Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for August 20, 2006
Liturgical Year B - Cycle II
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney
Topic: Christ in the Eucharist
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Gospel
Jn 6:51-58
Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Does it drive you crazy when a preacher repeats himself over and over again? Yes.

In fact, we preachers drive you people crazy a lot. God rest my Mother. When she was alive, she would spend the weekends with me in the rectory. She would go to the Saturday Vigil Mass at the church in Tijeras and she would time me. One time, I went about eighteen minutes and when I got back to the rectory, she said, “You made a fool of yourself up there. I was ashamed of you. Someone said, ‘Is that your son?’ and I said, ‘I do not know that man.’”

We have a parishioner Don. I think he goes to the next mass. Don and Sue, what’s his last name, the Chicago Cub’s fan? Don Rokop--he times me. A couple of weeks ago, I forgot my homily notes. It was an eight and a half minute homily. He was so happy.

Nevertheless, when a preacher repeats himself and you think he’s going to end his sermon and he goes at it again, it drives you nuts. You say, “I’m not stupid. I heard you the first time.”

But listen to this preacher.

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” The Jews, the people, they murmured about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert but they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews, the people quarreled among themselves saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen. I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven.”

In thirty verses or less, in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus repeats himself nine times. The explanation for that is: either he was a poor preacher or he was trying to make a very important point. I think we know what the answer to that question is. That man could preach. He was trying to make an important point. For the Jews to make a point they would say it three times; that meant, “Did you hear me?” Three times. Some of you are the same, three, five times. Mothers are known to say things three times. It just so happens, at least by my count, he said it nine times, which is what? 3 x 3! Jesus is saying, ". . . to really make the point that I’m not giving you a symbol of presence. I’m not giving you some kind of romantic recollection of the times I was with you. I am giving you my body and blood, soul and divinity and you’d better eat it and drink it if you wish to have eternal life. That’s the point.”

That brings the question: What percentage of Catholics believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist? That he changes this bread and wine into his body and blood. In 1992, Gallup did a poll on this question. It was called, “The Gallup Survey of Catholics regarding Holy Communion.” The results of the poll were as follows:

This has always been the Church’s teaching regarding the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in Vatican II, just really restated the Council of Trent, which summarized the Catholic faith by saying, "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change, the Holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation . . . Under the consecrated species of bread and wine Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity.”

According to the poll, 71% of American Catholics, at least in 1992, held an incorrect understanding of the Holy Eucharist. I’m not sure of what the numbers would be today. Of course, in our parish, we are 100% accurate on this but I think many have just, frankly been misinformed, poorly catechized. I know people who have Ph.D.’s that have no books about Christ and His church in their house. They have not kept up that part of their studies. Frankly, most people have not thought about it that much. If there is not food for thought in the Eucharist, there is not food for thought anywhere.

Probably, very few are in conscious descent. How do you convince someone of the truth of the Eucharist, though? Some people seek miracles and if you go on-line and Google up Eucharistic miracles, there are hundreds of them. I’ve been in places where miracles have occurred and I believe but I don’t like to believe because God proves it to me with a miracle. Frankly, I have experienced what I considered to have been miracles with the Eucharist but I don’t teach those things because if you KNOW then you don’t have faith, you have knowledge. It’s different. Faith is belief in things unknowable in the natural order. Such faith is belief in things unseen and that is what Jesus wants from us. He doesn’t want to prove to us that this is His body, blood, soul and divinity. He wants you and me to take this leap of faith, to “go all in”; for you poker aficionados; to go all in with him and truly believe what he said is true.

In fact, concerning miracles, I love this story of the great King St. Louis of France. He was assisting as an acolyte, an altar server at mass. He was the King of France. He was told that a Eucharistic miracle at another chapel was occurring, a little child had appeared on the host and there were many witnesses. King St. Louis said, “Our Lord is present here in this chapel as truly as he is there. Such miracles are for the benefit of unbelievers. Let those go to see it who do not believe. For me, faith is enough. I prefer to believe in the Lord’s real presence simply because he has said that he would remain present in the Eucharist.”

I do think that there is a way of knowing that this is really true and that is to look at others, people who have great faith. You know many of them, I’m sure. You know that the Eucharist changes them. You know their other side but you know their belief and love of Christ in the Eucharist. You know what it does for them.

I remember very well a man that I assume is dead. His name was Ed Ping. It was right before I entered seminary. I was stationed in Decatur, Illinois. I was Advisor to the National Guard. It was an inglorious end to an otherwise mediocre career. I worked with the local parish and the parish had a Helping Hands Ministry, as we do here. I was assigned to Ed Ping. Now Ed was blind. He had been an auto mechanic. He had some disease that gradually took his sight and he was completely blind. I think he was about 65 years of age. He was a fascinating character, a simple man. He had been a great mechanic and he kept a car in his driveway. He kept it tuned. He would get in there and work on that thing. Although he couldn’t see, he knew that car so well that he would actually tinker with it. He’d go outside and say, “Come here.” Then he'd say, “Sit down.” He’d start it up and say, “Sounds good, doesn’t it?” It hadn’t been driven in years. I used to visit Ed and I would do his shopping for him. The house was not clean and so I tried to clean it. I think he was a schlep when he could see. When he lost his sight, he had an excuse for the filthy place that he lived in. I would read his mail to him. I don’t know what his ethnic background was. He was Anglo-Saxon of some flavor. His name was Ping, P-i-n-g. Half of his mail was in Chinese and he would get all these Chinese advertisements and the like.

One of the joys we had together, and one of the joys of Ed’s life, was listening to Notre Dame games. Well, you know I suffered through those games with him. We would sit there on many a Saturday afternoon, listening to the fighting Irish football on radio. In some ways, radio was better than television, even today, listening to games. He would sit there and for every play, he was absolutely engaged. As a matter of fact, I wrote the athletic department of Notre Dame and explained what a great fan he was. He would pray the rosary before the game for the Irish. Good idea! So, I wrote the athletic department and I said what a great fan they had in Ed Ping. We got a letter back signed by Lou Holtz saying thanks for your prayers and a whole packet of information. He treasured that; he’d take that letter out and “St. Lou” had signed it, so you know.

That was the second most enjoyable thing in Ed’s life. The number one great part of his life was receiving Holy Communion. I would bring him the Eucharist often after Sunday mass, and we’d pray before he received; and even before he received, tears would come down his face. He believed so thoroughly that Christ was truly present, had come to him, and was with him and in him at that moment. That made me believe even more. I think I had believed before I knew Ed so well. I think I believed intellectually but when I saw what the Eucharist did to him, I believed fully in my heart.

He was one of the richest, luckiest men I had ever met in my life, Ed Ping. You know people like that too. Indeed maybe you are someone like that.

You know the sad part of the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, after he gives this teaching loud and clear. It says,

“Then many of his disciples who were listening said, 'This saying is hard. Who can accept it?' Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, 'Does this shock you?. . . The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe'. . . As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. But he turned to the twelve and he said, 'Do you also want to leave? And Simon Peter answered him, 'Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.'"

And so do we.

We believe, and I speak for you, I trust, hope, and pray that Jesus Christ is present in this Eucharist today, flesh and blood, body and soul, humanity and divinity. We believe and how blessed and how fortunate we are to have the Holy Eucharist.

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