week as possible.

What happens at the Chrism Mass?

The bishop consecrates the sacred chrism and blesses the other holy oils. Priests renew their commitment to their ministry. 

What are the holy oils used for?
  • Holy Chrism: Used in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. 
  • Oil of Catechumens: Used in Baptism. 
  • Oil of the Sick: Used for anointing people who are ill or infirm. 

Archbishop: 'Reflect on how we walk together in Christ'

Here is the Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley from the Chrism Mass held at St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh, on Tuesday night (26 March).

 My dear brother deacons and priests, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

A very warm welcome to the Chrism Mass.

This celebration is always one that manages both to distinguish us in our various roles and to unite us around our one High Priest, Jesus Christ.

It is a moment for reflection upon how we first embraced our Catholic faith; how far we have come on our journey; and how well we have fulfilled the duties that we freely assumed along the way, both clergy and laity alike.

We all have distinctive roles to fulfil; yet, we are all heirs to the same life of grace, Jews and Greeks, men and women, young and old, slaves and free.

Each of us plays a modest part in the Mystical Body of Christ, but unless we do so with simplicity and in God’s grace, we will not fare well, and those around us will not fare well.

So, at the Chrism Mass, as we look at who we are, as the Church of Christ in Edinburgh, in one way today is a time for taking stock, for an examen of how we walked together in the arc of the last year.

One significant thing that has occurred for the whole Church has been precisely on this subject: how we translate believing into living, how our living has its impact upon those around us, whether Catholics or not, how we listen to each other, and how we learn from each other, and always in union with the living Lord.

The Synod

I say this, because this last element has become one of the key elements of the Synod that took place last October, and that will meet a second time this October.

The Synod is one which has been convoked by the Holy Father to examine the idea of Synodality, a concept that, although using old language, is actually one that is comparatively recent, by one account, coined in French as recently as in 1996.

Pope Francis, the Cardinals he has placed in charge of the process, and the Synod itself have endeavoured to explore this concept.

Synod is a familiar concept, but Synodality is something yet to be clearly defined.

It comes from Greek and its components essentially mean “Walking together”.

I was at a meeting last week in Rome and this was emphasised again.

The Holy Father has encouraged us all to walk together, and to do so by listening to each other.

There may be other elements that will emerge from the term, as time goes by and as the second Synod meets this autumn, but for now, it seems that the greatest emphasis has been on learning to listen again: to listen to the Holy Spirit, and to listen to each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Listening is something that we all think we are good at, but of course, that is not always true.

That we should be learning to listen to each other again is certainly to be welcomed, given how frayed tempers seem to have become in recent times, especially in the light of the consequences of Covid and attitudes that we now need surely to unlearn.

We need to unlearn being impatient, short-tempered, easily angered.

Mental health and wellness referrals have risen dramatically across the country, and it appears to be attributable, in part at least, to the fallout from the Covid crisis.

The Synod then, happens, providentially to fall at a moment when we need to learn to listen again, and again to be brothers and sisters to each other.

It is an opportunity to look back and see how much we need it, and to look forward to what may come next.

Let’s all pray that the Synod may lead to a better understanding and a better living out of who we are, as the People of God, in communion with each other, in communion with our sister churches, and in communion with the Successor of Peter in the See of Rome.

Priest & Deacons

In the meantime, I’d like to add a short word to our priests and deacons.

My dear brothers, today we reflect upon our own promises, and commit ourselves anew, as servants and leaders of our people.

Deacons are usually called to more service, while priests are usually more called to leadership, but servant leadership characterizes both orders.

Both Peter and Paul write eloquently of hope, and hope is something that we all need to keep our faith alive in joyful service.

Paul writes that Faith, Hope and Love are the three great Christian virtues, and Peter urges us to be ready to give reasons for our hope.

This evening, I would like to encourage you to reflect on your own hopes.

In Peter and Paul’s world, the ancient world, hope was not what we think of today.

