Category Archives: Eucharist

Holy Week and the Gift of Self

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,
Now, we begin Holy Week.
The essence of the Gospel is the gift of self. During Holy Week we recall two events of infinite power: the Last Supper and the Cross.
In the Last Supper Jesus gives Himself sacramentally, and on the Cross Jesus gives Himself in practice.
Consider a couple getting married. In the wedding celebration, they give themselves to each other sacramentally, and in their living out married life, they give themselves to each other in practice. In the sacramental celebration, the couple consecrates their future together, infusing it with God’s grace so that it will have sacred meaning. Without the sacrament, there is just a couple of people living together. Without the intention of living out their marriage in practice, the wedding is just a party.
When the bread and wine are presented, the priest places them on the altar saying, “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you, fruit of the earth and work of human hands. It will become for us the bread of life.” And “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the wine we offer you, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become our spiritual drink.” This is a symbol of what we have done with what God has given us. When the basket is brought forward, it is a symbol of all that we give to God from what he has given to us, and includes the donations online, donations of time and talent, and anything else we give. (Diocesan best practices call for bringing forward an empty basket because occasionally people have gotten sticky fingers. It does not destroy the symbolic value). In doing this, we place ourselves on the altar to be consecrated along with the bread and wine. We become ever more the Body of Christ, a body offered forever to the Father, incorporated into the one sacrifice offered once for all but eternally effective.
On Palm Sunday, we read the passion from the Gospel of the year, this year being Luke. He emphasizes the mercy Jesus shows even in His agony. Holy Thursday we read the washing of the feet at the Last Supper. This emphasizes that Eucharist is bound to service. The authenticity of our praying the Mass is inextricable from our dedication to giving ourselves in service to others. On Good Friday, we read the passion from the Gospel of John. This Gospel emphasizes that Jesus gave Himself freely, every step of the way. He is in charge from beginning to end. When we hear how completely, lovingly, compassionately, and freely Jesus gave Himself, let us consider how He calls us to give ourselves as gift. That sets our course for the rest of the year.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

God Made Us Incarnate

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,
The history of the Church is full of drama, and a lot of it is the challenge of those who would try to change or falsify the Catholic faith. There is room for some legitimate disagreement within the boundaries of the faith, but when one steps out of those boundaries, that is heresy and does great harm.
There was a group called the Gnostics, who believed that we are spirits trapped in bodies, and the bodies were evil, or at best of no importance. The name comes from the Greek word for knowledge, and they claimed that salvation centers around having secret knowledge (that they claimed to possess) and if you had it, your behavior didn’t matter.
Some scholars believe the letters of John were written to fight the errors that would later develop into Gnosticism.
There was another group called the Manicheans, following a guy named Mani. They also believed that the body was evil and to be escaped. St. Augustine became one of them for a while trying to solve the problem of evil (If God created everything where did evil come from?) He later would learn better answers and became a mighty force opposing them. The Catholic faith believes very strongly that we are incarnate beings. We are both body and soul, and Jesus became fully incarnate, fully human. The Gospel of John is considered the most theologically developed, most philosophically elevated of the Gospels, but there are points where it gets especially earthy. Only in John do we see Jesus spitting and putting His fingers in the mud (John 9:6). Only in John does it show Jesus apparently cooking (John 21:9). When Jesus speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, the word for “eat” is “trogo,” the more primal word used for eating like an animal more than for fine
dining. Christianity does not shy away from the fullness of implications of Jesus’ incarnate nature, or ours.
Our service to God naturally involves our bodies. Our faith has always held it honorable to sweat and get callouses doing God’s work. Our worship is also meant to involve the body. We are called to say and sing the words and do the actions, gestures and postures that pertain to our roles. This engages our whole self.
Being physically present is also a part of it. If all one can do is watch the Mass on television, then we remember we are not called to the impossible. However, something precious was lost. During Covid, many people decided they liked watching Mass on tv better. Some people blame the decision to close the churches for this trend. We can argue about what the bishops should have done during the crisis (I prefer to use my time more productively), but I would say that many people’s sense of the power of the Mass was pretty thin to begin with, and this was an excuse. Mass attendance had been declining for decades before, and this just accelerated it. The task now is for us to rebuild.
The first part of transforming the world is always for us to fall more deeply in love with Jesus. I would leave you with one question: how do you bring your whole self to Jesus?
Blessings
Fr Jim

Bread of Life: What is God Doing?

