Eucharist as Food (Bread of Life, Week 1, 7/29/18)

To listen to this homily, click here.

Growing up, my parents (and probably yours) had a way of verbally highlighting what was most important; they would repeat the command so we knew it was important. You might be able to plead ignorance of what they had said once, possibly twice, but by the time they said it a third time, you’d better pay attention and do it. Starting today, the Church does the same thing regarding the Eucharist. For the next five weeks, the Church will invite us to explore chapter 6 of St. John's Gospel. This section of John’s writing is often called the “bread of life discourse”, and it gives us an opportunity to reflect repeatedly on the greatest gift Christ has given us, the gift of himself in the Eucharist. These precious verses have been prayed with and studied for 2000 years and still we have not exhausted their richness. In order that we don’t get overwhelmed by the theological feast in front of us, let’s focus on one element for this week. The common thread in both the first reading and the gospel is food. 

In the first reading from the Book of Kings, the Prophet Elisha is given 20 barley loaves by an unknown man. God commands the prophet to use the bread to feed 100 people. Elisha objects, realizing that this is not enough food. God says just be quiet and do it; not only will there be enough but there will even be leftovers. Of course this is what happened. A skeptical person might try to downplay the miracle. Maybe the loaves were very large, like party subs from subway or maybe the 100 people were on a diet or didn’t like that type of bread. But this miracle is an example of foreshadowing, a sort of preview of what the messiah will do and it happens all the time in the Old Testament. These characters and miracles are paving the way for the person and miracles of Jesus.

In the case of Jesus there can be no doubt. He uses 5 barley loaves and 2 fish to feed 5000 men, plus their wives and children. An impressive miracle to be sure, but Jesus does not intend it as a one-time marvel. He takes the bread and gives thanks before distributing it. The word for “Giving thanks" in Greek is Eucharist - the word we use for the Mass. Perhaps you know this already, the form of the Mass as we are celebrating it right now, right here in Chesterfield, is virtually unchanged since the second century. 

St. Justin Martyr, writing about 150 A.D., describes Christians gathering on Sunday. They listened to readings from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospels, followed by a homily. Then came prayers for those in need, an offering of bread and wine, a consecration prayer using Jesus’ words at the Last Supper. A deacon helped with Communion and after the service, took Communion to the sick. And no Sunday Mass would be complete without a collection! St. Justin gives an exhortation to share with those in distress - the sick, the imprisoned, all those in need. Justin Martyr underscored that Jesus wants to feed us with his Words and the Eucharistic sacrifice. 

Food has three main purposes. First, to repair and refuel the body. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." Jesus, the Bread of Life, heals us. The second purpose is social: it unites people. Studies show that if a family has dinner together - even once or twice a week - it reduces the risk that children will engage in destructive behaviors. Likewise, our attendance at Mass, the best of family meals, can have a powerful effect. 

Third, food brings joy. Is there anything better than delicious food (I’m thinking of my mom’s potato salad and pumpkin pie), shared with family and friends? On the other hand, junk food and bad diets fail one or more of these criteria and as a result, become damaging and dangerous.

In both miracles today, God says to people around him, “give me the little food you have. I don’t care if it seems too little or insignificant. Give me what you have and I will make it more than enough for what you need; in fact, there will even be leftovers for others!” Isn’t this true today? A few handfuls of plain wheat wafers and a small portion of wine become the spiritual food and drink that give us the strength to forgive, to hope, to love, to pray, and to serve. Can it be anything other than a miracle that this seemingly insignificant food and drink has empowered saints, emboldened martyrs, and softened the hardest hearts?!

Everyone needs food to survive and because we are wonderfully made, everyone feels hungry as a reminder that it’s time to eat. But our bodies are not the only part of us that experience hunger. Our mind and soul also need to be fed consistently with wholesome nutrients if they are to remain healthy and growing. We must have some sort of meal plan for our mind and soul if we want to flourish as an integrated and fully-alive human. 

For these five weeks, we have the opportunity to think about what it means when Jesus says, “I am the bread of Life.” We can appreciate the fact that he promises to be our food; to nourish our body, mind, and spirit. We might also ask for the courage and honesty to look at what we consume right now as food and drink for our body. Does it bear the three qualities of repairing, uniting, and bringing joy? Or is it an escape, an indulgence, or an afterthought we treat with indifference, irritation, and laziness?

