The Answer to Everything!

Today we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi. This feast explains to us to the point of everything. That’s right to the point of everything. When somebody is telling us something that we don’t understand or something in which we just don’t see the point, we respond with “What’s the point?” Well today we can ask the question, “what is the point of everything, everything that exists, everything that is, including you and me and life itself?” As I said, today’s feast actually answers this question, “What’s the Point of Everything?”

Let’s start by thinking about the answer to the following questions: I not going to call on anyone, but try to answer these questions to yourself in five words or less.

1. What is the deepest desire of the human heart?

2. What is the center, the point, the meaning of life?

3. How I can be truly happy?

4. What does it mean to be a woman?

5. What does it mean to be a man?

6. What does God look like?

7. How can we bring about peace in the Middle East and in the world?

8. How can we end world hunger?

9. How can we fix our seemingly insurmountable economic woes?

10. How can we know if there is life after death?

11. What is the greatest of the seven sacraments?

Were you able to answer all of these questions? Chances are you couldn’t give the answer to a lot of them, must less do it in five words or less… What would you think if I told you that not only can I give you the answer to each one of these questions, I can actually answer each one of them in one word; that’s right just one single word. There is a one-word answer for each of these above questions, and it's the same answer for each one. Can you guess it?

This past week I read an article by Bill Donaghy, a speaker for the Theology of the Body Institute. His article was the impetus for this Homily. In his article entitled “the Answer to Everything,” Mr. Donaghy said, that some scientists and philosophers have been trying for years to compile one overarching, all encompassing "Theory of Everything." He said, that, he believed that we have it already in our midst. Present in millions of places worldwide, nestled in golden boxes beneath glowing candles that never go out, for two thousand years the secret has been with us; the center, the point of everything, the Answer to our questions; the answer to all questions. You've guessed it... the Holy Eucharist.

Blessed Pope John Paul II, in his great encyclical on the Holy Eucharist entitled, “Ecclesia de Eucharistia,” or the “Church of the Eucharist,” said about the Holy Eucharist: "Here is the Church's treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfillment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns."

Today is the day in which the Church around the whole world celebrates the Feast of Corpus Christi, the true Body and Blood of Christ. The Church has been celebrating this feast for millennia. Throughout these centuries the Church has been proclaiming the wonders of the Blessed Sacrament to everyone and anyone who would listen; anyone who would be open to the truth. She has been giving the secret to life; in fact the secret to eternal life; the true “fountain of youth” if you will. The Church tells us the Holy Eucharist is not a “theory of everything”; it is the Truth of everything; the Reality of everything; it is Truth Itself; Reality Itself; the Beginning and End of everything and everyone.

So as Mr. Donaghy says in his article, “So why don't people come a'runnin' to our churches and our adoration chapels? Why aren't the phones ringing off the hook asking for our daily and Sunday Mass schedules? I would add, “Why don’t we here at St. Patrick’s have to build a bigger Church to handle everyone? Why doesn’t every single person in a parish, in our parish partake
in the Eucharist Procession on Corpus Christi?” Mr Donaghy asks, “is it because of poor marketing skills?”

The following was supposedly overheard by a monsignor at a Papal Mass who was standing beside our beloved Blessed John Paul II (though it sounds a little pessimistic for him). Watching thousands come to Holy Communion in St. Peter's Square he is supposed to have whispered, "So many coming to Holy Communion, so little change."

Ouch! Oh we of little faith. Us Catholic’s have the answer, the only answer in fact, to all of the world’s mysteries; the answer to all the world’s dilemmas’; in fact, we have the answer to everything. And we have, without a question, the power to transform our world. The Eucharist is the Answer because it is Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the savior of the World among us; it is THE POWER.

Yet, Jesus can only transform our world through us. And this can only happen if we first allow Jesus to transform us; to transform us into saints, into His other selves. If the world is not being changed for the better the fault is that you and I, are not tapping into the most powerful reality in the entire universe; the power of Divine Love; the power of the Holy Eucharist, which is the power of God Himself. The same power that brought everything into existence out of nothing; the same power that keeps everything in existence.

Yet despite our great lack of faith, the power for transformation remains, and is available at our Catholic Churches; here at our Catholic Church of St. Patrick’s. The Eucharist is Power, the Source of all power. But it is only faith that unlocks this power; a living faith that not only believes, but adores, hopes and loves; and begs pardon for all of those who do not believe, adore, hope and love. A faith that in humility, reverence and awe, falls on its knees before this same Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. For, “if at the name of Jesus every knee must bend in the heavens and on the earth…What about the before the very person of Jesus?” And the Holy Eucharist is the very Person of Jesus Christ!!!

When we think we have an answer to a question but it doesn’t quite come to us, we say, “You know It's on the tip of my tongue!" Well exactly. In the Eucharist, the Answer to our questions, all of our questions; all of life questions and problems; to all of our own individual questions and problems; to all of the questions of the universe; is literally in our midst and on our tongue.

The Answer has been given, it has been given in the form of a gift; it's just that we Catholics have yet to fully unwrap it! At least some of us Catholics, for the saints and mystics have unwrapped it, and they show us how. They opened wide the doors to Christ in the Holy Eucharist, the doors of their hearts, minds and whole lives and He filled them to capacity; in fact, He filled them with Himself—God filled them with Himself.

Being filled with God is our destiny, that for which we have been created. We are in fact all capax dei - "capable of God." Dr. Peter Kreeft, a Catholic philosopher and writer said it well, "Your heart is like an infinitely large hole, and only God is big enough to fill it." And in the Holy Eucharist He has become just small enough it fill it.

Do we believe this? Do I believe this? Or do we keep trying to stick cheap imitations in the hole in our hearts? C.S. Lewis called this the long, sad story of humanity, this vain attempt at seeking something other than God that will make us happy. Our hearts are made for greatness, for Infinite Greatness. Nothing else but God will accomplish this, because our hearts have been made for God who is Infinite Greatest; and the Holy Eucharist is this Infinite, Great and Awesome God. Our hearts have been made for the Eucharist Alone.

Psalm 81 says, “I am the LORD, your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth that I may fill it. But my people did not listen to my words; Israel did not obey me." The Church, you and me, we are the new Israel. Will we listen to the Lord and obey Him, or will be like Israel of old and die in the desert?
God has given us the answer to everything; He has given us the Answer to the deepest longing of our hearts, will we take Him at His Word? The Eucharist is the Answer, because it is, “The true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ; The Eucharist is very simply GOD! It is the very Person of Jesus Christ in His physical resurrected body; it is Him; it is Him; it is Him.

Do we believe it? We better believe it, because it true; but we better do more than believe it, we better fall on our knees before the Eucharist and adore, hope and love our God truly present there in every tabernacle and on every altar at every Holy Mass and during Holy Hours of Adoration. Jesus is however not content to stay in the tabernacle and on the altar because out of love for you, He wants to come into you and dwell within you and use your heart as His pillow.

The Church doesn’t need a better media consultant; no, the Church needs you and me to be saints; and saints are mad in love with the Holy Eucharist; He is the Point of their everything, the Answer to their everything. So, let us open our hearts wide to Eucharist; let us open our hearts wide to Christ. He is the answer to everything, for He is the God who is Love Itself.

“Oh Jesus, Source of Joy, Filler of Hearts, Food of Angels, Drink for the Thirsty. Draw us to you, show us the way to this Table, this Banquet, this Feast of Love, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Let us respond in a new way at this great Feast of Your Body and Blood, a way of absolute surrender. Give us a hunger in the pit of our stomachs, a yearning for You alone to fill us. For You are "the Church's treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfillment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns."

Join me this afternoon, my brother and sisters in Christ as we take Jesus in solemn procession out into our streets proclaiming to all…God is with us—the Eucharist is the Answer to Everything!!!