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,Every three years our lectionary takes us through the Bread of Life discourse in the Gospel of John. Having just finished the Eucharistic Congress, continuing the Eucharistic revival, we are presented with five weeks of following John chapter 6.I’m going to challenge everyone to take advantage of this time.1. Present yourself to God to be changed by this journey. You can imagine that the disciples were changed by this day. In the Eucharistic prayer, I pray for the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine, then I pray that the Holy Spirit will transform us.2. Reflect on the Gospel story throughout the week. All four Gospels relate the feeding of 5000 families with five loaves and two fish. Matthew and Mark also tell the story of feeding 4000 with seven loaves and a few fish. We are really familiar with thisstory. What would it be like for the disciples, who had no idea what was about to happen? The Gospels reveal special treasures when we look at them more closely, and this is especially true of the Gospel of John. I suggest that each sentence is importantand has a purpose. What might it be?3. Try to do some extra learning. If you have not yet read Brant Pitre’s book “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist,” Bishop Robert Barron’s “This is my Body,” Scott Hahn’s “The Fourth Cup” or “The Lamb’s Supper,” or any of Timothy O’Malley’s books, this might be an opportunity. On Formed.org there is great stuff.4. The talks from the Eucharistic congress are available on YouTube. There is so much that can be done so easily. Those of us who weren’t able to make it in person can participate to that extent. What if you and a group of friends watch a talk and then discuss it afterward?5. We remember that the Eucharist is about gift of self. The Lord gives Himself to us completely in this intimate encounter, and we are learning to give ourselves. What if we asked the question, “If Jesus could get whatever He wanted of me today, what might it be?” What if we let that question percolate in our minds for a while?6. What if we spent some extra time in front of the tabernacle or the monstrance. We remember that the Eucharist is not a thing but a person, the person of Jesus. As we focus on His presence, He is ever aware of our presence. He is watching you. Now. Yes, now.7. After we receive communion, let us go forth from Mass remembering that Jesus is within us. How does that awareness change how we act?I challenge you to do something different. Something. Anything. How can we open a new door in our minds and hearts to let Jesus in more deeply?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Fully Praying the Mass

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,
Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. When we talk about the hope that the Catholic Church in America flourishes in the future, how much we flourish will revolve around how we respond to the Eucharist. The Second Vatican council has
given us some principles:
1. We are called to understand: Jesus is uniquely present, and makes present His one sacrifice on the cross (which happened once in history, but whose power is eternal, see Revelation 5). We are called to participate and be incorporated into that sacrifice,
that we can become an offering to God.
2. We are called to participate internally: The faithful are called to offer the Divine Victim not only through the priest, but together with him, and in so doing offer our own lives. We offer our work, our struggles, our suffering, our joys and sorrows, all the
aspects of our walking with God through the week.
3. We are called to participate externally: This expresses and strengthens our internal participation and encourages those around us to participate more fully (we are responsible for supporting each other). We are called to sing or say the words and do the actions that the liturgy gives us to do and do it like we mean it. There is no need to add a bunch of other things that the liturgy does not call us to do; we can focus on doing our part with all our minds and all our hearts. That will be challenge enough.
4. We are called to live out the meaning of what we celebrate in the rest of our lives that week. Think of how a bride and groom give themselves to each other in their marriage vows at their wedding and give themselves to each other is living out those vows
in their lives. The sacrament and the living out the sacrament form one act of selfgiving and each gives meaning and strength to the other.
Having someone who cares for us personally is unlike anything else in reality. I hear people are developing robots with artificial intelligence and the ability to mimic human expressions. They can be programmed to tell us how much they love us and how wonderful we are. Someone might fool themselves for a while with such a toy, but ultimately it is empty. What matters is encountering someone who truly loves us. No one loves us more than the Lord, and this most intimate encounter in the Eucharist is more precious than anything the earth can offer. Many people leave the Church or stop coming to Mass because they forget this or never were taught in the first place. If we realized what a great gift it is, how could we leave? What on earth could make us stop coming?
As I have said before, if we want a better church, if we want a better world, the first step is to fall more deeply in love with Jesus. One thing we can all do is ask: do I respond to the call to the Eucharist like I really believe in it?
Blessings,

Eucharist: Looking Beyond Appearances

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

The is the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. You have heard a good deal (I hope) about the Eucharistic revival. We have heard about the majority of those who call

themselves Catholic who don’t believe in the Church’s teaching on the Real Presence. I consider this to be a part of a larger problem of so many Catholics being led to believe that the Catholic faith is much, much less than it really is. Given that, it should not surprise us that so many people stop going to church. Without much profound reason to come, a bad experience or just apathy can trigger a departure. I would suggest a lack of Catholic belief in the Eucharist has three causes: casual practice, careless talk, and mushy teaching. Many of us are trying to build a greater sense of reverence in our practice and how we talk about the mysteries, and today I want to address what we are taught.

