Holy Communion

Solemnity of Corpus Christi

    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.].  This weekend in our Diocese of Lansing we begin our Eucharistic Revival, leading up to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July 2024.  Why do a Eucharistic Revival?  Because, statistically speaking, Catholics in the US do not have Catholic faith about the Eucharist.  A recent study put faith in the Eucharist as the actual Body and Blood of Christ at around 33% of active Catholics.  Fewer and fewer Catholics go to Mass, which is where we most frequently encounter Christ in the Eucharist.  And there are fewer and fewer Catholics period, as the steady stream over the 2010s of Catholics leaving the faith became a rushing waterfall after 2020 and COVID. 
    We all have a share in the sources for these depressing facts.  We priests have not always preached about the Eucharist, and what a beautiful and sacred treasure we have.  Some priests have not reminded the faithful of the Church’s teachings and disciplines concerning the Eucharist, and some have celebrated Mass in an irreverent way and admitted to Mass things which have no place there.  Some bishops, too, have not always demonstrated respect for the Eucharist in making sure that their priests celebrate according to the way the Church wants Mass celebrated, or admitting to Holy Communion those who, according to our own post-Vatican II Code of Canon Law, should be refused Holy Communion because of the public way they live and the public policies they openly support which are contrary to the Catholic faith. 
    But it’s not just clergy.  How do you approach the Eucharist each week?  Do you make it a priority, or something you get to if it doesn’t conflict with your other activities or schedule?  Do you prepare for Mass by reading the readings ahead of time, fasting for at least an hour before receiving the Eucharist, and showing by your posture at Mass and especially as you approach the sanctuary that you are receiving the King of Heaven?
    So we all have a hand in a lack of due devotion and demonstration of just how sacred the Eucharist is, without pointing out any individuals.  And I certainly cannot solve issues which have arisen in the Church over the past sixty years in one homily.  But I do want to focus, as we celebrate Corpus Christi, on a phrase we use for the Eucharist: Holy Communion.
    Holy Communion as a phrase slides easily off our tongue.  We probably say it without really giving it a thought as to its meaning.  Holy is probably obvious enough, but still worth saying: belonging to God or associated with God.  God is utter holiness, which is why in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and the Book of Revelation, the angels cry out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.”  Communion comes from two Latin words, cum and unio, which, when put together, means union with.  When we are in communion with another, we are united to that person.  So Holy Communion is our union with God, who is the source of all holiness. 

    When we come for Holy Communion, union with God is both the pre-requisite as well as the result of receiving (in a state of grace) the Eucharist.  In order to receive the grace of the Eucharist which brings us closer to God, we cannot be aware of any grave or mortal sin.  Such a state of sinfulness makes reception of Holy Communion an act of sacrilege.  That may sound harsh, but Bishop Vincke uses this analogy:
 

Imagine a woman whose husband goes to strip clubs and repeatedly sleeps with many other women, and she knows about it.  The husband comes home and wants to have dinner with his wife, acting as if nothing was wrong.  He is indifferent to the many ways he has hurt and wounded her.  […] Let’s take this a step further.  The cheating husband now wants to be intimate with his wife.  Again, he shows no remorse for the ways he has hurt her.  At the very least, shouldn’t the husband first apologize to his wife?  […] In a similar way, Holy Communion is a sacred banquet in which Jesus becomes intimate with us.  He desires to be one with us in Holy Communion, much like a married couple becomes one flesh.  Jesus has a heart.  […] When we commit mortal sin or “cheat” on God, we must first apologize and beg for his forgiveness.  We know he will grant it in the saving sacrament of confession.  And then, once our broken relationship has been healed, we can return to the intimate banquet of the Eucharist.

Not discerning whether or not we should receive the Eucharist based upon our actions is like being the cheating husband.  Only when we have confessed our sin in the Sacrament of Penance can we one more return to the intimacy and union that God desires with us.
    But Communion is not only with God.  It is also with the rest of the Church.  The Catholic Church has taught many things which are required beliefs and ways we live our life in order to call ourselves good Catholics.  Some are present in the creed.  Others are present in papal pronouncements or documents of ecumenical councils.  Others are so basic that they are presented in the Catechism, but often taken for granted.  When we come forward for Holy Communion, we are saying that we agree with all those things that are part of the Catholic faith, revealed for our salvation.  We may not always understand it fully (like our belief in the Trinity), but if we reject that belief, or the call to live our life a particular way (like the prohibition against abortion or support for abortion), then we are not truly in union with the Church, and our act of receiving Holy Communion becomes a lie at the most sacred time of any person’s day.  St. Justin Martyr, whom we just celebrated on 1 June, wrote around AD 155: “And this food is called among us Eucharistia, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins.”  It’s not just that a person is baptized, but that they also believe what the Church teaches is true. 
    This applies to Catholics and non-Catholics alike.  No matter whether a person is Catholic or a baptized non-Catholic, if they do not believe the major teachings of the faith, then they should not present themselves for, and should not be given, the Eucharist.  If we are not united in major teachings, then we cannot claim to have the graces of communion with God and the Church that the Eucharist desires to impart. 
    Again, I can’t cover everything about the Eucharist in this one homily, though I will try have more homilies on the Eucharist throughout the Eucharistic Revival.  To be clear, this has nothing to do with being a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or anything else.  Our teaching on the Eucharist is not aligned to a political party or persona.  Our practice around the Eucharist is based upon what the Church believes and how the Church lives, which is based in Christ.  Since the Eucharist truly is the Body and Blood of Christ, and not just a symbol, how we treat the Eucharist is how we treat Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.  Amen.  

