For the last couple of weeks we have been reading from the sixth Chapter of St. John on the Holy Eucharist. We are Catholics are the true fundamentalist, for we take these words of Jesus literally. There is in fact no other way to take them. Jesus says, “Amen! Amen!” To say Amen is to swear an oath that what I am about to say is the truth. To say Amen twice is to make sure you understand that I am not speaking symbolically. The word Jesus uses for eat the Hebrew word that is used when one eats flesh; it means to gnaw and grind with one’s teeth. No wonder why the early Christians were accused of cannibalism.
These readings should have then, moved us to beg our Lord for a deeper faith in the great mystery of the Holy Eucharist, a mystery that most of Jesus followers denied in his day, and most Christians still deny today. Let’s do a short recap what we heard thus far. We started this Chapter a few weeks ago with the miracle of multiplication of the loaves and fishes. We learned that Jesus gave them bread as a sign of a greater miracle to come, the miracle of Transubstantiation. But the crowd misunderstood and wanted to make him an earthly King, a political leader to fill their earthly bellies, their earthly desires, to give them economic security. So Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith, for not looking for Him in faith, he tells not to look for earthly food but for the bread of eternal life. Instead of believing Jesus in faith, they appeal to Moses as the one who gave them bread from heaven. Jesus tells them it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven but my Heavenly Father you gives you the real true bread from heaven. And then Jesus gives them the shock of their lives by telling them all that He, himself is the true bread come down from heaven-the Bread of Life sent by His Father for the for the life of the world, and that all who believe in him, meaning all that believe what He has just said, will have eternal life.
Last week, we heard the Jews murmuring amongst themselves, refusing to believe that Jesus Himself is the bread that satisfies our deepest hunger, which is for love. Our day is no different, there are still those who murmur amongst themselves and deny Jesus’ teaching of the Holy Eucharist. They deny that Jesus is the Holy Eucharist, believing instead that what we receive at Holy Communion is merely bread and wine instead of Jesus in His true resurrected and glorified body. They deny that the Holy Mass is that event which by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the ordained priesthood makes sacramentally present the true bread of life, which is Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist. As a result of their lack of faith, Jesus can do no great works in their lives.
With their lack of faith in the Holy Eucharist they also murmur and so deny the sacrificial nature of the Mass, that the Holy Mass makes present in reality Calvary to us; and so, is not only the source of our salvation, but also as the Second Vatican Council taught that the Mass is, “the source and summit of the Christian life.” Without the Mass and correct belief in it we cannot live a truly authentic Christian life. In His Encyclical on the Holy Eucharist, John Paul explained all of this saying, “The most Holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ Himself, our Passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men. Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of his boundless love.”
We need to beg our Lord to increase our faith in the great gift of the Holy Eucharist. Maybe we don’t deny outright this main truth of our faith, but do we mummer against Jesus by taken the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist for granted, and so end up losing sight of its great mystery and sacredness. Do we fail to see that the Mass is primarily the work of Jesus the head, in which Jesus out of love for us offers Himself anew to the Father, not only for our Salvation, but that we might enter into a deep loving intimacy of love with Him and through Him with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, a union in which God literally weds our soul? And so, the Mass is not so much something we "do" as it is a gift we are privileged to receive along with the invitation to unite ourselves to the Lord’s sacred action, to His very self. Again, this is what the Vatican council really meant by full and active (it really used the word “actual”), participation in the Liturgy. What could be more active than offering ourselves to the Father, in union with Jesus through his sacrifice on Calvary?
How about our preparation for the Holy Mass? Do we come to Holy Mass dress for a day at the park or beach, instead of being dressed for a wedding, the wedding of our soul with God at the foot of the cross? We should dress for Holy Mass better than we dress for any event of our lives, for it is truly the most important event of our lives. Do we humbly prepare ourselves, our minds and our hearts for Mass in prayer? Or do we habitual show up for Holy Mass just in time or even late instead of coming early to prepare our hearts and minds, asking the Holy Spirit to help us to adore our Lord by adequately examining our conscience, asking for forgiveness? Do we pray the Mass or just say the Mass?
Do we then reverently receive Holy Communion, not only realizing what we are receiving, but more importantly Whom it is that we are receiving—Truly Our Lord and Our God? Our Holy Father, Benedict, is again calling for Catholics to again receive communion kneeling not only in body if they are able but also in mind and heart—humble before the Lord.
How about our thanksgiving after Holy Mass for receiving the Holy Eucharist? Do we sit around and visit and forget to thank Jesus for the total gift of himself to us in the Eucharist? Do we talk and murmur in Church after Mass interrupting those who are praying in thanksgiving and so fail to realize that this space is Holy and Sacred, that because Jesus is still truly present in the tabernacle that the Mass is still in a sense always going on. We all have to be reminded that this space is a house of prayer and adoration, not for visiting; that is done in the vestibule or outside. The Church in its General Instruction on the Roman Missal and in other recent documents is constantly reminding us of the silent reverence we need to restore and to maintain in the presence of the Holy Eucharist contained in the tabernacle, not to mention the wonder and awe we should have when approaching such an august Mystery.
In the last 40 years there has been some confusion over these matters, even sadly with some bishops and priest. However, now the Church is clearing up this confusion, so we all, including myself, must take a look at any bad habits we might have picked up and work to change them. As John Paul II the said in his encyclical on the Holy Eucharist, “The Eucharist is too great a gift to tolerate ambiguity and depreciation. Stripped of its sacrificial meaning, often it is experienced as if it were simply a fraternal banquet. Let us dispel all doubt and reawakening our wonder at the real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.” (cf. JPII Ecclesia Eucharistia).
Let us in this Mass truly open our hearts to the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist. We don’t have to be perfect in order to do this, we just need to become like little Children trusting in God for what we lack. We can come to the Mass in our brokenness and in our sinfulness in order to receive what we need to change and to grow in love, in intimacy with the Lord. What we need is Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. He is truly present in the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. He is really there and He will change our unworthiness, heal our sinfulness and increase our love; and He will do so, by giving us His own Sacred Heart which is contained in the Holy Eucharist and still beats for love of us. But we must repent of our sinfulness, our stubbornness and our lack of faith; we must freely offer to Him at Holy Mass our hearts and our wills.
Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to help us at this Mass and every Mass we are blessed to attend to lift up our hearts in adoration to the Lord; in others words, to offer our hearts in union through the Heart of Jesus, with the heart of Jesus and in the heart of Jesus in the unity and by the power of the Holy Spirit, giving all glory and honor to the almighty Father by offering ourselves along with Jesus in sacrifice of adoration and praise. Let us make this offering of ourselves to our Heavenly Father who gave us the great gift of the Eucharist in order that in thanksgiving we could give back to Him, the gift of our lives, the gift of our very self in order to be united with Him, along with all the angel and saints, in eternal happiness beginning right now at this Holy Mass and forever in the eternal Mass of heaven. Amen.
Thank you! Hope all is well.
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