Many people’s formation so emphasized Mass as our family meal, there was not much talk about what made it different from other meals, and how it is so much, much more than a meal.

Some of our Evangelical brothers and sisters say that we are mistaken in our belief and claim that Jesus was speaking metaphorically when He spoke of eating His body and drinking His

blood. They point to other times that Jesus used metaphors and say that this teaching follows that pattern. Since most Catholics (including priests) are not prepared to respond, that is often the

last word on the subject, and the skeptics feel confirmed, and the Catholics feel insecure. It is time for that to end. We can look closer at the Biblical text (something I’m always in favor of) and see how Jesus’ talk about the Eucharist is very, very different from His use of metaphors.

When Jesus used metaphors, they were in line with the Old Testament imagery. “I am the good shepherd (John 10; see Ezekiel 34 and also Psalm 95). “Rivers of living water (John 4; John 7;

Ezekiel 47; Psalm 1; Jeremiah 17).” “I am the vine; you are the branches (John 15:1-10; Isaiah 5).” By Contrast, the metaphor of eating someone’s flesh in the Old Testament is not about

believing in someone but conquering and destroying them. “When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh, these my enemies and foes stumble and fall (Psalm 27:2; see also Zechariah 9:15 and Ezekiel 39:17-20).” Jesus built His teaching on the Old Testament; he did not toss it out and start from scratch. Foreshadowing of the Eucharist can be found in the manna in the desert and the eating of the Passover lamb, and these are not metaphors but realities that meant life or death.

When there was confusion about Jesus’ figures of speech, either He or the Gospel writer would clarify. “Lazarus is dead (John 11:14).” “He was speaking of the temple of His body (John 2:21).” When Jesus speaks of giving living water (John 4 and John 7) it is clarified that “He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive (John 7:39a).”

Jesus never said, “I am this vine” or “I am this door” but He did say, “this is my Body” while holding it is His hands “Matt 26:26-28; Mark 14: 22-24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:24- 25).

None of the instances’ of Jesus metaphors lead to most of His followers who believed in Him walking away and not coming back (John 6:66). There is no parallel of disciples walking away

saying “This nut thinks he’s a sheepgate.”

The Bread of life discourse in John 6 bears closer examination. The guts of the talk is in two sections vv. 35-47 and vv. 48-58. The first emphasizes belief, and if that were all there was, I would say a case could be made that “I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall not thirst (v. 35)” is a metaphor for believing in Jesus. The second section, however, responds to their skepticism by doubling down, and does not talk about belief but eating His flesh and drinking His blood (the blood came out of nowhere). He says, “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” (These two sections echo the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist.). If one is still skeptical, I would ask, what could Jesus have said that would convince you that He really meant it?

It really is the Body and Blood of Jesus, as Bishop Barron teaches, not in “a reductive physicalist sense (we’re not talking about a piece of meat here)” but a more Jewish framework, in which the flesh and the blood are the person (hence Catholic teaching that every particle of the Eucharist is the complete Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity). We, of course, remember that Jesus is Jewish and not Greek.

Given how unique this teaching is, the price Jesus paid is losing most of His followers, and how it is referred to in all four Gospels and Paul, how important was it to Jesus? How important was it to the early Church? How seriously should we take it? What should our response be?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

The Bride, the Lamb, and the Baptist

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

As we get back to ordinary time, we journey with Jesus and His followers in the Gospels. In our Gospel today, we see John the Baptist introducing Jesus with, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).” He explains that he knew this by the power of the Holy Spirit. We remember this is the second time John the Baptist recognized Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit (See Luke 1:39-45). We are so used to calling Jesus the Lamb of God we can forget how strange it would sound at the time. He is, of course referring to the Passover Lamb, and the Gospel of John will develop the theme of Jesus and Passover quite extensively.

