19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024 - Eucharistic Missionaries

 Back in 2022, the Church in the United States began a multi-year initiative of Eucharistic Revival. In the first phase of the Revival, each diocese had gatherings of the faithful. So back in June of 2022, members of the faithful, clergy and religious from the various parishes and institutions gathered with the bishop for a eucharistic procession and mass at the cathedral. We had four members from our parish attend that event launching the Eucharistic Revival.

I’ve continued to meet with those parishioners regularly. Our Light for Love program, in which we opened up the church for the evening, and invited passersby into church to pray with us in front of the blessed Sacrament was just one event that was born out of that diocesan eucharistic synod.

Following the launch of the Revival, each diocese around the country then began to prepare to send representatives to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, which was held last month. It was the first National Congress in 80 years! 

And what a week it was! There were about four to five hundred Catholics just from our diocese, including 8 from our parish, who joined the 50 to 55 thousand Catholics from around the country for the Congress. It was truly incredible to join so many of the faithful for prayer and worship and faith formation. And even though some of the music was…not quite my style…to join so many souls in prayer for an outpouring of grace—for the Holy Spirit to deepen our love and appreciation for the Eucharist—was truly a awe-inspiring. God is at work to invigorate Catholics in our nation that we may be a light shining in the darkness.  I do hope that our Eucharistic Missionaries will be able to share with you their experience in the coming months.

The Eucharistic Congress began the final phase of the Eucharistic Revival—what the Bishops are calling the Year of Mission which will last until July of 2025. The Year of Mission. Mission, of course, comes from the latin word – missa, which means to be sent. And it is the Bishops’ desire that for the next year we seek to deepen our sense of mission—that especially through the Eucharist God missions us, he sends us into the world. God strengthens us through the eucharist for a purpose, for a reason.

We gather for Mass every week, not simply out of obligation, but because through the Mass God does something—in us, with us, through us. At Mass, we encounter Jesus Christ—we receive him— as food for the journey, the journey out of the doors of the church, into the world, in order to witness, to draw souls to Christ.

The very word Mass, comes from the same latin word, missa, mission. Jesus gathers us in order to sent us out.

In the first reading, the prophet Elijah is being sent by God on a very long mission—a forty day journey to the mountain of God, Mt Horeb—and what does God say to Elijah--"Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!" 

Similarly, in our journey to the mountain of God, heaven, Jesus gives us his flesh to be our food for the journey—because our human strength is insufficient. The Eucharist is the strength we need—it is the spiritual food for the spiritual journey—the journey of being a disciple of Jesus Christ every day—carrying our cross, forgiving our enemies, bearing wrongs patiently, and being attentive to the needs of others, sharing the truth.

The Eucharist strengthens us for the journey, but there are also a lot of things that weaken us on our missionary journey—which can even cause us to fail to finish the race. St. Paul lists some of them in our second reading: “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.” Why MUST they be removed? Because they weaken us, they cause us to stumble in the journey. These attitudes, these choices, must be set aside, or else we will not progress in the spiritual life; they diminish the life of God in us.

The Church teaches that Mass is the most important thing we are to do every week. And likely, many of us are not getting as much out of Mass each week, because we are unwilling to let go of those habits and attitudes that the word of God urges us to let go of. 

One reason to make a good holy hour each week, or to make a regular confession, is to humble ourselves before the Lord in order to let go of things that you need to let go of. So often, we are confused about God’s plans for us, or we don’t see the improvement of our relationships with family and friends as we’d like, or we’re bored or unfulfilled. It’s because of those things we are unwilling to let go of. 

But when we trust the Lord to lead us out of those toxic, sinful habits and attitudes, we come to enjoy a freedom, a reconfiguration and realignment, and a discovery of the mission for which God made us—which is the source of joy that nothing in the world can provide.

Speaking of mission and missionaries, today we welcome a true missionary, a sister of the missionaries of the holy rosary, and we will have the opportunity to support the missionary religious orders like hers in our second collection. I now invite sister to the ambo.

3rd Sunday of Easter 2023 - If it's only a symbol, to heck with it

 A little over a year ago, Bishop Malesic was featured in an article in a well-respected National Catholic periodical, the National Catholic Register. The article was titled “Cleveland Bishop: Catechesis About the Eucharist Is a Top Priority”

The article reported a study that should be very concerning to all of us, but especially to the bishops. A 2019 Pew Research study found that just 31% (of the 2,000 U.S. Catholics they surveyed) believe that at at Mass, Bread and Wine are truly transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. In fact, nearly seven-in-ten Catholics said they personally believe that the bread and wine are only symbols. Only symbols. Seriously? If they are only symbols, why would anyone take Catholicism seriously?

The Catholic author Flannery O’Connor, was attending a gathering of writers and the conversation turned toward this topic, toward Catholicism and finally to the Eucharist. And one well-known writer commented that the Eucharist was a symbol, and a powerful one at that. To which, Flannery O’Connor stood up, and responded, “Well, if it’s just a symbol, to heck with it!”

It’s hard to not draw a connection between the lack of faith that Jesus’ Body and Blood are really made present here and the drop in Mass attendance. Why would you make the effort to come to Church week after week, year after year, in sleet, snow, rain, and scorching summer heat, just to see me hold up a symbol? Who cares about symbols? Calling the Eucharist merely a symbol is to put it on the level of a hippy peace sign, a yin-yang, an inert, lifeless, impotent, caricature. 

But to quote the current Bishop of Cleveland, ““When Jesus said to his apostles, ‘This is my Body’ and ‘This is my Blood,’ he meant it”

Bishop Malesic remarked, “My ministry, and the role of every bishop, is to teach clearly and authentically what the Church teaches”. And what does the Church teach: that our physical senses fail to detect what really happens to the bread and wine at Mass. Bread and wine are truly transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus, just as they were at the Last Supper. 

The National Catholic Register article also reported how in response to this mind-blowingly concerning statistic, the bishops of the United States voted to launch a three-year Eucharistic Revival Initiative. And May God help us with that. For how can the Church flourish, how can we succeed in our mission, when we are failing to appreciate this greatest of gifts from God.

The first phase, the first year of the Revival which began last June has been on the diocesan level. So that’s why you haven’t heard too much about it, so far. In this first year, the diocese has been developing resources for priests to share with the people for the second phase, the second year of revival, which begins on Corpus Christi Sunday this June.

I’ll be working with Parish Council, our Synod Group, and our parish staff to implement some of these resources. We’ve been instructed to hold a Eucharistic Procession on Corpus Christi Sunday. We already had our Parish Picnic scheduled for that day. Maybe we can do both. But the Eucharistic Procession must take precedence. So that will be June 11, likely after the 11am Mass. I’d like to process down Lorain to w 105th, then onto Ignatius ave, then up West Blvd, then back into church.

The third phase of the Eucharistic Revival, the third year will lead up to a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in 2024. When Cleveland hosted the Eucharistic Congress back in 1935, but I’m told, Clevelanders opened up their homes to the thousands and thousands of people who traveled to our diocese, for the Congress which included 50,000 people gathering at Cleveland Municipal Stadium and Catholics standing in the formation of a living monstrance, with the Eucharist at its center. Pope Pius XI even blessed the Catholics gathered here in Cleveland. Perhaps your parents or grandparents were part of that gathering. I would love to bring a group from this parish to Indianapolis. We’ll try to get tickets if that’s how it’ll work. 

Why do I bring this up on the third Sunday of Easter? In the Gospel reading, the Lord Jesus appears to the disciples. For whatever reason they did not recognize it was the Lord. They were certainly shaken by the Lord’s gruesome crucifixion and death. But this failure to recognize the Risen Lord makes me think of the thousands and thousands of Catholics who do not recognize Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. 

But, after walking with them, and talking with them, listening and speaking and explaining the Scriptures to them, Jesus takes bread, says the blessing, breaks it, and gave it to them, the very actions he undertook at the Last Supper, the very actions we undertake at every Mass.

And St. Luke tells us, with that “their eyes were opened and they recognized him”. That is our prayer for the Eucharistic Revival, for all of those Catholics who do not believe that the bread and wine truly become the Lord’s body and blood at Mass. Perhaps they lost their faith, or were improperly taught. Perhaps they bad teachers, or their parents didn’t believe, or they’ve allowed some sophisticated intellectual acrobatics to replace the simple faith of the Church. But for whatever reason, it is our prayer that those who lack faith, come to believe—that the eyes of faith become opened, and souls come to recognize what is really going on here: that Bread and Wine truly, really, substantially become Jesus.

That is the reason for the revival—the revival our bishop believes we need. And I’m with him. 

If you are confused about this teaching. We’ll help you understand. I’ll host evenings, afternoon, or morning catechism lesson for adults if you want. I’ll sit down with you personally and review Church teaching, or whatever arguments you might have.  But belief in the Real Presence, is fundamental to Catholicism. 

You might say, “Oh, well, who cares if we believe this? Isn’t it enough that we’re a good person or committed to the poor or committed to social justice. Isn't that important?" But one Bishop, and I’m right with him, too said "a reduction of religion to morality is repugnant to Catholicism." Catholicism isn’t merely a moral code. It is a religion based on revelation from God Himself. And God Himself said this is my body, this is my blood. To reject that is to reject Jesus, to deny that he is really here, in the flesh. 

And just like he did with the disciples like the disciples in the Gospel today. Through his real presence, Jesus wants to set our hearts on fire. 

Try something today. As you come forward in procession today to receive Communion, repeat over and over, “this is God, I’m receiving God, the Eucharist is my God, my Lord and my God, my savior”. 

If you don’t believe that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist…I’m not sure you should get in the communion line. If you believe that bread remains bread, you have some serious praying to do. Pray, “Lord, help my unbelief. Help me believe this Church teaching which goes back to Jesus Himself” 

Lord, help those who disbelieve, to believe. And help us who believe to live in a manner which reflects our belief that Christ truly feeds us with his Body and Blood, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.