More importantly, what are we feeding our mind and soul? Are we feeding them at all or are they on a starvation diet? If we ate as often as we prayed, would we survive? Would our body have any strength at all? Are we taking time to enrich our minds with wholesome reading, hobbies, and continued education? Do we try and learn something new about our Faith each day? Or did our spiritual education end in grade school or high school? Do we allow God to feed us through the practice of daily prayer, especially with His Word in the Scriptures? How much easier it is to be fed by the junk food of reality tv, buzzfeed quizzes, and other diversions that entertain but fail to enrich and satisfy.

If we want to be healthy and holy, we must pay attention to the needs of body, soul, and mind.  Jesus offers to be our food to feed all three. He is the only food that will satisfy you completely. And he will give not only enough for your own needs, but there will also be leftovers for you to share with others who are hungry and weak and in need of nourishment.

But God...It's Not My Job!! (15th Sunday, Year B)

To listen to this homily, click here.

Rumor has it every month, the Department of Transportation gives an award to a distinct class of its employees across the nation. This award is not prestigious; rather it highlights an employee who manages to follow the letter of the law perfectly while refusing to employ common sense. This honor is the “It’s Not My Job Award” and it goes to the employee who proves to be most unwilling to go outside the the scope of their assigned task. My favorite instance of this award took place on a road in Litchfield Park, Arizona. Here a crew was repainting lane markings when they came across something not in their job description: roadkill! Since they were assigned to paint the center line of the road, not remove dead animals, they simply painted the road...and the dead opossum!

As ridiculous as the “It’s Not My Job Award” is, there are many people who could win this title if it were offered for the way Christians proclaim their faith. By virtue of our baptism, we are all anointed priest, prophet, and king. In our readings today, the Church asks us to reflect especially on the role of the prophet, the messenger of God’s Word. Oftentimes, when we hear the word “prophet”, we think of someone who can predict the future or see things others can’t. While it is true that some prophets did predict future happenings, that wasn’t their main task. The prophet is someone, first and foremost, called to share God’s Word and message with the people around him. Even if we understand what a prophet truly is, most of us probably think it is a role best suited for a priest or religious or at least someone who has special training. 

It might help us understand what a often prophet looks like by looking at the one in the first reading. His name was Amos and he was a normal, everyday, working guy. He was a shepherd and an arborist; a tree trimmer of sycamore trees in fact! He lived just south of the border between the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, on the Judea side. How easy it would have been for Amos to tell the Lord, “prophecy is not my job, that’s not what I signed up for!” But instead, he crossed the border into the North and proclaimed God’s truth to those in the City of Bethel.  The people there were not fully living their faith. They were part-time in their devotion to the Lord. Amos told them to change their lives and be committed to the Lord; to go back to what their faith demanded of them. The priest, Amaziah, told Amos to stop confronting the people and go back to Judah. Amos responded: “I am not a professional prophet. I am an arborist, a dresser of trees. But I cannot refuse to proclaim the Lord.”

Nor can any of us. We have to “proclaim the word, in season and out of season” as St. Paul wrote. By nature of our baptism, we have to proclaim the truth we experience within us whether it is a time others want to hear it, or whether it is a time they would rather we just keep quiet. We are all called to be prophetic voices, no matter what our training or vocation. This isn’t just the work of priests and religious sisters and brothers; it is the work of all the baptized. We cannot simply tell the Lord, “It’s not my job.”

While He was still with us on earth, Jesus sent his disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven. These disciples were ordinary, everyday people entrusted with an extraordinary task. Like Amos, they were not trained missionaries but fisherman. Jesus doesn’t seem too concerned about that. He told them the mission was urgent.  They shouldn’t be bogged down with the cares and concerns of luggage. But they should wear sandals because they had a lot of ground to cover. They needed to proclaim to all.  Some would listen, and others would reject them, but the message had to be proclaimed to as many people as possible because it was a matter of eternal life or death. And, as we know from the gospel, these unqualified missionaries had tremendous success, success that came from God, which changed the world, and even our own lives!

It is the same for us. We need to bring the message, the experience, the very presence of Jesus Christ to the world. This is our call, no matter who we are, no matter what our state in life. Some will listen to you who will not listen to me as a priest.  Perhaps it is people your age, who will say, “I want to be happy with life as you are happy.”  Perhaps it will be people who look to you for guidance, such as your own children, grandchildren, friends, co-workers, or neighbors.  Maybe it will be people who respect and love you, such as your parents and brothers and sisters. Many of these people will hear the message clearer when it comes from you rather than from me or any priest.  So please proclaim the message! 

