Our Eucharistic faith

This is my homily for today, the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B.  Today's readings are here.

You may have seen these words posted above the entrance to our church:

“In this place, extraordinary miracles happen from time to time.  Quiet wonders occur every day.”

Some of you may know more about the origin of that saying than I do.  I first heard it from our former pastor, Fr. Hurley, many years ago.  But whether he crafted those words himself, or someone else had given them to him, I am not sure. If you happen to know, perhaps you could let me know after mass.

But where I want to start tonight is not the origin of the saying, but simply to note its truth.  Because it is true!  Quiet wonders really do occur here every day – at least every day that I am here.  And extraordinary miracles really have occurred here, in the lives of parishioners.  Most frequently, I think they take the form of prayers answered.  But perhaps you’re aware of other miracles and wonders that have happened here.  

Now, we can be sure these wonders and miracles - prayers answered, grace received, faith shared - are a testament, first of all, to God’s goodness.  Miracles, wonders, graces, answered prayers, faith shared – all of these things originate with God, because God is good.  God has loved each of us from the moment of our creation, and despite all the things we’ve done or failed to do, God continues to love us.  So if this graced place, St. Edna, is a place of wonders and miracles, that’s due in the first place to God.

Second, this is a graced place, a place of miracles and wonders, because of our faith - the faith that is sustained and built up here, and the faith that we bring with us out into the world when we leave this place.  I’ve said this before, and I’m going to say it again right now: your faith helps me.  When people share their faith with me, as they do all the time, I feel like Mary when she visits Elizabeth: my heart rejoices.  Faith is contagious: if you have it, and if you live it, you are spreading it to others.

But what underlies our faith, and what sustains it?  What is it about this place, St. Edna, that feeds our faith?  Here I want to touch on tonight’s Gospel passage.  If you come here every week, you may have noticed that, for the last few weeks, the church has been leading us through a part of John’s Gospel known as the Bread of Life discourse.  That is Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel.  In the Gospel readings for the last few weeks, we’ve been working through that discourse.  And it continues next week, too.  Jesus’s words in John 6 form the cornerstone of the Catholic church’s faith in the Eucharist.    

Here's a snippet from that chapter – these are words I proclaimed just a few minutes ago:

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.

This encapsulates our faith in the Eucharist: we believe that, through the action of God, these gifts of bread and wine – those simple gifts sitting on the little table over there in the middle aisle – which will be brought forward in a few minutes, are transubstantiated – miraculously transformed into the flesh of Jesus: into his body and blood.  And then – and this is key – he gives his body and blood for us, and to us, so that we may live – in fact, live forever.  He tells us, “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink”.  What an interesting turn of phrase that is: Jesus himself is our true food.  The other food we eat sustains our bodies, but only the true food of Jesus – his body and blood – gives us what our souls are hungry for.  His gift of his body and blood sustains our souls and prepares them for eternal life with him.   

And there’s more: when we receive communion, Jesus doesn’t go away: he stays with us.  That’s another thing he says tonight, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”  When we receive him in communion, he remains with us, not only here but also in our daily lives outside of church.

Here’s my faith in the Eucharist: if we want to draw closer to Jesus, if we want to be united with Jesus so we can live in his love and receive his strength; if we want Jesus to be close to us to inspire us and help us and console us and forgive us; there is no better way than to receive his body and blood.

And that brings me back to the saying over the door.  We can be sure that, if extraordinary miracles happen here from time to time, and quiet wonders occur every day, it’s because the Eucharistic Jesus is the center of our faith life at St. Edna.  It’s because Jesus is feeding us of his very body and blood, because that’s how much he loves us.  What love that is!  And we are so blessed to receive it here.

If there is a spiritual danger in all this, it is that there is such an abundance of Eucharistic blessings and graces here that we might tend to take them for granted.  Just speaking for myself, I know I’m not always attentive to what God is doing here in our midst.  And I’m not always as thankful as I should be when I receive Jesus’s body and blood.  I’ve been reflecting on this recently.  My resolution is to try to be more appreciative and more grateful for this astonishing gift of Jesus, himself in the Eucharist.  And I invite you to join me in appreciating this gift and thanking him for it.  Because in the life of St. Edna Parish, Jesus giving his body and blood to us is the most extraordinary miracle of all – the daily quiet wonder that sustains our faith and unites us with him.