The Seventeenth
Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Dear brothers and sisters,
In a few moments, we will ask the Lord that
“these sacred mysteries may sanctify our present way of life and lead us to
eternal gladness.”
What is it about these sacred mysteries, what is it about the Holy Mass, that
has the power to fulfill our request? It is within these sacred mysteries, “in
the presence of the angels,” that we sing God’s praise and “give thanks to [his]
name” (Psalm 138:1 and 2). Here at the Lord’s altar, he “is exalted, yet the
lowly he sees, and the proud he knows from afar” (Psalm 138:6). It is within
these sacred mysteries that we receive “our daily bread,” the Most Holy
Eucharist (Luke 11:3).
This past week, the Pew Research Center
published findings from a survey titled, “What Americans Know About Religion.”
The results were, to be honest, disheartening - but not surprising. This
particular survey asked “32 fact-based, multiple-choice questions about topics
related to religion.”
Just over half of those taking the survey answered all of the questions
correctly.
If the
findings truly represent the American people, 87% of us know the definition of
an atheist; 81% of us know what Easter is about; and only 58% of us know the “Golden
Rule” is not one of the Ten Commandments.
Naturally, all of this is rather
concerning, but what is most troubling about the survey concerns Catholics. One
of the multiple-choice questions read as follows:
Which of the
following best describes Catholic teaching about the bread and wine used for
Communion? The bread and wine…
· Actually become
the body and blood of Jesus Christ
· Are symbols of the
body and blood of Jesus Christ
· Not sure
Distressingly, only 50% of Catholics in
the U.S. answered this question correctly; 45% answered it incorrectly; and 4%
were not sure. What happened to the other 1%, I do not know.
There is no reason to raise your hand or to
vocalize your answer, but I must ask: How do you answer this question? Is the Communion
we receive in the Holy Eucharist the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, or is it
just a symbol? Catholic faith, of course, knows it to be the very Body and
Blood, Soul and Divinity, of Jesus Christ, who is seated at the right hand of
the Father and yet gives us himself as our nourishment and salvation; it is not
a mere symbol. Those who say the Eucharist is only a symbol have not seriously
read the Gospels or honestly studied the history of the Church. If we come to
the Holy Mass without understanding what and, more importantly, Who the
Eucharist is, it will be difficult for these sacred mysteries to sanctify our
present way of life and to lead us to eternal gladness.
In 1963, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a letter to
his son Michael in which the professor wrote with a father’s love about matters
of faith. He addressed, among other things, scandals in the Church and, within
that context, the Eucharist:
I have suffered grievously
in my life from stupid, tired, dimmed, and even bad priests; but I now know enough
about myself to be aware that I should not leave the Church (which for me would
mean leaving the allegiance of Our Lord) for any such reasons: I should leave
because I did not believe, and should not believe any more, even if I had never
met any one in [holy] orders who was not both wise and saintly. I should deny
the Blessed Sacrament, that is: call Our Lord a fraud to His face.”
How could he use such blunt and forceful
language? He could write in this way because he knew the reality of the
Eucharistic Lord.
In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of
Saint John, after the feeding of the five thousand, the Lord Jesus says to the
crowd, “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives
life to the world” (John 6:33). Desiring this bread, the crowd says to him, “Lord,
give us this bread always” (John 6:34). Whereas before Jesus spoke in somewhat
veiled language, now he speaks in very clear and unmistakable terms. He says
to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger; and he
who believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35-36).
Not liking his words, the crowd “then
murmured at him” because, so they said, they knew where he came from (John 6:41). In response, Jesus strengthens his words and says, “I am the living
bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live
forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh”
(John 6:51). Here, we must pause this Gospel passage and remember what Jesus did
and said at the Last Supper: “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks
he broke it and gave it them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me’” (Luke 22:19). Remember, too, that Jesus, the Living
Bread, was born in Bethlehem, a name which means “House of Bread,” and was placed
in a manger, that is, in a feeding trough.
Now, when the crowd heard him say, “I am
the living bread which comes down from heaven,” they thought he was either a
blasphemer or a mad man, and so Jesus asked them, “Do you take offense at this”
(John 6:61)? If we did not realize it before, here we can see clearly that
Jesus is not speaking metaphorically, for at these words “many of his disciples
drew back and no longer walked with him” (John 6:66). As they abandon him, we do
not find Jesus calling them back; he does not tell them they misunderstood him;
he does not weaken his language to make it merely symbolic; no, he holds fast
to what he has said and turns to the Twelve and asks, “Will you also go away”
(John 6:67)? This leads Saint Peter to give his famous response, “Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Yes, indeed; to
whom else can we go? It is precisely through the Holy Eucharist, made present
at every celebration of the Holy Mass, that the Lord Jesus gives us his Body
and Blood to eat and drink; it is through the Eucharist that he keeps his
promise: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
Tolkien knew that, taking the Lord Jesus,
at his word, he must believe in the Eucharist, not as some want it to be (just
a symbol), but as it truly is (Jesus’ Body and Blood). He later went on to
write to his son, Michael, saying,
We must therefore
either believe in Him and in what he said and take the consequences; or reject him
and take the consequences. I find it for myself difficult to believe that
anyone who has ever been to Communion, even once, with at least right
intention, can ever again reject Him without grave blame. (However, He alone
knows each unique soul and its circumstances).
He could say these words, just as blunt
and forceful as his earlier words, because he knew that the Passion, Death, and
Resurrection of Jesus is made present to us in the Blessed Sacrament “with love
beyond all telling.”
Because of this, Tolkien told his son, “But I fell in love with the Blessed
Sacrament from the beginning – and by the mercy of God have never fallen out
again: but alas! I indeed did not live up it.”
Because it is the Sacrament of the Lord’s
own love for us, it is very difficult to live up to the Eucharist. To receive
the Lord’s love in so intimate a way requires of us that we freely share the Lord’s
love with others. This is why Pope Benedict XVI cautioned us that “a Eucharist which does not pass over into
the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented;” if our
reception of the Eucharist does not help us grow in holiness, we have not
rightly received it. Let us, then, beg the Lord
to strengthen our faith in the power of his love and that, through our
reception of the Eucharist, we might love and serve both God and neighbor, and
so be brought to eternal gladness. May we, too, fall in love with the Blessed
Sacrament and, by the mercy of God, never fall out of it. Amen.
