Here is the text of the homily I prepared for the gathering of the faithful this weekend. Together we celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi - the Body and Blood of the Lord.
For the past year or so, I’ve been visiting almost every week with students at Saint Luke’s school. Sometime after Christmas, at the invitation of their teacher, I began visiting with the senior grades there. Over the past couple of months, I feel as though I’ve grown to know the children who are in grades 6, 7 and 8, and I’d like to think that they’ve come to know me a bit too. On Friday of this week, the grade 8 students from that school were here at Saint Peter’s to celebrate their graduation day. The festivities began with the celebration of a Mass, and then continued with a luncheon for the graduates and their families. Because I’d had the opportunity to see these young people up close and so often, I feel as though there’s a different kind of relationship, a different kind of bond between us. I suppose none of that would have been possible if I hadn’t been willing to get close to them, to make myself vulnerable in their presence, but none of it would have been possible either without the cooperation of the staff and the teachers. Like any relationship, the more we are willing to open our hearts, to make ourselves vulnerable, the more possibility there is that we will develop friendships, and possibly even come to like or love one another.
This principle is also true of the relationship between God and us. The Book of Deuteronomy, from which we read the first reading today reminds us that even when the Israelites, our ancestors in faith, were wandering in the desert, a journey that lasted for forty years, God was present with them, leading them in the wilderness, in order to humble them and to test them … to know what was in their hearts. At times, our life experiences can make us feel that God is also testing us, especially when the trials of life tempt us to believe that we too are wandering in a wilderness. Sometimes, it truly can seem as though God is trying to humble us and to test us, but this is only so that we can come to know him better, so that we can recognize him in our presence. When the Israelites were hungry, God fed them with manna … something that they did not know … but something that was good for them. At first, they didn’t realize where this manna had come from, but they eventually came to know that it was offered to them, freely, as food for their journey.
Today, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. Today, the scriptures focus our thoughts on the goodness of God who has always provided food for our journey. In the gospel passage we heard today, Saint John speaks of a day when Jesus was sitting with the people, instructing them, not unlike the teachers and I have done with the students at Saint Luke’s over the past couple of months. The people who had gathered that day with Jesus knew the story of the manna that had been provided for their ancestors, but Jesus wanted to help them understand that there was an even more precious gift in their midst. The manna in the desert appeared each night while the Israelites were on their journey, but Jesus gives us living bread … that came down from heaven. He himself is this living bread that we receive in Communion. You see, it’s true, God not only wanted us to know him; He wanted to make himself vulnerable, available to us, so that we could develop a friendship with Him, so that He could show us the depth of his love for us, so that we could come to love Him in return.
So it is that every time we gather around the Lord’s table to celebrate the Eucharist, the cup of blessing that we bless is a sharing in the blood that Christ shed for us; and the bread that we break does not remain simply bread, it is a sharing in the Body of Christ that was broken for us on the cross. These are the ultimate gifts, offered freely for us at this table. Nourished with these living gifts, Jesus filled the disciples with divine life and then sent them out into the world. He offers these living gifts to us too, food for our journey through life, food to strengthen us in our faith, food to reassure us that he is always present to us, food to help us come to believe that just as he has risen from the dead, so too will we one day know the reward of everlasting life.
The ultimate gift
For the past year or so, I’ve been visiting almost every week with students at Saint Luke’s school. Sometime after Christmas, at the invitation of their teacher, I began visiting with the senior grades there. Over the past couple of months, I feel as though I’ve grown to know the children who are in grades 6, 7 and 8, and I’d like to think that they’ve come to know me a bit too. On Friday of this week, the grade 8 students from that school were here at Saint Peter’s to celebrate their graduation day. The festivities began with the celebration of a Mass, and then continued with a luncheon for the graduates and their families. Because I’d had the opportunity to see these young people up close and so often, I feel as though there’s a different kind of relationship, a different kind of bond between us. I suppose none of that would have been possible if I hadn’t been willing to get close to them, to make myself vulnerable in their presence, but none of it would have been possible either without the cooperation of the staff and the teachers. Like any relationship, the more we are willing to open our hearts, to make ourselves vulnerable, the more possibility there is that we will develop friendships, and possibly even come to like or love one another.
This principle is also true of the relationship between God and us. The Book of Deuteronomy, from which we read the first reading today reminds us that even when the Israelites, our ancestors in faith, were wandering in the desert, a journey that lasted for forty years, God was present with them, leading them in the wilderness, in order to humble them and to test them … to know what was in their hearts. At times, our life experiences can make us feel that God is also testing us, especially when the trials of life tempt us to believe that we too are wandering in a wilderness. Sometimes, it truly can seem as though God is trying to humble us and to test us, but this is only so that we can come to know him better, so that we can recognize him in our presence. When the Israelites were hungry, God fed them with manna … something that they did not know … but something that was good for them. At first, they didn’t realize where this manna had come from, but they eventually came to know that it was offered to them, freely, as food for their journey.
Today, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. Today, the scriptures focus our thoughts on the goodness of God who has always provided food for our journey. In the gospel passage we heard today, Saint John speaks of a day when Jesus was sitting with the people, instructing them, not unlike the teachers and I have done with the students at Saint Luke’s over the past couple of months. The people who had gathered that day with Jesus knew the story of the manna that had been provided for their ancestors, but Jesus wanted to help them understand that there was an even more precious gift in their midst. The manna in the desert appeared each night while the Israelites were on their journey, but Jesus gives us living bread … that came down from heaven. He himself is this living bread that we receive in Communion. You see, it’s true, God not only wanted us to know him; He wanted to make himself vulnerable, available to us, so that we could develop a friendship with Him, so that He could show us the depth of his love for us, so that we could come to love Him in return.
So it is that every time we gather around the Lord’s table to celebrate the Eucharist, the cup of blessing that we bless is a sharing in the blood that Christ shed for us; and the bread that we break does not remain simply bread, it is a sharing in the Body of Christ that was broken for us on the cross. These are the ultimate gifts, offered freely for us at this table. Nourished with these living gifts, Jesus filled the disciples with divine life and then sent them out into the world. He offers these living gifts to us too, food for our journey through life, food to strengthen us in our faith, food to reassure us that he is always present to us, food to help us come to believe that just as he has risen from the dead, so too will we one day know the reward of everlasting life.
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