In the Gospel of John, the Baptists job is to introduce Jesus, and he will use two images: the Passover Lamb and the Bridegroom (see John 3:22-30). These two images are brought together at the end of the Book of Revelation with the wedding of the Bride (the Church) and the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9; 21:9-21, note especially “Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb [Rev. 19:9]”).

John the Baptist will refer to himself as the “friend of the bridegroom” or the best man (John 3:29). If you read Brant Pitre’s book “Jesus the Bridegroom” he will explain that the role of friend of the bridegroom was critical in Jewish culture, and he brings the bride to the groom. He says that rabbinic literature will say God was playing the role of friend of the bridegroom when He brought Eve to Adam (Genesis 1:22). As we keep reading the Gospel of John we see that the next day the Baptist repeats the message to two of his disciples, including Andrew, and they start following Jesus (In bringing those who would be Church to the Lamb, John is acting as friend of the Bridegroom).

During Mass, the priest holds up the Blessed Sacrament and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God. Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb.” Bringing together John 1:29 and Revelation 19:9, this spans the work of Jesus from beginning to end and our journey with Jesus from beginning to end; the whole of the great mystery of salvation, the great mystery of life is before us. If we take this seriously, it should make us tremble a bit. We respond, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the world and my soul shall be healed.” This precious phrase comes from Matthew chapter 8, right after the Sermon on the Mount (which began, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven [Mat. 5:3]”). Matthew 8 begins with two healings.

First, there is a leper, who was the poorest of the poor. He could offer Jesus nothing; he was totally dependent on Jesus’ mercy. The second, by contrast was a centurion asking for healing for his servant. He was, in material terms, probably the wealthiest and most powerful person ever to set foot in the little town of Capernaum, and he had been very generous to the people there (See Luke 7:4-5). If anyone could have expected to approach Jesus with a sense of entitlement, it was him. However, he makes this profoundly humble statement, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof (Mat 8:8; Luke 7:6-7).” He was materially wealthy, but he was poor in spirit, as we are called to be. We remember when people approached Jesus with a sense of entitlement, it does not end well (see Luke 4:14-30).”

We are called to remember, as we receive the most awesome gift of the Eucharist, that we so very much do not deserve this wonderful gift but we trust in His great mercy. This helps put us in the right disposition. In 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 St. Paul says some fierce things about those who receive Holy Communion without the proper disposition. Let us never forget what all this is about.

The Lord is calling us. How do we respond?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Eucharistic Revival I

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

At the priests’ conference, we talked about the Eucharistic revival. Our speaker was a theology professor, Dr. Timothy O’Malley. We reviewed the statistics about the (vast) majority of Catholics who believe that at Mass the bread and wine are only symbols of the

Body and Blood of Christ, rather than being truly, substantially the Body and Blood of Christ. As horrible as that is, we cannot solve the problem simply by telling them the correct doctrine, but people need to know why this matters, what difference it makes in

their lives. Furthermore, they must not only know it cognitively, but personally, deep down to their core. There is a gap between faith and life, and people don’t see that it matters that much.

Nor need we think only of those already beatified and canonized. The Holy Spirit bestows holiness in abundance among God’s holy and faithful people, for “it has pleased God to make men and women holy and to save them, not as individuals without any bond between them, but rather as a people who might acknowledge him in truth and serve him in holiness”. In salvation history, the Lord saved one people. We are never completely ourselves unless we belong to a people. That is why no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual. Rather, God draws us to himself, taking into account the complex fabric of interpersonal relationships present in a human community. God wanted to enter into the life and history of a people (Gaudete et Exultate 6).”

We are so busy and moving so fast that life is a series of events, and we don’t step back to see the larger narrative, the meaning. People have been taught that the good life is being very productive. Relationships, contemplation and meaning get pushed aside by an ever increasing torrent of tasks. People are falling apart, and there are not nearly enough counsellors to help people who need counselling.

People see the reality as primarily something to manipulate rather than resonating with it. Consider, for a moment, resonating with someone or something. Rather than coming to a reality with preset preferences and trying to see how much we can push things in that

direction, we are sensitive to the movement and quick to adapt. Think of two people dancing together, their movements seek to be synchronized so that they flow together. This is a powerful experience and helps draw us out of ourselves. One of the major challenges of our time is to get more Catholics to see themselves less as customers in the Church, and more as disciples and co-workers in mission. More on that later.

As we talk about becoming a Eucharistic people, we start with looking more deeply at the meaning of baptismal priesthood. I trust everyone was taught that at our baptism we were

anointed “priest, prophet, and king,” but we most were not taught much about what that means, much less what it means in practice. That is for next week.

