Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ--Corpus Christi

Do we know of the food that the Lord gives to us?

My siblings and I were very picky eaters when I was growing up.  My mom can attest to that.  She would work her tail off preparing wonderful suppers for us.  But we would complain.  We would gripe.  All we wanted was hotdogs and mac and cheese.  Then of course we went off to college.  And as all kids do in college, we became the experts on everything. We especially became the experts on food.  So now when we came together as a family one of us siblings would do the cooking.  And we would add all of these ingredients and try all of this new food and talk about how great it was.  And we would say: Mom, why didn’t we eat this when we were growing up.  My mom would have to hold off on strangling us.  She would say: “I tried to get you all to eat this, but you didn’t want it.”  We missed out on so much great food, because we simply weren’t open to it. 

One of the things that we as Glenmary members do in our ministry is support our brothers and sisters in Christ from other Christian denominations.  This last week I was up in Baltimore for the Southern Baptist Convention.  I am sure you all have many Baptists here in Owatonna.  Well I was really, really impressed with the Baptists.  They are mission driven.  They have tremendous faith.  They really love Jesus.  And they know their Bible really well.  But one question that came up in my mind, and it was also a question that I asked many people who were there:  do you know of the food that the Lord gives you to eat?  Do you know of the Eucharist? For so many of them, though they love Jesus probably even more than I do, they did not know Jesus in his body and in his blood: in the Eucharistic. 

But we are Catholics.  And I wonder how we would respond to this question:  Do we know the food that the Lord gives to us?  The scriptures today are inviting us to remain open to a new kind of food and to think about this question.

It starts out with the Israelites in the desert.  They were wandering around without anything to eat. And so God gave them food.  It was a different kind of food.  They did not know it.  But it sustained.  It prepared them for the food that later on Jesus would give them.

In the Gospel we have Jesus speaking.  He is speaking to the Israelites again. But he is also speaking to us.  He says to them:  Do you know the food that God wants to give to you.  It will sustain you.  In fact, it is my own Body and Blood.   But the people really wrestled with that. 

In fact the Church came to wrestle with this for ages.  Paul had to go around and ask the young churches:  do you know of the food that God gives to us?  He writes this question when he is in correspondence with the Corinthians.  Struggling with this teaching is not new.  It is a hard teaching.  It is a challenging teaching. 

And so the question comes down to us too, today.  Do we know the food that God gives to us?  Do we know of the life changing sacrament that in just a few moments God gives to us around this altar?  I would be willing to bet that many of us do. But perhaps there are some of us who do not.

When you are traveling around and speaking to different parishes you can often say things that you maybe wouldn’t say to your own people because you have to live with them.  And, well, I am going to be leaving here after this weekend so it is a little safer.  But however, I am asking for money so maybe that constricts me a bit.

But I would say that by in large the world does not know the food that God gives to them.  But we, too, as Catholics do not know the food that God has given us.  For if we knew the food, we might act a little different:

We would never miss Mass.  If we knew the food, we would be the first ones to come and the last ones to leave.  For this food is God.

No one would leave the Catholic Church.  Yeah it’s full of sin and it’s full of boring priests and sometimes the music isn’t so good and on and on and on:  but we would look around and realize that no other group has this food.  No other group knows of the food that God gives to us.  And so no one would leave.  And the excuses would simply fall to the side.

We would impart this teaching on our kids.  Going to mass wouldn’t be an option for our kids.  Because if we truly love them, and we know how hard it can be for our kids, we would not want them to miss one single time to take in the food from God.

We would invite new people every week to come to Mass.  We would knock on doors.  Our week would center around this food and not on a ball game.  And we wouldn’t stop talking about this food.

But it’s a hard thing to believe.  It’s a hard teaching to accept.  That’s why over and over the Bible reminds us of this food.  And over and over again we need to celebrate the Feast we celebrate today:  the Feast of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are blessed today, because we get to hear about this food and at least ponder the question.  And perhaps we will change our lives just a little more.  But there still exist areas in the United States where people have never been given the chance to know of this food.  And many who know of it simply do not have access to it. 

I just finished my first assignment with the Glenmary Home Missioners.  I served in East Tennessee in the mountains in two different counties.  Three years ago before Glenmary went to these counties there never existed a Catholic presence in the entire county.  The entire county.  So thousands of people had never heard of the gifts of the Catholic church.  No Mass had been celebrated.  No Sacraments.  Many people had never met a priest before.  And people certainly did not have access to or even know of the Eucharist. 

But as is typical in Glenmary, we went into these towns.  We began to advertise that we will have sessions on the church.  We knocked on doors.  We met people.  We invited.  And we prayed.  We centered our prayer around the Eucharist.  And we waited. Amazingly the people started coming.  They came from the mountains and from the lakes.  They came from the hollers and the hills.  They came because they started to believe in the gifts of the church.  They started to believe in the Eucharist.  And their lives changed.

The people longed for the Eucharist, too.  Kids would pester me because they were not yet old enough to receive the Eucharist.  Little babies would reach their hands out to grab the Host in the line.  People would reconcile their marriages so they could receive the Eucharist.  And we went from just 6 or 8 people, to now close to two hundred at both places.  This includes around 15 converts between the two places.  We have bought land and we are in stages thinking about building. 

But this change was not on my account.  It was not on the other priests and brother’s account.  It was because people started to honestly address the question:  do you know the food that God gives to us.

I am convinced my brothers and sisters, that if we just get to know this food a little more each and every day, then our lives, and the world, will start to make more sense.  Our world will start to reflect that divine majesty that we consume in the Eucharist.   The young girls in Nigeria will come home. The bombs will stop over Baghdad.  Our politicians will actually listen and speak to each other.  Our families will stay more united.  And our hearts will find peace.

I close simply in asking you all to support our ministry as best as you can. Please pray for us.  And know we are praying for you.  Consider coming to one of our volunteer programs.  And if you are able, please assist us finically. There will be a second collection today to do so.

Thanks for your time and for allowing me to be with you all here.  Peace.