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.

3rd Week of Easter 2022 - Friday - "My flesh is true food..."

 

There is a short Eucharistic hymn from the 14th century, composed by an unknown author, possibly Pope Innocent VI, the fifth of the Avignon Popes. The hymn is called Ave Verum Corpus. It was sung often during benediction, when the host would be elevated in the monstrance for our adoration. While gazing upon, what appears to be ordinary bread, in the ornate golden monstrance, the choir would sing Ave Verum Corpus—"Hail true flesh born of the Virgin Mary who having truly suffered, was sacrificed on the cross for mankind, whose pierced side flowed with water and blood: Be for us a foretaste of the Heavenly banquet in the trial of death."  

St. Thomas Aquinas maintained that believing that bread is transformed—trans-substantiated—into the flesh of the Savior is a difficult doctrine. The Eucharist does not look like Christ, nor his flesh; thus it tests our faith—the doctrine requires faith.  But we believe it because this teaching comes from the Lord himself.

“unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood you do not have life within you.”

The non-Catholic denominations of Christianity have to do some pretty strange intellectual gymnastics to support their claims which contradict what Catholics have held as true from the beginning of the Church. The flesh and blood offered on the cross for our salvation becomes present on the altar under the appearance of bread and wine, and is given to us to eat and drink.

Already around the year 150, St. Justin the Martyr explains what was already well-established teaching about the transformation of bread and wine into the true flesh and blood of Jesus. He said, “We do not consume the eucharistic bread and wine as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught that as Jesus Christ our Savior became a man of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and blood assimilates for its nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving”—that is the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass.

It is a terrible horrific tragedy that so many Catholics, who should know better, deprive themselves of the Flesh and Blood of Our Lord, choosing to skip Mass, and fill their lives with so much garbage that does not satisfy, that does not give life. So part of our Easter mission is to urge them to return to the sacraments, so that they might not be deprived of eternal life.

May we find our nourishment in the Eucharist, and be strengthened in our mission by the Eucharist, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Church will deepen in her devotion to the Eucharistic sacrifice which is the source and summit of our Christian life.  

That the outpouring of charity in Christ’s Eucharistic Self-Sacrifice will become manifest in all marriages, in all business relations, in all daily encounters, in our concern for the downtrodden and care for the most vulnerable, among friends, strangers, and enemies.  

That the Eucharist will be for priests the source of their joy and their deeper configuration to Jesus Christ.  

For all those who have died, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for all who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

 

 

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2022 - Murderous Intent or Rejoicing with Truth

 How did the people of Nazareth, in the Gospel today, go from amazement and hope in Jesus’ announcement that he was the Messiah, to murderous fury? That’s certainly the big question, isn’t it? What happened? Was it something that Jesus said? Hope do you explain hope and amazement transforming into doubt and then hatred?

I thought to myself, is there anything that I could say, that could elicit such a response? If I told a bad joke, there would likely be a few groans. Like, how much does a pirate pay for corn? A buccaneer. If I gave my prediction about who will win the superbowl, there might be a few scoffs, but you wouldn’t run me out of Church. If, instead of preaching on a theological topic, I simply talked about my favorite movies from the last year and sit down, you might stare at me quizzically, but you wouldn’t come at me with murderous intent.

Things might get a little bit more heated if I, say, spent the homily sharing my incredibly niche and polarizing political opinions. I don’t know how this parish reacted, but I remember in my first assignment, when the bishop had us read his statement on the HHS mandate which was to force Catholic institutions to pay for medical procedures contrary to Church teaching, we had a few mass goers walk out during the bishop’s message.

I came across a very telling article this week, that sited a study regarding the relationship between people’s political and religious beliefs. It claimed, that for a majority people, their political opinions take a higher priority than their religious ones, and that the Church they attend coincides more with their political beliefs than if that Church is purporting to preach the truth. 

So, again, if during the homily, I got too political, well, that might elicit a response of sorts.