Hope wasn’t always something positive, as it is in English. Elpis, the Greek word here, can also mean expectation and even foreboding.

In the pagan world, hope was often just a step away from despair and the fear of what is to come, something that can stalk us, especially if we find ourselves living alone.

But in Romans (5:5), Paul takes hope, and says that we have a hope that does not change, that does not deceive, that is not a step away from despair.

And that hope is Jesus Christ. 

Paul says that we sometimes we suffer, but suffering and difficulties produce endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

That hope will not put us to shame or mislead or deceive us, because it a hope that comes through the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, poured into our hearts.

This is true for all of us who have received God’s Holy Spirit.

But it is especially true of you here who are in holy orders.

You have been given a unique gift of God’s Holy Spirit, living within you, and it will accompany you through all your sufferings and bring you hope.

That hope is Jesus Christ, who dies for us even if we are ungodly and unworthy.

Let Jesus, the one certain Hope, give you courage and joy and confidence.

May you continue to be the willing servants of the Lord that, with great heart, you promised to be on the day of your Ordination.

Every blessing to you and your people for the upcoming celebrations of the Triduum.

Thank you for listening, and God bless all of you abundantly, especially in these days.

Gallery: Chrism Mass at St Mary's Cathedral

Archbishop Cushley last night blessed the holy oils that will be used in sacraments in parishes across the Archdiocese - holy chrism, the oil of catechumens, and the oil of the sick. Many of our clergy also gathered at this Chrism Mass to renew their priestly promises.

Please keep all our priests in your prayers as we approach the Easter Triduum to recall Jesus' Passion, death and resurrection.

Gallery

 

Archbishop Leo's Easter Message

Happy Easter! Here is Archbishop Leo Cushley's Easter message, delivered this morning in his homily at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh.

Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh

Celebration of Easter Sunday 2022

St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh  

My dear friends,

A very happy Easter to you all!

Over these three days, here at the cathedral we have been looking at the mysteries of our faith through a particular lens, that of courage.  We recalled different kinds of courage: we saw how Simon Peter is bold; St Thomas too; Our Lady and St John likewise; and others too, all in their own ways.

We remember how Peter’s words are courageous at first, but the roots of his courage aren’t very deep as yet, and he runs away in fear.  Our Lady and St John show courage simply by standing at the foot of the Cross, with a silent and dignified courage before the mob, and before the terrible majesty of Christ’s death on the Cross; and later we will hear from St Thomas again, who will remain bold and outspoken, even to the very highpoint of John’s Gospel.

Last night, we also saw how the women who went to the tomb – Mary of Magdala, Joanna and Mary the mother of James, are brave, and have been bold, up to point. They had stood bravely at the foot of the Cross, and had seen Jesus die a slow and cruel death.  They had been very brave to risk the jeering and the insults from the mob gathered there “to see the spectacle” of Jesus’ last hours; but here, in the quiet of the garden, at the tomb, their courage deserts them completely.  Ironically, now that the danger to themselves has passed, they are terrified, here at the empty tomb.  Their courage will only return later on.

Meantime, today, the story takes another twist.  Peter and John become the next protagonists in the story.  Their courage has also been put to the test.  Peter was full of fine, brave words, but his courage failed him when he was recognised on the evening of Jesus’ trial, and he fled for his life.  This is the point in the story where he re-emerges and, be it for faith or love or regret or curiosity, he sets off for the tomb.

John, meantime, has accompanied all the events, although no remarks of his are recorded.  We understand that he was known to the high priest and so he was present at Jesus’ trial and condemnation; he stood with Our Lady at the foot of the Cross; and here he is again, present at the empty tomb.  His courage, although he says nothing in all these episodes, is there for all to see.  He is a silent but courageous witness to the Lord’s death and resurrection.  St John is an inspiration to us all, and shows us how Christian witness is often just as eloquent when it is a tacit one; his witness isn’t flashy, but it is consistent, it is real, and it is a mark of a true friend and follower.  The Gospel text here acknowledges his faith: as he stands before the empty tomb, it says of him, alone, “He saw, and he believed”.

