As for me and my household.... well, what will you do?

+ J. M. J. +

 Homily Outline for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

            Today we come to the climax of Jesus’ teaching on the great mystery of the Eucharist. People grumbled at this hard teaching, and He responded by re-emphasizing His point: we are to gnaw His flesh and gulp His blood, they are true food, and without them we have no life within us.  EVEN Jesus’ own disciples struggled with this teaching, “This saying is hard, who can accept it?”  If Jesus was going to step back and render symbolic His statements, here was His chance. Many times He had pulled the disciples aside to explain the significance of a parable, but not today: “Does this shock you?” He said, and turning to the Twelve, his closest collaborators, these men He has called by name and formed with love and patience, turning to them He said, “Do you also want to leave?”

            Let that sink in for a moment: Jesus is not only ready to see the crowds turn away; He is not only willing to see the disciples turn away.  Jesus is willing to have the Twelve turn aside if they will not accept this strange and unsettling teaching: unless we eat His Body and drink His Blood, we have no life within us.  Jesus is Himself the Truth, and He can only speak the Truth, and so He must teach those He loves the Truth, even when it is difficult, even when it is surprising, even when it is likely to be rejected.

            Jesus teaches us with such courage and fortitude, with such love, because He is preparing us to enter into the New Covenant in His Blood. A Covenant is not merely a contract, an exchange of services; rather it is a permanent co-mingling of lives, a bond even unto death.  A Covenant draws us into commitments that are beyond our unaided power, to a love that is stronger than death.  God sealed a covenant with Abraham, and with Moses on Mount Sinai. God called the People of Israel to Himself and told them that He would be their God, and they would be His people.  When Joshua gathered the tribes at Shechem after they had entered into the Land, he once more placed a decision before them: God has chosen them, would they choose the Lord?  Joshua had made his choice, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 

God called them to be a Light to ALL nations, and in the fullness of time, God came Himself into their midst.  In Jesus Christ a New Covenant was sealed between God and His people in the Blood of the Cross.  Jesus offered no animal, no grain offering, no tithe—He offered Himself, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity on the Cross for us, thus bridging forever the chasm opened up by our sins.  By His stripes, by His passion, we have been healed.  God has united Himself to us definitively, once for all, and what God has united, no man can divide.

This is the awe-inspiring context for St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians. Some claim this passage has been abused as an excuse for men to mistreat their wives, while in our own time many have used it as an excuse to ignore the Church’s teaching on marriage.  Neither abuse of this passage has anything to do with what St. Paul is teaching, and his first words make that clear: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  In the Greek and Roman worlds, a woman was the property of her husband, and could be readily dismissed at his prerogative.  St. Paul rejects this inhuman cultural situation and tells husbands and wives that they are to surrender themselves to each other out of reverence for the Lord who surrendered Himself to us.  If anything, it is men who are called to task, “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her.”  

How did Christ love the Church?  On the Cross, He offered Himself unto the last breath, unto the last drop of sweat on His lacerated brow, unto the blood and water that poured forth from His pierced side. Jesus offered Himself unto the carrying of the Cross, unto His dying on the Cross, unto the cold and silent tomb, and even unto Gehenna itself, where He shattered asunder the gates of Hell.  My brothers in Christ, whether you are a husband, or a boyfriend, or a single man, or a boy, this is what our faith calls us to, and Jesus walked before us on this path.  Sisters in Christ, how would you respond to a man who laid down his life completely, unto the last breath for you?  Could a man who emptied himself completely for his wife ever lord it over her?  Could he ever mistreat his wife and claim to be following Christ?  He could not.

This, then, is the covenant God has made with us. He has wedded Himself for all eternity to His Bride, the Church, and sealed this covenant by His own blood on the Cross.  He submitted Himself to all things, to all suffering on our behalf, and at every Mass this sacrifice and banquet feast is re-presented.  We are drawn into the sacrifice of Calvary, and we are drawn into the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.  Marriage is the metaphor, and for most of us, it is the path God has called us to.  Marriage is in great trouble in our land, perhaps your own marriage is in trouble, but the path to healing and truth passes through this altar from which we receive the Lamb of God, He who takes away the sins of the World.  This Lamb’s teaching is mysterious, at times it is hard, at times it is not apparent how it fits into our deeply wounded world.  And, yet, we are called to make a decision: the same decision Joshua put before the Chosen People… the same choice Jesus put before the crowds, before His disciples, and finally before the Twelve.  Will we leave Him?  Will we follow idols, or will we follow the One True God?

