Eucharist and Fission (Bread of Life Discourse, Week 4)

This weekend marks the fourth stop in our reflection on the “Bread of Life Discourse” of John’s gospel. So far, we have pondered the themes of food, faith, and forgiveness in relation to the Eucharist. Today’s point for meditation comes to us, not from scripture like the other three, but from Pope-Emeritus Benedict. In his homily to young people attending the 2005 World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, he said the Eucharist is “like inducing nuclear fission in the very heart of being—the victory of love over hatred, the victory of love over death. Only this intimate explosion of good conquering evil can then trigger off the series of transformations that little by little will change the world.” Let’s spend some time this morning on this theme of nuclear fission as we enter the fourth dimension of the Eucharist. 

In high school science most of us probably learned something about nuclear fission. Science wasn’t one of my strengths and I apologize to all you physicists out there. Nuclear fission involves unleashing energy inside matter which then multiplies and increases energy. Since this process involves some of the building blocks of matter, —-things like neutrons and protons, the effects can be enormous. The element uranium is the natural engine of fission and it can do incredible things, even in small amounts. For example, one kilogram of uranium, which equals 2.2 pounds, can produce as much energy as 3.3 million pounds of coal! One pound of highly enriched uranium, like that used to power a nuclear submarine is equivalent to 1 million gallons of gasoline. 

What looks like a humble rock has enormous power inside. Just so, says Pope Benedict, Jesus' death "on the outside is simply brutal violence - the crucifixion - from within, it becomes an act of total self-giving love." Jesus renews that self-giving in the Eucharist and is literally a dynamo of grace and love and mercy. When the priest lifts up the host and says, this is my Body given for you - and the chalice, this is my blood poured out for you - Jesus draws us into his self-offering. By his cross he takes us to the Father through the Holy Spirit. You might protest: But I am a sinner. I am terribly distracted. There is so much I don’t understand! So were the disciples at the Last Supper. They even started falling asleep! Jesus takes us to the Father despite our sins. 

Those failings afflict us, but you know Jesus still wants to take us to His Father. The forgiveness - the acceptance - we experience in the Eucharist can remake us. The Eucharist is the great sacrament of forgiveness. Think about this: If God put so much potential energy and power in uranium, how much more potential has he put in you? Several pounds of this rock can give light and warmth to an entire city. Consider what God can do with you.

As technology advances and we explore more of the universe, it becomes increasingly clear that God has done amazing things in our world. Just think of the incredible images we have received from the spacecraft near Pluto and the probe on Mars. But we have something even more amazing within ourselves. The American physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku, said, "Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe." God has put enormous potential power in us: the nuclear dynamo which is our body, mind, and most especially, our soul. To unleash that energy, God wants to refine us with something even greater - the Body of Christ. Jesus tells us today that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life. It only makes sense when you think about the fact that you and I are composite beings, made of matter and spirit. Jesus, who is perfect God and perfect man, did not take up a human body, then discard it. No, he redeemed and perfected it when he rose, body and soul, from the dead. He gives us his body so we might have eternal life.

I want to offer one last thought on the topic of nuclear fission. It is something that has incredible potential for good so long as it is carefully used and applied in the right circumstances. However, if misused, there can be terrible consequences. I am thinking specifically of the atomic bombs that were dropped 70 years ago on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed some 200,000 people. More recently, the Cold War comes to mind and currently, there is much concern about what will happen if Iran enriches enough uranium to make a nuclear device. How sad that something with so much potential for good has also been used to hurt so many!

In a very similar way, the Eucharist must be respected, cared for, and never taken for granted. Because the Eucharist is God himself, it has great power; power for good if used correctly, another type of power is misused. In fact, St. Paul warns Christians in 1 Corinthians 11 that anyone who receives the Eucharist unworthily, which is to say, mindlessly or in the state of mortal sin, eats and drinks condemnation on themselves. We should be on guard against becoming too casual in receiving Communion and taking it for granted. For example, how many Catholics now refer to Holy Communion now as simply bread and wine? We need to look deeper and be mindful of what God is sharing with us. Remember what Pope Benedict says: “the Eucharist is like inducing nuclear fission in the very heart of being.” What an incredible opportunity that is for spiritual power, warmth, and light to radiate out of our soul!

