Corpus Christi 2019 - Ecco Gesu

I once heard Cardinal Dolan, Cardinal Archbishop of New York, tell the story that one year, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, he was privileged to carry the monstrance in the great Eucharistic Procession in the town of Orvieto, Italy. Orvieto, I explain in my pastor’s column this weekend, is known, not just for its fine Italian white wines, but is the place where Thomas Aquinas wrote the prayers for this great Feast, instituted by Pope Urban IV about 750 years ago.

So, as you might imagine, the Eucharistic procession in Orvieto is quite a spectacle: flowers line the main street, the alley ways are jammed with people, medieval tapestries are hung from the windows. And Cardinal Dolan described how as he made his way, carrying the Blessed Sacrament in procession, something caught his eye, which he has never forgotten. He glimpsed a young father holding his three year old son. And he saw the young father point to the Holy Eucharist and whisper to his son, “Ecco Gesu”, “Ecco Gesu”, look, there is Jesus, look, there is jesus.

Every Mass of course, but especially today, On this Feast of Corpus Christi—the Body and Blood of Jesus--the Church is invited to Ecco Gesu, to look to the blessed sacrament and see Jesus, with renewed faith today.

I recall another story Cardinal Dolan tells about the Eucharist. In 1979, Pope John Paul II visited Washington D.C. And shortly after the visit, Cardinal Dolan was celebrating Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in our nation’s capital, and a gentleman came up to him after Mass in the Sacristy. 

And the man said, “Father, I’m a professor of sociology at Catholic University here on campus, and I’m not a Catholic, but I’ve been very intrigued by the visit of Pope John Paul II.  And do you think I could speak to you about faith and even about the possibility about becoming Catholic.” Now you can imagine how that is like music to a priest’s ears. So, obviously the Father Dolan agreed.

And In the course of the conversation, it become evident that this professor had a tough problem with the reality of faith. He was an academic, a rigorous scholar. So for him everything had to be empirically verified, everything had to be scientifically accurate, everything had to be argued out and accepted only on the weight of verifiable evidence. He had a tough time with faith—he just couldn’t make that leap—that act of trust and confidence—and he admitted it, and he knew it, and was struggling to understand

In one of their sessions, he admitted to Archbishop Dolan, “you know, I go to Mass all the time. I don’t go to Holy Communion obviously, but I watch.  When the priest holds up that piece of bread, he looks at it, and says, ‘this is the lamb of God.’ And all the people look at that piece of bread, and they pray to it, and they say, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to receive you.’

And I watch, and the priest holds up that piece of bread and says ‘the body of Christ’, and the people look at that piece of bread and say, ‘Amen’ which I think means ‘I believe.’  Why, why, why, do you and all those people speak to that piece of bread as if it is Jesus Christ Himself?”

And Archbishop Dolan, said, “because it really is, because it is, we believe it is Jesus Christ Himself!”

The professor then said that at that moment he appreciated for the first time what pure faith was all about: when there was absolutely no scientific proof, no verifiable evidence, no empirical data, still to say ‘I believe’.

That man, by the way, is now, not only a Catholic, he’s a Benedictine Priest.  He discovered the nature of pure faith. 

Ecco Gesu.

Since that First Holy Thursday, you and I believe, the Church believes that at every single valid Mass, Jesus does for us what he did for his apostles at the Last Supper—he changes bread and wine into his very body and blood.

We believe that in the Eucharist Jesus Christ is really and truly present, and when we worthily receive Him, we are intimately in union with Him.  And my brothers and sisters, we believe this, not based on scientific evidence or empirical data, but on faith—faith we have received from the apostles.

If you went to the credence table and took the pieces of bread that I will consecrate in a few minutes and put it under a microscope and analyzed it, you would see bread. And then, you looked at that same host under a microscope after the consecration you wouldn’t see a bit of difference, there would physically be no difference—physically. But there would be all the difference in the world. As we believe that bread truly becomes the Body of Christ, so much so, that we look to it, and what appears to our senses to be bread, we say, in faith, Ecco Gesu. Look, there’s Jesus.

And visitors in our midst should detect our faith through our gestures, through our acclamation, through our song. They should be edified by our handling and reception of the holy Eucharist. Our reverence should cause them to question: is it really him, is he really here? Ecco Gesu, yes, he is.

This weekend, one of our young parishioners, Ben Smith, will receive Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist for the first time. Remember, how excited you were, how reverently you came forward, the love, the wonder and awe of your first Holy Communion. I remember, mine, many years ago, wondering what that moment was going to be like; asking, will I feel Jesus in my heart? Will this change me? I remember being very careful not to drop the precious host, having been taught that the host, even the smallest particle of the host, is more precious than the most expensive diamond in the world, because it is Jesus Himself; you shouldn’t drop the host any more than you should drop a newborn baby. And, I remember going back to my pew after that first Holy Communion, kneeling down, closing my eyes, experiencing a a very special closeness to Jesus.

Every reception of Holy Communion is meant to change us, to deepen our love for God and neighbor, to strengthen us against sin and temptation, to make us more courageous in spreading the Gospel and performing the works of mercy.

In all of our joys, ecco gesu. In all of our struggles, ecco gesu. In all of our woundedness, ecco gesu. In him we place our hope. In him we learn to love. In our confusion, in our sadness, in our hunger and thirst for righteousness. Ecco Gesu.

