Today's readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082315.cfm
We all know someone, I’m sure, who’s
left the faith. Who’s either gone
someplace else to Church, or just stopped going to Church altogether. Maybe a son or daughter, brother or sister,
perhaps a parent or cousin, friend or co-worker. If you’re like me, you just don’t get it. I mean, I love our faith, I love the Mass, I can’t
imagine why anyone would walk away.
I met a man just this (yesterday)
morning who told me he used to be a Catholic.
We were both participating in a peaceful, prayerful protest vigil over on
Ridge Road in Greece in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic there, part of a
nationwide protest of Planned Parenthood, in response to the recent undercover videos
(which you won’t see in the mainstream press but which are thankfully readily
available on-line). Videos which lift the veil of secrecy and reveal the
abhorrent practices going on there.
Well it was near the end of the vigil
that this man came up to me – he saw that I had on a shirt that identified me
as a Catholic deacon – and I suspect he wanted to engage me in a discussion of
faith. I would have welcomed that. But I think we both recognized that we weren’t
there to try to win each other to each other’s brand of Christianity, but
rather we were there united, witnessing against the evil of legal abortion. He told me he’d love to get together with me
to talk faith, and perhaps we will.
As I was driving home, I kicked
myself as my mind and heart moved to today’s Gospel reading. Why, oh why, I said to myself, didn’t I at least invite him to
go home and read and meditate on this Gospel? Why, I said to myself, didn’t I simply invite
him to take another look at the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel?
That chapter, of course, contains
our Blessed Lord’s “Bread of Life” discourse, which we’ve been proclaiming now
for five weeks, and we conclude today, returning next weekend to our journey
through the Gospel of Mark.
You’ll recall that last week, Jesus
said to the crowds, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever
eats this bread will live forever.” Our
Lord went on to proclaim “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is
true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and
drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
In today’s Gospel, we see the result
of that very hard teaching. “As a result
of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no
longer accompanied him,” John tells us. You
can almost hear the crowd murmuring “Dang, I thought He was ‘the one’ sent to
save Israel. But eat his flesh? Drink
his blood? This guy must be a madman!” Went
back to their former ways of living.
Left discipleship, stopped following the Lord.
And our literal belief in this
teaching, our belief that in the appearance of bread and wine at this altar,
Jesus is really and truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, a teaching
that wasn’t an issue at all in the early Church, well this is one of the main
dogmas that now separates us from unity with our non-Catholic brothers and
sisters.
But, I have to believe it is also this
teaching that will restore that unity, will bring folks back to the Church,
will bring folks to His Church, to His altar.
If only we will share it.
Perhaps we’re reluctant to share
this belief with others because we have our own doubts, our own share of
disbelief. If you and I read and learn
and study and take into our hearts this “hard teaching,” then we have His
assurance that He will set our hearts on fire.
He will come into our bodies and souls in a real way and dwell within us
and His Spirit will convict us of His real and sacred presence. And we will not be afraid to share this
belief with others, as I failed to do this (yesterday) morning.
Or perhaps we’re simply numb to His
presence, we come to Mass and go through the motions and we take for granted
the awesome miracle that we witness and participate in here at this altar. We take for granted that the Lord of the Universe,
through Whom all was created, becomes right here in the re-presentation of His
sacrifice on Calvary, really and truly present, really and truly available to
us. A real and true gift of Himself to
us.
If that’s the case, then maybe you
and I aren’t spending enough time preparing our hearts to receive Him, prayerfully
meditating on what is about to happen here.
Examining our consciences – am I worthy, free of grave sin, to receive
Him? Asking Him to not let us ever take
this gift for granted.
Or maybe we’re not spending enough
time after receiving Him. Do we head to
the doors immediately upon receiving Him, in a race to see who can get out of
the parking lot first? Or do we kneel and pray in humble and heart-felt
thanksgiving that He who created the stars would condescend to come and dwell
with and within us?
This belief in His real presence, is
at the very heart of our faith, for Jesus in His sacred Body and precious Blood
is the very source and summit of our faith, so say the fathers of the second
Vatican Council. Rekindling the belief
in Our Lord’s real presence in the Eucharist is the only thing, our Bishop
Salvatore said at his Mass of Installation, the only thing that he hopes to
accomplish in his time as our shepherd.
If our faith in His real presence is
rekindled, we will unashamedly invite others to receive this same wondrous
gift. He will be ever so much more
present to us on our journey, to inspire us to follow Him more closely, to love
Him and one another more deeply, and out of love and gratitude to Him, to serve
each other, and especially the poor, the disenfranchised, the powerless more
faithfully.
I’d like to close with a beautiful passage
from Dr. Scott Hahn and his wife Kimberly’s book, “Rome Sweet Home.” A Calvinist by upbringing and seminary
education, Dr. Hahn had been more and more drawn to the Catholic faith until
one day, he decided for the first time to see what this Catholic Mass was all
about. He writes:
“I watched and listened as the
readings, prayers and responses – so steeped in Scripture – made the Bible come
alive. I almost wanted to stop the Mass
and say, ‘Wait. That line is from
Isaiah; the song is from the Psalms. Whoa,
you’ve got another prophet in that prayer.’
“I realized, this is where the Bible
belongs. This was the setting in which
this precious family heirloom was meant to be read, proclaimed and expounded. Then we moved into the Liturgy of the
Eucharist…
“I wanted to stop everything and
shout, ‘Hey, can I explain what’s happening from Scripture? This is great!’
Instead I just sat there, famished with a supernatural hunger for the Bread of
Life.
“After pronouncing the words of
consecration, the priest held up the Host.
I felt as if the last drop of doubt had drained from me. With all of my heart, I whispered, ‘My Lord
and my God. That’s really you! And if that’s really you, then I want full
communion with you. I don’t want to hold
anything back.”
<pause> Sisters and brothers, as Father _____ again
holds up the Sacred Host, as we receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into
our bodies and souls, let us this day proclaim with all of our hearts, “my
Lord and my God.”
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