Eucharistic Revival

 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  The US Bishops have launched a Eucharistic Revival in our country, culminating in a Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July 2024, the the first Eucharistic Congress in the US in some 40 years.  Reading any of the stats on how many Catholics actually believe what the Church teaches about the Eucharist can be rather depressing, and demonstrates the need to reinvigorate the faith of Catholics across the US in our Eucharistic Lord.

Famous mosaic of the Miracle of Loaves from the Holy Land

    Our Gospel passage today is a perfect one to draw us in to the Eucharist, as it was one of the multiplication of loaves miracles of our Lord.  How could we not think of the Eucharist when we hear how our Savior gave thanks, broke the bread, and gave it to His disciples, so that they could give it to the people?  That action still continues today, as we give Christ what we have, both our interior offerings of what has happened since the last time we came to Mass, but also bread and wine, and He, through the ministry of His priest, gives thanks, breaks, and returns that gift to the people so that they do not die of spiritual hunger.  No longer is it simply bread, but it is the Bread of Heaven, the Bread of Angels, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord.  In Latin we ask God in the Our Father, “Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie”; “Give us this day our daily bread.”  But in the Greek, the phrase is not Panem…quotidianum, daily bread, but 𝜏𝜊𝜈 𝛼𝜌𝜏𝜊𝜈…𝜏𝜊𝜈 𝜀𝜋𝜄𝜊𝜐𝜎𝜄𝜊𝜈, super-substantial bread.  He gives us this “super-substantial bread” in the Eucharist, which not only feeds our body, but especially feeds our soul.
    This Panis Angelicus, this Angelic Bread, forgives us our venial sins, and unites us to the Lord.  That’s why we also refer to it as Holy Communion, Holy Union with Christ.  And if we are united to Christ the Light, then those small bits of darkness that we invited into our lives through venial sins are eliminated by the light.  But, if we have invited into our lives major areas of darkness, mortal sins, then we first need to go to confession, so that we are not joining our grave infidelity and evil to the fidelity and holiness of Christ.  That is why any person, from the President of the United States, to an individual in Timbuktu, should not present him or herself for Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin, nor should that person be offered Holy Communion if they publicly reject communion with Christ and His Church.  Still, if we only have venial sins, we should approach this Salutaris Hostia, this Saving Host or Victim, so that we can be more closely united to Christ.
    The Eucharist also gives us strength to live as disciples.  The people in the Gospel were fatigued because they had been listening to our Lord preach for three days (and you thought my homilies were long!).  They have received some strength from the Word of God, delivered by the Incarnate Word of God, but they are in need of more if they are not to faint on the way back home.  The Eucharist gives us this strength.  It is not enough that we be strengthened by the hearing and reading of the Word of God (though that is important).  God wants more for us.  He knows that living according to His Word can be difficult and taxing, because living according to His Word means denying our fallen human nature and taking up our daily crosses to follow Him.  And so He feeds us with Himself so that we can live the life to which God calls us.  That is also why the pelican is an ancient symbol for Christ: it was thought that the pelican, when there was not enough food, would pierce its breast and feed its young with its own blood.  So Christ does for us: He allows Himself to be pierced for our offenses, and then feeds us with His own Body and Blood in the Eucharist.  
    In many parts of the world in the past, and in some parts of the world today, people only receive Holy Communion once per year, not feeling worthy enough to receive.  St. John Vianney and Pope St. Pius X rightly advocated for frequent Communion (as long as one is not in a state of mortal sin) because he knew that we are more likely to be conquered by the devil when we are weak and malnourished, but we are more likely to be victorious in Christ when He dwells within us.  Frequent Communions has been a great gift to the Church over the past centuries, to strengthen us to live our life as disciples.
    Lastly, our Lord sent the people away after they had eaten.  Even in this small pericope, we see the heart of the Mass: the people hear the Word of God, they eat the bread that the Lord provides miraculously, and then they are sent.  So in our Mass, we have the proclamation of the Word of God in the Mass of the Catechumens, the consecration of the Eucharist and the miracle of transubstantiation in the Mass of the Faithful, and then the priest says, “Ite, Missa Est”, “Go, She [the Church] has been sent.”  The reception of the Eucharist is meant to change us, to make us more like Christ, in our life that we live outside these walls.  It is supposed to make us more kind, more forgiving, more loving, just as Christ is kind, forgiving, and loving towards us.  The Eucharist is meant to help us sacrifice our own wills for the good of our spouse and/or family, just as Christ sacrificed His life for His Spouse, the Church.  The Eucharist is not something that we receive as a prize for coming to Mass.  It is food that sustains us to go out and proclaim the good news of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God by word and deed.  
    We need a revival of belief in and reverence for the Eucharist.  We need to better understand the great gift that the Eucharist is for us.  And we need to better utilize the graces that we can receive through worthy reception of the Body and Blood of Christ, so that the City of Man can better resemble the City of God, to use an expression of St. Augustine.  Let’s commit ourselves today to valuing this most precious gift Christ left for His Church, and commit ourselves to allowing the graces of the Eucharist to flow through us and empower us to bring Christ to those we meet, so that others may experience through us our Triune God: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.