It's the Real Thing!

 

Deacon Dave · It's the Real Thing!

Homily for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 18, 2024. Gospel of St. John 6:60-69. Theme: It’s the Real Thing! 

 In today’s Gospel Christ pulls no punches whatsoever in the words and descriptions he uses to convey the stark reality of the Eucharist: that it is indeed his actual and glorified Flesh and Blood. Even when many of his listeners grow furious at this teaching as being too much to accept, he did not try to correct them by saying that they had misunderstood him. No. They had heard correctly. He was not talking about the Eucharist as just a sign or symbol of his Flesh and Blood. He was saying that it is the Real Thing! 

 You know, we've had several Sundays now hearing about the Bread of Life so I think there’s really no point in pushing the topic any further. We’ve been told what needs to be said about it and we've heard it straight from the mouth of Christ himself. What is important now is our individual personal response to this teaching. So what remains is for each of us to answer the following questions: Do I believe that Jesus is God come in the flesh? And do I believe that God can and does still work miracles today? 

 If your answer is yes, then nothing more is necessary. Even if you don't understand how this mystery of the Eucharist can happen (and we’re not expected to understand it) the simple act of trusting faith is enough. It places us in the good company of Peter and the other disciples who remained with Jesus after the others found his Eucharistic teaching too much to handle. These disciples could not understand the mystery either, but they had seen many unexplainable things done by Jesus and in their hearts they knew he could be trusted. In union with them we profess the same kind of trust at every Mass when we proclaim the mystery of faith right after the consecration. 

 If the answer to both the questions is no; that there is no faith in Jesus as God nor in miracles, then there’s no point going any further, is there? No amount of words and no explanations are going to change such a mind. That grace belongs solely to the action of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life. But then I imagine there aren’t many or even any of such extreme disbelievers at Mass…after all, why would they be here? 

 So, let’s move to those who are in the middle ground. Those who profess faith in Jesus as God’s Son but do not believe he could or would provide us with the on-going daily miracle of the Eucharist. This category is composed of the majority of Christians in the USA and sadly there are even a noticeable number of Catholics among them. Now, it seems to me that this is an odd position for a believing Christian to be in because, after all, the Eucharist is far from being the only inexplicable miracle of Jesus. And yet these believers become non-believers when it comes to the stark reality of the Eucharist. 

 This is a very inconsistent position to take for a person who has no problem accepting the Lord’s many other wondrous deeds, such as... 

• He was God who became man, enabling invisible divinity to become visible humanity. 
• He changed water into wine. He walked on the waves of the sea. 
• He brought people back to life from the dead. 
• He made visible human maladies and disabilities suddenly disappear before people's eyes. 
• He twice multiplied 5 loaves of bread to become enough to feed 5,000+ people. 
• He ordered violent storms to be still and the turbulent forces of nature obeyed him. 
• Most of all he rose from the tomb whole and entire and glorious after being tortured, crucified and buried! 

So how is it possible for someone to truly believe all these things about Jesus and yet withhold faith in the Eucharist? There has to be something more at work here, something in their minds and hearts that distort or misinterpret the words of Jesus. Those who rebelled against the Bread of Life teaching in today’s Gospel were in a situation like that. They were believers who had limits to their belief. They stood proud in their Judaism and professed belief in both the God and the miracles of the Old Testament. Yet the ears of their hearts were deaf to God’s own words spoken right in front of them. You see, they had been taught to think about the God of Israel in a certain way and to place him within a box made by their own imagining of what God could or could not do. They heard the Bread of Life teaching with minds clouded by presuppositions and prejudices. 

 And there are Christians who are just like that today. There are those who will not accept or even consider the reality of the Eucharist because it is a Catholic belief and they are prejudiced against anything and everything Catholic. And then there are those who put Jesus in a box of their own making, a box that is constructed out of misinterpretation of the Bible and of incorrect Church teachings that have been passed on to them. And yet, as I said, they accept his other miracles so why is it impossible to accept this one? Why is it so hard to believe that if he wills it, Jesus can change bread and wine into very Flesh and Blood? 

 And I am not talking about Jesus doing this just once 2,000 years ago at the Last Supper. I am talking about him doing so right here and right now. Jesus himself taught us to celebrate the Eucharist based on his actions at the Last Supper. And to assure its continuation, he has been empowering men for 2,000 years to stand in his place and speak his words over bread and wine and in this way continue this daily miracle and mystery of faith among us until the end of time.