Homily: 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B
A
few years ago, I made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Of all of the amazing things that I saw and
was able to experience, one of the highlights was my visit to the Basilica of
the Annunciation in Nazareth, which was built over the site of Mary’s childhood
home and was the place in which she received the message from the archangel
Gabriel, announcing that she would become the mother of God’s Son. I remember reflecting about my experience
there. “In that place,” I said to
myself, “the God who created everything, and whose existence cannot be
contained even in the vast universe, somehow encapsulated himself in human
flesh.” For me, among all of the other
experiences on that trip, standing in the place where the “Word became flesh
and dwelt among us” was an awe-inspiring moment.
I
remember reflecting on the absurdity of it all: that God, who is limitless,
would subject himself to the limits of his creation simply out of love for what
he had created. Nonetheless, as we’ve
been reading in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, I’m often struck that this
same Son of God then took the absurdity even further by claiming that for
anyone to have life within them they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood. On the surface, it’s a crazy statement,
right? I mean, Jesus is asking his
followers to be cannibals: to eat human flesh and drink human blood! Although our familiarity with it may mean
that it no longer strikes us as odd, we need to grapple with the fact that this
statement from Jesus is polarizing: either he is who he says he is (that is,
the Son of God) and, thus, we have to give credence to what he says, or he’s
not (and, therefore, he’s a madman) and we should run away immediately.
Perhaps
not many of us have thought about it in these terms, but this is one of those
things about which, as Christians, we cannot be neutral: rather, we need to
decide on which side we are. If you need
some help deciding on which side you are, I will offer these criteria: that if
Jesus is crazy about one thing then he’s crazy about everything; but if he’s
not crazy about everything, then he’s not crazy about anything. I think that it’s safe for me to say that we
don’t think that he’s crazy about everything.
Therefore, he must not be crazy about this one thing, and so we have to
give it credence, no matter how crazy it sounds.
And
so, when Jesus says, “I am the living bread” and “the bread that I will give is
my flesh for the life of the world” we have to strive to believe that he is
talking about the Eucharist: for the bread that we present is not “living”
bread: that is, bread that is alive, as if it were something out of some
B-rated horror film. No, it is not
“living” bread until it is given life when, through the words of consecration
at the altar, its very substance changes and it becomes the Body and Blood of
Jesus. Although it still appears to be
lifeless bread, it is in reality the flesh of Jesus, who lives; thus, it
becomes “bread that lives” and makes it possible for us to eat his flesh
without becoming cannibals.
On
the surface, of course, this is still incredible and, frankly, it cannot be
accepted outright. If any otherwise
rational person came to you and said, “I promise you that you will live forever
if you eat my flesh and drink my blood; and, by the way, you’ll be able to do
that if you eat this thing that looks like bread and drink this cup filled with
what looks like wine,” you’d immediately doubt all that you knew about that
person. Accepting something like this—something
that pushes you beyond the bounds of understanding—comes only after a bridge of
trust has been built with the person who is making this claim. Just look at our Gospel reading today: “Many
of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, ‘This saying is hard; who can
accept it?’” it says. And later it goes
on to say “as a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former
way of life and no longer accompanied him.”
These disciples had been only loosely connected with Jesus and had not
yet built a “bridge of trust” with him.
Therefore, when he made this seemingly absurd claim, their fragile faith
in him was shaken and fell apart. They
concluded that he must be crazy and so they turned away from him.
The
twelve Apostles, on the other hand, stayed with Jesus. They had experienced so much more from him
and, therefore, had built a bridge of trust that supported their faith. And so, even if they didn’t understand what
it was about which he was talking, they refused to write him off as a madman,
but instead recommitted themselves to him: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced
that you are the Holy One of God.”
So
where do we go from here? You know, I am
convinced that those who leave the Church must not be persons who believe in
the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
Otherwise, how could they walk away from it? Peter and the other Apostles believed that
Jesus was the Holy One of God and so could not be swayed to abandon him, even
when he taught such incredible things.
In the same way, it does not seem possible that someone would
acknowledge the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and yet still feel as
if he or she could go somewhere where it is not.
Nonetheless,
many have walked away. This is an
enormous tragedy. A tragedy because they
have turned away from the Eucharist, which is the event in which we literally
commune with God: offering him our
sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise, remembering the great work he has done to
bring us to salvation, calling down the Holy Spirit to strengthen us for our
mission on earth, and partaking in a sacred meal, which is a foretaste of the
eternal banquet in heaven.
Therefore,
my brothers and sisters, I pray that, as we conclude our reflections on the
beautiful chapter six of the Gospel of John, we would make it our task to seek
out our brothers and sisters who need this grace from the Father to believe
that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, and to help them, with our
prayers and companionship, to open their hearts to this grace, so that we all
might be joined together at this Holy Table, the foretaste of the eternal
banquet prepared for us in heaven, to feast on the Bread of Life: Our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Given in Spanish at St. Paul Parish: Marion, IN – August 21st,
2021
Given in Spanish at St. Lawrence Parish: Muncie, IN –
August 22nd, 2021
Given in Spanish and English at Immaculate Conception
Parish: Portland, IN – August 22nd, 2021
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