Blessings, Fr. Jim

Church in Transition

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

I think it is safe to say we are going through transition. The shortage of priests is getting people’s attention, but also the fact that most people who were raised Catholic are not practicing the Catholic faith, even minimally, in any measurable way. Our society is

getting more and more hostile to some core Christian values, and we don’t know how far that will go (there is no natural limit).

People point to various reasons why people leave the Church, but we must always remember the other side of that question: they were not given enough reason to stay. If you take away one thought from me today, let it be this:

Many, many people think the Catholic faith is much less than it is, and it doesn’t take much to get them to leave because they don’t think it matters that much anyway. Now there have been generations who were taught that way, and we are seeing the

results. If they had a semi-decent appreciation of the awesome gift of the Catholic faith, for the magnificent and unique gift of the Eucharist, you couldn’t pry them loose with a crowbar. Turning that around is a central factor in setting the course for our future.

As we seek to fix this, there is a challenge. There is polarization in the Church, and that is a major problem. I think Satan laughs himself silly every time he can get Christians fighting

Christians, and he has had much cause to laugh of late. To reduce some complex issues to simple categories, we can speak of traditionalists and progressives, each with a different set

of emphases and priorities. This is often coming up in how people think we should celebrate Mass.

Before Vatican II, there was tremendous emphasis on the other-worldly nature of the Mass, on reverence, on how is was unique and transcendent it was. The problem was that people

often had a sense of being disconnected from it, even while present. After Vatican II, there were a number of changes, not all of them called for by the council. There was a greater

sense of the importance of participating, on the community dimension, on making the mystery easily accessible. The problem was that some people often thought of the Mass as just another gathering, to be judged according to how it makes us feel and what kind of experience they have.

Coming off the lock-down, many are saying they have decided they like to do their Sunday morning prayers in their jammies in their beanbag chair with their hot chocolate. The big tragedy is not that they have stopped coming, but that they had so little sense about this in the first place.

We need to connect people as powerfully as possible with the divine mystery, a key component is how we celebrate Mass. Vatican II did teach that people should be taught to understand really well what is happening and why, and encouraged to full, conscious, active participation. The council also said that people should be able to sing or say at least those parts of the Mass that pertain to them. This does a number of things. It helps set apart the

liturgy from other activities: Folks, this is different from everything else we do, and we must be conscious of that. That is part of having a sense of the sacred. It requires more effort to learn and understand, and there is merit in that. It also unites us with people all over the world. If people are gathered from other countries with other languages, we can all pray together. Even if that doesn’t happen to us on a regular basis, it reminds us that Church

is much larger than us and helps us put ourselves in perspective. We also focus on music that is different from secular music, that is faithful to what is being celebrated, and pulls something from deep inside us.

Some people are unhappy because we are being more traditional. Some people are unhappy because we are not being much more traditional. One thing is fairly certain: we will not get

through this without dealing with things we don’t like. I think that’s part of why God calls us to be Church: this is about something larger than us.

The adventure continues.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Praying the Eucharistic Prayer

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

Our readings today talk about the power of prayer. We know that praying better is not about building technique to be able to manipulate God (an unworthy enterprise that always fails

anyway), but about bringing more and more of ourselves to God, that we may be all His. Part of that is understanding and being more conscious of what we are praying. The Mass, of course, is

our central prayer, and it is good to understand it more and more. Today I’m going to unpack the third Eucharistic prayer. We pray it very often, but perhaps most people don’t give a lot of thought to what we are really saying.

The liturgy of the Eucharist begins with gathering and bringing forward the gifts which represent all we have done with what God has given us. As the bread and wine are placed on the altar, we

intentionally offer ourselves with them, that we may be consecrated.

We pray the prayer over the gifts, then there is the preface, with praises God for His gifts to us. Then comes the Holy, Holy, the hymn with which we unite with the heavenly liturgy (see Isaiah

6 and Revelation 4).

Then we start the Eucharistic prayer proper, and number three begins with praising God for His holiness and the work of creation, and then says how creation is meant to praise Him. God

gathers us to Himself so that “from the rising of the sun to its setting a pure sacrifice may be offered to your name (see Malachi 1:11).”

Then we ask for the Holy Spirit to “graciously make holy these gifts we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is called the “epiclesis” the calling upon, and it is worthy of extra note.

