Holding Back

Holding back

When I was a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy (last century!) I encountered a new phrase: “if the minimum weren’t good enough, it wouldn’t be the minimum.” Ther…

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When people ask me “How much of the Mass?” My concern for them is not about obligation, but about their passion. “How much” is not a question of love.  It is perhaps an indicators of how much we hold back in our relationship with God.

Jesus held back nothing.  He gave us his very life that we might have eternal life. He gives us his Most Precious Body and Blood in this Eucharist – not only food for the journey, but food for which our soul thirsts.

Father, how much of the Mass do I have to be at for it to count as my Sunday obligation?  St Francis of Assisi would give these words of advice to us here on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Hold back nothing of yourself for yourselves, that He Who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally.

Mercy and Healing

Homily for Corpus Christi Sunday

Image source Homily for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ ( Scriptures for today's Mass) Audio for homily Back in 200...

A Concord Pastor Comments

We often get this backwards.
We think we have to have ourselves all put together,
even perfectly put together, to come to the Eucharist.
But the reverse is true.
We come here, week after week, in all our sorry brokenness,
hoping, praying and trusting that sharing in the brokenness of Jesus
will bring us the healing and wholeness, the reconciling
we so much need and desire.

You are What You Eat

You might have seen the movie called SUPER SIZE ME. The movie was created by a man named Morgan Spurlock, and it chronicled an unusual experiment that he performed over the course of a month. Spurlock wondered what would happen if he ate all of his meals at McDonald’s. So that is what he did. For an entire month, every day, three times a day, he drove up to the Golden Arches to dine. By the end of the month, he had gained 30 pounds, his cholesterol was off the charts, and his doctor was warning him that he had to change his eating habits if he intended to survive. This movie gives visual form to a saying that we have all heard. You are what you eat. If you eat junk, high choleric fatty foods, your health deteriorates. If you eat healthy, natural, nutritional foods, your health improves. You are what you eat.

This saying is good news for us today as we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, because it is on this day that we reflect on the marvelous gift of the Eucharist. Our belief is that when we eat the bread and wine of the Eucharist we take into ourselves the very life of Christ. We believe that as we weekly celebrate the Eucharist at this altar, the bread and wine is changed during the Eucharistic Prayer into the Body and Blood of Christ. The bread and wine is no longer bread and wine, but the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Risen Christ. We do not understand how this can happen. But it is a remarkable gift, because Christ becomes for us our food.

Divine Source and Communion

CORPUS CHRISTI, YEAR A

CORPUS CHRISTI, YEAR A. 14th June 2020 Deuteronomy 8:2-3,14-16; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58. Today the church celebrates the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This sac

Sunday Homily

Today the church celebrates the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This sacrament is the real presence of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine. The dual focus of the readings is – the divine source and communion – remind us of the intention of Christ to unite with us in order to make life happy and eternal.

Reverence for the Eucharist

Today’s feast is meant to help us grow in the understanding of the Eucharist and in our reverence for this great sacrament. We certainly need this reminder. We have the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle behind our altar, but many times we ignore this Presence and treat the Church merely as a meeting place. We need to genuflect when we enter a pew and then spend a few moments in prayer, recognizing the One before whom we are kneeling.

There are many ways that the Lord is present. He is present in the beauties of nature, and in the smile of a baby. He is He is present where two or three are gathered together in His Name, and He is present in the Word of Scripture. But the greatest presence of the Lord possible for us on earth is the Real Presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Cup of Blessing We Bless

How could Jesus give Himself to us in the form of bread? He told us in the Gospel that the bread He will give is His flesh for the life of the world. He also said that unless we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood, we have no life in us. We believe, not because we can see, feel, or taste Him, because we cannot; we believe because He said it and He is God. Jesus does not want merely external observance of a set of ordinances, as good as they are. What He wants is to be loved. For this reason He is the Word Who enters, not our mind, but directly into our hearts to unite Himself with us there. Now we have to choose to unite ourselves with Him and allow ourselves to be loved by Love Himself. This will change everything: not only our external behavior but, if we are willing, it will transform us completely to God!

If we really understood, we would die with joy

If we really understood, we would die with joy

Solemnity of Corpus Christi Let’s be honest. Out of all the teachings of the Catholic Church (and we have quite a number of teachings ...

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Let’s be honest. Out of all the teachings of the Catholic Church (and we have quite a number of teachings to defend; for example, the Holy Trinity, the infallibility of the Pope, the cult of Mary and the saints) by far one of the most outrageous, unimaginable, and seemingly ludicrous is the dogma of Jesus Christ’s true presence in the Eucharist. We are not just stating that it is merely a symbolic presence that flows out of our sentimental attachment to the actions and words of Jesus, but that He is really truly present in the Eucharist. In light of such a seemingly ridiculous claim, it should at least pique one’s interest how so many millions of people, including some of the most brilliant minds in all of history, have believed it. Do we all need to have our heads checked?

