We have as our guest this weekend, Sr. Jeanne Houlihan of the Maryknoll Sisters. Sister is going to speak to us about her work as a missionary and also some of the needs of our brothers and sisters around the world. Before she speaks to you, I want to finish our reflection on the Bread of Life Discourse of St. John’s Gospel.
We have arrived at the fifth and final homily in our series: Jesus the Bread of Life. We have seen four dimensions of the Eucharist: Food, Faith, Forgiveness and Fission (in the nuclear sense). Today we see the fifth dimension. Like the first four, it begins with the letter "f". It is a word central to the Bible and that word is freedom! Freedom is used many different ways in our time, but for the person who follows Christ, it means the power to decide, to make a choice. It is not the ability to do whatever we want; that is anarchy!
Our readings today focus on this freedom to make important decisions. Joshua tells the Israelites, "Decide today whom you will serve." St. Paul tells husbands they have to make a decision: Are they going to love their wife? Not just in an emotional or romantic way. That kind of love comes and goes. Rather, St. Paul tells husbands to love their wives like Christ loves the Church; down to the last drop of his blood. In the Gospel Jesus confronts his disciples with the greatest choice of all, "Do you also want to leave me?”
God has given us freedom - a great gift, but also a bit frightening. Pope-emeritus Benedict said, "Freedom is a springboard from which to dive into the infinite sea of divine goodness, but it can also become a tilted plane on which to slide towards the abyss of sin and evil." He spoke these words to the boys and girls of Rome's prison for minors. No matter how limited we feel, God has given us the gift of freedom. Our readings remind us that it is up to us to decide how to use it.
In addressing his disciples Jesus makes it clear that the decision comes down to something very concrete: The Eucharist itself. These past weeks we have been hearing Jesus say, "I am the Bread of Life, whoever comes to me will never hunger...The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world...Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you...my flesh is true food and my blood true drink.” As we have learned, faith is a gift. "No one can come to me," says Jesus, "unless the Father draw him." You have the gift of faith in Christ, especially in his true presence in the Eucharist.
All of this is wonderful to reflect on, but it also has practical implications: We have to make a choice. Are we going to live our faith? Will we worship Jesus when the priest lifts his Body and Blood? Will we approach Communion with reverence? Will we spend time before Jesus, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament here in church? Will we consciously make time for the Lord everyday for quiet prayer? Will we be like the many people in today’s gospel that left the Lord and no longer followed him because his teaching was too hard, too demanding?
I would like conclude this series with a final image from Pope Benedict. He compares the Corpus Christi procession to Mary on the road to her cousin Elizabeth. Mary carries Jesus inside her just as we carry Jesus in the monstrance. Mary consciously chooses to accept the responsibility to be the mother of God with all the challenges and sacrifices that come along with it. Perhaps that is what is so beautiful about every pregnancy, every family that is expecting a child. They are deliberately accepting their unborn child with all the sacrifices and obligations he or she brings. In living our faith in Christ, we face a similar choice to accept him with all the sacrifices and obligations that follow. Take time to consider the words of Joshua, "Decide today whom you will serve." And above all, Jesus' question: "Do you also want to leave me?" You do have a choice. I pray that your freedom will be a springboard to God and not an inclined plane toward sin. Hopefully we can be inspired by the image of Mary with Jesus inside her. She can help us realize the true potential of our freedom. She can help us say the words of St. Peter: "Master, to who shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."
