The title of my homily is, “Body of Christ - Amen. Blood
of Christ - Amen.”
Today we’re celebrating the great feast of the Most Holy
Body and Blood of Christ.
Obviously, we should be doing some deep thinking and
reflecting upon this great reality and mystery in our faith.
We can be in Holy Communion with Christ - someone who
lived some 2000 years ago. Moreover, we believe Christ is God - in the Trinity. Our God is one God - 3
persons. These are amazing beliefs.
DRIVING DOWN
THE ROAD IN PALMYRA NEW YORK
Years and years ago - maybe in the early 1980’s - I’m
driving down a road in Palmyra, New York and I spot a Mormon Museum or Visitors
center off to my right. I stop. I go in. I’m wearing a T-shirt and while walking about
someone offers me a guided tour.
I say, “Yes” and all kinds of things are shown me and
told me about the Mormon Religion.
After the tour - I’m on the road again - heading for
Webster, New York where I was going to preach a Parish Mission for a week.
Boom! It hits me. I say, “Holy Cow, people believe what I just heard.”
Boom! On top of that, it hits me, “If I told people who never believed in Christianity and Catholicism, what we believe in, would they have the same thoughts and reaction I had about Mormonism - or many religions?”
If I told them about Jesus Christ being both human and divine, about the miracles of Jesus - the virgin birth, that we believe that Jesus Christ is God and we can eat him in the bread, drink him in the wine - and that bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ - in our Mass - what would be their reaction?
Yes that’s a central belief in Catholicism - in our understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
In preparing this homily, I looked up Mormonism
on line and found some amazing beliefs.
I don’t believe there are people living on the moon and
they are tall - many of them 7 feet tall or more. I don’t believe there are
people living on the sun. [Journal of Discourses, Vol. 13, p.
217]
I don't believe that "The Garden of Eden was
in Missouri when Adam and Eve were kicked out.” I don't want to make fun of other's beliefs -especially from the pulpit. What I'm talking about is my experience on the road from Palmyra, New York to Webster, New York. I'm talking about my experience of wondering what others might think in hearing about Catholic teachings - especially our belief in what happens in our Mass - with the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. SO TODAY’S
READINGS
Today we're celebrating the feast of "The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ." So we have appropriate readings for this feast.
In this first reading we have Moses sending young men of
the Israelites to sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. Then
Moses takes the blood from these sacrifices and puts half of the blood into
large bowls and the other half of the blood was splashed on the altar. Then he
sprinkled blood on people saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that the
Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his.”
What would it be like experiencing that? What would that feel like? We
know what it’s like to be sprinkled with Holy Water. What would blood be like?
Oooh!.
And today’s gospel brings us into the upper room where
Jesus takes bread - unleavened bread - and blesses it, breaks it, and says,
“Take it; this is my body.” Then he took
a cup with wine in it, gave thanks and says, “This is my blood of the
covenant, which will be shed for many.”
Every once and a while that should be hitting us - and
hitting us big time.
When was the last time that overwhelmed us?
Today when you are coming up the aisle for communion -
walk mindfully. Receive with reverence and amazement.
Pause when you’re handed the bread and the wine - and say
appropriately, “Amen.”
LEN THE PLUMBER
As I was working on this homily last night and paused and tried to come up with experiences I had with the Bread and the Wine. Back in the 1970’s I was stationed in a retreat house in
Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania. On Saturday night, based on the number of men making
the weekend retreat, each man would get around 20 minutes of time alone in our
retreat chapel, kneeling in front of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in the
gold monstrance - all through the night.
Right after that evening Mass - everyone would clear out
of chapel - and one man at a time would kneel there in prayer - up front - in
the dark - by himself in prayer. Candles on the altar would be the only light.
I’m in the sacristy after that Saturday night Mass and I
forgot where I was and was figuring out a few things in the sacristy. I
finished up and walked out of the sacristy. I headed across the sanctuary. I stepped down
into the main aisle - to walk quietly towards
the back door of the chapel.
Boom, I stepped off the first step and right onto the
back of a man lying on the floor - worshipping Christ the Lord. I crashed into
the benches - said “I’m sorry!” I wasn’t hurt and quickly got up and walked out
of the chapel.
The next morning I went up to the man. I saw who he was
the night before. He was a big powerful 6 foot 5 or so man - named, “Len the
Plumber”. He was not the Len the Plumber - the one whose name is on billboards here in Maryland. This was up in the Scranton - Wilkes
Barre - Wyoming Valley part of Pennsylvania. I said, “What were you doing on
the floor last night.”
He said, “That’s the way I pray when I come here on
retreat before Christ - in the Holy Eucharist.”
I said, “Ooooooh.”
He added, “That’s my God and my savior.”
