Every time I hear today’s gospel message it resonates with me deeply. I can see myself, like Peter, being the one to start out boldly, and to trust in our Lord, only to have some fear derail my faith and begin to sink. How often this seems to happen in life. We start out with the best of intentions, and when some trial or trouble finds us, our first reaction is fear, and in that fear, we tend to forget to pray and to trust. Our first instinct is often to try to go it alone and deal with whatever trouble comes our way until we see that we are out of our depth and are beginning to sink; then we reach out to God. The question is, why isn’t asking God’s help our first inclination? Each of us has dealt with enough of life’s struggles, you’d think we would have this down pat by now. Not so. Make no mistake where the influence that often messes us up comes from. There is someone who absolutely does not want us to have reaching out to God as our first reaction. The enemy would much rather have us try to handle things on our own because he knows we will often fail, and be sunk into anxiety and fear, which are fertile ground for him to do his work. He can sow seeds of doubt and despair and leave us in a state that leaves us far from the reliance on God that should be our normal state, one that would leave us at peace and close to our Lord.

You see we are actually made to be closely and intimately in touch with our Lord in everything we do. That is happiness and security, and our surest path to peace in our lives. We are simply not made to go it alone, though that is our option if we are foolish enough to do so. God is not, and never has been, a puppeteer. He does not pull our strings, He instead gives us control so that we can learn and grow, and hopefully come to freely love and trust Him. It is a choice though, and one that does not always come to us with the answer being easily recognized, which is part of the residual effect from “the fall” that our original parents triggered. Yet even in that, there is great hope, because there is a new Adam (Jesus) and a new Eve (Mary) who have repaired and perfected what our original parents could not – our loving relationship with our Lord and the hope of spending eternity with Him.

I think that perhaps we sometimes forget that our place in heaven and our perfect intimacy with our God have already been purchased for us at a great price – the blood of His Son. This freely given gift is all the more reason for us to train ourselves to look to Him first in everything, in the good times and when trouble comes, and to trust Him. He should be part of our lives in everything. He is indeed that whisper that comes to us so often if we are attuned to hear Him. He is God, He has no need for grand displays. He is indeed not the fire, the wind, or the earthquakes. He is instead the subtlest of voices in our mind and heart that leads us and comforts us if we will let Him. The power comes from His message, not the display. I think that sometimes we forget that while we are sometimes impressed by such grandiose displays, they mean nothing to the God who created the cosmos, and who wields power on a scale that we cannot even comprehend. To use anything other than the subtlest of voices for such a God would be to intimidate such lowly creatures as ourselves, and that is not His way. Love speaks softly, and God is love; all we need do is listen.

 

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Saint Paul asks us today one of the most important questions we can contemplate – what will separate us from the love of Christ? Is it persecution, or perhaps plague (or pandemic), or peril, or war? Or is it simply our own lack of understanding, and the willingness to believe? We have a difficult time processing God, and who He really is, and what He is capable of – and longs to do for us. We seem to put up our own barriers and limit our perception of His power. To be sure, this is in part due to our fallen nature. We still have the remnants of that sin, that I think makes it very difficult for us to endure someone so loving and brilliantly illuminated. We don’t seem to be able to take Him in without effort. It’s like a small child trying to comprehend an adult conversation, as much as they would like to be able to know what is being spoken of, they find it hard to take in, and it leads to frustration and eventually perhaps a giving up of their efforts. I think that we experience this sometimes when we try to take in our Lord for who He really is.

When Jesus came to us in human form, to show us a level of intimacy that had never before been experienced between us and our Lord, except perhaps in the days in the garden before the fall, we didn’t know how to handle that either. Even though He came to us in the humblest of forms, in an effort to try to teach us at a level that we could better grasp, we still couldn’t handle it. His message was absolute truth, and the illumination of that truth was more than many could allow continuing, because of the darkness within. Our Lord came to us to teach, to heal, and to feed us. He did so many times when providing sustenance for those who came to hear His word. He multiplied the loaves and the fish because He knew our needs – all of them. He healed our infirmities because He knew the suffering that was being endured, and He holds for us a love and compassion that is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. He gave us his very flesh and blood as our spiritual food to allow us to have life within us, by His own sacrifice. This seemingly humble form, who came to us as the suffering servant, is absolutely the same God who created the very fabric of space, time, and matter that surrounds us and is our physical reality – our universe. He could have done all that desired to accomplish without so much as the blink of an eye, and never suffered, never come to us in such a humble form and endure all the banality of our day to day existence. Yet He chose to do this because He loves us so much, and wants our love in return – true love, not influenced or manipulated, but the love that can only come from the free choice to do so. Our God, who is so powerful we can scarcely begin to comprehend His nature, is also a God so full of love for us that He would rather endure and suffer than lose the opportunity to have us love Him in return. He would rather patiently wait for us to learn His lessons, and then willingly seek Him, than to shape our love and emotions on his own. He is truly a father in the deepest sense of the word.