May the life and love of God, the same life and love that created the universe out of nothing and redeemed a world full of sinners, may that life and love be placed in your hearts today at this altar and enable you to help good conquer evil! 

Eucharist and Freedom (Bread of Life Discourse, Week 5)

To listen to this homily, click here.

We have arrived at the fifth and final homily in our Bread of Life reflections. We have seen four dimensions of the Eucharist: Food, Faith, feelings 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 choose what is right, to make a choice for the good. 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 choice: Are they going to love their wives? 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. And in turn, wives should give themselves completely to their husbands. 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 each of 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 over and over again, "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.” An essential part of being a disciple of Christ is believing in the Eucharist and consuming it for strength to follow in the Master’s footsteps. This requires faith and, as we have learned, faith is a gift. "No one can come to me," says Jesus, "unless the Father draw him." We receive the gift of faith in Christ, by asking for it in prayer and helping it grow stronger by mindfully receiving 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. It’s not enough to inherit our Christianity as cradle Catholics; each of us has to become an intentional disciple who deliberately chooses to believe and follow Jesus. Our faith becomes real, personal, and intentional when we confront questions like: Are we going to live our faith outside the walls of Church, even when no one is looking or no one else is doing the right thing? Will we worship Jesus when the priest lifts his Body and Blood at Mass? Will we approach Communion with reverence? Will we spend time before Jesus, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament here in church, especially in adoration? Will we consciously make time for the Lord everyday for quiet prayer? Or, 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 and demanding? 

God is so respectful of us and our freedom that he lets us decide. He won’t make us believe or force us to receive the Eucharist, even though these are the very things that will bring us happiness and life. When human freedom is partnered with the power of God’s grace, amazing, inspiring, and joyful things happen. When human freedom is used only for personal satisfaction, —- apart from the Lord, ——- it always ends up bringing some sort of disorder, sadness, and pain. An excruciating reminder of this truth is the recent news of abuse and cover-ups in Pennsylvania where priests and bishops used their freedom in the most disordered and cowardly ways. And all of us will experience the fallout for years to come. Human freedom is an incredible gift that must always be used in a responsible and holy way, lest we inflict pain on others.

Pope Benedict gives us a final image to wrap things up. 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 and exciting and slightly terrifying about every pregnancy for families 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 carry him within us and 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?" We have a choice; God respects our freedom. I pray our freedom will be a springboard to God and not an inclined plane toward sin. Hopefully we can be inspired by the image of Mary carrying Jesus within 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."

Eucharist and Feelings (Bread of Life Discourse, Week 3)

To listen to this homily, click here.

This weekend we enter the mid-point of Jesus’ preaching on the Bread of Life. Over the past two weeks, we’ve reflected on the Eucharist as food and also the role faith must play if this heavenly food is going to transform our lives. Today’s readings give us a chance to consider another aspect of the human experience as it relates to the Eucharist, namely our feelings and how they can move us closer or further from God and each other. So let’s look at the feelings put forward for us in the Scriptures. 

In the first reading, Elijah has just triumphed over 450 prophets of Baal in an epic showdown of whose God is real. Elijah is vindicated in a dramatic display before all the people. When God shows him his favor, Elijah orders the 450 prophets to be slaughtered for serving a false god. This infuriates the evil queen Jezebel and she sends a message to the prophet that she has sworn to kill him. So Elijah does what any reasonable person would do when a powerful, bloodthirsty queen wants to destroy them; he runs off into the wilderness to hide. But Elijah is no Bear Grylls! After just one day in the unknown, he is afraid, hungry, and begins to despair. “Just take my life,” he exclaims, and lays down to die. God has a better plan and sends an angel with food. Eat, get up and get ready for your journey. Elijah thinks about it but his depression is too great and he lays down again. The pestering angel comes again and helps Elijah eat and drink and he continues on his way as God asked.

In the second reading, St. Paul tells the people to get rid of unholy feelings and passions, namely bitterness, fury, anger and malice. But he is not asking them to be robots. Instead he encourages them to imitate God by latching on to holy affections like kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and love. 