As he did so often, out of his own weakness, St. Peter models for us the way forward, “Master, 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.”  Peter does not say, “Lord, it all makes sense to me, so I’ll follow you.” He could not have understood in any full way how they were going to eat the Lord’s Body and drink His Blood, but he made the choice, he cast his lot with the Lord, he made the same choice that Joshua did.  May we make that choice today, either for the first time, or once again. May Joshua’s words be our own, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 

+ A. M. D. G. +

How can we eat this man's flesh?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The bounteous repast that the Church spreads before us on this parish picnic weekend is rich indeed! We begin with Lady Wisdom, God’s wisdom here anthropomorphized and imagined as a wealthy and powerful queen. She has set up her home, prepared the feast, set the table, and then she sends out her maidservants and puts out a wide invitation:

"Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding."

The invitation is clear… if we will turn towards God’s wisdom, knowing our own simplicity and lack of wisdom, we will be filled, we will be lead deeper into the mystery of God. The door, my friends, is open to us.

St. Paul also calls us to wisdom, inviting us to live, “not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity…” We become wise and live wisely precisely to the extent that we seek the will of the Lord, turn away from sin and vice, and open the door to the Spirit. This wisdom culminates in a joyful outpouring of praise to the Lord, and most importantly, thanksgiving. We should be “giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.”

Here the plot thickens—the Apostle has told us to give thanks always. The phrase he uses in Greek is euxaristountes pantote, that is “giving thanks always…” Do you hear the connection? Euxaristountes? This is the very same root as for the word “Eucharist.” This is the Greek word for gratitude. If we are to cultivate grateful hearts and lives and so be wise, this means we must cultivate Eucharistic hearts!

Wisdom is not a popular category… it has been supplanted in our daily lives by knowledge, and even more by raw data. On the internet we have practically infinite information and data at our fingertips. But, then, we don’t know for sure if ANY of it is true, accurate, dependable or trustworthy. I think we can see that in our world information and data have exploded, but wisdom is just as rare as ever. How do we acquire wisdom? It comes from God, we can receive it as a gift if we realize that we are little and that we are not self-sufficient, and that we need a Savior. Jesus spoke the truest and deepest wisdom to those crowds, but it was difficult for them to accept. He said:

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

How can we eat this man’s flesh? The crowds had the very same question… and it’s a good question, a reasonable question. How indeed? Jesus doesn’t step back, or indicate that He’s speaking a parable, or using hyperbole, as He often did at other times. He continues:

"Amen, amen, I say to you, 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. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

Once again, there’s a deeper connection here in the original Greek. Jesus makes a solemn declaration, “Amen, Amen. You must eat my flesh and drink my blood or you are without life.” Then Jesus ups the ante even further… He switches verbs, and instead of the common ordinary Greek words for eat and drink that He has used up to this point, He chose graphic words that mean literally to gnaw and gulp… words that explicitly emphasize real eating. He drives home the point, “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”

How are we to understand this??? We’re supposed to eat the Lord’s body and drink His blood? We’re supposed to gnaw his flesh and swallow His blood? PLEASE, don’t just say to yourself, “oh, yes, we say that all the time at church.” These are astonishing and even offensive words… if the people listening to Jesus that day struggled with this, it was at least in part because they were really listening to the Lord. We are incomplete, broken, starving, desperately in need of God’s help in ways large and small, in ways visible and hidden. God from all eternity has seen our poverty, and in the fullness of time He responded after centuries of preparation. That response to our poverty and starvation is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ who is Himself Truth Incarnate said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”

This is not data that our data-saturated world is readily able to accept… neither is it data that we should gloss over too easily just because the words are familiar. When church-going Catholics in our country are asked in surveys, “Do we really consume the Lord’s body and blood at Mass,” a solid minority say, “No.” Yet, Jesus said, “My flesh is truly food and my blood is truly drink.” God in His wisdom has set the table, prepared the meal, and opened the doors…. But we have to forsake foolishness if we are to live, we have to forsake simple routine if we are to receive eternal life. Brothers and sisters, do not approach this altar half-awake, out of habit. Do not approach this altar unless you desire God’s wisdom which breaks our categories and our hearts and our lives so that we can be remade in His image. Please, today, perhaps even for the first time, approach this altar with reverence, with awe, aware that we receive here a mystery beyond our full comprehension. At this altar we receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King and He says to us, “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

