God Feeds His People!

Homily for the Solemnity of the
Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
22 June 2014

        Brothers and sisters, the magnanimous nature of this great celebration comes down to one thought given to us in both our First Reading and Gospel: God feeds His people! But in His loving and generous nature, the gift of the meal found in the Old Testament nowhere equals the Gift found in the meal of the New Testament.

        In Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the Israelites that the Lord has heard their cries of hunger, and fed them with manna, “a food not known to [their] fathers.” The people had a longing, a desire; and the Lord satisfied it.

        Now enter into the picture Jesus Christ many, many years after the Israelites had wandered in the desert. He reminds those listening that the Father satisfied the longing, the physical hunger that their forefathers had in that desert. Yet to do more than satisfy their physical hunger, Jesus promises them food that will fulfill not just the deepest hungers of their stomachs, but will fulfill the deepest hunger of their souls.

        Jesus was offering something that they couldn’t understand. Or, worse yet, something that they DID NOT WANT to understand. The people of His day didn’t want to see what our Lord was offering. And still, the people of our day are still offered something that will not merely satisfy their longings, but will ultimately fulfill the deepest hungers of their souls – of our souls! – and, of course, that is the very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.

        And people still question.

        And people still doubt.

        And still we, who gather in this sacred space today, WE still question and doubt to varying levels and degrees.

        We do so because we – as a society – either have forgotten or we ignore the promise that Jesus made to us of how He would not leave us orphaned. One of the ways that He remains with us is through the Holy Spirit. Another way is through the Church.

        But He continues to remain with us in a most special and unique way through the Eucharist.

        Our God wants for us to be fed. Our God wants for us to be satisfied. Our God wants for us to be fulfilled. And He gives us Himself to draw us closer to Himself.

        My brothers and sisters, this sublime and magnanimous gift of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is one that we as Catholics take for granted. Through the complacency in our lives of faith, we don’t take the time to appreciate that through this Sacrament, our Lord is calling us to a radical discipleship, to become a Church Evangelizing!, to become a Church Alive!. This gift of God, Himself, is the invitation to be fed, to be satisfied, to be fulfilled. This is the invitation to be in communion with our God; this is the invitation to be transformed into the image of Christ.

        Yet, transformation has a cost. Receiving the Eucharist has consequences. Are we ready, willing and able to pay the price for our transformation? For to become more like Christ means that the world will hate us. To be transformed into the image of Christ means going against the complacency and lax mentality of our society, and to bring them the Good News that God loves them, and to invite them into a transformation which transforms their longings and desires.

        And are we ready to deal with the consequences of receiving the Eucharist? The good consequence comes when we are found as worthy as possible to receive the Blessed Sacrament, and we are drawn closer into communion with our God and His Church. It is then we are transformed more into the image of God. The bad consequence comes when we receive this great Sacrament with the stain of mortal sin on our soul, presuming the mercy of God, presuming we know better than God. My friends, the Church still teaches that to receive Holy Communion with the stain of mortal sin on one’s soul is a sacrilege. Yet there are two ways to make sure we never find ourselves in that situation: First, we avoid all mortal sins like the plague. Second, and more importantly, WE AVAIL OURSELVES TO THE GRACES OF THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! The Lord doesn’t want us to be separated from Him! He wants us to be fed! He wants us to be satisfied! He wants us to be fulfilled! All this through the intimate union with Him in our worthy reception of the Eucharist! And so, please, dear brothers and sisters, if you need to go to confession: GO! Go, so that we can once again sit together at this table, and together be fed, satisfied, and fulfilled by the Bread of Life and the Chalice of Salvation.

        My brothers and sisters, this most magnanimous and sublime feast reminds us that God desires to feed His people. But it has to be OUR CHOICE to be fed, to have our hungers satisfied, to have our longings fulfilled through the best way our God knows how: through His abiding presence with us in the Most Blessed Sacrament. It is our choice to be further transformed into the image of Christ; it is our choice to accept the consequences.

        With love, we consume the Body and Blood of Christ so that God can consume us with His love. And in that mutual consumption, we are satisfied, we are fulfilled – WE ARE FED!

May the Heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored and loved with grateful affection, at every moment in all the tabernacles of the world, even until the end of time! Amen.

----------------------------



Enjoy the journey . . .