The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ

BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE, SEE WHAT YOU BELIEVE, BECOME WHAT YOU ARE 

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ 

Genesis 14: 18-20; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26; Luke 9: 11B-17 

Scripture never ceases to amaze me. You can read the same story 100 times, and on the 101st time, you notice something you never did before. It shifts your attention, gives you deeper insight into the passage, and a more profound appreciation and love for our Lord. Case in point, Luke’s retelling of the “Feeding of the Five Thousand”, the “Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish” that we just heard. 

So, in the past when I read this passage or preached on it, my focus was on two aspects of the story. First, the compassion and sensitivity of Jesus. Sometimes, because we hear little chucks of the gospels each week, we lose an appreciation for what had transpired immediately before and so it’s difficult to connect the dots. And on hearing this story, we forget that this great miracle happens right after Jesus has received word of the death of John the Baptist. So, despite his own personal grief, Jesus is still moved with concern and compassion for the crowd who gathered that day, all day, to hear him preach. They’re hungry. He has fed their minds, hearts and souls with his word, now he takes care of their physical needs and fills their bellies. 

Second, when I’ve read this story in the past, of course my focus was on the magnitude of the miracle itself. Jesus takes the meager supply of five loaves of bread and two fish and multiplies them to feed a crowd of five thousand, not counting women and children. In John’s account of the event, we’re told that they were two small fish. Do you know what type of fish they could have been? Sardines! There are three kinds of fish that inhabit the waters of the Sea of Galilee: carp, tilapia and sardines. And only one of those three fits the description of being a small fish – sardines! It’s mindboggling to think of a crowd of five thousand plus being fed with only two fish; but just think how many SARDINES would have to be multiplied for each to not only have their fill, but for there to be twelve wicker baskets overflowing with the leftovers. A good lesson for us, that when we intercede to God, he never shortchanges us, he always blesses us with more than we have asked for. 

But earlier in the week, when I read today’s gospel as I started to prepare my homily, two things jumped off the page at me that I really never paid much attention to in the past. One was Jesus’ his instructions to the Apostles after they alert him to the need of the crowd: “Give them some food yourselves.” And the second was the description of Jesus’ gestures as he performed the miracle: “Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples.” Does the latter sound familiar? It should, for they are the same four actions of Jesus at the Last Supper that we recall at every mass: he TOOK the bread, BLESSED it, BROKE it and GAVE it to his disciples. Hence the connection between the multiplication of the loaves and fish and the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper is explicit. 

Listen to what St. Augustine said in a homily he preached sometime in the 4th or 5th century on the Eucharist: Here is “one of the deep truths of Christian faith: through our participation in the sacraments (particularly baptism and Eucharist), we are transformed into the Body of Christ, given for the world.” St. Augustine went on to say, "Believe what you see, see what you believe and become what you are: the Body of Christ." When we say "Amen", we are saying "Yes! I believe this is the Body and Blood of Christ and yes I will be the Body of Christ to others." 

And so, what did Jesus mean when he told his Apostles to “give them some food yourselves?" That we who have eaten must become what we have partaken of; we must BECOME Eucharist. And how do we do that? We do that when we allow ourselves to become bread; bread that has been chosen, blessed, broken and given. 

Jesus took the bread. At our baptism, we were taken, chosen, called by name. In the Old Testament, God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” And at the Last Supper, Jesus reminded his Apostles, “It was not you who have chosen me; it is I who have chosen you.” The same is true for us. As Christ took the bread, we are taken by God. That means we are chosen and are precious in God’s eyes - Chosen by God and selected for a unique role to play in God's Kingdom. 

He took the bread and blessed it. We are blessed by God. We have all been blessed in some way or another, to some degree or another. Some have been blessed with great families and friends, good jobs, keen intelligence, incredibly good looks, good health, fantastic personalities. But beyond these, we have been blessed with generous hearts, personal warmth, intense compassion, merciful spirits, and deep faith. All of these blessings and more have been given not to be hoarded, but to be shared. 

Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it. We are all broken people. We are broken in so many ways, in our bodies and in our hearts, in our homes and in our world. We might feel like our brokenness is a sign that we are cursed, but when we listen to the voice that calls us “beloved” it becomes possible to see our brokenness as an opportunity to grow and learn and to deepen the blessing that God has given us. In other words, as we begin to allow the blessing to touch our brokenness we realize that what was once intolerable is now a challenge, what was once rejection becomes a way to deeper communion, and what seemed like punishment is simply a gentle pruning. And by coping through our brokenness, we can become more sensitive, more compassionate, to the brokenness of others. 

Christ took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples. We are given. If we truly know and live our lives as people who are chosen by God, blessed, and broken, then we can give of ourselves. Jesus said, “I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit”. When we bear fruit, we are helping others bear fruit. Each of our lives is a gift to those close to us: family, friends, those we serve, as well as to people we will never know. God has given us—each one of us—as a sacred gift to the world. 

BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE, SEE WHAT YOU BELIEVE, BECOME WHAT YOU ARE!!! In other words: Our deepest reality is Christ. Christ is our truest identity. You and Christ . . . One and the same . . . One holy communion. formed when you become Eucharist and have allowed yourself to be chosen, blessed, broken and given with Him and for Him, or as St. Augustine would say: when you put your life on the altar. 

I guess St. Teresa of Avila said it best when she wrote. “Christ has no body but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.” 

Ever wonder why, after the five thousand were fed, there were twelve wicker baskets full of leftovers? Maybe for each of the twelve Apostles to take a basket and to do what Jesus commanded, “Give them some food yourselves.” And that basket has not become empty in two thousand years. 

The basket has now been passed to you. “Give them some food yourselves.”

Graduation Homily for the Class of 2019

DROPS THAT SPARKLE 

A Graduation Homily for the Class of 2019 

St. Therese School, Succasunna, NJ 

June 6, 2019 

Joshua 1: 7-9; 1 Corinthians 1: 4-9; Matthew 28: 16-20

Look what I found when I was cleaning out my basement a few weeks ago! It’s a sword that I bought in England when I was there in my Senior year of high school. I haven’t seen this sword in many years, but as soon as I did, it brought me back . . . back not just to more years than I like to admit, to when I was in high school, but it brought me back to the Age of Chivalry – to knights, and armor, to courtly manners, to a religious, moral and social code that included values like courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak. But it also reminded me of something else . . . a few weeks ago, as part of your class trip, you went to see the Broadway musical KING KONG. When I saw this sword, another musical and another king came to my mind – CAMELOT and King Arthur. 

CAMELOT tells the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Written by Alan Jay Lerner and Fredrick Lowe, it opened on Broadway in 1960 and starred Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet (I’m sure none of whom our graduates have ever heard of!) The movie version was produced by Warner Brothers in 1967 and starred the likes of Richard Harris, Venessa Redgrave and Franco Nero . . . also names that I’m sure our graduates have also never heard of. 

In the final scene of this classic musical, Arthur stands on a hilltop overlooking what once was his glorious kingdom of Camelot. The kingdom now stands in ruins. So too in ruins are his dreams, his vision, the very principles on which he built Camelot. 

As Arthur surveys what remains of his kingdom, he hears a sound and orders whoever is hiding to make himself seen. From the darkness steps a boy of about twelve years of age. His name is Tom of the province of Warwick, and he announces to King Arthur that he has run away from home to become a member of the Knights of the Round Table. Amused, Arthur asks him why he wants to be a knight. Is it because his village was protected by knights or did his father serve a knight? Tom replies, “No.” He simply wants to become a knight because of the stories people tell of the knights. He then recites what amounts to a litany of the principles for which the knights and Camelot itself have stood: truth, honor, justice, a new order of chivalry: not might is right, but might for right. 

Arthur, filled with emotion that these principles have made such an impression on the boy, tells Tom that, as his king, he orders him not to fight in the battle that evening, but to return to England, to grow up and grow old. But in so doing, Arthur gives the boy a mission. In song, he tells him: 

“Each evening, from December to December, 

Before you drift to sleep upon your cot, 

Think back on all the tales that you remember 

Of Camelot. 

Ask every person if he’s heard the story 

And tell it strong and clear if he has not, 

That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory 

Called Camelot. 

Where once it never rained till after sundown; 

By 8am the morning fog had flown. 

Don’t let it be forgot 

That once there was a spot 

For one brief shining moment 

That was known as Camelot!” 

Arthur tells Tom to kneel, and then with his sword Excalibur, he bestows knighthood on him. Arthur’s friend, King Pellinore, startled at the sight of Arthur bestowing knighthood on such a young boy, interrupts Arthur and asks, “What are you doing? You have a battle to fight!” Arthur, pointing to the boy, exclaims: “I’ve fought my battle! I’ve won my battle! Here is my victory! What we have done will be remembered!” He then turns to Tom and bids him to return home behind the lines to become the keeper of the dream, the teller of the story. As the boy runs off, Pellinore, still confused asks, “Who was that, Arthur?” And King Arthur replies, “One of what we all are, Pellie - less than a drop in the great blue motion of the sunlit sea. But it seems that some of the drops sparkle, Pellie! Some of them do sparkle!” 

This morning, in our Gospel from Matthew, Jesus, like King Arthur, stands on a hill (actually a mountain – Mount Olivet) near the city of Jerusalem. We’re not told in these readings whether or not Jesus surveyed the city, but we’re told elsewhere in the Gospels that at other times he did. So it’s not a stretch of the imagination that he might have done so this time as well. And if he did, as he looked down on Jerusalem, what did he see? A city that had rejected him . . . the message that he came to bring . . . the kingdom he came to establish . . . the principles that were to be its hallmark - things like: “love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you,” “forgive seventy times seven times,” “the greatest is the one who serves.” 

