Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
When I first started to lift weights about a year and a half ago, I was surprised that I started to lose weight. Others had told me that muscle weighs more than fat, so as I started to be able to lift more and more, I expected my weight to go up. But it wasn’t; it was going down. So I asked others who lifted why things weren’t going the way I expected. They asked me what I was eating. What I discovered was that I didn’t only need to lift weights to get stronger. I also had to eat right. I was not getting enough protein in my diet to really start bulking up the muscles (at least to the extent my 40-year-old body will let me).
We have to have the right kind of food, not just for our bodies, but for our souls. God gave the Chosen People manna in the desert, a food that they had not known before. It would appear in the morning, and they could collect as much as they would need for that day, unless it was Friday, and then could collect enough for their needs for Friday and the Sabbath.
After the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, the people went to Jesus to give them more food. It was like a free food giveaway. But Jesus told them that they were looking for the wrong type of food. They wanted simply earthly food, food that would perish. He wanted to give them the food “that endures for eternal life,” that would bring them closer to salvation. And at the end of today’s passage, Jesus drops a bomb on them: the food that endures for eternal life is Jesus. If they eat Him, the Bread of Life, they will never hunger or thirst again. Next week we’ll hear just how overwhelming that statement was for the Jews.
We have to eat food to survive. Our body takes the nutrients in food, and breaks them down into the materials that our bodies need to grow muscle, to give us energy, and to keep our intricate system working. Our souls are no different. They need spiritual food to keep up our strength to follow Christ and do His will. And this spiritual food, the Eucharist, also keeps us connected to everyone else in the Mystical Body of Christ so that we do not try to do the work of the entire body even though we are a finger or a toe or an ear or an eye. Whereas with normal food, our body breaks down the food and gives it to whole body to use, with spiritual food, with the Eucharist, we become part of the whole Mystical Body of Christ so that we can be useful in Christ’s Church that He founded.
But our souls have to be ready to receive this spiritual nourishment in order for it to do us any good. I remember, when I was a seminarian, that we did a fundraiser in conjunction with the Run Through Hell that happens each year in Hell, Michigan. Though my parents and sisters ran (and some still run) long distances, I was never into that. But, being in my early twenties, I didn’t think I had to train. So I ran, and tried to keep up with my dad, who ran marathons. Needless to say, I didn’t keep up for long. But, at last, I finished the race, leaving enough energy for a strong finish in a sprint. When I finished, I was so tired and felt like I had given it my all. I was also thirsty, so I started to drink a lot of Gatorade and eat some orange slices. After about five minutes, my stomach told me that taking in that much nutrients while it was still trying to figure out why I had pushed it so much was not a good idea, and I made my way over to the bushes to vomit.
If we are not in a state of grace, receiving the Eucharist does us no good, and, in fact, is very bad for us spiritually. If we have committed a mortal sin and we receive the Eucharist, then we commit the sin of sacrilege, and the Eucharist does not strengthen us spiritually, but pulls us farther away from God. Mortal sins are not only murder or adultery or lying in court. We can commit a mortal sin if we skip Mass (without a legitimate excuse of serious illness or more than a 30 minute drive to get to a church); or if we curse using God’s Name; or if we misuse our sexual faculties, whether by ourselves or with a significant other with whom we are not married; or if we support abortion or euthanasia. These things, and more mean that we have broken our connection to God, and in order for us to receive the spiritual nourishment we want from the Eucharist, we need to reconcile with God first. It’s like when you have norovirus, the stomach flu. You can’t simply eat whatever you want; you have to receive healing first before you eat, otherwise it makes you feel worse. I try to offer regular times to go to confession, so that, if you do have a mortal sin, you can reconcile with God, and be able to receive the nourishment of the Eucharist hopefully not to fall into that sin again, and to be strengthened for fighting whatever temptations are present in your life.