As for Peter, this too is one of several moments where he is redeemed after the failure of his courage.  In contrast to everyone else, even John, we are told that Peter boldly goes “right into the tomb”.  He sees that everything is neat, in order, and that there is no body. The text says no more of him alone, but it adds that, until this moment, they had both failed to understand that Jesus must rise from the dead.  And this short sentence marks the moment which changes everything.  John’s courage and faith are now confirmed; and Peter’s courage and faith begin to return. He starts to glimpse that he was right after all: Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God.  And he begins to see that the whole of creation stands on the threshold of a new, and unexpected, and wonderful future.

Meantime, as we saw on Holy Thursday night, only a very few disciples remained steadfast and faithful to the Lord in his agony and death.  And as we saw on Thursday, St Thomas is one apostle who stands out for his courage.  St Thomas, famously, was the only one who wasn’t there when the risen Lord appeared in the Upper Room on the first Easter Day.  Who knows if he wasn’t there, precisely because he was the only one there brave enough to show his face in public while the rest of the disciples were cowering in the Upper Room, for fear of the mob? And even that was turned to great account, when the risen Lord appeared to them all eight days later, and Thomas declared before him and before us all, “My Lord and my God!”

Our faith may be like that of Peter, weak but genuine; it may be like John’s, silent but constant; or it may be like Thomas’s, outspoken but firm; but all of us, through our faith and our baptism, are heirs to the life of grace, and we all of us have the greatest reason to rejoice: Jesus is the Son of God, and today he is risen from the dead.  The rest comes after that.

A very Happy and Holy Easter to you all!

Good Friday - Archbishop's Homily

Here is Archbishop Leo's homily on Friday of the Passion of the Lord, from St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh this afternoon. All pics: Benedicta Yi Xin Lin.

Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh

Solemn Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, 2022

St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh  

My dear friends,

Today by tradition we listen to the Passion according to St John.  Last night, here in the Cathedral we reflected a little on the courage of Thomas the Apostle.  St John records that all the disciples were afraid of going up to Jerusalem with the Lord – except St Thomas.

Instead, he spoke out: he dared to accompany Jesus to Jerusalem, and said boldly to the others, “Let us go too, and die with Him”.  Of all the disciples, Thomas is the only one who speaks up, or better, who expresses any words of true and consistent courage in the face of the events as they unfolded.

We know that St Peter has some brave words to say.  We’ve just heard them, but they turn out quickly to be only words.  Peter’s betrayal becomes an iconic one, a collapse of his genuine, but as yet timid, love for the Lord as he is challenged by a few bystanders, who catch his accent, realize he’s a Galilean, and terrify him with the prospect of his own torture and death.

But not even Thomas is there at the end.  Only St John, of all the Apostles, is at the foot of the Cross.  Our Lady, Mary of Magdala, and Mary the wife of Cleopas, also stand there and bear the risk of association with Jesus bravely, to say nothing of the shame and the horror, as they keep their watch, in front of all the onlookers who had, as St Luke says, “come to see the spectacle”.

From the Cross, Jesus then addresses a few final words to his mother and to John. Others, perhaps emboldened in some way, show a little courage later on: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus step forward after Jesus’ death.  They have both been growing in faith over the time of Jesus’ ministry, and have come to follow Jesus by slightly different paths.

Nicodemus came to Jesus to get to know him, but famously did so “by night”, probably because he didn’t want to be seen with Jesus in public.  Meantime, however, he has grown in courage, and with the death of Jesus, his faith has now been confirmed and revealed.  Here is a faith that embraces Jesus at the very moment of his death.

Nicodemus is not only brave; he is among the very first disciples to see that what is happening here today isn’t a disaster, but the very will of God revealed in the mystery of the Cross.

He glimpses now, as the Church would later on, that Christ came into the world for this”.  The Cross is a triumph, though a dark and somber one at this moment.

