Today’s homily is one given by St. Francis of Assisi. It is perhaps the best commentary I can think of on this gospel. And it is sixteen words long. (Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.)

Preach the Gospel. Preach the Gospel! Preach the Gospel!! And if you have to, use words.

St. Francis used to delight in disguising himself as a beggar who would then show up at the communities which he had established unannounced and incognito. He always hoped not to be recognized, for two reasons. One, it would give him some good ‘data’ about whether that particular community was living up to its mandate – whether his Friars Minor were doing their job. But more importantly, it allowed him to live the humility of Christ; to imitate Jesus in his poverty. For Francis wanted his life to be all about the loving and praising and serving of God and not about himself. He wanted to empty himself so that God could live in him.

The fancy word for that in the Greek is Kenosis. Kenosis is the word that St. Paul uses in his hymn to Jesus. “Though he was in the form of God… Jesus EMPTIED himself… Kenosis is about the emptying, the not clinging to privilege or status; the existing to love the other. As we enter these next 6 weeks, studying a bit more about this Eucharist that is a part of our weekly lives, I can think of no better word to begin with than Kenosis. For right in the heart of our Eucharist, in the most important words that we share – the Institution narrative – right there do we know that emptying because of love. “This is my Body, GIVEN FOR YOU. This is the cup of my Blood, which will BE SHED FOR YOU.”

What Jesus is about in the Eucharist is this memorial – the making present to you and I, Sunday after Sunday, his self emptying love. The ‘doing this in his memory’ invites us also into that same kind of love, that same desire to empty ourselves so that God will be all in all in us. Each mass, we are invited ‘to have the same attitude as Christ’ (as Paul tells us in that second reading.) We are invited to have a willingness to let this sacrifice, this self emptying, lead us to a deeper sacrifice of our lives, lead us to a deeper letting go of our importance, so that we can love freely.

So, as we gather to enter THE sacred drama called the Eucharist, (and make no mistake, this is the most important drama we ever will be a part of – the drama of divine love and salvation) like the actors who prepare their parts before entering the stage, we are invited to prepare our hearts. This week, let that word kenosis help you to empty ourselves enough to be a vessel that God can use to love his word. And like the gospel, may we show that love, not by what we say, rather by what we do.