And yes, there will be people who will reject the message.  You may indeed have to move on and proclaim the  truth of Jesus Christ to others.  But don’t stop praying for them. And be patient. Joy, happiness and the Presence of the Lord are contagious, but sometimes it takes time for the peace of Christ to win over a person.

May we embrace the role of prophet and apostle in own lives as they are modeled to us today in the example of Amos and the twelve apostles. Let us not be afraid of the uncertainties or difficulties that will come our way in fulfilling our call which was given to us at baptism. Most importantly, each of us, in our own way, has something to share with the world about the Good News of Jesus Christ. Let us not act in a way that would win the “It’s Not My Job Award” and let us trust that God wants to use our witness to bring others closer to him. 

God Did Not Make Death (13th Sunday, Cycle B)

To listen to this homily, click here.

 “God did not make death” we hear in the first reading. Ok, that is comforting, but if God didn’t make death, where did it come from? The Book of Wisdom goes on to tell us that it entered the world through the devil’s envy. This is an interesting thought, which deserves our attention and reflection. First of all, let’s talk about envy, what it is and how it might bring about death. Each us, at some moment in our lives, have certainly desired what another person possesses. Our greedy eyes have looked at wealth or power or good looks or talent or strength or any number of other things. The success of others might sting and make us insecure. We might feel anger, fear, panic, and who knows what else.

Satan says. “Evil, be thou my good”! He choses envy, which brings death. Multiply that by a million. Now you see how the devil felt. He had been an archangel, perhaps the greatest being in God's creation, second only to God himself. But even the greatest angels had the possibility of rebelling against God. Lucifer (meaning “light-bearer”), as he was called before his sin, was dazzled by God's infinite greatness. However Lucifer did not like being second fiddle in comparison to the infinite God! So he developed an envy of God! An envy, which turned into a hatred of God’s goodness. A bottomless hatred. Like opposing poles of magnets, his opposition to God propelled him straight out of heaven, which the Book of Revelation describes as an epic battle between Lucifer and his forces against St. Michael and the angels who remained obedient to God.

He landed on earth with a thud. Shame, bitterness and rage propelled him through the Garden of beauty God had created. This former light-bearer now walked in stunned darkness amidst shimmering beauty, intricacy and innocence. He came upon the most touching sight of all and it froze him in his tracks. He looked upon the first human beings, pure, innocent, and marked by God’s own loving hand. They were “imperishable, and made in God’s own image,” the First Reading says. 

The father of lies, in his woundedness, must have been filled with anger and jealous rage at the mere sight of Adam and Eve. Instead of loving them, as he was created to do, he wanted them to be as unhappy as he was (and still is). He was about to introduce death to the world by turning our first parents against God, just as he had turned against God. This “Original Sin” would create a broken world, a wounded relationship between humanity and God. We know how the story goes. And we gather here each and every week to thank God for not giving up on them or on us. We adore Him for redeeming our envious, prideful hearts through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Creating life is very different from fostering envy of God or his reflection as we see it in other people. Jesus shows us what a human life looks like without jealousy and envy. St. John tells us in the beginning of his gospel that what came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race. 

Jesus, even though he was Divine, was humble and content to be himself. He was not hostile or insecure in any way. He grieved for others instead of for himself. In today’s Gospel, Jairus’ daughter is just “asleep,” he says. The crowd laughs. Asleep! What is this guy talking about? He must be crazy!” But, He had been united forever in the loving community of the Holy Trinity, Jesus knew that love is stronger than death. And so he walked through their ridicule, woke the dead girl, and nestled her into the deep rich love that had created her at the first moment of her existence. That is what a love, completely free of envy is capable of doing.

To go back to where we started in the first reading, we recall that Satan saw the goodness and love of God and instead of rejoicing and humbly adoring Him in awe and wonder, he was filled with envy. He didn't’’t want to serve God, he wanted to be God. Satan choses envy, which ends up bringing death and suffering not only to himself but to the human race as well. Compare that to the person of Jesus, who rejoices in the goodness and love of God and humbly shares it with the whole world. His Love brings life!

Take time this weekend to contemplate which side I choose to belong. Am I a grateful, gracious, generous person, who thanks God constantly for the blessings showered upon me? Do I also rejoice in the goodness he shares with others around me? Can I be happy when others succeed, become rich, or experience good fortune? Or am I filled with envy, sadness, bitterness, and rage? The path of gratitude and rejoicing will always bring life, peace, and joy. Choosing envy will only end in the same destruction and unhappiness experienced by Satan and his army. May our hearts echo the words of the Psalm today, “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me. O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.”