Don Bosco Philippines South Province

Homily on the 21st Sunday in OT, 25 August 2024, FSpIF Chapel

Would you know how many percent of our Philippine population is still Catholic? According to the latest statistics (2020) close to 79% are still Catholic. However, according the latest survey conducted by the Social Weather Survey (SWS) only 37 to 38% of Filipinos actually go to Mass weekly. This means that even if many of our Catholic churches are full packed with Mass-goers every Sunday, the majority of Catholics still do NOT go to Mass. Isn’t that disheartening?

Many years ago an earlier study was conducted by the Episcopal Commission on Youth (ECY) of the CBCP. One question that was asked from the Catholic youth respondents was “How do you practice your Catholic Faith?” And do you know that the top most answer given was “by praying”? Close to 80% of the youth said that they pray often, if not frequently, as an expression of their Catholic Faith. Isn’t this a pleasant surprise? This was actually the generation of those who are now 35 to 50 years old because that survey was conducted 22 years ago.

However, what is quite disheartening about the ECY survey is this: only 37% of the youth respondents claim that they often receive the Sacraments (perhaps including Holy Communion). Hence, while majority of our Filipino Catholic youth still spend time to pray, majority of them, however, still do not know what the Sacraments are, including the Eucharist. And so, for many Catholics, attending Sunday Mass could just be a fulfillment of an obligation. But don’t they really consider it as a true expression of their Catholic Faith, a faith seemingly so alive and burning within their hearts?

Today we celebrate the 21th Sunday in Ordinary time. The gospel passage (John 6:60-69) we just heard presents to us the conclusion of Jesus’ teaching on the meaning and importance of the Eucharist in the lives of every Christian.

If you would recall, four Sundays ago we heard the amazing story of Jesus miraculously feeding five thousand men with only five loaves and two fish (John 6:1-15). Then, in the succeeding Sundays after that, the gospel passages read at Mass were on Jesus’ dialogue with the same crowd of Jews who kept following him because they wanted to have more bread for free.

Today, however, we heard the conclusion of that gospel story. The big crowd of Jews who had been following Jesus and have been listening to his words, suddenly began to walk away from him. They “returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” And so Jesus was left there alone with the Twelve. Why did the big crowd leave Jesus? It is because they could not accept his hard teaching on the Eucharist. If you still recall Jesus said to them: “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.”

By saying these words Jesus was telling his disciples that faith in him as a person was very important but that faith was actually not enough. True and genuine disciples also believe in everything that Jesus teaches including those that are hard to accept. There are around 2.5 billion people now who profess the Christian faith as followers of Christ. That is around one-third of the world’s population. However not all Christians accept the hard teachings of Christ as recorded in the New Testament. And one hard teaching is the Eucharist. Only Catholics and Orthodox Christians believe in the Eucharist. Majority of Protestants, however, (Lutherans are an exception) do not believe in Jesus’ real presence in this sacrament. And that means one-third of the Christian population all over the world.

Brothers and sisters, faith in Jesus alone will make all of us Protestants or Born Again Christians, who do not believe and do not celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday. But Jesus clearly taught us in John 6: “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 be one with him and 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. Eucharistic Communion is also very necessary to nourish our souls 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 all our Masses, we celebrate not only God’s Word but also the EUCHARIST, the Sacrament of Christ’s most precious Body and Blood. Through the ordained priest, the bread and the wine, which we offer on the altar as symbols of ourselves and all our hard work, become Christ’s Flesh and Blood in accordance with his very words as recorded in the Gospels and the New Testament.

And 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, however, which happens at every Mass and which only very few appreciate is this. When the priest takes the bread on the altar and says the very words of Christ at the Last Supper “…this is my Body which will be given up for you” that host including all the hosts on the altar change their essence and become really Christ’s Body. But its external appearance remains a host. This change is more fittingly called transubstantiation (TRANS-substantiation: a change only in the substance or essence but not in the external & accidental properties). Otherwise, if God allows even its outward appearances to change – a piece of flesh dripping with red blood, the Eucharist would no longer attract us, 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 his tongue to receive it in Holy Communion? God knows well that none of us would.

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 do not look like flesh and blood, but we believe they really become his Flesh and Blood and what we receive in our hearts through Holy Communion is none other than Jesus’ very own 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 made one with ours… our heart in HIS, and his HEART in ours.

In my homily last week I narrated a true story that happened in Lanciano, Italy back in the Eighth Century. It was the story of a priest monk who witnessed during Consecration the transformation of the host into live flesh, and the wine into live blood. And because of that miraculous revelation, he, who had been doubting the real presence of Jesus, instantly got converted and started to believe.

I also shared with the Mass goers last Sunday the results of a scientific investigation that was conducted on those 8th Century Eucharistic species that have remained intact for twelve hundred years without artificial preservatives. What is most striking for me about the scientific findings is that both the flesh and the blood under study have the same blood-type, AB. And most of all, the flesh actually consists of the muscular tissue of the heart. This means that whenever we receive Holy Communion, it is his very heart that Christ gives to each and everyone of us.

Knowing all this, therefore, 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?

Here is one more surprisingly good news: in a study conducted only three years ago by Veritas Truth Survey, it was found out that as high as 97% of Filipino Catholics believe in the Eucharist as Christ’s real Body and Christ’s real Blood. I guess all of you here are among the 97%.

May we who gather today to celebrate this Eucharist be like the apostles who, after everyone has walked away, chose to remain faithful to Jesus. Despite the difficulties we encounter in understanding his hard teachings, may we be able to say with Peter “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” GiGsss!

Disclaimer: This section of the website is a personal creative writing of the author and does not necessarily reflect the official views, opinion, or policies of the Salesians of Don Bosco – Philippines South Province. For concerns on the content, style, and grammar of this piece, please contact us.