But what if I started preaching heresy? I starting making claims about the Nature of God, the efficacy of the Sacraments that were contrary to the ancient tradition of the Church. What if I belittled beloved devotions. Well, you should get angry, shouldn’t you. That should elicit jeers, letters to the bishop, calls for my removal as pastor. You don’t come to church to be lied to, to have the faith demeaned and disparaged. I should be removed, if I did that. 

But it wasn’t a lie that caused the people of Nazareth to drive him to the edge of town to murder him. He wasn’t simply offering a bad joke or a divisive political opinion, though some may have interpreted his words in that way. Jesus was stating the truth. He was the Messiah. 

And when his townsmen began to contemplate the implications of that truth, amazement turned to doubt and doubt turned to murderous hatred.

When we are presented with truth, truth about God, truth about ourselves, we have some choices to make, don’t we? For example, if I’m in the habit of stealing from supermarkets, and I am confronted with the truth that stealing is evil, as taught by our faith, I have a choice to make. Reject the truth outright, that I know better than the Church, I try to rationalize my sin, saying it’s not really stealing if I want it really bad, or quit stealing and confess my sin to God.

Another example, if I was under the impression that Eucharist was only a symbol of the Lord’s Body and Blood, but then I’m confronted with the unchanging truth about the Eucharist rooted in scriptures and evident in the church fathers including our own St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, I have a choice to make. Reject the truth, thinking I know better than 2000 years of consistent church teaching, I try to minimize the importance of the doctrine, saying to myself, it doesn’t really matter, does God really care if believe this or not?” Or, recognize I was wrong, the Church was right, Lord, help my unbelief, in the words of the man in Mark’s Gospel, wanting to believe that Jesus could cast the demon out of his possessed son.

There are a lot of reaction to Jesus in the Gospels. And those reactions are the consequences of choices, choices to believe in the truth about who Jesus says he is, or not. 

The townsfolk of Nazareth, they discredit Jesus’ claim. He’s just the son of a carpenter. He can’t be the Messiah. They allowed their personal prejudices to hinder their ability to believe. 

Then, when Jesus explains how their choice to discredit him was akin to the hardness of heart and lack of faith described in the old testament stories about Elijah and Elisha. Well, they had another choice. Recognize the pattern of their unbelief and the veracity of Jesus’ claim, or, silence him, drive him out, murder him. Rejection of the truth leads to violence. 

Why is our culture so polarized, so ready to erupt into violence? In many places, in many homes, even in many so-called Christian communities, it is no longer rooted in the Truth. But Truth leads to love and peace. “Augustine says, nothing conquers but truth, and the victory of the truth is love.”

When we are rooted in truth, we are able to truly love. Love that is patient, kind, not jealous, not pompous, not inflated, not rude, not seeking its own interests, not quick-tempered, not brooding over injury, not rejoicing over wrongdoing but rejoicing with the truth., as St. Paul explains in our second reading today. 

The townsfolk of Nazareth certainly did not rejoice with the truth, but Christians, we must. For, truth is the only firm foundation for culture. We understand this. We hate fake news because it’s the dissemination of lies. Pope Francis, this week spoke about how spreading “disinformation” about COVID-19 is a violation of human rights. He said access to accurate information, based on scientific data, is a human right that must be especially guaranteed for those who are less equipped to separate out the morass of misinformation and commentary masquerading as fact that is available online.

At the same time, Francis asked for a merciful, missionary approach to those who fall prey to such distortions so they are helped to understand the truth.

"Fake news has to be refuted, but individual persons must always be respected, for they believe it often without full awareness or responsibility," he said. "Reality is always more complex than we think and we must respect the doubts, the concerns and the questions that people raise, seeking to accompany them without ever dismissing them."

The Holy Father’s approach is consistent quite enlightened compared to the anger and vitriol you see from people on “both sides of the issue” . Seek the truth, don’t lie to people, don’t minimize people’s concerns, but also don’t overinflate your claims, don’t violate people’s consciences, but patiently help people identify misinformation. 

Not one person in Nazareth stopped and said, “let’s listen to what he has to say, let’s entertain this possibility. If he is in error or a madman or a charlatan, the truth will be revealed.” No one was calm, rational, careful, or discerning. They jumped to discredit, and when they were challenged, they defended their prejudices with murderous intent. 

May the Lord deliver us from our prejudices, those which keep us from loving God, loving our neighbor, loving the stranger, and loving ourselves, those which keep us from rejoicing always with the truth, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

August 2 2021 - St. Peter Julian Eymard - Adoring the Real Presence of Christ

 St. Peter Julian Eymard was originally a diocesan priest. He was ordained for the same diocese and was a close friend of St. John Vianney. A few years after his ordination, Eymard joined the Marist order, and as a Marist he traveled throughout France promoting devotion to Mary and to the Eucharist, particularly the Forty Hours Devotion, which many of our parishes in Cleveland still maintain.  

As he preached the Forty Hours Devotion, he felt his love of the Eucharist grow. An extraordinary passion for the Blessed Sacrament took root in his heart. After about 16 years with the Marists, Eymard was encourage by Pope Pius IX to found a new religious order devoted especially to the spread of Eucharistic Devotion. So in 1856, he founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament for men and a few years later co-founded the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a contemplative congregation for women, and also an association of the lay faithful devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

Due to St. Peter Julian’s preaching and role model, devotion to Eucharistic Adoration is certainly one of the great devotions of our times. 

He wrote, “True, God is everywhere, but we have need for Him to draw near to us under sensible signs, and this is what He does in the Blessed Sacrament. Think, then, that He is there. That Presence is sweeter, is recalled more easily than the presence of the invisible, the impalpable Divinity. It is less easily forgotten. Recall it everywhere, whatever you may be doing; and know that it is His human glance, the eye of the glorified and risen Body that follows you through walls, and never loses sight of you.”

What a powerful insight. That we can recall, in whatever we are doing, the Eucharist in so many tabernacles and monstrances around the world, gazing upon us with love. And that we can return to him here in church, and speak to him, and listen to him, and glimpse him in our holy hours, is one of the great privileges of being Catholic. 

So many of our contemporaries have such a tepid belief in the Lord’s real presence in the Eucharist; so many Catholics who do not believe it is necessary to come to church to receive Holy Communion, so many non-Catholics who have not considered the meaning of Jesus’ true presence in the Eucharist. So we, like St. Peter Julian do well to share with them our great love for the Eucharist, the transforming power of receiving him frequently, and making holy hours, and finding our strength in Him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That the Church may be constantly be enriched through worthy reception and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and strengthened to endure her many trials.

For all those who have fallen away from the Sacraments, for those who have grown lukewarm, for those who lack faith in the Lord’s real presence in the Eucharist. 

For blessings upon the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament Community in our diocese and around the world. 

That the sick and suffering may find comfort in the promises of Christ and the consolation of the Spirit.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, the souls in purgatory, deceased bishops, priests, and religious, those who fought and died for our freedom, and for N. for whom this Mass is offered.

Hear Our Prayers, O Lord, and through the intercession of St. Peter Julian Eymard, enflame our love for the Bread of Life. Through the Christ Our Lord.

 

July 2020 - First Friday Holy Hour - "My Lord and My God"

Prior to the second Vatican Council, it was quite common during the celebration of Mass, when the priest elevated the consecrated host, for the laity to whisper the words of St. Thomas in the Gospel today: “My Lord and My God” and perhaps too, to strike their breast penitentially. Though his heart was initially full of doubt, the Apostle Thomas’ doubt was transformed into faith—faith that the Lord Jesus was Risen from the dead and was truly present. So how fitting that the faithful developed this pious custom of echoing Thomas’ words of faith in the real presence of Christ: “My Lord and My God.”

This practice was so praiseworthy, that Pope St. Pius X, in 1907 issued a decree granting a partial indulgence if a person looked at the Body and Blood of Christ and said “My Lord and My God.” Perhaps, this custom ought to be rediscovered in this 21st century when faith in the real presence seems to be lacking, even among many mass going Catholics.

Another St. Thomas, 1200 years later wrote that while our physical senses of sight, taste, touch and smell, fail to detect the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, our faith surely enables us to recognize his presence. Præstet fides supplementum Sensuum defectui…Let faith provide a supplement For the failure of the senses.

The beautiful prayer after Communion for mass on this Feast of Thomas the Apostle, too, gives such a beautiful summary of Eucharistic faith. Listen closely to this prayer: “O God, as we truly receive in this Sacrament the Body of your Only Begotten Son, grant, we pray, that we may recognize him with the Apostle Thomas by faith as our Lord and our God and proclaim him by our deeds and by our life.”

Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. The Lord pronounces his blessing upon those who come before the Eucharist and believe that he is truly present. The promise of blessedness in this life and the next is offered to those who believe in the presence of Christ and allow that belief to shape their life.

This evening we come before our Eucharistic Lord to acknowledge that He is the source of all blessing. On this eve of our nation’s independence we beseech the Lord for all the graces we need in order to be a righteous nation, praying for conversion for all those who do not believe, praying for the grace to proclaim him by our deeds and by our life. Following our normal prayers of reparation, we will offer together the prayers of petition composed for the inauguration of President George Washington by Archbishop John Carroll, First Roman Catholic bishop in our country whose brother Charles Carroll was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

May the Lord bless all who believe and bring about the conversion of all who do not, may he bless us with ever deeper Eucharistic faith and the grace to proclaim that faith in our deeds and by our life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Corpus Christi 2020 - Eucharistic Miracles and Real Presence

We come to the great feast of Corpus Christ, the origins of which date back to an extraordinary event in the year 1263.  A priest named Peter of Prague was making his way from his home city of Prague to Rome on pilgrimage. Peter of Prague was a pious priest, though he harbored some doubts about the Lord’s Real Presence in the Eucharist. Perhaps, this is why he was making the pilgrimage, to help renew his Faith. Well, as he neared the Holy City, Father Peter stopped in the Italian town of Bolsena to offer his daily Mass. And during Mass, a miracle occurred which certainly cleared up his doubts. At the moment he lifted up the consecrated host, the host began to bleed. The blood ran down his hands and his arms and dripped down onto the corporal on the altar.

Astonished, Peter of Prague quickly made his way to the nearby town of Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV was visiting.  He knelt down before the Holy Father and confessed his former doubt of the Real Presence told the Pope of this extraordinary miracle. The Pope sent a delegation of Cardinals to investigate, and when the facts were ascertained, he ordered that the Host and the corporal bearing the stains of Blood be brought to him.  After seeing the signs of the miracle himself, the Pope ordered the sacred items to be placed in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they are still on display.

Traveling with Pope Urban during this period was the greatest theological writer of the time, of all time, no? St. Thomas Aquinas.  In honor of this miracle, the Pope asked the Dominican friar to compose the liturgical prayers for a feast honoring the Real Presence of the Lord. We celebrate that Feast today, the Feast of Corpus Christi.

There are many stories of Eucharistic miracles throughout the centuries like the one experienced by Peter of Prague, miracles in which the Lord God bolsters the faith of the doubting, or gives supernatural proof of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

One of my favorites is from 13th century Portugal: the story goes that there was a woman living in the town of Santarem, Portugal. The woman had begun to suspect that her husband was unfaithful, for he had withdrawn his affections. She became desperate to win back her husband’s attention, and so she turned to a strega, a witch. The witch promised that the husband would again love her like before, but for a price. The woman was tasked with stealing a consecrated host from church and bringing it to the witch. This frightened the woman, as she knew this to be a terrible sacrilege, but she agreed. After receiving communion in her parish church, St. Stephen, she did not consume the host upon receiving it, but took the host out of her mouth and placed it in her scarf.

On her way to the house of the witch, a miracle occurred: the Holy Host began to bleed. The woman panicked, and out of fear, she hurried home and placed the scarf with the Host at the bottom of a wooden chest in her bedroom. Her husband returned home, and the two retired for the evening, though due to her dreadful state she could barely sleep, the guilt of her sin tormented her—she could not get the image of that Bleeding Host out of her head.

And then, in the middle of the night, brilliant rays of light began to shine from the chest. The couple awakened to the spectacular vision of angels kneeling down and adoring the Host contained in that wooden chest.

The woman could no longer keep secret her terrible deed. She confessed her great sin to her husband. Both repented and spent the rest of the night kneeling in adoration and reparation before the miraculous Host.

The next morning they informed the parish priest who returned the Host to his parish Church of St. Stephens in a solemn procession. The host continued to bleed for days, when it was finally encased in a reliquary made of bees wax.

A hundred years later, the new priest went to move the reliquary to the tabernacle, when the beeswax disintegrated, but the bleeding host remained. The host was placed in a case of glass, and throughout the centuries, it has bled repeatedly, and several images of Our Lord was seen in the host.

These stories are important, they bolster our faith in the Real Presence, the remind us that in each host, in the smallest particle of each host, is the body and blood of Our Lord, who says in the Gospel, my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. Now, most of us will never witness an Extraordinary Miracle, of seeing a bleeding host, and that’s fine because and we don’t need to. Blessed are those who believe without needing such extraordinary measures. The gift of supernatural faith enables us to know that Our Blessed Lord is truly present in the Eucharist. And, if you are struggling to believe this doctrine, please ask the Lord for help: Lord help my unbelief. Don’t just write off this doctrine as superstition, ask God for help. If you believe yourself to be too modern, too intellectually sophisticated to believe in the Real Presence, you do need help, you do need God to help ignite a faith that has grown cold, or polluted by worldly categories.

There is a crisis of faith in the real presence. Last August, remember, Bishop Robert Barron made national news lamenting a recent Pew Research report that over two-thirds of Catholics have lost their faith, or never had faith, that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist—that bread and wine are truly transformed, not just symbolically, but truly, into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.

Two-thirds of Catholics. Perhaps they’ve been failed by their Catechists, perhaps by faithless clergy or religious, perhaps by their parents who themselves exhibited little-to-no Eucharistic faith, or they themselves have allowed secular materialism to destroy their faith. Whatever the reason, we must pray and work for a renewal of Eucharistic faith. The more the Eucharist is profaned or abandoned, the more we need to receive it with love and reverence.

Again what does it matter? Belief in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist is an essential doctrine of our Saving Faith. It is a conduit for grace, and transformation. Belief in the real presence leads us to make our lives worthy of its reception, to strive to adorn our souls with virtue, to make our souls fitting receptacles, spiritual tabernacles for our Eucharistic Lord.

The Eucharistic is not just a symbol. We don’t love symbols, we don’t kneel down and adore symbols, we don’t strive to better ourselves for a symbol. But we do kneel down and adore the Eucharist, we treat it with the highest level of reverence we can muster, because the Eucharist is really and truly Jesus Christ, present. He is truly present in the tabernacle. He is made present on the altar through the prayers of the priest. He is truly present as you receive him in Holy Communion. And he makes Himself present that you may love Him, and adore Him, and know Communion with God through Him, and receive the transforming grace you need to be faithful to Him in the concrete circumstances of your life. Helping you, like Him, to become a pleasing sacrifice to God, to be broken and shared for others.

May this feast help us to enshrine the Eucharist with Love, with worship in spirit and in truth, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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 Week of Easter 2019 - Tuesday - Where can I see Jesus now?

During the first two weeks of the Easter season, our Gospel readings have been accounts of the appearance of the risen Lord to his disciples.  The Risen Jesus appeared in his glorified flesh and blood on the banks of the sea of Galilee, on the road to Emmaus, and in the locked upper room. 

All of this week, our Gospel readings are taken from the sixth chapter of Saint John’s Gospel—known as the “Bread of Life Discourse” because in it, Jesus speaks of Himself as the Bread of Life. For 2000 years, Catholics have understood these passages to contain important lessons on the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

In today’s Gospel the people were asking for a sign so they could believe that Jesus was really sent by God. And Jesus said, I’ll give you a sign: the bread of life, the Eucharist.

Pope Benedict XVI said: In the Eucharist “we no longer stand before an imagined God but before the God who has truly given himself to us.”

The Eucharist is God’s answer to our prayer to truly know that He is with us in this life. Again, to quote Pope Benedict: “The Eucharist means God has answered:  The Eucharist is God as an answer, as an answering presence.” The Eucharist is not simply a symbol of God, we don’t simply imagine God to be present in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, God answers our prayers to know that He is with us in our challenges, crosses, temptations, doubts, and disappointments. He is with us in our struggle to love our enemies, forgive those who hurt us, give to those who ask of us.

The Eucharist is God’s answer to man’s question “where can I see him, now, and believe in him”. 
So many of our contemporaries are starving for truth; they go from one unsatisfying event to another, searching for God. All the while, he is here, present on the altar, present in the tabernacle, present in the eucharist tabernacle.

Jesus, help us to see that you are really present in the Eucharist, help us to deeply honor you with all our hearts, help us to receive you with great reverence, that you may nourish our minds and souls and lead us into everlasting life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Church will deepen in her devotion to the Eucharistic sacrifice which is the source and summit of our Christian life.  We pray to the Lord.

That the redemptive power of Christ’s Eucharistic sacrifice will extend to the hearts and minds of all those who govern peoples and nations.  We pray to the Lord.

That the Eucharist will be for priests the source of their joy and their deeper configuration to Jesus Christ.  We pray to the Lord.

That the Eucharistic self-give of Jesus will be found in all marriages, and in all our daily encounters.  We pray to the Lord.

For those who live in want: that Jesus the Bread of Life will be their sustenance, and that Christians may bring the justice and mercy of Christ to all those in need.  We pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for all who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

Monday - 24th Week of OT 2017 - Lord, I am not worthy

At every Mass, before receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, we echo the words of the Centurion, “Lord I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.” Even the priest who has been consecrated by the bishop to preside over these sacred mysteries says that he is unworthy to receive.

Jesus remarks that not in all of Israel had he found such faith. And you can be sure that there were many people who considered themselves to be very faithful, particularly the Pharisees.

In claiming our unworthiness to receive Holy Communion, is not a superficial act of self-degradation. We are able to come forward to receive the Lord not because we are so great and so good, but because God is so good.

When we express our unworthiness, when we kneel throughout Mass, when we genuflect when we come into the church, when we bow before receiving holy communion, we are expressing something very important for Christians, we are expressing our Reverence for God.

Reverence is having the respect we ought to have for God.  St. Theresa said, that if we really understood the greatness of the miracle that took place at Mass, we would fall flat on our face.  Because the God of the entire universe is here.  The same sacrifice that opened for us the way to heaven, takes place here in this church, on this altar, for us.

When we realize God's majestic glory, we conclude that He doesn't owe us anything. Thus, we see life as a gift and a privilege. Realizing our unworthiness we acknowledge the reality of our humanity. We see ourselves as unconditionally loved and superabundantly showered with God’s mercy. Our every breath is a grace.

There is a joy in unworthiness. There is a joy in kneeling, in submitting to not an arbitrary authority, but a true one.

Last week, I spoke of the moral therapeutic deism which has infected many Christians, who come to Church only to get something, to have their self-esteem boosted, to have their sins explained away. But reverence purifies us of such self-centeredness. Reverence brings us to our knees in the presence of God, and brings us joy in knowing that He is God and we are not.

May this Holy Eucharist today deepen our reverence and deepen our joy, that we may be faithful proclaiming Christ’s saving Truth to the ends of the earth, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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May the Church deepen in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, particularly in the reverence which helps us adore and proclaim the ineffable love of God.

For Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of September: “That our parishes, animated by a missionary spirit, may be places where faith is communicated and charity is seen.”

For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster and inclement weather, those who suffer from war, violence, and terrorism, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, the imprisoned, the unchaste, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.