Homily - 16 August 2009

The Twentieth Sunday of Year (B)

The ancient believers saw in the Old Testament’s personification of Wisdom an image of Christ. So it was that Saint Paul declared this deeply held belief when he called Jesus Christ not only the “power” of God, but also “the wisdom of God” (I Corinthians 1:24).

It is, then, Christ himself who extends the invitation from the Book of Proverbs to all people: “Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have prepared” (Proverbs 9:5).

Why, then, have so few answered his invitation? Better yet, why have so many who have come to the table he has spread left the wedding banquet of the Lamb, never – or only rarely – to return?

It can only be because many of those invited have refused and rejected the food that is offered them. The table that Jesus Christ prepares for us is the Cross, where is priest, victim and altar. It is this sacrifice of Calvary that is sacramentally made present to us here at the altar of the Lord. The food he sets before us is the Eucharist, his very own Body and blood.

The Lord Jesus calls himself “the living bread that came down from heaven, and he says, “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
Indeed, in the eight verses of the Gospel passage proclaimed today from the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus refers to the eating and drinking of his Body and Blood no fewer than seven times. What he says here is clearly of great importance.

And yet there are some who say that in this passage he is speaking metaphorically, symbolically. There are even some who Catholics – most unfortunately and quite wrongly – say the Eucharist is nothing more than a symbol of his body and blood.

My brothers and sisters, when Jesus says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in you,” he is either a mad man, or what he says is true (John 6:53).

There were many who heard his words firsthand who thought he was mad and so they abandoned him (cf. John 6:66). There are many today who think and do the same.

That Jesus is not here speaking symbolically is clear from the Gospel text itself. Throughout this chapter, Jesus is repeatedly challenged with such questions as, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat” (John 6:52)?

In response to this fair and justifiable question, Jesus does not relent or explain whatever supposed symbolism he may be employing. Rather, he speaks all the more insistently of necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

The first two times he speaks of eating his flesh he uses the Greek word phage, a word meaning “to eat.” But once his teaching is challenged, he switches to another Greek word, trogon. This word does mean “to eat,” but it also means “to crunch.” He says, then, “he who crunches my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54).

Anyone who wishes to explain he is speaking symbolically would never use such concrete and vivid language in a situation such as this. No, the words Jesus speaks today show either that he is a mad man, or that what he says is true.

After extending the invitation to his feast, he says, “Let whoever is simple turn in here” (Proverbs 9:6). The thoughts of those who are simple are not complicated or distracted, but focused. The one who is simple takes Jesus at his word, because he has experienced his grace and power, his love and mercy. He has seen the signs and wonders he has worked and so he knows his words to be true. He knows Jesus himself to be “the truth,” and that he can neither deceive nor be deceived (John 14:6).

Saint Anthony of Padua proved himself to be a simple man who remained focused on Christ. One day he encountered a man who denied the reality of the Eucharist and challenged Saint Anthony to perform a miracle; if he did, the man would believe in the Eucharist. For the honor of God, Anthony agreed.

The man said he had a donkey that he would starve for three days. After the three days he would bring his donkey to the town square where it would be presented with a stack of food and with the Eucharist. When the day came the donkey walked past its food and knelt before the Eucharist before it returned to its food. Seeing the reverence of the animal, the man was brought to faith.

There is another simple young man – or perhaps an old boy – whose feast we will soon celebrate: Saint Tarcisius, a martyr of the third century. He was carrying the Eucharist to those who were sick and were imprisoned for the faith. He encountered a mob who, when they discovered he carried the Eucharist, beat him to death with clubs and stones. He shielded by the Eucharist by laying over it face down. When his attackers rolled him over once they had killed him, they found that the Eucharist vanished.

We see in a great myriad of ways the faith of the saints in the Blessed Eucharist and if we consider the words of the Mass we find its truth, as well.

In the Eucharist prayer, just before the consecration, the priest speaks in the third person saying, “On the night he was betrayed…” but at the moment of consecration he switches to the first person: “Take this, all of you, and eat it. This is my body…”

The priest lends his voice to Christ in such a way that it is Christ himself who celebrates the Mass and gives the Eucharist to us. The bread and wine are changed into his Body and Blood by the power of his own words.

But if your faith in the Eucharist is still shaky, there is one simple remedy: spend time in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

Time and again those who enter the Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults provide the same answer when they are asked what led them to the Church. Very often they say they stopped into a Catholic church once and found it be the most peaceful place they have ever found.

It is true. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is a stillness, a quiet, a calm and tranquility that can be found nowhere else in the world. Simply stop in a church and spend a few minutes with the Lord. If you thoughts are simple and focused on him, you will know the peace he longs to give us.

Let each of us this day be of simple minds, focused only on the words of the Lord. Let us approach the food he offers, his own Body and Blood, with great reverence and love. Let us receive the gift of himself in humble faith, that we might know the joy he has prepared for us beyond our imaginings (cf. Collect of the day).