Meantime, Joseph of Arimathea is there too: he is actually described here as a disciple, which is worth noting.  He was an important man among the people; but he too is described a secret disciple, because he had been afraid of other people’s opinions about Jesus; but he has been quietly growing in faith nonetheless.

He, like Nicodemus, is here at the end, and he goes to Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body.  He is a silent, brave and eloquent witness of faith in Jesus as well.

And, above all, we see the love and constancy of Our Lady, St John and the other Marys.  It is impossible to imagine what is going through Our Lady’s mind, but her heart is surely pierced by her Son’s rejection and death.

And through the Lord’s dialogue with her and John, we see them united with Jesus and each other in a way that sets them quite apart from the other figures beneath the Cross, although all of the group show the greatest courage and love to be there with Jesus to the end.

And, for Our Lady and St John, we see a particular bond of love and affection which is very moving to recall.  We are told nothing more about it here.  But we can be confident that their love for Jesus has turned, silently and solemnly, into something that will grow in the days and years to follow.

Mary’s natural, motherly love for her Son, and John’s brotherly love for his friend, and filial love for his divine Master, are transformed though the Cross into something even more profound.

To paraphrase the great Scots poet Edwin Muir, “What had Eden ever to say” about the flowers of “hope and faith and pity and love”* that grow at the foot of the Cross, and that bloom, nourished by Christ’s blood, to give hope and courage to all humanity?*  These flowers of faith and affection, growing but still delicate and small in today’s story, will one day become faith and hope for us all, to the greater glory of God.

And whether our faith is new like Nicodemus’s, or brave like Joseph’s, let us learn to imitate the love and the courage of them all, especially Our Lady and St John.  Let us take the risk to place ourselves in public at the foot of the Cross, and offer the Lord the little faith and love and courage that we have, in the hope that it will grow more constant in our hearts, by God’s good grace.

*One Foot in Eden, by Edwin Muir.

All pics: Benedicta Yi Xin Lin.

Holy Thursday - Archbishop's Homily

Archbishop Leo Cushley celebrated Mass of the Lord's Supper at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh tonight (Thursday).

He told those present to "take heart from the Lord's loving gestures" at the Last supper, when Jesus establised the Eucharist, the priesthood and washed the disciples' feet.

Archbishop Leo washed the feet of parishioners who represented the apostles to demonstrate Christian service and to reinforce Christ's message at the Last Supper - 'Love one another as I have loved you'.

After Mass the Cathedral remains open for prayer at the Altar of Repose and Night Prayer is celebrated at 11pm. Read the homily below.

Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh,

Mass of the Lord’s Supper 2022

St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh

My dear friends,

Tonight, we begin our three days with the Lord under the great and powerful banner of the Cross.

All the Gospels record how the disciples gradually came to be afraid of Jesus’s appointment with destiny in Jerusalem, that comes into focus this evening.  Mark and the other Synoptics talk of the twelve being in a “daze” and “apprehensive” as it gradually dawned on them that, not only was Jesus, their friend and Master and Lord, not going to be welcomed in Jerusalem; not only would the priests and people not welcome him as messiah, or even as a holy man; they began to see that the authorities were planning to destroy him.  And that might well mean them along with him.

When Simon Peter had called Jesus “the Christ”, they thought that he was bold, but they had also come to believe that he was right; that Peter’s great and insightful declaration of faith in Jesus as the Messiah was a real turning point, filled with grace and with power from on high; they felt confident in Peter and in the Lord; they had seen the signs; they felt they understood; they believed.

And yet they were human too, and their antennae were telling them that something was now going awry, that all was not well, that those who led the people, who knew the Law of Moses, those who were good and wise in Torah were convinced that Jesus was not what he claimed to be; and worse, the disciples could see and feel that the opposition to Jesus was growing stronger, and that it was getting deadly.

So why follow Jesus now, who had set his face so markedly towards Jerusalem?  Faith, love, loyalty?  Something that they had glimpsed in his words or in his actions? Something wonderful that they had seen and heard and touched with their own hands?