+ A. M. D. G. +

Will the journey be too long for you?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B


“Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” These are the angel’s words to Elijah the prophet—he has been fleeing from the King Ahab and Queen Jezebel who are trying to kill him, and he has all but given up. The angel of the Lord brings him food and drink, but he is so weary and close to despair that the angel has to urge him on to eat enough. Without adequate food, we become weak. If we face a big physical struggle, all the more must we eat well. My uncle Tim ran the Paavo Nurmi Marathon in under 4 hours this morning, and last night I made sure to feed him a plate of pasta! On the Baraga March this past week, we biked over 100 miles, and we had to make sure to eat and drink so we would have fuel for the journey. Simple enough, this principle, something we are all familiar with… but as we spoke of last week, are we prepared to go deeper? Can we apply this knowledge of our physical bodies to our spiritual life by analogy?

As human beings we are uniquely body and soul. Of all God’s creatures, only we have both a material and spiritual component. The angels are pure spirit, and even the highest animals fall short of free will and the ability to choose and love that God has given us. Unless we integrate these two aspects of our united being, we will easily go astray. Both our bodies and our souls lie at the heart of the human condition. God, in His perfect wisdom, has always responded to us on both levels. We will understand and penetrate deeper into the mystery of the Eucharist only if we bring together what we know and experience in our bodies AND our souls, just as we do at every Mass, with the Word, and music, and architecture and art, and vesture, and posture, and, at the very crux of things, food.

Last Sunday we heard of Jesus challenging the people who had come to Him hungry for more to go deeper. What sign might He do to prove to them He is a prophet? Moses called down bread from heaven! Jesus responded, “"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

Notice how the people respond: they grumble—don’t we know this guy, his parents—how can He say such a thing?!! Jesus is familiar to them, they think they know where he’s from, and so they balk. They want something spectacular, surprising, obvious… and Jesus offers them mystery and sacrament. “Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me…I am the bread of life… I am the living bread that came down from heaven, whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Every third year our Mother the Church lays out this whole long sixth chapter of John, and I think we see within the reading itself the wisdom of this repetition. Each one of us in different ways is up against some pretty tough struggles: maybe it’s something big that came out of the blue, like cancer, or a divorce… maybe it’s a hidden battle against a temptation that no one else knows about, but whatever it is, God is calling. St. Paul says, “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.” Whether it’s rejecting what is evil, or more fully embracing what is good, this is not easy, and it’s not automatic. It’s not a choice we can make once, but a series of choices every single day. Where do we get the power? Where are we to find the stamina? What fuels this journey?

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” When the people of Israel were in the desert, God sent them bread through Moses. When Elijah was fleeing for his life in the desert, God sent him bread through an angel. As we face the desert struggles in our lives, each day, God has not forgotten us. Jesus sees our hearts, our need, our hunger—but in Jesus, God didn’t send just a prophet, an angel, a messenger—God came Himself, and Jesus who is both God and man gives us Himself. “When the afflicted man called out, the Lord heard, and from all his distress he saved him.” Perhaps this is not immediately satisfying—we’d like to see something obvious, something impressive, something overt. But, God knows what we need, and He gives us Himself, He who is the only final and full satisfaction for our whole being, body and soul.

Let me close by inviting you to very seriously ask yourself a question: Have I kept the Lord ’s Day holy? Have I gone to Mass unless it was physically impossible? If you’ve allowed other things to creep into God’s place, if Mass has become occasional or a matter of convenience—you’ve been running on empty. You’ve been attempting to navigate the marathon of life without a spaghetti dinner. You’ve been facing struggles big and small, both visible and hidden, on your own. God doesn’t ask this of you, to fly solo. God doesn’t ask this of you, to step into the ring on an empty stomach. God comes to every altar, to every Mass, waits for you in every tabernacle throughout the world, and He even urges you on through me, through the Church. Don’t stay away, don’t let obstacles keep you from the Bread of Life. “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!”

