Ordinary Time 18 - Food for the Poor

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 18

August 4, 2024

Food for the Poor

 

            As we continue to read through John Chapter 6 – the Bread of Life Discourse – a small detail stood out to me from last week’s Gospel. What food did Jesus multiply? It wasn’t caviar or filet mignon. It wasn’t even nice fluffy white bread. It was barley loaves and dried fish – do either of those sound appetizing to you? Probably not – because it was the food for the poor.

            In our overabundance, we often forget that for the vast majority of human history, food was very hard to come by. To make a loaf of bread was a huge effort: till the land, sow the barley, water it, harvest it, grind it, bake it. So this promise of free food from the Lord was a wonderful thing!

            But Jesus needs to remind them that their poverty will not be satisfied with more bread. Rather, there is a deeper poverty – the poverty of lacking God, of being separated from Him – that can only be cured by the Lord Jesus Himself. As Mother Teresa put it, “The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”

            Despite our twenty-first century luxuries and distractions, we too are quite poor. In fact, every human being of every age has always struggled with the ancient poverty and brokenness of the human race. Why is it that, despite all the love our spouse can give us, we never feel like it’s enough? Why are we still restless and unhappy when we have every device to distract us? Despite all of our efforts to plan out our lives, why do we still worry about the future? I doubt that any person in this church today has their life completely together – probably all of us, myself included, would say that some aspect of our life is a mess and broken. This is the fundamental poverty deep within our soul – we long for love, for meaning and purpose, for strength, for peace.

            And we won’t find these things in a red Solo cup, or a bottle. We won’t find them in the bedroom or on the Internet. We won’t find these things in another social media “like”, our plastic surgery, or our paycheck. We won’t find them in the lust, greed, addictions, or distractions that consume our days. Filling that fundamental poverty with any of these things will just leave us more broken. Rather, I would like to propose that everything we are searching for is contained within this small, white Host of the Eucharist.

            You may have seen that the Church in America recently concluded a four-day Eucharistic congress in Indianapolis. But leading up to that event, there were four processions across our country with the Eucharist, where it was held aloft in a monstrance and processed through the streets. I was tremendously blessed to carry the Eucharist for a mile through downtown Stamford, and it moved me to tears to see people drive by and make the sign of the Cross, or kneel along the sidewalk, to welcome the Eucharistic king.

            In one particular town along the route, a group of young homeless men in Ohio saw what was going on and joined the procession. When it reached the church, they took the priest around back to the dumpster – and proceeded to dump all of their drugs and paraphernalia in the dumpster, promising to live a new life. Another time, they brought the Eucharist into a prison, where the men attended Mass and then processed around the prison grounds. The antidote to the brokenness and poverty of our life is the Eucharist – Jesus Christ, truly present.

            In fact, the early Church fathers called the Eucharist the “medicine of immortality”. Our brokenness was caused by the disobedient eating of our first parents, leading to Original Sin. Our healing, then, comes from obedient eating of the One Who said, “Do this in memory of Me.” Now, to be clear, taking medicine works if you’re sick, not if you’re dead. If a soul is dead through mortal sin, they need a different kind of medicine – the medicine of Confession. But once a soul is in the state of grace, our daily poverty and fundamental hungers are filled only with the Lord, Who gives Himself to us in the Eucharist. Never let a week pass you by without coming to the Eucharistic Lord at Mass! Spend time with Him outside of Mass, too, in a silent Church or in Eucharistic Adoration. It is He whom you seek when you look for love, meaning, strength, and peace!

            I close with the powerful words of JRR Tolkien. In addition to being the writer of the “Lord of the Rings” series, he was a very faithful Catholic who would often give spiritual advice to his sons. Here is an excerpt from one of his letters:

            Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. . . . There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true fulfillment of all your loves on earth.

            Out of our poverty and fundamental hunger, there is One alone Who can satisfy: the Eucharist – the Real Presence of Jesus.

Ordinary Time 15 - Spiritual Authority

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 15

July 14, 2024

Spiritual Authority

 

            Jesus’ mission is to save our eternal souls. We are in danger of being lost for eternity due to our sins, but because of the mercy of Christ, He has taken the penalty for our sins upon the Cross and opened for us a way to Heaven. But He is not the only one who has a stake in our eternity – the Evil One, who really exists, is also “prowling like a roaring lion,” looking to drag our souls down to Hell for eternity.

            But Christ did not leave us powerless! We see in the Gospel that when He sent out His twelve Apostles, it wasn’t simply to preach – He also gave them the spiritual power and authority, over bodily ailments like sicknesses as well as spiritual ailments like the Evil One.