Their misgivings were growing. But in John’s Gospel that we see another reaction among the twelve.  We hear one voice that’s definitely not afraid; and it’s the voice of Thomas, the supposedly “doubting” apostle.

At the death of Lazarus, Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem and faces his end, but on the way he goes to the house of Lazarus.  He sets off late, and he gets there after Lazarus has died.  He arrives at Bethany and there gives his greatest sign: he raises Lazarus from the dead – and this gift, of life restored to Lazarus, is not only frowned upon by the priests; it becomes the reason par excellence that provokes the High Priest and his council to pass sentence of Jesus, and have him put to death.

By a double irony, however, this stroke also becomes the very means by which Jesus the Messiah, the Lamb of God, slain by the high priest, takes away the sin and death of the world, and restores life – and not just to Lazarus, not just to believers, but to the whole of God’s good creation.

But before any of this can happen, the disciples are getting more and more afraid of going with Jesus to Jerusalem, as all the signs of Jesus’ voluntary doom approaching.  Meantime, Thomas sees the Lord resolutely heading towards the crisis in Jerusalem, and he too makes a public stand, and takes a decision.  He doesn’t quite know what he’s saying, yet, but John records his brave words, as he says to all the disciples, “Let us go too, then, and die with him”.

We already know of the uncertainty in the minds and hearts of the disciples; we will learn shortly of Peter’s brittle, though affectionate attachment to the Lord; we will also see tomorrow the silent courage of Our Lady and the Apostle John at the foot of the Cross and its horror.  Peter’s declaration that he would die for the Lord will become source of shame to him; but we will never hear again anything quite like Thomas’s call to courage, so bold, so prescient, so impossibly noble at a time when the darkest clouds were menacing them all.

Thomas gives us, then, a wonderful insight into the human drama taking place in the breasts of the followers of Jesus as he approaches Jerusalem to face this night of betrayal and death.  In the small world of Judea, they knew something was amiss; they knew their ideas and plans for greatness were not materializing.  Some had already stopped believing in Jesus and going with him; one was planning, even now, to betray him.  But most of them stayed loyal to Jesus to some extent, compelled either by love for him or by his authority.

Not everyone had Thomas’s courage.  That is why the Lord’s great gesture of love, the washing of the feet tonight, becomes such a great sign of affection.  Not just out of brotherly concern, or of friendship, but of loving encouragement.  It is a sign of love; but it is also one to make us take heart. We do not know what the Lord will ask of us one day; all we know is that he loves us, in spite of our betrayals, and lies, and cowardice, and half-heartedness.  He loves us this much – and this, even before we approach the agony of the Cross which he chooses tomorrow to undergo for us.

My friends, let us take heart from the Lord’s loving gestures here tonight, both in the washing of the feet, and supremely in the Eucharist, the memorial of his death, and the greatest sign of his love and encouragement. The Mass tonight links us forever to his love for us and to its pledge in his death on the Cross.  So let us be encouraged by him in what we do here tonight in his memory.

Let us in our turn be loving to towards each other and to the Lord; let us watch with him; let us renew our faith in Him.

And in these days, let us go, again, to die with Him.

Chrism Mass 2022 - Archbishop's Homily

Archbishop Leo Cushley reinforced the message that "we are all one in Christ" at tonight's Chrism Mass at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh.

The Chrism Mass sees clergy renew their priestly promises publicly while the oil of baptism, the oil of the sick and the oil of catechumens are blessed for distribution to parishes.

Archbishop Leo said: "We gather as God’s priestly people, doing so solemnly, and in view of the great Christian festival of Easter.

And we do this all together, in our various orders and ranks, and all of us as one body, as royal priests, and all with one thing in view, the one thing that is necessary: after all, the Church exists to bear witness to the mystery of God’s love incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.

And we do that together, or not at all.  Everything else is secondary." Read the homily below.

Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh

Chrism Mass, 12 April 2022, St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh  

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

A very warm welcome to the Chrism Mass in this, the Year of Grace 2022.