Clergy E-Notes

Pro-life reflections and intercessions related to the Sunday readings

God Feeds His People

As we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus we strongly believe in Transubstantiation. This is the point at which the bread and wine cease to be bread and wine, but are changed in substance into the body and blood of Jesus. We know and believe in the real presence of Jesus in the consecrated bread for he did not mince words. From food, the Eucharist has become an element of Adoration. Because we adore Jesus and since we believe He is present in His body, soul and divinity in the Eucharist, then adoring the Eucharist means adoring Jesus.

A New Beginning

Bottom line: As we make a new beginning he give us his very self as food for our journey.

This weekend we recognize the food for our journey. Moses says that God “let you be afflicted with hunger and then fed you with manna.” Have we not experienced hunger these past months? Maybe not so much physical hunger, but hunger the food that satisfies. Jesus tells us, “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” 

We need the Body and Blood of Jesus if we’re going to make it to the Promised Land. We’ve been in Exile and now we are returning. Since this pandemic has come upon us, it will not mean returning to business as usual. Especially after the turmoil of the last 20 days, we know we can’t return to business as usual.

RELATED HOMILIES:

2017:  Life in Christ Week 10: High Point
2014:  Like Someone Dying of Hunger
2011:  Afflicted with Hunger
2008:  Who May Receive Communion?
2005:  Reverence for Eucharist
2002:  Broken Bread
1999:  Notes for Homilist 

Meet Jesus in His Real Presence in the Eucharist

Jesus gave up his body for you on Calvary and gives up his body for you in every Mass so that you may receive him in Holy Communion. It is the one sacrifice on Calvary extended through time to us at Mass. Some misunderstand and think Catholics say Jesus is sacrificed again during every Mass. No, it is the one sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary which is extended through time to us in every Mass and so truly Jesus can say to you,

the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. (John 6:51)
This is my body, which will be given for you (Luke 22:19).

so you and Jesus can enjoy intimacy together.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. (John 6:56)

In the Gospel passage today, Jesus is really explaining what takes place during the Last Supper and every Mass. It is another take on the Last Supper, looking at the Last Supper from another angle so that we get a fuller understanding.

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

One of the graces of this time could be to remind us of what it is that we most hunger and thirst for. In the First Reading Moses recalls the difficulties they encountered on their journey through the desert to the Promised Land. He recalls particularly how hungry and thirsty they were and how it was God who met their need through the manna and the water that gushed from the rock. What they learned from this is that they could not satisfy their own hunger and thirst. They had to learn to rely, not on themselves, but on God. Moses reminds them that God did more than see to their physical needs. To live we need more than bread and water. We need to experience communion with God. We need to realise that what we hunger for most is ‘every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Deuteronomy 8:3). Perhaps we have come to realise this more as we have been deprived of the Eucharist. What we thirst for most is to be in communion with God. We need to hear God speaking to us. We need to know that we are loved by God.

The Church of Unity

We often wonder: is there anything that is required of us to call ourselves Catholic, Christian? There is. To deny Christ is to deny our union. To deny that he is the very Word of God made flesh is to deny what we are. To deny that his death and Resurrection have saved us is to reject our cohesion. And to deny his real presence in our prayer together—especially our eucharistic prayer—is to reject our history and common identity.

We may be beset by sin or ignorance. We may fall short of what Christ has called us to. We may be confused by teachings or confounded by canon law, but we remain part of his body. If our particularity is all we have, if we think our individual lives are closed in upon themselves with their own isolated growth apart from the body of Christ, we develop cancerously, like separated and selfish cells.

Medicine for the Times We Live In

On the feast of Corpus Christi we recognize that we simply can’t survive on earthly bread but only by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. In John’s Gospel, that divine Word is a Person. That divine Word is Jesus. And Jesus offers us his flesh as true food and his blood as true drink. We who eat this bread from heaven are transformed into one Body of Christ, the Church. This is why the word “communion” comes from the same word as “community”. As Church, as a community configured to Christ, we approach the afflictions, the barrenness and the temptations of the times we live in as a people of hope. We walk through these times as a people of hope. This is because we know that our story does not end in a desert, but with the Promised Land. And, the worst thing we can do right now is succumb to temptation, turn around and run back to Pharaoh. When we receive the Eucharist after Mass today, we are invited to name inside our hearts that one area in our life that needs to be transformed right now. What is that one thing I am dealing with in life right now that needs transformation; that needs to become more Christ-like? This is a very important thing to consider right now because when we worthily receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, we are what we eat.

The Eucharist and the Burning Bush of Exodus

The Eucharist and the Burning Bush of Exodus: Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Recently, Pope Francis offered these words during his Sunday Angelus address. Every Sunday we go to Mass, we celebrate the Eucharist together and the Eucharist is like the ‘burning bush’ in which t…

The Alternate Path