Like King Arthur, Jesus probably felt like a failure; he had been rejected and crucified by the very people he loved, the very ones he came to save. But also like Arthur, he is not alone on that mountain. With him are his Apostles. And in them he sees the future of the Church. In them he sees the drops that will sparkle on the sunlit sea. And as King Arthur bid Tom of Warwick to go and tell the story, so does Jesus. He entrusts his vision and dreams to them, and tells them, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” 

Like the Apostles, Jesus calls us up the mountain. And there, he sees in us the same thing that King Arthur saw in Tom, the same thing he saw in his Apostles: Hope. Energy. Passion. Commitment. It is us, like the Apostles that Jesus sends out: to remember . . . to tell his story . . . to live his story . . . to make a difference . . . to bring about change . . . to re-create the world in his image . . . to establish, not the kingdom of Camelot, but the Kingdom of God. 

And this is especially true of you, the Class of 2019 who today leave the mountain called “St. Therese’s” and begin their journey to the distant lands of Morris Catholic, Pope John XXIII, Oratory Prep, Roxbury and Morris Hills High Schools, and Morris County Vocational School. You are the drops that Jesus calls to sparkle on the sunlit sea of the future. You are the ones He commissions to “teach all nations” by your word and most especially by your example. You are the ones that He sends out to baptize others - with your love and compassion, with your mercy and generosity, with your hope and sincerity. 

Do you have what it takes? Fr. Marc, Mr. Dunnigan, your teachers, your parents and I think that you do. Over the course of your years at St. Therese, you have learned more lessons than what the diploma you will receive this evening represents. You have achieved more than what the honors and awards you will receive in a few minutes indicate. For somewhere along the line, whether in the school across the parking lot or in your homes there are values that you have accepted which distinguish you, sets you apart, from so many others in our world today. Those values are the values that Jesus says you are truly “blessed” if you possess them. They are the values of the Beatitudes. All of you have clearly demonstrated each of those eight values, but some truly shine in you and make you “drops that sparkle on the sunlit sea.” 

And so, David and Andrew, you are what Jesus called, "Poor in Spirit."  As I explained to you on the class retreat on Monday, that virtue is better understood as possessing the “spirit of being poor.” You have emptied yourselves of all that really doesn’t matter in life, and have made God you #1 priority. 

Sara and Lisa, you are blessed and have blessed all of us because you "mourn." Although we might at first be taken back when we hear Jesus say, “Blessed are they who mourn,” what he really meant is that YOU are blessed because you feel for others, you’re sensitive, you’re empathetic, you wear compassion like a garment and lose yourselves in another’s hurts and needs. 

Dominic, Kaitlyn and Kyle, you’re what our Lord call’s "meek." You focus more on others than on yourselves, you’re humble - you recognize, not just yourselves, but all people as God’s gifts to the world. You treat all with the dignity and respect that they deserve. 

And Brianna and Jillian, you “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Righteousness is an attribute of God. It is pure goodness. You have your priorities in the right places, you place God’s values above the values of the world. You take into yourself goodness and positive attitudes. And you have become what you have made your steady diet. 

Madisyn A and Joseph, Jesus has said, “Blessed are the merciful,” and so the two of you are so blessed! Mercy, forgiveness, is a virtue that the world struggles with . . . you do not. You consistently demonstrate a willingness to forgive and thus demonstrate patience and compassion for the faults of others. You give of yourselves to others with no strings attached. 

Rishab, Madison T and Roman, you are “pure of heart.” They say that on a clear day you can see forever, because the fog and the smog don’t obstruct the view. You see God and are constantly aware of his presence in you, around you, and in other, because your heart is free and simple; you seek honesty and truth, and maintain a consistent positive attitude. 

Kira, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for the will be called children of God.” And you, clearly, are a child of God. Why? Because peace is what God is. And since you are a peacemaker, you are just like your Heavenly Father. You build bridges that unite, you bring people together in reconciliation. You are so faith-filled. 

And Sean and Ben, you demonstrate both the willingness and the ability to be “persecuted for the sake of righteousness.” The two of you never just go with the flow. You stand on your own two feet for what is right and virtuous, even if that sets you apart from the crowd. You possess courage, strength and integrity, and live your faith out loud, no matter what the cost or pain. 

You all received your class cross at your retreat on Monday. I ask you to look at it now. As you can see, there’s no body of Jesus on the cross. Where the body would be is empty, with just his outline on the cross. Jesus’ body has been cut out of the cross. Graduates, don’t let Christ be cut out of your lives. Become the body of Christ, his image, to all those you will encounter in the high schools to which you are heading and to the world. When the see you, let them see Jesus. Christ has no body on earth now but YOURS! Let your eyes look his compassion on the world, your feet move to wherever and whomever there is the need to serve, your hands bless the world with love, kindness, sensitivity, warmth and gentleness. 

There’s one other thing that Jesus told his Apostles on that mountain. It was a promise: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of time.” That promise He also makes to all of you today. You never have to feel afraid. Never have to feel lonely. Never have to feel like you go it alone. Never have to feel that you’re not good enough. Never have to feel that you can’t get past your mistakes and failures. Because Jesus is here . . . With you . . . Always . . . Loving you . . . Guiding you . . . Forgiving you . . . Blessing you. Class of 2019, be his drops that sparkle on the sunlit sea!