+ A. M. D. G. +

What lies in the depths of your heart?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B (5 August 2012)

What lies in the depths of our hearts? Give me your full attention, pause for a second, close your eyes, and look within your heart. What desires move there? ...What longings, hopes, and dreams? ... There are layers in our hearts and lives, as if all of our being and experience were a deep pool or ocean.  Passing breezes and surface currents ripple the surface, or even cause massive waves… but the surface doesn’t tell the whole story. If we plunge past the surface of the ocean, we find layers and depths and currents that are largely hidden. If we venture past the superficial passing fancies and desires that each day brings, we will find layers and depths and currents there: some of that is painful, some is embarrassing, some is confusing, and at the core, there is the possibility of finding something very beautiful and enduring,

Do you desire a donut, or a cold glass of water? Do you long for nap? Take a step deeper… are you hungry for a friend, thirsty for a conversation, or longing to simply sit still out in the woods? At the core… are you hungry for love, or forgiveness, or truth? Are you sad, or feeling flat and lifeless, or full of enthusiasm?

As children, we must learn not to act on every impulse—we can’t take every cookie we see, hit every person that makes us mad, or go to the bathroom the moment the urge strikes us. This is the beginning of virtue—to make decisions about how and when and if we will act on our desires. However, much more is required! Maturity, and holiness, cannot be merely the ignoring or suppressing of our desires. We must learn to discern, purify, and move from the surface to the depths, to those deeper currents, to the deepest truest innermost current which is God’s own life and love, the Holy Spirit.

This dynamic is played out over the whole course of salvation history, and in each person’s life, and it is vividly present in our readings today. Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt by wonders and signs into the desert, and very quickly they began to grouse and complain about the lack of food, so God sent quail and manna in the desert. God did not ignore the most basic desires:

He commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven; he rained manna upon them for food and gave them heavenly bread. Man ate the bread of angels, food he sent them in abundance. And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountains his right hand had won.

Centuries later, Jesus encountered the same dynamic, we heard about it last Sunday.  He saw the crowd hungry before Him, and he multiplied the loaves and fed their bodies. Now, they have followed him to Capernaum, looking for more. It is good that they seek Him, but Jesus sees into their hearts, that they are still just looking for more bread.

Why are we here at this Mass? Part of it is may be habit, part obligation… maybe we’re here out of obedience to our parents or to please them or to please a spouse. Part of why I’m here is that it’s my job! None of that is bad, but it’s not enough…the Lord wants your whole heart, mind, and soul, and He wants mine, too. Jesus Christ challenges us: do we want food that endures? Do we want more than going through the motions or fulfilling a duty or making someone else happy? Do you want to go deeper than seeing who this new priest is? How do we get there? How do we go deeper? The people asked, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus said, “Believe in the one he sent.” It is by faith in Jesus Christ, that faith itself a gift, that we go deeper and draw nearer to the Living God.

To make an act of faith, to step beyond what we fully understand, that takes courage, a leap beyond our comfort zone… and the people of Jesus’ time wanted a sign, like Moses had given. They’re still stuck hoping to see another miracle and get some more bread for free. But a miracle, miraculous bread comes from God—it is God we seek. The deepest current, the truest depths of our hearts seek God and Him alone. Nothing else will satisfy us. We see this painted across the screens of the media so clearly - men and women rich, famous, and powerful far beyond our circumstances, and scrabbling in the mud with their fingernails trying to get just a little bit more. Clearly the things of this world do not themselves bring peace. Jesus knows this, He knows that it is to answer our hunger and thirst that He has come, that it is to answer our deepest desire that He will die… and so He tells us the truth so far beyond our expectations, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Brothers and sisters is Christ… for the next three weeks we will unpack what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the bread of life.” The sixth chapter of John is a long one, but it’s long because it’s important, and here Jesus draws us into a very deep mystery, the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. I love this chapter, this mystery, the Eucharist, and I hope you do too! It is a great mystery, always beyond our full grasp. But we can turn to this mystery once again, and enter into its light and beauty. To do this, however, we must come attentive to the deep desires of our hearts. God responds to what is deepest and truest in us, but if we don’t know what’s there, if we haven’t had the time, or the inclination, or the courage to look within, if we’re not willing to go deeper, we get stuck on the surface. Do you want to go deeper? God will help. St. Paul challenged the Ephesians to go deeper, so let me close with His words directed now to each one of us:

Brothers and sisters: I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; that is not how you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.

This is God’s invitation to us, to be open to becoming new men and women in Christ, and this happens above all through the Eucharist. In the Eucharist we encounter God, the only source of lasting peace, and we are empowered to know the depths of our own hearts and souls. May we open our hearts to this beautiful mystery now, and in the weeks that lie ahead.

+ A. M. D. G. +

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