Homily for Ordinary Time 19
August 11, 2024
The Eucharist is the Life of the Soul
In 303,
the Emperor Diocletian began the most violent persecution of Christians
throughout the Roman Empire. He forbade them from possessing a copy of the
Scriptures, and outlawed all Sunday gatherings to celebrate the Eucharist. In
Abitene, a city in north Africa, a group of 49 Christians decided they could
not obey this dictate, so they began to gather secretly to celebrate Mass each
Sunday. One Sunday they were betrayed, arrested by soldiers, and put on trial.
The
governor asked them, “Do you keep a copy of the Scriptures in your homes?” They
replied, “No, we keep the Scriptures in our hearts!” Then, turning to the
leader of the group, the governor asked him, “Do you not know that you are
transgressing the command of the Emperor by meeting on Sundays?” The leader, a
man named Emeritus, responded for them all: “Without Sunday, we cannot live.”
A
fourth-century author, writing a history of the 49 Martyrs of Abitene,
commented: “O foolish and ridiculous question of the judge! As if a Christian
could be without the Sunday Eucharist! Do you not know that it is the Sunday
Eucharist which makes the Christian, so that one cannot subsist without the
other?”
My heart
is burning with the connection between the Eucharist and life. We see
Elijah in the first reading complaining, “Take my life, Lord, for I am no
better than my fathers.” Well, physically Elijah was fine – it was his spirit
that was dying within him. But once he had been fortified by bread from the
Lord, he received back his strength and could continue his mission.
Likewise,
Jesus declares Himself the “Bread of Life”. There are three Greek words for
life. There is bios, from which we get “biology” – the physical life of
the body. There is psuche, from which we get “psychology” – the life of
the mind in a person who is conscious and thinking. But then there is zoe,
which means abundant life, fulfillment, happiness, achieving our fundamental
purpose. Jesus uses zoe when He says, “I am the Bread of Life.” Meaning,
I am not just something to keep your body together, like regular food – no, I
am the abundant life of the soul that your heart longs for.
Indeed,
the Eucharist is the life of the soul, because the Eucharist is the divine life
of Christ Himself. If you’ve ever been picking berries at Jones Family Farm,
you notice how fresh-picked berries are far, far better than store-bought ones.
Part of the reason why, perhaps, is because you are picking and eating berries
that are alive, not sitting on a shelf for three weeks. In the same way,
ordinary bread is dead – the grains have been ground and baked – but the
Eucharist is alive – and therefore it becomes the life of the soul.
Back in October
of 1995, Pope St. John Paul the Great visited Baltimore (I was blessed to be in
attendance at that Mass in Oriole Park – although I was much more fascinated by
the fact that it was my first visit to a baseball stadium than to the fact that
it was the Pope!). After his busy schedule, the last event of the day was a
meet-and-greet on the front steps of the seminary in Baltimore. But, as was his
custom, the Pope didn’t just want to meet the seminarians – he wanted to make a
visit to the Blessed Sacrament. When he told his entourage this, they had to
spring into action and do a security clearance on the building. They brought in
Secret Service members with rescue dogs, who had been trained to find people
hiding or trapped in rubble. The dogs and their handlers searched the whole
building for any bad guys hidden within, but thankfully the whole place was
secure. However, their last stop was the chapel, and when the dogs entered,
they went directly up to the tabernacle and sat and whined, refusing to move.
This was what they were trained to do if they found someone hidden. The
handlers were amazed – the dogs had recognized that there is a Person in the
Tabernacle, and that this Divine Person is alive!
Even
science confirms this. Every Eucharistic miracle that has been examined by
science has recognized that it is living flesh, not dead flesh. In one
of the most recent Eucharistic miracles in Buenos Aires in 1996, the Eucharist
changed into visible flesh. A small portion was taken and sent to Dr. Fred
Zugibe, a leading forensic pathologist, in New York – without informing him of
where the sample came from. Dr. Zugibe had no trouble examining it under a
microscope and declaring that it was heart tissue, clearly taken from a living
person with both red and white blood cells still active at the time the sample
was taken. This eminent scientist was amazed when he was told that it came from
a Eucharistic Host in Argentina!
This
Living Eucharist gives life to the soul. Consider – what is the destiny of the
soul? It is to spend eternity united to God in Heaven. The Eucharist, then, is
the foretaste of that union. In Heaven we will be perfectly one with God; in
the Eucharist, we are imperfectly one with God – still weak sinners, but truly
imbued with His Real Presence. In Heaven, we will see God. In the Eucharist,
God is hidden – but truly there nonetheless. In Heaven, we will dwell with Him securely
in our homeland; here, we consume Him as we continue on our journey. In fact,
the last Holy Communion that someone receives in their life has a special name:
it is called Viaticum, which means “food for the journey” – the last meal
before the journey into everlasting life.
So, my
friends, I give you two connected takeaways. First, remember that all true
spirituality must be Eucharistic. Many people in our world are “spiritual but
not religious”, or think that they can have spirituality apart from the Mass.
But spirituality is essentially a desire for union with God, and union with God
is achieved through the Eucharist. Second, and connected to that, is to resolve
in your hearts to never miss a Sunday to worthily receive the Holy
Eucharist. In fact, receive Him as often as you can – come to daily Mass if you
have time! The greatest consolation we will ever have in our life will be the
times we have worthily received the Eucharist here on earth, because that has
prepared our soul for the final union with God in Heaven.
During
that Roman persecution, which really lasted off-and-on for three centuries, the
Church did not shrink. In contrast, it consistently grew and spread throughout
the Roman Empire. But a similar persecution arose in Japan in the late 1580s,
and lasted for three centuries – and when Catholic priests were allowed back in
the 1860s, they found only a tiny remnant. Why did the Church grow in one
persecution and become almost nonexistent in the other? Because in Rome, they
still had the Eucharist, while in Japan all priests were expelled and
Christians had no Eucharist. Truly, without Sunday Eucharist, we cannot live,
for the Eucharist is the life of the soul.
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