Homily

Now that I’m an old priest it might surprise you to know that even after many years of saying the same prayer, sometimes 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 is from the Ambon Prayer for Holy Thursday Liturgy. 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 really struck me at that moment, a few years ago—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 had also, just minutes before I spoke those words, touched the resurrected body of Christ with my own hands at the altar. And so too, everyone who had received Holy Communion at that Liturgy had touched the Lord, receiving Him within their mouths and hopefully also welcoming Him 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. Sinai, 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 in the days of Moses. 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, but risen from the dead. The same Jesus that Thomas saw on that Blessed Thursday night at the Mystical Supper, was the same Jesus he had seen in the upper room just days before. Although His body had changed in a way that 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 true and genuine resurrected body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Just like Thomas: We have seen the Lord!

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 reality is only 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 something we discovered but something that was revealed to us. 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 our 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 tied 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 all the breaths that we ever 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 at the resurrection of the dead, at the end of time. Many of the students just could not 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. It has no room for the love of Christ in His Holy Communion with us. It can only see a world of sinners even while denying such a thing as sin even exists. 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 you better get your toilet paper now before other people get it first.

Dear friends, let us take the greatest care that we are never tempted to 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 representation of Christ, as though God Who came to us as man cannot come to us in the form of bread and wine. Let us 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 not truly appreciate this most spectacular miracle. Let us not be tempted to act as though this gift is not the greatest of all gifts just because Jesus comes to us freely, without cost.

The priest says, while distributing the Eucharist, “The most pure, precious and holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is given to the servant of God for the remission of his sins and for life everlasting. Amen.” Now, during this virus time I am not saying it out loud, keeping my mouth closed as you come up. But I suggest that today, and maybe even every time, after we touch the body of the risen Christ with our mouths, let us silently say after we receive Him— “My Lord and my God.”