Homily on the 20th Sunday in OT, 18 August 2024, Maryville, Talamban
Several years ago a survey on the Filipino Catholic youth was conducted by the Episcopal Commission on Youth of the CBCP (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines). One of the questions asked from the youth respondents was how often they go to Mass. Would you know how many percent of young people would go to Mass every Sunday? Believe it or not, around 60 percent of Catholic youth said that they go to Mass every Sunday and another three percent attend Mass every day. When I first read this, I myself was incredibly surprised since I thought all the while that only around ten to twenty percent among youth go to Mass every Sunday. I never really thought it would reach as high as 60. This was the generation of those who are now 35 to 50 years old because that survey was conducted 22 years ago.
In that same survey, however, there was another question that was asked quite related to the previous one. “How do you practice your Catholic Faith?” And do you know that only 37 percent of the youth respondents said that they practice their Catholic Faith by receiving the Sacraments including Holy Communion often or frequently. This second data is rather disturbing, isn’t it? Of course one can interpret them in many ways. But for me the survey clearly shows a lack of clear understanding of what the Sacraments are, especially the Eucharist. For many of us, attending Sunday Mass could simply be a fulfillment of an obligation every week. But do we really consider it as a true expression of our Catholic Faith, a faith so alive and burning within our hearts?
Today we celebrate the 20th Sunday in Ordinary time. The gospel passage we just heard presents to us Jesus teaching the meaning and importance of the Eucharist in the lives of every Christian. He said “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.”
If you would recall, some Sundays ago we heard the amazing story of Jesus miraculously feeding five thousand men with only five loaves and two fish. What seemed to be impossible became possible through the hand of Jesus, who blessed the little boy’s offerings.
The gospel passages of these past two Sundays are actually a continuation of that miracle story. I guess you would still remember what Jesus said during his dialogue with the Jews, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life.” Then when the people petitioned Jesus to give them that bread always Jesus said in reply, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
Brothers and sisters and our dear young people, if at this point we cut short the discourse of Jesus, it may give us believers the impression that faith alone in Jesus could grant us eternal life. And this will make all of us Protestants or Born Again Christians, who do not believe and do not celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday. However the truth is this: Jesus’ dialogue with the Jews, as recorded by St John, did not stop there in an abrupt way. He continued to teach them until he could make them understand the vital importance of the Eucharist in the lives of every disciple. And so he said “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.”
With these words Jesus is teaching us that if we really want to live forever even after death, we should not only believe in him, … and we should not only accept him in our lives as our personal Lord and Savior, most important of all, we should also eat his flesh and drink his blood. Faith alone does not suffice. Sacramental Communion is also very necessary to nourish that faith and make us live forever. And this is precisely what we do whenever we celebrate the Eucharist which Jesus instituted at the Last Supper.
In our Sunday Mass which we also call the Eucharist, we celebrate not only God’s Word but also the Sacrament of Christ’s most precious Body and Blood. Through the ordained priest, the bread and the wine, which we offer as symbols of ourselves and all our hard work, become Christ’s flesh and blood in accordance with what he once said as recorded in the Holy Bible.
It is precisely at this point when the great miracle happens. Many of us have the wrong notion that when the bread really changes into real flesh during consecration, an astonishing miracle takes place to the amazement of everyone. The real miracle which happens at every Mass and very few appreciate is this. When the priest takes the bread on the altar and says the very words Christ said at the Last Supper “Take this all of you and eat of it, for this is my Body which will be given up for you” that host including all the hosts on the altar change the essence and become really Christ’s Body. But its external appearance remains a host. Otherwise, if even its outward appearance also changes into a piece of flesh dripping with red blood, the Eucharist would no longer attract but on the contrary it would become repugnant and too loathsome to even look at. And who among us here would dare to come and stick out their tongue to receive it in Holy Communion? God knows well that none of us would come and eat.
That is why Jesus first had to show us his amazingly infinite power by multiply five loaves and two fish in order to feed thousands of hungry people so that we may come to believe in his equally amazing power to be able to feed our souls by changing bread and wine into his own body and blood without altering their external appearances – their shape, color and taste. The bread and wine after consecration does not look like flesh and blood, but we believe they really are and what we receive in our hearts through Holy Communion is none other than Jesus’ very heart.
God’s greatest desire is to enter into our hearts and be one with us while nourishing our souls with eternal life. By receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, we allow him to bless us with his real presence so that his heart may indeed be one with our heart.
Here is therefore a challenge: knowing that Jesus is really present in the Holy Eucharist, and that every Holy Communion is a pledge of his eternal life, how often would you want to go to Mass after this? How frequent would you want to receive Holy Communion, visit him in the Blessed Sacrament and spend your ME time time there in silent adoration?
Allow me to conclude with this true story that goes back to the eighth century. During a Mass celebrated by a certain monk in the little Church of St. Legontian, somewhere in Lanciano, Italy, something extraordinary happened: the sacred host, after consecration, was changed into live flesh, and the wine was changed into live blood. That monk instantly got converted. He stopped doubting the real presence and believed.
Fast forward…. in the second half of the twentieth century a scientific investigation was conducted on this 8th Century relic of the Eucharistic species by an Italian professor, named Odoardo Linoli, an illustrious scientist and eminent professor in Anatomy and Pathological Histology and in Chemical and Clinical Microscopy. He was assisted by another scientist, Prof. Ruggero Bertelli, of the University of Sienna. What were the results of their scientific investigation? Here are some of their astonishing discoveries:
- The flesh is real flesh, the blood is real blood.
- The flesh and the blood belong to the human species.
- The flesh and the blood have the same blood-type, AB.
- The flesh and the blood, which were left in their natural state for twelve hundred years and exposed to the action of atmospheric and biological agents, have remained preserved without the help of chemicals – an extraordinary phenomenon.
- The flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart.
Knowing all this, would you still have doubts concerning Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist? Won’t you instead put more love and devotion in your heart while participating in the Holy Mass?
May we who gather today to celebrate the sacrament of God’s love be enlightened and inspired to foster a true devotion to the Eucharist. And we pray that with Jesus blessing us today with his Body and Blood in our hearts thru Holy Communion we may become a big blessing to others esp. the poor and the needy. Remember this: among so many religions in this world only Christianity has God dwelling in the hearts of all believers. GiGsss!
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