10am Mass
I
The book The
Lord of the Rings was written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien wrote about two main characters named
Frodo and Sam.
Frodo and Sam have to travel for a very long time in a
land far away from home to destroy a little evil ring. The journey is too great beyond their normal strength.
J.R.R. Tolkien was actually a devout Catholic
writer. And like a good Catholic artist
that influences a masterpiece, Tolkien included images of his Faith especially
the Sacraments in The Lord of the Rings. The main character Frodo, who represents each
of us, was given bread for his journey called Bread of the Elves. Just a few crumbs of the Bread of the Elves would
sustain Frodo for long periods.
In our real lives now, we don’t have a fictional Bread
of the Elves. Rather, we have the true
Bread of Angels, the Bread of Life. The
Eucharist is the daily bread for which we pray in the Our Father, “Give us this
day our daily bread.”
II
In the past few Sundays, have you noticed how the readings
for the Word of God have focused on the Eucharist? Let those who have ears listen!
In the Old Testament, God gradually prepared the world
to understand how he feeds us.
It started with the priest-king Melchizedek. King Mel offered bread and wine to Abraham
and Sarah on their journey from Ur to the Promised Land.
Later, the early Israelites sacrificed and ate a lamb and
did so every year to remember Passover and their flight from Egypt.
Then, the hungry Israelites were given food – manna or
quail – in the desert.
In the Ark of Covenant – the Tabernacle or the box that
carried the Ten Commandments – some manna was placed in it on the journey and
its eventually resting place in the Temple.
Then, as we heard in the First Reading today, the
Prophet Elijah was given bread, cake and water to eat for his journey.
You see, the Patriarchs, the Law, and the Prophets all
bear witness to God the Good Shepherd feeding his flock in the Old Testament. Let those who have ears listen!
In the New Testament, as we heard a few weeks ago,
Jesus miraculously fed thousands with only five loaves and two fish and ended
up with 12 baskets of extra leftovers. Jesus
himself prepared us to understand the Eucharist. And, yes, this was a real and actual miracle.
The Church does not believe in the social scientific theory
that somehow Jesus just somehow inspired thousands of men to somehow take out food that they were somehow hiding in their clothes that
day. No, it was a REAL miracle of
feeding five thousand men – that’s an average of one loaf of bread per 1,000
people – not counting women and children with a few scraps of food.
In previous Gospel readings, you’ll notice that Jesus
starts saying “Amen” twice to show emphasis and importance. Last week, he said “Amen. Amen. It is my Father who gives you bread from
heaven.” He said, “I am the bread of
life.”
Then, in today’s Gospel, people grumbled against Jesus
for saying this. They were upset and asked, “How can this man say that he is
himself is the Bread of Life?!” They
asked how one could eat someone’s flesh.
But Jesus didn’t back down. He did not say, “Oh, gee guys, okay, that’s
not what I meant. Let me clarify what
I’m saying.”
No, he said all the more, “Amen. Amen.
I say to you, whoever believes in me has eternal life.
Your ancestors ate manna in the desert but they
died.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the
bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Jesus didn’t back down through his two Amens. (Let those who have ears listen.)
Next week in the Gospel, the people still complained
and Jesus said again, “Amen. Amen. I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. And I will raise them up on the last day.”
(Let those who have ears listen!)
And then, in two weeks from now in the Gospel, the people
that followed him still grumbled and complained and said, “This saying
is hard; who can accept it?”
Jesus STILL didn’t back down. It was a very tense situation. It’s what us modern people would call….. “Aaaakwaaaard.”
It was awkward.
And, then, finally, “As a result of this hard saying…”
[SLOW DOWN!] many of his disciples returned
to their former way of life…..….and in John Chapter Six Verse Six Six….no….longer…..accompanied…him.” They no longer followed him over this saying
about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
Picture this: In the awkward moments of a large group
of people just literally walking away and leaving him, Jesus just watched as disciples
that once followed him (quote) “no longer accompanied him” (end quote). Jesus just watched them leave him saddened in
silence. Then imagine Jesus turning to
the 12 – you and me – and asking us, “Do you also want to leave?”
John 6, 6, 6 is the mystery of evil. Those that followed him rejected him over the
Eucharist. Let those who have ears,
listen! They weren’t atheists or
unbelievers….rather, they were disciples which makes the evil even worse. It wasn’t out of ignorance, but a willing
rejection of Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, are we too going
to call this a hard saying and no longer walk with him? Or are we going to “taste and see the
goodness of the Lord”? There are many
lapsed and fallen-away Catholics that no longer believe in the power of the
Holy Mass and awesomeness of Jesus present in Eucharist.