Then we get to the words of institution, recounting what Jesus said and did at the Last Supper, giving Himself sacramentally as He would give Himself on the Cross. This is worthy of extra

special note, and we respond to the moment with proclaiming the mystery of faith.

Next, we speak of celebrating the memorial of the pascal mystery by which we are saved. We remember that in the Bible, remembering means something stronger than we are used to:

making a past event present and effective. (If you read Genesis 8:1; 1Samuel 1:19; Jeremiah 31:34; Luke 1:54 and 72 in that light, I think it will make sense). And we gratefully offer “this holy and living sacrifice.” Jesus died once and will never die again, but His sacrifice has an eternal power, and He allows us to unite ourselves to that sacrifice that we “make become one body, one spirit in Christ.” As we asked for the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into

the body and blood of Christ, so we ask the Holy Spirit to transform us into the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12; and Ephesians 4:1-16). We seek to be ever more perfectly the Body of Christ, and the body that is offered to the Father (see John 17: 20-21; and perhaps 1Corinthians 15:25-28). We ask, “May he make of us an eternal offering to you so that we may obtain an inheritance with your elect” and we mention the saints. Heaven is receiving God’s love and loving Him in return brought to infinity, and that is being an eternal offering to Him. “May this Sacrifice of our reconciliation, we pray, O Lord, advance the peace and salvation of

all the world,” and we pray that the power of Jesus’ Sacrifice continue to transform the people of the world, both those gathered and those scattered throughout the world. Then we pray for those

who have died. Finally comes the doxology: “Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.”

Responding with the Great Amen, the people join in saying the whole prayer. We offer all to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.

This is our faith: God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, gathers a sinful people to Himself by the power of Jesus’ sacrifice, and makes us a part of that union of self-gift, which is heaven

for all eternity, and we want everyone to share in it. To quote an old beer commercial, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Blessings

Fr. Jim

Realizing What a Treasure we Have

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

This is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. We read the story of the multiplying of the loaves and fishes in the Gospel of Luke, which prepares us to learn that Jesus is the Bread of life.

Notice that the Twelve underestimate Jesus, though not unreasonably. They had seen Jesus healing the sick and calming a storm, but this was new. Our natural tendency is to underestimate the gifts of God. Throughout history there have been constant attempts to trim down the Gospel message and make it less than what it is. The Arian heresy said that Jesus is not God, but that God sent one of His creations to suffer. The Docetists claimed that Jesus was not truly human and did not really suffer. These make the message of God’s love less complete, and therefore less demanding on us. Lately, there have been attempts to explain away miracles and even the resurrection itself as not really having happened. I have heard people argue that what really happened with the multiplying of the loaves was that when Jesus started sharing, other people started sharing what they had and there were a bunch of folks who were secretly carrying bread and fish. The first problem with this is that there is nothing in the text that indicates this. If this were a lesson about sharing, why would all four Gospel writers hide the real message so that no one could figure it out until the twentieth century?

We have read many times that 70% percent of Catholics don’t believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. That should amaze and horrify us, but not surprise us. I encountered programs for preparing for first communion that talked about Eucharist as our family meal with nothing about how the bread and wine actually become Jesus, much less how it is our personal participation in Jesus’ sacrifice. I would ask the director why and was told, “Because it was so overemphasized in the past.” I never saw the logic to that, but I know there was a lot of it out there.

The point is that for generations now, we have been led to believe the Catholic faith is much less than what it is. My message is not, “Woe is us; we should be ashamed” but rather, “Oh, we are in for such a treat.” The more we open this treasure we have been given, the more wonderful we will find it is. In 1987 I graduated from a Jesuit school of theology with honors. I had some great teachers. What I have learned about the faith since then has been amazing. What I have learned in the last ten years has been precious beyond diamonds. I am looking forward to what God will teach me next.

You may have heard the story of Joshua Bell, one of the world’s great violinists, with his priceless Stradivarius violin played in a subway station for 43 minutes wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. Over a thousand people passed by. 27 gave money ($52.17) and seven stopped and listened for a bit. What if they’d had any notion of the great gift they were given?

The challenge for today: think of ourselves as God’s kindergarteners. We have so many wonderful things to discover. Let us look for God to be teaching us. Let us look for God to be touching us. Let us look for God to be changing us into more than what we are now. Especially when we come to Mass this weekend, let us remember what is happening; there is a mystery and a treasure deeper and wider than the ocean. Let us expect God to do

something.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim