04 August 2024

04 August 2024 - 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Transcript

Reading:  

John 6:35

Write:  

"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

Reflect:   

These next few weeks we are going to be looking at the sixth chapter of John. It is called the great Eucharistic Discourse in John’s Gospel. John does not have a Last Supper scene the night before Jesus dies. The other three Gospels do. John chapter 6 supplies all of the Gospel of John’s Eucharistic theology.

So, is it a coincidence that the Eucharistic Congress in Cincinnati happened just a couple weeks ago? I don’t think so. So now is a great time to talk about Jesus in the Eucharist. I have a number of points I want to make.

The first one comes from a book I read during my vacation that was a compilation of things that Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote regarding the demonic. That was the topic of the book. But he wrote about the power of the Eucharist in fighting the powers of the demons. There was one particular story that was not necessarily about spiritual warfare – directly. He told the story of a priest in China who had been imprisoned in his own house. He could see into the church, but was not allowed to go into the church. The Communists broke into the Tabernacle and stole the ciborium, tossing the Eucharist on the ground. According to the story that Archbishop Sheen wrote, the priest could see into the church that a young girl would go in every day kneel down and consume one of the hosts. Remember, this was a time when you could not touch the host except with your tongue.

She would then hurry out of the church before she could get caught. The priest watched her do this every day for a month. Then, on the last day, when there was only one host left, she came again to consume that last host. Before she could leave the church after consuming that last host, a communist soldier shot her. How amazing that the Holy Spirit waited until the last host was consumed before allowing the soldier to see her! Is she a Eucharistic martyr? Absolutely! Now, how many of us would run the risk of entering into a church to save the Eucharist?

Such was her devotion to our Lord. What is our level of devotion? When we come to receive Communion, how devoted are we? How much do we recognize that we are in the presence of Almighty God and that he is choosing to come to us in such a humble way as his Eucharistic Presence has done for all these millennia? How much more should we humble ourselves than we do when we come into His Majesty’s Presence? Um, this is a not-too-subtle hint at how we dress when we come to Mass.

This is part of the reason we had the Eucharistic Congress recently. We have need of a resurgence of Eucharistic devotion; a recognition that what we have in Christ’s perfect humility is not just food for our souls, but is the remedy for all the ills of our society.

From the Eucharistic Congress, we have a lot of fantastic talks. One that I recommend you search out is by Father Mike Schmitz. Father Mike Schmitz is the priest who did the Bible-in-a-year Podcast and then the Catechism-in-a-year Podcast We are going to be going over his talk as a parish staff here at Midtown Catholic. The YouTube link to watch it you can find on my Podcast site. If you have a cell phone or an email on file with the parish, you should have received a link to my Podcast and the text of the Podcast would have the YouTube link in it. Enjoy, and look at the other talks as well. I personally liked Bishop Barron’s talk.

-         https://www.youtube.com/live/l2QtWaEFq3E

So, the Eucharistic Congress was an obvious success, and it should offer all of us who are interested a shot in the arm for our Catholic faith. One note I saw in a comment box said, “we should do this every year!”

But, unfortunately, even after these two great stories – the Eucharistic Congress and the Chinese girl who was a martyr for the Eucharist – we have to face the world’s hatred of our faith.

I am talking about the Olympic blasphemy that happened in the opening ceremonies in Paris this year. If you are still unaware, I am sorry to burst your bubble. But there was a mockery of the Last Supper that occurred in the opening ceremonies to this year’s Olympics in France. There was a blasphemous mockery of the painting of the Last Supper by people who do not understand and – I would dare to say – hate the Eucharist and our faith. One of the commentators I heard write about this particular event made a very important analysis. The comment was that those people involved in this blasphemy have placed themselves at an immediate and dangerous risk of being condemned because of the blasphemy against our Lord in the Eucharist.

I agree with his comment that God will not take lightly this kind of mockery of his greatest gift to humanity – other than the gift of life itself. But it is also necessary – NECESSARY – that we recall God’s words to Jeremiah that we heard this last Wednesday at Mass: “If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece. Then it shall be they who turn to you, and you shall not turn to them…”

It is a hard thing for us to balance a righteous anger at such blasphemy and at the same time issue a call to holiness that will convert the hearts of those who are thinking it was good, or neutral, or who intended the slight. We are called to create moments in their lives as best we can where they may be converted and see the call to holiness and love that is always being issued by our Lord’s Sacred Heart.

One of the reasons why we have Eucharistic adoration is to pray in reparation for the calumnies against our Eucharistic Lord and his Sacred Heart. Both of our parishes here at Midtown have Eucharistic adoration. St. Joan of Arc has the exposed Eucharist available twenty-four hours a day, with the exception of the times for Masses. St. Thomas More does not have the Eucharist exposed, but we do have access to the church every day through the west side door, if you know the code – which we are willing to give out, all you need to do is ask.

If you would like to participate in a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration, please ask and we would be glad to add you to the group of parishioners who are taking an hour each week – or more – to pray before the Blessed Sacrament with at least part of the time being a desire to pray for our world that wants to mock and dismiss our Eucharistic Lord.

Now I want to turn for a moment to John chapter 6 and our reading for today. The people in Jesus’ day were hungry for something more than they had received in the multiplication of loaves. Jesus begins with our reading today to explain to them what he is offering to them by giving them himself. They do not fully understand – but then, do we fully understand what Jesus is offering when he offers himself as the Bread of Life? He is the true Bread from Heaven as we declare in our faith, and as he said himself in the gospel today.

In the following couple of weeks, we will hear more about his declaration and his insistenceon the need to eat his body and drink his blood. Jesus’ insistence that he is the Bread of Life is our reason for hope and our source of strength and salvation.

The world mocks what it does not understand. It is part of our mission to explain the truth that Jesus is the only way to salvation. Part of our struggle is the fact – the fact that many people do not see a need for salvation. As Jesus said in today’s gospel “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Despite those who would mock and dismiss – who would tear down and destroy – the Holy Gift of God, we stand with our Eucharistic Lord and declare before the world: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world, blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb!”

Long live our Eucharistic Lord! Long live Christ the King!

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