In the gospel, Jesus starts to hear pushback from his challenging teaching on the bread of life. St. John tells us that the people begin to “murmur”, the same word that was used in Exodus, when the people grumbled against God and Moses, even though they had been given so many miracles and blessings. Today the people murmur because they think they know who Jesus is. They are indignant that this son of a carpenter is claiming to be the true Bread come down from heaven. Their feelings of confusion soon build to outrage and disgust.

Having heard a bunch of feelings in the Word of God, we can ask, “what role do they play in the life of a Christian?” Why do we have them? Are they good or bad? Feelings are neither morally good or bad in and of themselves. Many times we have no power over when they come to us. They become good when they lead us toward God and promote charity towards each other. They become sinful when they lead to evil. God created us with feelings for a reason and we should be grateful for them. Think how easy it is to love someone when we feel affection for them.

As Christians, we should pay attention to our feelings and make them part of our prayer. We shouldn’t try to ignore or suppress them because God can speak to us through them. But we should always remember that our feelings are meant to be governed by our mind and our will. God never intended them to rule us. Imagine if parents only loved their children according to how they were feeling on any given day! Or spouses only loved each other when they felt it? Or friends remained friends as long as it easy and felt good. Feelings can help us love God and each other but true relationship can exist even when those affections fade away or even become negative. Loving God and one another happens because we choose to do so deliberately and freely, not always by what we feel.

So how does this relate back to the Eucharist and the Bread of Life teaching we have been hearing?  All of us come to Mass with many different feelings at various points in our lives. Sometimes we come to the Eucharist with excitement, joy and anticipation. Just think back to the day of your First Communion. How inspired we all were and full of piety! Other times we come to Mass and we receive the Bread of Life with very little feeling. That’s not our intention but it’s just the way things go, especially after receiving Jesus hundreds or even thousands of times. This happens to priest also. My first Mass after ordination was a moment I will never forget. I felt love for God and for all the people who had helped me become a priest that I thought my heart would burst. I felt so much zeal that I wanted to set the whole world on fire for God, one Mass at a time. 10 years later, I still have those moments of intense consolation and inspiration. But more often, loving God, serving you, offering Mass mindfully and with preparation doesn’t happen on its own, it requires getting to know Jesus deeper and deeper. It demands my faithfulness in those times when it is easy and also when it is dry. 

The same is true for every Catholic. There will be times of great consolation and inspiration when we come to church. There will also be many moments of dryness where we wonder if the Eucharist is doing anything for us. Pay attention to these consolations and desolations but realize they are not the final word. Jesus is the True Bread come down from heaven. His Body and Blood feed us whether we feel it or not. His saving sacrifice offered to the Father at every Mass, redeems the world whether we feel it or not. Ordinary bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ at every Mass through the miracle of God’s power, whether we feel it or not. God loves us and yearns for our friendship every moment of every day, whether we feel it or not. 

So what do we do with these feelings? When they console you and help you to love God and others, praise Him and allow those feelings to move you further in your faith. When your soul feels dry or even opposed to God, don’t despair, don’t let those feelings rule you. Make the conscious choice to love and serve the Lord and the people he has placed in our life. In time, peace and contentment will be ours. May the words of the psalm be the song of our soul, “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall ever be in my mouth!”

Faith and the Eucharist (Bread of Life, Week 2)

To listen to this homily, click herefaith-and-the-eucharist-fr-schroeder-bread-of-life-week-2-8518.

Last week, the priests of Incarnate Word began preaching on the Bread of Life discourse, focusing on the Eucharist as food. Today’s readings build upon that notion and introduce another theme: that of faith. It wouldn’t hurt to have a definition of faith to chew on so let’s go to one of the great Catholic minds, St. Thomas Aquinas, who says, “Faith is a habit of the mind where eternal life is begun in us making the intellect (mind) agree to what is not yet obvious.” The Letter to the Hebrews says, “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” Either way, faith is a mindful act, a conscious choice to believe in something not yet here or fully understood. It’s crucial we pray for faith often and help it to grow, otherwise the Eucharist and any other miracle God does will fail to have any real impact. If we lack faith, we begin to go blind to the many miracles in our midst, from the most profound here at Mass to the most ordinary like finding a great parking spot when you arrived at Incarnate Word!