Our struggle will always be to try to comprehend such a love. We will have doubts of our own fabrication, and we will struggle with what I call the “it’s too good to be true” syndrome. Yet the reality is this: that He is that loving, that powerful, that truthful, and that enamored of us, that He will always be there for us, no matter the rejections, the ignoring, or the indifference that we show at times. He will care for us, and guide us, and be ready to welcome us in His embrace. We need to simply return that love, and all of this can be ours – believe it. We do not hold all the answers – I would think that is pretty plain, especially in times like these. Why would we think that we are capable of defining God in order to make ourselves comfortable enough to accept Him? If we were able to do so, He would hardly be the awesome God that He is. We must instead be willing to accept Him on His terms, make the leap, and let Him show us what our relationship can truly be. He has NEVER done anything to deserve anything less than our trust and our love, and He never will. We have nothing to be afraid of, and we have everything to gain. Feel His embrace, know His peace, and walk about with the true freedom that can only come from Him.

 

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What is it that is truly important to us? Do we place God and pleasing Him at the top of our list? Do our priorities reflect a true devotion to Him? When God asked Solomon what he would like from Him, Solomon’s answer reflected a desire to follow God’s law and to please Him. Not only did God grant his request for an understanding heart, but He also gave him all the good things that Solomon did not ask for because they were more self-focused. When we focus on God first, the rest of the good things fall in line naturally. This is something we struggle with, however, because our first inclination is often to focus on ourselves and our needs. This is something to be guarded against.

When we find the truly important gifts that the Father gives us, if we are wise, we pursue them regardless of cost. To some, God gives the gift of wisdom, to some the talent for healing others, to some the gift of teaching and conveying knowledge, etc. These gifts of God are those we would be wise to pursue no matter the cost, because they serve His people. If we are oriented toward Him as we should be, then that is where our priority will be. You see, in the final judgement, we will not be judged on style, accumulated wealth, power that was attained, or any of the things that the worldly find to be important. We will instead be judged on our service to others, to our compassion toward those who need it most, on our focus on self-giving rather than self-aggrandizement. Our Lord will weigh not only what we accomplished, but what our intentions were, and what we simply tried to do – successful or not. He is the only just judge, because He is the only one to truly know our minds and hearts, and so be able to judge us in true fairness and justice. What He asks, is that we try to follow His laws and teachings, and that when we stumble, we get back up and keep trying. He is not weighing only our success, He is looking for us to love Him enough to keep trying, and to bear the crosses we each have, and to try to do His will regardless of personal cost. If we can do this, we are on our way to the same knowledge and wisdom that Solomon displayed, because we knew enough to put God’s purposes first, and all the other good things we received simply came as the natural result of that choice. We can trust God, we can rely on Him to do this for us, just as He did for Solomon. He is our Father and is fully deserving of all our love and trust. We are His children, and we know that He will never disappoint us in the ways that truly matter.

 

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It seems clear to me based on some of the things that I hear and read that we sometimes lose sight of who God really is. We even seem to go so far as to question God’s justice, motives, and judgment. I see this more and more with people expounding relativist views that try to take God’s laws to task because they feel they aren’t relevant today – as if God should be subject to our societal norms and whims. They have completely lost sight of whom they are talking about – the God of the universe – who existed before the universe as we know it was even created, who created everything we know, everyone we know, and will exist long after all of that has passed. This is who they presume to judge and to try to relegate to an abstract idea or philosophy rather than our Creator and God. C.S. Lewis had a rather salient quote for this in his work entitled “ The Problem of Pain” it went – “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.” Such thinking is the height of our human arrogance, and yet we see it expounded on everything from social media debates to interpersonal discussions with those who claim to be “spiritual” but who want to have a “higher power” that is convenient to their way of thinking. They are idolaters, plain, and simple.