Then - he must have seen my face - said, “7 years ago we
were digging this deep hole in the ground next to a building. It was a big plumbing job. Well, my
son was down at the bottom of the hole and the whole thing caved in onto my
son. We should have used a caisson. I grabbed a shove and jumped into the hole
and started digging and praying furiously. I prayed, ‘Jesus save my son.’ Then my shovel hit his
head - under the dirt. I screamed to my other son, ‘He’s here! I got him.’ I
pulled the dirt away from his mouth with my hands and he was still breathing. Jesus saved my son.
That’s why I was on the floor last night - still praying and still thanking my Lord
and my God for saving my son.”
Many, many, many, times when I’m receiving communion I
remember that story.
WHAT ARE YOUR
COMMUNION STORIES?
What are your communion stories?
One Holy Thursday evening I was preaching in Upstate New
York and as I was giving out Communion I started noticing the hands that
reached out to receive Communion that night.
The 10th
person was an old lady with very arthritic hands. “Body of Christ! Amen.”
The 15th person was a teenager with a boy’s
name in ballpoint pen written on the palm of her hand. “Body of Christ! Amen.”
The 20th person was a big burly man - with
lots of black oil or tar or grime on his hands. “Body of Christ! Amen.”
Near the end of the Receiving communion line was a teen
age girl with just the palm of her hand - and her fingers were just tiny beads
of flesh.
“Body of Christ! Amen.”
Well, after Mass on that Holy Thursday night I had some
time to just sit there in communion with Christ - and pray and reflect - and
those moments with all those people hit me big time. “Body of Christ! Amen.”
CONCLUSION
Those are a few thoughts and memories and moments of Holy
Communion. I have many more. What are yours?
The title of my
thoughts for this 9th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “The Book of
Tobit.”
We read The Book
of Tobit as the first reading during the 9th Week in Ordinary Time,
every other year.
OPEN UP THE TREASURES OF THE SCRIPTURES FOR
CATHOLICS
In the documents
of Vatican II, in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, it states that we are
to open up, “The treasures of the Bible more lavishly, so that richer fare may
be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s Word.” [Chapter II, # 51.]
So non-Catholics
can no longer complain that Catholics don’t know or read the Bible.
This is the 50th
Anniversary of Vatican II - and the past 50 years there certainly has been some
significant changes in Catholicism.
More Catholics
reading the Bible certainly has been a significant change. This is not to say,
we didn’t before.
With a broad
generalization for authority, many Protestants would say they have the Bible -
and some would stress private interpretation - and Catholics would stress the
Pope - and to follow his and the Church’s teachings.
Since Vatican II
there have been in the Catholic Church - Bible study groups - e.g. the Little
Rock Arkansas program. I went to a few
conferences during the summer and there were lots of lay people as well as nuns
and priests making the program. Catholics and Protestants read lots of books
about the Bible, etc. etc. etc.
At Masses we go
through the whole Bible every 2 years on weekday Masses and much of the Bible
during Sunday Masses.
Priests had to
preach on many more readings. Some sermons changed - and were now called
Homilies.
I’m sure you have
thoughts about all of this - talk to each other.
Catholics use Missalette
like The Magnificat and Give Us This Day
- at home and at Mass - and if the sermon is poor, they like the commentaries
in those missalettes.
WHERE TO BEGIN THE BIBLE
If someone wants
to read the Bible, I learned to say, “Start with James.” If you don’t get James, uh oh!
With computers
one can type into Google the name of any book in the Bible and read what comes
up.
You’ll get
literal and liberal comments and interpretations.
Read a section at
a time and read homilies on a text. Like James 1: 13-15.
Take your time
and new life will come.
THE BOOK OF TOBIT
This week -
Monday to Saturday - we have The Book of Tobit - chopped up like a dinner on a
plate to cut with knife and fork - and chew on.
It’s a strange
document - a novel for some - a series of folk tales for others.
I find it
fascinating - a guy getting cataracts from bird droppings. A woman who was married to 7 different husbands - all of whom died their wedding night - before
consummating the marriage. At the end of that story - there’s a nice marriage
story about the 8th marriage - the one that makes it - because the
demon of lust is destroyed. It talks about healing with fish oil. Very
interesting stuff.
RESEARCH
Some didn’t think
it should be a book in the Bible. Some did. The Bible from Alexandria - the so
call Septuagint has it. The Bible from
Jerusalem doesn’t.
They had at least
4 versions of the story. Fragments of Tobit were found in the Dead Sea Caves.
They are in Hebrew.
Some date the
book to the 4th century B.C.; some date it to around 180 B.C.
The more research
- say as a hobby - the more one learns.
say God says. This is me now who's speaking. I hear God
frustrated - cringe - feel crushed
at all the things we think
God would want to say.
Maybe the solution is to slip
into what someone said of God,
“We are made in the image
and likeness of God.”
When I hear that, I hear God
saying, “Oh my God, are
you serious? Do they really
believe that? They got to be
kidding." Silence!
And, I hear God laughing at all this and saying, "Ooops I am God and I don't have a mouth, so I couldn't have said that, but if you want to be my image and likeness, be silent because I am silence. Listen."