On this Feast of the Lord’s Body and Blood, we pray that we may celebrate Eucharist with every ounce of reverence we can muster, every ounce of gratitude for his great sacrifice for us, that our hearts may be transformed, and that through this saving sacrament we may be made worthy of the kingdom of heaven for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

3rd Sunday of Easter 2018 - Instruments of Hope

In today’s First Reading from the Book of Acts, St. Peter courageously preaches the Gospel to the same Jewish leaders and residents of Jerusalem—the very same group of people who had conspired to condemn Jesus to death by crucifixion. Peter doesn’t sugar-coat his message; bluntly he says, “You have put to death, the author of life.”

But he doesn’t dwell on this fact for long, he moves on from their sin and weakness and ignorance to the more important truth. He tells them that God has brought forth something inestimably good from Christ’s suffering and death.  God has turned the death of the Messiah into the definitive victory over death, evil, and suffering. “God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses” Peter says.  “We are witnesses”.  Certainly he was thinking about those times, as we heard in today’s Gospel, where the disciples witness the Risen Christ, appearing to them, eating with them, letting them see and touch his wounds, proving the he was not a ghost or illusion.

Christ has risen, and this changes everything. It is a new beginning for the human race. Whether you were one of the people who were calling for his crucifixion, or like Peter, you denied him. A new beginning has come.

And the same goes for us: if there were times in our life when we disregarded certain commandments or in our weakness found them too difficult to follow, if there were times when we didn’t stand up for the faith as we should have, if there were times, perhaps, when we struggled with atheism, or perhaps we committed a really shameful sin, like abortion or helping someone procure an abortion, Easter is a new beginning. The Resurrection means a new beginning in which we can truly leave behind the chains of sin and selfishness in all their forms. The Resurrection puts all good things within reach: wisdom, patience, joy, fortitude, self-control—in short, it makes holiness and lasting happiness possible for each of us.

That is what Peter is telling the crowds, and that is what the Church is telling us: let Easter be a new beginning, do not despair, hope in Christ, leave everything aside to follow him, and he will work wonders in your life.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, tells a story about his visit to a prison to celebrate Mass for the prisoners there. While he was being escorted by the prison warden into the room where they were going to gather for the celebration of Mass, the Archbishop thanked the warden for allowing him the opportunity.

And the warden said, “No, Archbishop, thank you.  We are glad when chaplains come.  The most dangerous man in the prison is a desperate man.”  And that word ‘desperate’ was carefully chosen.  The word desperate comes from the Latin – de, spes –without hope.

“The most dangerous person in jail is a desperate man—a man without hope—that man will do anything.  But if a prisoner has hope, and it might just be a natural hope to get out, or to have certain privileges restored, or it might be a noble hope, to discover his inner dignity—to discover the image of God deep down and to make his peace with the Lord.  Once a prisoner has hope, that prisoner comes alive, that prisoner can be reformed, that prisoner becomes a blessing to our community.  We can do a lot of things in jail, but we cannot give hope.  It is good that you men of faith come, because our men need hope.”

It is our Easter Task to proclaim that no matter your past, no matter your sins, there is hope! The task isn’t just for prison chaplains, it’s the task of every Christian!

How can we better embody the hope that comes from the Resurrection of Christ? I’d like to focus on three points.

First, as St Peter stressed in the First Reading, we must "repent, and be converted."

If we are constantly fighting with our siblings, or engaging in physical relations outside of marriage, or if we are a constant source of negativity, gossip, sarcasm, or resentment. We have some repenting to do, some conversion is needed, to open ourselves to be people of mercy.

A nightly examination of conscience before bed can help us identify attitudes, habits, and behaviors that need to be converted. Repentance is where transformation begins. Failing to repent is like trying to inflate a tire with a hole in it, or putting water in a broken cup.

So, if there are any serious sins that we have not repented of, we need to bring them to the sacrament of confession. For only those who have encountered mercy can be instruments of mercy.

Secondly, as today’s Psalm reminds us, we must turn to God in prayer: "Know that the LORD does wonders for his faithful one; the LORD will hear me when I call upon him." Daily "calling upon the Lord" is not just for Lent. Lent was to help us put into practice disciplines we should practice all year round.

Developing a deep prayer life means learning to spend quality time with the Lord in silence, encountering him in the daily reading of scripture, the writings of the saints.

This week, Pope Francis issued a wonderful new apostolic exhortation called: “Gaudete et Exsultate: “Rejoice and Be Glad: On the Call to Holiness in the Contemporary World.” Our own Bishop, Bishop Perez has recommended that we all read and reflect upon this new exhortation.

In addition to the second lesson, the need to pray, the Holy Father says, “we shouldn’t “think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary affairs to spend much time in prayer... We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves. Are you called to the consecrated life? Be holy by living out your commitment with joy. Are you married? Be holy by loving and caring for your husband or wife, as Christ does for the Church. Do you work for a living? Be holy by labouring with integrity and skill in the service of your brothers and sisters. Are you a parent or grandparent? Be holy by patiently teaching the little ones how to follow Jesus. Are you in a position of authority? Be holy by working for the common good and renouncing personal gain”

So the third Lesson, is to strive to witness in our day to day activities by practicing Gospel values always. And that becomes all the more possible when we’ve rightly repented of sins, and encountered the Risen Lord in prayer, in word and sacrament.

Repent, pray, bring Christ into your day-to-day activities. By this may we continue to open ourselves, this easter season, to the transforming hope that comes from the Resurrection, that we may be transformed into instruments of hope for the glory of God and salvation of souls.