There is no debate – God is unchanging because He does not need to – if His ideas do not fit with societal norms, then it is the societal norms that are at odds with the natural order as defined by Him who created all and should be changed. It has been said many times; there is nothing new under the sun. Almost everything we encounter – every social issue, every political scandal, every moral deviation, has all been encountered before and been addressed by God’s law. It is we who are defective, not God. It is we who must change, not God. If you look around at our country today, it is rather evident that a mess has been created. We have social injustices, we have disease, we have rampant fears and anxieties, we have violence and death, we have arrogance that is frankly the root of most of it. We have become a society of profoundly arrogant, self-entitled, spoiled children that have made a mess of their homes and are now getting to the point of frustration where many rail against God as having not kept His word because we are encountering so many hardships. We now question God’s existence because He is not doing as we would like. We do all this after having pushed Him aside, relegated Him to the point of obsolescence and indifference, pushed Him from our schools, government, and the public eye in general because we are embarrassed by Him because He might offend someone else’s sensibilities (if only that were so, at least they would then be thinking of Him and learning something that could lead to salvation). Yet in all this, we have the audacity to question His very existence because we do not feel He is sufficiently present and working for us. No kidding – we kicked Him out. He is not going to be present where He is not wanted. He gave us free will, and we have exercised it poorly.

 

If we want Him back, we need to ask. Truly ask, with actual repentance and sincerity, not just words. We need to do this by showing it in how we live, how we make choices in our lives, how we live by His law. The seed of all this discontent, anguish, and sorrow was sown by the enemy, and we spread it about without looking back. We now need to turn. We need to cultivate that good seed and ensure it can grow to produce a harvest of fruitful actions, not the weeds of corrupted lifestyles, deviant practices, and idolatrous ways of living and thinking. If we do not, we will see no change, and there will definitely be a lot of those bundles of weeds to be thrown into the fires at the end of the age. We cannot simply point the finger at others and say they are responsible. If we are not actively engaged in refuting, educating, and bringing others to the proper knowledge of our Lord, we are just as guilty. To turn a situation around is difficult, but not impossible. It requires persistence, patience, and courage to move forward. We will need to work, to sweat, to sacrifice, and to ultimately demonstrate to make this happen – and that is our mission. Facebook posts will not suffice, mere words will not be adequate, we must live what we espouse. We must have the courage to then be truthful about what we believe, whether others agree with us or not. We must grow into this kind of life, just as the seed of God will grow within us and guide us as we progress in this effort. We are not alone; He is very much with us, but we must show that we want Him in our lives, and want Him to guide our world.

 

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Just as God sends water upon the earth to accomplish His purposes by making the land fruitful, and with the expectation that it will not come back to Him without having benefitted others, so are we to do the same. We are tasked with the job of being fruitful with our brothers and sisters and nurturing them with the word of God through our actions and words. If we do not do so, we are missing the point of our very existence, and the reason God sent us among them. We live on this earth for now, and while here we build our lives by creating homes and families and friends. But this is all secondary, we are here for a very different purpose than just these comforts and joys of our earthly existence. We are a people of faith and purpose, we have faith in our Lord, and our purpose is to bring others to knowledge and relationship with Him because it is only through Him that they can find the way to salvation. We must do this by being an example in how we live, in the faith we profess (even when confronted by those hostile to it), and the service we give to others for God’s purpose. By doing this, we, like the water help to bring this fertile ground to those we encounter.

When Jesus spoke to those gathered and preached to them to parable about the seed that fell on different types of soil, it was obvious what the desired soil was in order to produce fruit. It needed to be rich, and deep and watered, and without the seeds of evil influence to compete and possibly choke what it should bring forth. Each time we provide an example to others by the way we live our lives according to God’s word, we enrich this soil. We increase its depth with our consistency. We moisten and soften it with the words given to us by our Lord. We remove the evil seeds by showing others the joys of living with and for God, and not participating in errant behaviors. We richen it by the kindness we show, and the beauty of the love we display for others who may very well be surprised to encounter this from those who are not expecting anything in return. There are many who have never encountered this before, and who may very well want to know more of how to live like this, with joy, and compassion, and love for all. To feel loved by us, and by the One who loves each of us best, and who will never fail us. To exist in a house that encompasses their brothers and sisters who also believe and who genuinely care about them and will be there for them. This is the purpose for each of us, to provide this experience and framework so that others can be saved and live joyfully along with us. To expand our families to include those are our brothers and sisters that we simply have not had the joy of knowing yet. Each day we have the possibility of meeting and embracing someone new to love, and to care about. If we can live like this, we are truly producing an abundant harvest, and fulfilling what God intended from the beginning for each of our lives.