Do you know what the largest organization is in the
United States? The American Association
of Retired People, the AARP. Do you know
what the second largest group is?
Catholics. Do you know what the
third largest group is? It’s not
Protestants. The third largest group in
the U.S. is former Catholics. One out of
10 Americans is a former Catholic that has left the Church. This is called apostasy. Let us rather remain in the Church and, as we sang in the Responsorial
Psalm, and “taste the goodness of the Lord”.
III
When Jesus instituted the Eucharist – the First Mass –
on Holy Thursday and gave us the new priesthood of the new covenant, the night
before he died on the Cross on that Good Friday, he left us a memorial
sacrifice that took over 2,000 years to prepare for in the Old Testament.
From Abraham and Melchizedek, to Jesus and today, and
to the future in the wedding feast of heaven, all human history centers on the
Eucharist. Vatican II calls the
Eucharist the “source and summit” of the Christian life.
In the Second Reading today from the Letter to the
Ephesians, St. Paul said, “Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial
offering…”
Each and every Mass – no matter what language or
culture – is a re-presentation of the one Sacrifice of Calvary. Calvary is made present at each Mass in a
bloodless way. He hangs on the Cross
right in front of us at each Mass.
On Holy Thursday, Jesus said, “This is my body.” He didn’t say, “This is a symbol of my
body.” “This IS my body.”
For 2,000 years, the Church has always believe that it
is literally and truly and really Jesus in the Eucharist. This is called the Real Presence. This is different that Jesus just being
present in the proclaimed Word of God, or in creation, or in you and me, or in
the altar, or in the poor or the community, or in the crucifix. The Real Presence surpasses all these and is a
sacramental and true presence.
When the priest says, “This is my body,” the bread is
no longer bread but is transubstantiated or changed into Jesus’s body and
blood.
It may smell like bread, look like bread, smell like
bread, feel like bread, and taste like bread.
But it is NOT bread. It is the
Body of Jesus Christ. It is His Sacred
Heart that you and I eat. When our 5
senses fail, faith supplies. In Latin,
Preastet Fides Supplementum, Sensum Defectui – Faith Supplies Where the Senses
Are Defective.
(If Jesus were to take this microphone and say, “This
is a car.” I will say Amen. If Jesus were to take this piece of paper and
say “This is lumpia,” I will say Amen, it is lumpia. So if Jesus takes bread, and says, “This is
my body,” I will say Amen Amen it is Jesus’s Body.
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say that when
you see a crucifix, you see Jesus’ love for you then. When you see the Eucharist, you see Jesus’s
love for you now. Pope Emeritus Benedict
XVI said that without the Eucharist, the Church simply would not exist anymore. And St. John Chrysostom said that the
Eucharist is the source and foundation of our taking care of the poor and
vulnerable. We feed people first in
spirit then in body.
IV
This is why, dear brothers and sisters, we’re not just
coming to church and hearing a sermon on the Bible for an hour. We come to Mass to receive his flesh. And we should come prepared to receive Holy
Communion by going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Confession and remove
any serious sins from our soul and be restored to the state of grace. We don’t want to receive the Eucharist
unworthily by having unconfessed deadly sins on our soul. Rather, we should be in the state of grace
when we receive Holy Communion. This is
the meaning of wearing a spiritual wedding garment at the Supper of the Lamb
which is the Mass.
AND….we don’t just want us to receive the Bread of
Life, but we want others to receive the Bread of Life, too. Let us invite others to join us in this
Supper of the Lamb, so that the whole world will be fed. Let us invite lapsed and non-practicing
Catholics back to Mass.
I close with a true story by a priest named John Bosco
about 100 years ago. He once had a dream
where he saw a large ship in rough waters.
The ship was filled with bishops, priests and lay people. It had the Pope at the helm steering the
ship. The ship was being attacked by
other boats trying to sink her through bad ideas and bad teachings. Well, eventually, the Pope saw two columns in
the middle of the rocky waters. So the
Pope steered the ship to the two columns and tied the ship to both of
them. On the top of one column was the
Eucharist. On the top of the other
column was Our Lady, Mary. After the
Pope tied the ship to the two columns, there was calm, the ship of the Church
was stabilized, and the boats that were attacking the ship faded away. These indeed are difficulty times and
tribulations for the Church today.
The Eucharist and Mary-- We the Pilgrim Church – you and I – must tie
our life to the columns of Jesus and Mary.
The Eucharist is the bread for the rough journey that lay ahead. Mary is the Mother of the Eucharist. Let us love the Eucharist at at least every
Sunday and the Mother of the Eucharist, so that we who eat the flesh of the Son
of Man will live forever and be raised up on the last day.
Amen. Amen.