So how do we know if our faith needs to grow? One of the easiest ways to tell is when a blessing begins to feel like a burden. For example, do I think of coming to Mass in terms of something I have to do or something I get to do? There’s a big difference! If I truly believe with all my heart, that God loves me more than I love myself, that he wants me to be completely happy forever in heaven, that he promises to give me food for this earthly journey, and he will provide for my every need… if I really believe all that, and hear Jesus say over and over again in the Gospel, “I am the Bread of Life”, “Eat my Body, Drink my Blood”, then I begin to realize the Eucharist and Mass are some of the most important pieces to this puzzle of earthly life. And perhaps if Mass isn’t doing anything for me, it’s not a problem with Mass or the Eucharist, maybe I need to grow in faith and the understanding of these divine mysteries!

Those of you who have raised children or taken care of little ones have seen when faith and understanding are lacking, bad things happen, for example when it comes to nap time. Think about your babies, especially when they were toddlers, and how they would kick, scream, wail, and resist the hallowed time for a snooze. They could only think of the here and now, what they could see and understand. If they could believe their parents were making them sleep for their own good, if they could understand that a nap was in their best interests, how differently they would act! 

Now, I can’t be too hard on these little babies, I acted the same way. Sneaking out of bed during nap time, fighting and screaming every day when that time came around. I now regret my behavior and repent fully of wasting those opportunities for rest. I lecture my nieces and nephews about this every time I see them protesting their nap but they don’t seem to care.

Just as little children fail to see the good thing they have in taking a nap each day, so too, in our first reading, the Israelites fail to see the good things God is providing for them in the desert. Even though God has already solved so many of their problems, they are hungry and resist God’s pleas to have Faith in his plan. They tell Moses, "Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! In other words, we had it better as slaves because, at least our bellies were full of meat and bread! Already, God’s people are settling for something less than the freedom he offered, they are willing to be enslaved again simply so they don’t have to be hungry, they are setting their eyes on the lower, lesser goods. God, in his goodness and patience, gives them bread from heaven and even provides meat while they wander in the desert. This food literally comes down from heaven and God is setting the stage for an even greater miracle where he will feed all who believe in him with the true bread from heaven.

We have been given the perfect Manna from heaven, the Body and Blood of Jesus! The food God gave Israel in the desert was just an appetizer for the perfect meal he was preparing in the Eucharist. Do we really appreciate that gift? Do we believe, even if we can’t completely understand, that the Eucharist is the one food, the one drink we need to get through this life in a way that leads to the Promised Land of Heaven? Or do we complain about this gift and wish for something else? Don’t we sometimes wish that Mass could be a little more interesting? or a little shorter? Or at a more convenient time? Maybe we settle for lesser things as the Israelites did. Instead of finding our true happiness and fulfillment in Christ, we look for those things in worldly items, human relationships, pleasures, and titles. Perhaps we are willing to go back to a spiritual slavery so that we can be a little more comfortable or familiar with our surroundings. 

Far too often, we settle for lesser things and we fail to appreciate the divine gift that is offered by God. Like the Israelites wishing for the food of slaves, we can fail to see the the gift in front of us. These 5 weeks remind us of the great treasure we have in the Eucharist. The Church wants us to know that we have been set free by the Body and Blood of Jesus. God will feed our souls with himself and he is the only thing that will ultimately satisfy us. The challenge for us this Sunday is simple. We have the greatest of gifts; the most magnificent miracle before us. Jesus, the true and eternal Bread from Heaven, is given at each and every Mass. Let us resolve to deepen our faith in this precious gift and never take it for granted. May we receive the Eucharist with grateful, faith-filled hearts, believing that there is no better gift God could give us. And if we have doubts, misunderstandings, or questions about the Eucharist, let’s learn more about what it is or ask someone to help us grow in understanding of this heavenly bread. The gift has already been given but we can only receive the blessings to the extent we have faith.