 

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Each person who believes in Jesus Christ and has accepted him for who He really is – the Son of God, has been reborn in the Spirit. Yes, we still have our fleshly bodies, but with a key difference, they are not our true selves any longer, they are merely flesh which will age and eventually die. Yet our true nature now is that of spirit, and most importantly spirit that is alive because of faith in Jesus, and active acceptance of Him as our savior. To that end, we need to reconsider who we are really, and begin to think and act accordingly. If our fleshly existence is now completely secondary, and it should be, then our focus should always be first and foremost on God, and life in the Spirit.

To truly live in the Spirit requires a significant mental shifting of gears for us, as our most fundamental priorities, will change radically. We will live with an eye that is focused more toward the eternal, and far less fixed on our temporal existence. We will no longer be consumed with the priorities that a purely physical existence would sensibly demand, and instead, we can look beyond that to things that are far beyond a self-centered focus. We can expand our thoughts to the caring and love of those around us without the worry of self-neglect because our entire perception of self has now been fundamentally altered. The physical self can be seen to with the minimum of necessities, and the energies we would have previously put toward the accumulation of resources for self can be applied instead to pursuing the well-being of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and in the spiritual growth of the self. A truly flourishing spiritual growth will by its very nature lead us toward greater alignment with Jesus’ teaching and the light burden that He asks each of us to carry. To love Him, and to love one another. To really align with this in our lives is actually tremendously freeing because so many of our self-imposed wants, perceived needs, and priorities will fade into obscurity, and with them all the stress and angst that was generated by their very presence in the forefront of our minds. Imagine now what it can be like to truly realize this kind of liberty of self, and to do so with a secure knowledge and acceptance of God being in complete control. With no more worry about end outcomes, no more concern about potential failure, no more sleeplessness, and angst about having to be solely responsible for what we perceive as success. If we really allow ourselves to think like this, and to allow Him to take control, we can experience this and more in our lives. We can know the lightness of a new burden that is Divine, and without all the self-imposed weight of our old burdens. To do this is to truly move closer to our God, and to begin to experience now what will be completely natural for us in life eternal. To make this change now, will show the childlike simplicity and reliance that He is truly looking for from each of us, and so profoundly demonstrates a trust that goes against the order of physical nature and a world that is dominated by the evil that thrives within that. To leave that behind, and to shed those burdens is not easy – we are drawn to the heavier and more burdened existence by our fallen nature, but we can strive toward something better. We can move toward God and leave behind the bonds that have held us in a heavily shackled existence. Each moment we spend in contemplation and prayer chips away at those old bonds and allows a bit more light to enter our hearts and minds. Each act of faith and trust in our God in even the smallest of ways breaks a link in our chains – something as simple as waking up each day and letting Him know that we accept His control and will trust in Him without reservation is a great way to start. The more we practice, the more natural this will become, and the more we will gain with each subsequent effort. Like anything else worthwhile, this will take time to accomplish, but that is what our lives are for. No matter where we are now in the sequence of our lives, it is never too late to restart, to refocus, and to move closer to Him.

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If we are truly joined to Jesus through strong faith, love, and relationship, then we are also taking part in His suffering and death, but also His resurrection. There is no separating this kind of intimacy, we must be willing to take on the suffering we are called to in this life, and eventually die, but if we are strong in our bond, then rise also to eternal life with Him. We are not intended for this world, despite everything we are constantly told and bombarded with in terms of life’s comforts and pleasures. These very same comforts and pleasures are actually chains that bond us more to this world than to allow us to move toward eternal life in the next. The more we partake of these secular pleasures and focus our efforts and attention on them, the less we are focused on doing what our Lord calls us to do in this life. Our attention is drawn away from humble service to Him, and to our brothers and sisters around us. We sometimes instead become addicted to this world and seek its pleasures to the point where we stop seeing the need of those around us. We can gravitate toward the things that are attractive to us and become blind to the marginalized, the forgotten, those with needs that can only be met through our intervention and help. It’s easy to do, we naturally gravitate toward the attractive, toward the easy, and toward things that bring us gratification. It’s a weakness that we all share and must guard against. If we can get past our inclination toward this short term gratification, and discover the joy and fulfillment of putting our efforts toward taking care of God’s children, and taking on this life’s sufferings so that we are giving them up to Jesus as an offering that bonds us closer to Him, we can become just as oriented toward this way of living. What is more, unlike the life focused at secular pleasures, we can have the assurance of that we are striving toward the grace of eternal life in the next.

The words in today’s Gospel seem very difficult to grasp, we are called place the very things that we often equate with our deepest love – our parents, spouses, and children, behind our relationship with God. Yet it is not as counterintuitive as it might first appear. We need to always keep in mind, who gave us these blessings to begin with. Who is the source of every good thing we have or love? We were not granted these things by accident, nor even by our own workings, we were given the most precious of these by God alone, and so it is fitting that in our gratitude we place Him before all else. That is not to say we are called to no longer love those around us, no, we are simply called to place things in the proper order and to always acknowledge their source, and to that end show proper deference and love. Even our very selves should be placed well back on the list. God gave us life, He made us who we are, and all that we are surrounded by, and have accumulated and achieved is due to His graciousness to each of us. Think about it for a minute, yes we can work hard for things, yes, we can strive toward achieving goals, but in the end, could we really do any of this without His help and intervention and granted grace? I’ve heard it said very often, that if we want to achieve good things in this life, we must “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” and work hard toward our goals, and to a point this is true. What we cannot forget, is that without God’s help, there are literally no bootstraps for us to pull ourselves up by, nor is there the resolve of will or the work ethic to drive us forward. Literally, the very breaths we take, each and every one of them is a gift that is provided by God. So, when we hear it said that we should place all of the things we treasure second to our Lord, can we really argue with that? In our true form, that which was intended from the beginning, we are to find our only satisfaction in doing His will. If we strive, in our current fallen nature, we can still latch hold of that grace-filled inclination, and bond closer to Christ, and to what we were truly intended for, and in this find the true happiness and peace that we all seek, and so few of us ever really find.

 

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Whom do we really have to fear in this life? Those who disagree with us, or denigrate us, or perhaps persecute us? Do we fear those who don’t like our beliefs, and perhaps label us so as to intimidate us, in an effort to silence us? Or perhaps those we see as being in authority? The answer is no one. Our God is the only one who is deserving of our fear, awe, and respect. To be clear, when we say that we fear the Lord, this is not a fear that equates to dread; this is the fear that simply comes from seeing awesome power and potential. It is a paternal fear like that which we probably experienced as young children observing our Fathers, who at the time seemed like mountains to us. It is a healthy fear that breeds respect and is appropriate for the God of the universe who loved us so much that He offered himself through his incarnation as Son to take the punishment that was rightfully ours, and thus restore us to a full relationship. It was the ultimate act of Fatherly love, that brought us back close to Him, and in the process vanquished death itself.

Our Father created a new reality that had not been seen since the time of Adam before sin entered the world, through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. He conquered the death that we all had reason to fear because it was a lasting death, and replaced it with the hope of eternal life with Him in our true home, heaven. He offered a chance to come to our true home, as repentant children, and spend eternity with our Father in a loving embrace that we all long for.

To get there is not easy, however; before that, we have much learning to do, and to prove ourselves as His children through our obedience and attention to His teaching. We do this through love of Him, and of our brothers and sisters. This is no small task. Like in most larger families, there are sometimes those who do not agree with the way we have been raised and taught, and who rebel, and we must reach out to them in love, and be patient with them to try to guide them home as well. This is not always initially appreciated, and sometimes leads to strife within our human family, and it is this which can sometimes lead us off track if we are not careful. We must remember our Father’s teaching, and stay steadfastly grounded in His word, no matter how much we are called on by others to do otherwise. As we do this, our example will not go unnoticed, and while we may not see the fruits of this at first, it will often produce in the long term. What we must never do is allow ourselves to become so distracted by fear of the opinion or words of others that we lose our way. We must have the courage to endure, absorb, and even embrace any insult, label, or word that others may use against us. Jesus Christ gave us this example of persistence and inner peace when He suffered for our sake. He did not lash out, He did not counter the words of others, He did not find it necessary to justify Himself before anyone but the Father, and neither should we. There is no need of it, and it is a distraction that leads us away from our true purpose – it is wasted energy and makes us vulnerable to the agenda of evil that will always try to wrest us from the touch of our Father. Never let your guard down, and never forget that true humility will keep us free from the weaknesses of our character that the evil one seeks to exploit. We are not without help; our Lord will always watch over us and provide us with His grace to help us in our time of weakness if we are but humble enough to ask.

This familial battle of earthly life is a daily struggle for us. We experience it in our homes, in our offices, in our friendships, and even sometimes within our Church community. We are in a constant struggle against human error colliding with the truth of God’s teachings, and the subsequent struggles that occur as part of that. Yet we are not without the hope of a final reward that will come after we have labored throughout our lives. We live in the struggle now, so that we may live forever in an embrace that is perfect, and a love that is without limit or end.

 

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This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the commemoration of the gift of the Eucharist that our Lord gave to us, so that we might have life within us. We are unique as Catholics, in that we still adhere to the original teachings of the early Church in terms of the nature of the Eucharist, that while it may appear to be bread and wine, it is truly the body and blood of Jesus Christ, just as Jesus said. This grace of being able to receive so precious a gift, even to this day, is through the action of the Holy Spirit, and the apostolic succession through the imposition of hands, that remains unbroken from the time of Christ.

In our Gospel reading today, we hear the dialogue that our Lord had with his followers. At the time there were roughly 80 or so of them, and when they heard the words of our Lord proclaiming that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, many could not accept this and fell away. So, ask yourself, what would it take to make so many followers of our Lord fall away after having been with Him for so long, and enduring so much hardship in the process? What must He have said that was so plainly oppositional to them so as to cause this? It seems clear from the reaction of so many of those there that if the Lord had spoken as if He intended for the Eucharist to be either a purely mystical representation or merely a symbolic representation of His flesh and blood, His words would not have caused so much consternation and falling away. When we read John’s Gospel message today, it is quite obvious that Jesus was speaking both plainly and with very specific intent as to the nature of what He was describing. He was not speaking of mere bread and wine having a blessed status, and certainly not of a mere symbol; He told his followers quite plainly what He would be providing, and what they must do to have life within them.

For us to really grasp this, we should understand the context of the times and the background so that we may comprehend the difficulty his followers would have had with His words. The area around Jerusalem at that time was surrounded by pagan peoples and influences, who as a common practice performed blood sacrifices of humans, and sometimes consumed it as part of these practices. For a Jew, such acts were unthinkable, because God’s law forbade the consumption of blood, and certainly did not practice any of these kinds of sacrifices. To hear our Lord talk of His own sacrifice, and then be told that they must consume Him to have life within them, was more than many could bear. The only ones that remained after that were the twelve that Jesus foreknew from the beginning, because despite the difficulty of what He was saying, their faith in Him was greater, and so they remained.

The thing is, if we think about this analytically, this is some of the most compelling evidence we have that indicates our Lord’s meaning, that the Eucharist truly is His body and blood. More than seventy people who were intimately familiar with our Lord’s style of teaching and with the intricacies of the Aramaic language were plainly convinced of His literal intent to the point that they could not handle the message and left. The notion of our Lord’s words not being plain, as some would suggest, and who believe it was intended to be less literal, pretty much dies with the reaction of so many of those followers if we follow this logically. Likewise, if we follow the evidence in the scriptures, we whose roots to those present during the early times remain unbroken, must believe that our Lord’s words were just what He intended; a command to those of us who wish to have eternal life to partake of His Eucharistic sacrifice with the full knowledge and acceptance of its true nature. Moreover, if we seek further evidence of the nature of the Eucharist, aside from the words of scripture, our Lord has blessed us with examples in the form of many Eucharistic miracles that have taken place over the centuries since He spoke. We have physical evidence of the consecrated hosts changing their substance from the host to their actual form, that of flesh and blood. In multiple recorded instances in the Church’s history, this miracle has occurred. The most recent instance was recorded in Buenos Aires several years ago; the transformed host was sent for independent scientific analysis without anyone knowing its origin by then Cardinal Jorge Borgoglio (now Pope Francis), and the results revealed it to be exactly what our Lord had told us – flesh and blood, specifically from the heart of a man who had been through extreme trauma, and was from the area of what is now modern day Israel. You see, our Lord understands human curiosity, and the need we have to look at examples like this to help us grasp something so wondrous, and to strengthen us in our belief –  He understands our nature and continues to care for us in this way.

With such a grounding in knowledge of what we receive, it is then also equally important for us to understand that in order for us to receive such a blessed gift, we must do so as worthily as we can. To receive the body and blood of our Lord in a state of mortal sin is a grave sin in and of itself and must not happen. If we look to the writings of Saint Paul, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 27, we are told “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord^[1]”. You see, Saint Paul understood this link between the appearance of bread and wine and what was actually there – the body and blood of Christ, and so emphasized the importance of the state we are in when we receive it. We must therefore be the frequent recipients of God’s forgiveness and mercy through the Sacrament of Reconciliation in order to then receive the Eucharist in a worthy state. We must look carefully at ourselves each time, and perform an examination of conscience before we receive, and if necessary, wait until we have addressed whatever is preventing us to be in such a worthy state. Think about this for a second; can we really take in the body and blood of our Lord, the divine substance of His being, and place it within our body when it is stained with sin? To do so not only shows a fundamental disrespect, but directly contradicts what we know of God’s nature and His abhorrence of sin. It is easy, sometimes, to lose sight of the importance of how we receive the Eucharist, but we must be vigilant, and ensure we do so carefully. The gift we receive is too precious to allow otherwise.

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I don’t think that there is any denying it, Moses may have been specifically referring to the Jewish people, but I believe the term “stiff-necked” can be applied to humanity in general. We do not seem to learn from our history, or even the life lessons we experience, we must fail over and over – this is, I believe, just one of the many faults that come from the fall, and we continue to struggle with this. Our Lord has indeed demonstrated His love, patience, kindness, and indeed fidelity – even going so far as to offer His only Son as our replacement for the condemnation and punishment we deserve. His love for us is truly without limits.

His ask of us in return for such great love and faithfulness is that we love Him, and one another, as we are all created in His image. Yet even in this, we fail so frequently and repeatedly. Our inclination is to show our kindness and love to only who we know and understand, outside of that, we gravitate toward suspicion, hatred, and even cruelty. Those that we haven’t yet become familiar with are treated firstly with suspicion and reserve, rather than attempts at understanding and compassion. We justify these initial actions by telling ourselves that through experience we have learned it is better to be guarded until we know others a bit better, and to a point this is true, but we must not let this hinder what we are called by God to do. He knows all of His creations and knows that sometimes our trust will be unfavorably repaid, yet we are still called to extend the offer of love, just as He did. If our Lord accepted the risk and was indeed initially poorly repaid for His overture, why would we not be called to follow His example in this? His call tells us to greet one another with a Holy Kiss, and with agreeable spirit. That is not to say we are called to agree with all that others do, it means that we are called to act agreeably, including providing correction in what we know to be true through God’s word, and to introduce others who are not familiar with it to the Gospel message. This introduction comes from our actions and words, and from our commitment to His message of love and peace to all of humanity, even (and perhaps especially) when it is not so easy to see the good that is there in those to whom we are trying to spread this word to. We must try to ignore our own vision, which shows only the external, and instead attempt to look with God’s eyes at all we meet. To stop before we simply write someone off with our usual classifications that we box others into, and to ask ourselves what it perhaps took to get that person to the place they are currently in and whether we might react much differently in such circumstances. This is still a limited effort, because only God can truly know the mind and heart of others, and what shaped them, but we can at least strive for some understanding, and we can pray for the grace of discernment through the Holy Spirit to help us to navigate these encounters. There is no one else to do this, we alone as followers of Christ are in the unique position to offer His message of hope, compassion, and salvation. We alone are called to this, it is our responsibility. If we are to one day enter through the narrow gate, we must first open our own gate wide to others through trust, love, and compassion, no matter how we are then responded to, because this does not really matter – we cannot expect rewards from others for those efforts. If we do, then we lose out on the true reward that can only come from God himself when He calls us to Him and looks at our lives, and the difference we made to His other children – whether it was good, bad, or none at all. This is what we will be judged on.

 

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