Many years ago, a famous pope of Rome, upon being consecrated bishop of the city, prepared a homily for his consecration which has come down to us.  In it, he talks about the oil, the sacred Chrism, that has been poured upon him as he is being consecrated.

He thanks everyone for coming and promises to serve them well.  But when he comes to talking about the Chrism, he doesn’t just talk about his own anointing; instead, he chooses to emphasise how the Holy Spirit is poured out not only on him, but also in some sense upon everyone present.

It is true, he said, that he had been anointed for their sake, but he adds that they too have been anointed and “unsparingly” so.  This is because, although “the Church is ordered in various ranks, so that the whole is made up of different members, yet, as St Paul says, we are all one in Christ”.  We are all one in Christ.*

The various offices we hold, the different ministries we carry out for the good, not of ourselves, but of each other, are not to be a source of self-importance or pride or division between the various parts of the mystical body of Christ.  We are all completely equal in dignity; we are all, without distinction, heirs to the life of grace.  In the order of creation, we are made in the image and likeness of God, and we are utterly unique and “unrepeatable”.

So, we are evidently different from each other, but in the unity of the faith and baptism that we enjoy, we have an undivided fellowship and a dignity common to all.  We are living stones, making a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.

In Baptism, the sign of the cross “makes royalty of all who are reborn in Christ”; and the anointing of Confirmation consecrates all of us here as priests, so that, apart from the particular obligations of the ministerial priesthood, every Christian is a member of a kingly race and shares in the priestly office.  “What could be more royal, than a soul that subjects his- or herself to God and becomes the ruler of their own body? What could be more priestly, than when a Christian consecrates a pure conscience to God, and offers the sacrifice of their devotion on the altar of their heart?”

As we gather as the local Church, then, we set aside these three oils for consecration, for use in the next twelve months.  They will be used to heal the sick and to fortify the dying; to purify those preparing for Baptism, and to consecrate ourselves, our priests and our places of worship to almighty God.  We gather as God’s priestly people, doing so solemnly, and in view of the great Christian festival of Easter.

And we do this all together, in our various orders and ranks, and all of us as one body, as royal priests, and all with one thing in view, the one thing that is necessary: after all, the Church exists to bear witness to the mystery of God’s love incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.

And we do that together, or not at all.  Everything else is secondary.

No matter our functions or ranks, whether we make our churches safe from covid, or for safeguarding, or hear Confessions or do the flowers, whether our good works are known or unknown, whether or not we are welcomed or loved or have a good reputation, as today’s disciples of Christ, filled with his Holy Spirit, we exist to bear witness to, and to communicate, the mystery of divine love incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.  And everything else is secondary.

Like Christ Himself, the Spirit of the Lord has been given to us.  Like the first followers of the Way who in Antioch were the first to be identified by the name “Christian”, we aspire to be like Christ, the anointed one, as we take that name upon ourselves.  We aspire to do God’s will, and to witness to God’s love in the world. We aspire to be people that others will take by the sleeve and say, “We have heard that God is with you; tell us about Him, that we may serve Him too, and that, like you, we may walk in His ways”.

And like Christ in tonight’s Gospel, we already have the one gift that matters: deep within us, through our Baptism and Confirmation, through our anointing with Chrism, we too can say with the Lord, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me”. In the face of all the turmoils and distress around us, we have been sent to contradict them all; we have been sent by God’s Spirit to proclaim the Lord’s “year of favour”.

Let us proclaim that year of favour, then, priests and people alike, by renewing our faith and devotion; by renewing our commitment to Christ through discipline of self; let us master ourselves with a kingly power and with a noble self-restraint; may me learn again to be priestly, to consecrate a pure conscience to God, and to offer the sacrifice of devotion on the altar of our hearts; and let us be witnesses, filled with God’s Holy Spirit, that is a renewed, and living, and attractive witness to all around of what it is to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.

A very good Holy Week to you all!

*See St Leo the Great, Sermon 4,1-2.