Homily

A number of churches put ads in the newspaper to publicize their services at Easter. One local Episcopal church had an advertisement that caught my eye. It read, “Holy Saturday, 5:00 pm, Circle Service with the alternative Eucharist.” I have absolutely no idea what that means. Then it continued—at “8:00 am Easter Vigil and Solemn High Eucharist, Rite #2, Lighting of the Paschal Candle, the Exsultet (with Russian choir and use of incense.)” Seriously. I don’t even know what to say.

Now that I’m an old priest it might surprise you to know that even after many years of saying the same prayer, some thought or idea in the prayer can stick out as though I never heard it before, or never realized its deeper meaning before. Of course, as an old priest it may be just that I can’t remember that I have heard it and understood its meaning before. Either way, here it is. It’s from the Ambon Prayer for Holy Thursday. Part of the prayer says, “Today we have heard His sweet words, ‘This is my body which is broken for you and given for the forgiveness of sins.’ This body Thomas touched as he cried out, ‘My Lord and my God.’” It struck me at that moment—just as Thomas had been able to touch the resurrected body of the Lord, checking to make sure it was not an illusion or a vision, or some kind of hallucination, so too I have also just touched the resurrected body of Christ with my own hands at the altar. And so too, everyone who had received Holy Communion at the Liturgy had touched the Lord, receiving Him within their mouths and hopefully also in their souls. We do not touch a different body than Thomas did, but rather the same body and the same Lord. His body which can enter a room even though the doors are locked is the same body which can and does come to us under the form and appearance of bread and wine.

This is a most miraculous truth. Under the form of bread and wine Christ Himself comes to us. In times past God would show himself only to the elect, the chosen few, and even then it was always a symbolic appearance, as in the burning bush, or the bright light Moses saw on Mt. Sion, for God the Father is spirit and cannot be seen by our eyes, just as God the Son and the holy Spirit could not have been seen by our eyes. But then, at a most blessed point in time the Son took on human flesh and became a human person, born of the Virgin Mary, killed upon a cross, risen from the dead. The same Jesus that Thomas saw on that Blessed Thursday night at the Mystical Supper, was the same Jesus he saw in the upper room two Sundays later. Although His body had changed in a way we cannot fully understand it was His true and genuine body. So too, although we do not see with our eyes the same way Thomas did, we still receive that same resurrected body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

It is distressing and very sad for me to read polls that suggest maybe 40% of Catholics no longer believe that the Holy Eucharist is the true and real body and blood of Christ (although I suspect a great many of those people are not actively practicing Catholics). What the modern world tries to teach us is to think small and be small. To teach us that all there is is what we can see, and touch and measure. There are some who think the universe is the ultimate challenge and quest for the human spirit. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people say that if we find life out there in space somewhere it will be the biggest discovery in the history of mankind. And my response is: Why? Really! Why? Measured against what else? I mean sure, that would be very amazing but why the greatest discovery? The greatest discovery that ever came to humanity was that God is the Lord. And that wasn’t even a discovery but a revelation. Greatest ever! No matter how many times E.T. phones home. And then there are those who say it would be great to find life outside of earth to show we are not alone in the universe. Well, to that I say we never were all alone in the universe for our Creator has always been there. Indeed, not only in the universe but outside the universe for the Lord is greater than his creation and not simply a part of it.

There are people today who tell us to think small. To think that this creation, even the vast universe itself is all that there is, and there is nothing greater than the universe. And as vast as the universe is they want to shrink your understanding of life and reality to fit only within that universe. My friends, they want to shrink your world. But let us not be tied to hopeless materialism. Our lives should be lived in Him Who cannot be contained, and Who is not simply a part of this universe even though His body is true and genuine. He calls us to a life that will end up tied not to this universe but to Him, if we are faithful. He calls us to live in a life that is greater than just physical existence in the world, and will outlast our breaths breathed on planet earth.

I recall a story told by a talented and famous local Catholic grade school teacher who was talking to his students about the Resurrection of the dead and that our bodies would be given back to us in some different fashion at the end of time. Many of the students just couldn’t believe that and they thought it was, to quote some, “gross.” This is how the materialistic view of the world and our lives treats us. It shrinks our world, and it shrinks our value as true human beings. We can see the consequences of that all around us. Abortion, euthanasia, broken families, drug use—these are the results of a shrunken world, and a Costco humanity, where bulk is good but single individuals maybe not so much.

Like it or not Christ knows each one of us intimately and individually. Jesus says He knows the number of hairs on our heads and He counts each of us as of infinitely greater importance that the whole universe, for He did not die to save the universe but rather to save us, created in His own image. Let us not shrink our universe, but look beyond to the Lord of all that exists.

So too, let us not see mere bread and wine when we come to receive the Holy Communion. Let us not be tempted to think we are getting some kind of symbol, or presentation of Christ, as though God who came to us as man cannot come to us in the form of bread and wine. Let’s not shrink our Savior to a tiny materialistic understanding of life. Yes, since He comes so humbly to us it is very easy to lose focus and truly appreciate this wonder of wonders. Let’s not be tempted to indirectly think, “How could it be great when it comes to me free?” As you know in the Latin Church the people say “Amen” in response to the priest before receiving Communion. Let us today focus ourselves after we touch the body of the risen Christ, and let us silently say after we receive Him—“My Lord and my God.”