            This spiritual authority remains with Christians today. Consider the authority of the Sacraments – priests have the authority to tell bread and wine to become the Body of Jesus Christ! It is almost as if a priest has authority to command God to perform this miracle and to order Him to come and dwell in the Eucharist. What power God has given to men! Equally as amazing is the authority to forgive sins in His name – to take a soul dead and rotting in mortal sin, and raise it to life again!

            But priests are not the only ones with spiritual authority. Every baptized and confirmed Christian has spiritual authority as well. I want to mention two areas where we have spiritual authority.

            First, those of you who are parents, grandparents, or godparents have a very powerful spiritual authority over your families and those entrusted to your care! Did you know, for example, that parents can bless their kids? I recommend doing that before they go to bed or leave the house – make the sign of the cross on their foreheads and ask God to bless and guide their ways. You have the spiritual authority – and duty – to teach them about the Lord Jesus. In fact, the Church says that “parents are the primary educators of their children in the ways of faith” – parents, not schools or CCD teachers or priests. You have the authority to guard them from the Evil One – as parents, you have the right to ensure they choose only good friends, and to make sure that evil does not enter your home through the internet, TV, or phones. You have the authority to pray a “hedge of protection” from temptations and evil (to borrow a Protestant term) around them by praying fiercely, sacrificing intensely, and loving them unconditionally.

            Too many parents abdicate that authority and say, “Well, I don’t want to force my kids to be religious” or “I don’t want to be that weird parent, I’ll just do what everyone else is doing.” No, my friends! You are entrusted with the duty to lead your young souls to Heaven – and God has given you the authority to do it well! Do not be afraid to exercise the spiritual leadership of your family! I attribute my vocation to the priesthood to my father – who prayed the Rosary for me every day, who taught me about Christ and corrected me when I needed it. You can do the same!

            Apart from parents, though, all baptized Christians in the state of grace have an immense spiritual authority. We have the authority to intercede for others – our prayers have the power to penetrate the heavens all the way to the Throne of God!

            Protestant writer John Eldredge tells about how one day his wife mentioned that she was dizzy. He asked her how long it had been going on, and she replied, “Seventeen years.” Seventeen years! She had never mentioned it before; she had assumed it was normal. They began to seek medical help, but all the doctors were stymied – they could find nothing wrong. So John began to suspect that it possibly had a spiritual origin from an evil spirit (which can, indeed, cause physical harm). So he began to pray – really pray. Not a few Our Father’s and Hail Mary’s…no, it was a fierce, raw type of prayer: “Lord Jesus, by Your Name and covered in Your Precious Blood, we ask You to free Your daughter from any evil spirit that is afflicting her.” With intensity and perseverance, she was cured. This type of intense prayer can be used to overcome temptation, beg God for spiritual or physical healing, or cast out Evil Spirits (some types of addictions, or depression/anxiety, or deeply-rooted personal wounds are caused by evil spirits in our lives – but we have the authority, given by Christ, to invoke the Trinity to free us!  

            If we really lived out of the spiritual authority we have been given, we’d never fear anything! St. John Vianney, a holy priest from France in the 1800s, was well-known for bringing souls to Christ. About 80,000 people used to go to Confession to him each year – so many that he would spend up to 16 hours each day hearing Confessions! With so much good spiritual fruit and sins forgiven, it is only natural that the devil would try to put a stop to his ministry.

            At times, there would be such loud noises from inside his rectory that he couldn’t sleep. Once, when he was in the church late at night, townspeople saw his rectory on-fire – so they quickly hastened to try to put it out, only to find out that there was no fire – it was an attempt from the Evil One to scare the holy priest. Many people, concerned about his safety, and having heard the loud noises and seen frightening beasts around his home, decided to take turns staying overnight with him in the rectory. But the first night there was such a loud noise that the walls shook, and these brave men rushed in to Fr. Vianney in fear and exclaimed, “The house is going to fall down!” Fr. Vianney peacefully replied, “Oh, no, that’s just the devil – don’t be afraid, go back to bed.” And the noise subsided.

            He was never troubled by such things; rather, he used to say, “When the devil is particularly bothersome, that is a good sign! It means that there will be a big sinner coming to Confession tomorrow!”

            How could someone remain at peace when the Evil One wanted his downfall? Because he knew that he possessed the same spiritual authority that Jesus gave His apostles, to cast out demons, heal the sick, reconcile sinners, and preach the Gospel. Much of that same authority is given to priests, parents, and individual Christians – and now it’s up to us to use it!