What a difference: Homily for Sunday, July 28, 2024

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What a difference

What a difference a week makes. Last weekend at this time, there were over 50,000 people adoring the Lord in the Eucharist and processing through the streets of the city of Indianapolis. Last night, a very traditional and powerful piece of artwork, Da Vinci’s Last Supper, was reenacted at the Olympics. But everyone was in drag.

Now, when I was in college campus ministry, I was very, very impressed at the college I was at. We had a group of Muslim students who were really deeply prayerful and faithful. And I thought of them as I’ve been thinking today about the opening ceremony last night. It certainly would not be the case that such an action of mockery would take place in Islam.

They wouldn’t have had the prophet Muhammad, for example, dressed in drag. It’s hard to imagine that they would do anything that would mock Judaism. But because I think we Catholics got a little complacent when it came to the Eucharist, we became too ready to take it for granted, to not recognize the extraordinary presence of Jesus in the sacrament. We are where we are.

I’m not so much angry as I am sad. How is it we get to the point where the most sacred aspect of any religion seems fair game for mockery? The readings today remind us of the power of God when it comes to giving us what we need, to feeding us in ways where we are hungry.

The first reading serves as a foreshadowing of the second. Elisha, the prophet, tells them to give barley loaves to the crowd. There is concern. There’s not enough. But Elisha, in confidence, tells them to give it out anyway, and there’s more than enough. The same pattern we see in the gospel.

The crowds come out because they see what Jesus has been doing in an extraordinary way. He’s been healing the sick. And as they think of their own brokenness, they want to share of this miraculous healing that Jesus has offered. And so they follow him. There’s a lot of them. A lot of them. And it doesn’t appear there’d be anywhere near enough food. It certainly is not possible that they could buy enough food for everyone. And the little that they can find seems, quite frankly, to be just a drop in the bucket and not terribly helpful.

But Jesus knows what he’s going to do. It’s what he does for us every time we come to mass. He pours himself out for us and offers to feed our spiritual hunger. Now, I used to think– and it was kind of interesting. I entertained it for a while– that the miracle here could just as easily be people sharing with each other, that there was something miraculous. But that misses the point.

The point isn’t that Jesus brought out the best in the people there, but he made a statement about what faith in him and faith in God meant for the fulfillment they needed in their lives and the salvation for which they longed. And he recognizes that the sign of the multiplication of the loaves, this miraculous moment where Jesus multiplies loaves, is a sign of the coming Messiah, which the people thought would be a king, like David.

We are now entering into the second year of the National Eucharistic Revival. You may not be aware that this was a three-year initiative to help us to understand better, to appreciate more, the place of the Eucharist in our Christian life, in our Catholic life. The Second Vatican Council says that the Eucharist is the source and the summit of our life. It is, in fact, that thing, the Eucharist of Jesus, the body and blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, is the source of our holiness. And it’s the place where we are longing to be, united with Jesus fully in the next life.

But in many ways, what we’ve done, as spectacular as it is, tens of thousands of people in Indianapolis, tens of thousands of people all across the country, with four procession routes, all involved in one way or another, whether it be curiosity or devotion, in this great, great Eucharistic moment. Pope Francis has recognized the importance of this moment, too. He called an international Eucharistic Congress, which was held in Ecuador before the one in Indianapolis.

The second year, though, picks up the theme that St. Paul talks about in the second reading. In some ways, adoring Jesus, having our faith renewed in the blessed sacrament, is only the beginning. If we really place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, if we really acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, then we need to live in a way that is worthy of the calling we have received.

In other words, the more we can avail ourselves of recognizing that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, in theory, then, it should be easier for us to see the ways in which Jesus is present in the poor, that Jesus is present in those who are broken, that Jesus is present in those who have needs, in those who suffer, those who undergo violence, like the tremendously unnecessary violence in Gaza.

And so I think what might be helpful is first to begin to ask ourselves, what is our attitude to the Eucharist? When we come to Mass, what sign of reverence do we make, since Jesus is present in this church, in the tabernacle, body and blood, soul and divinity? Traditionally, it’s been a genuflection, but it also can be a profound bow.

How do we prepare ourselves at the beginning of Mass, in silence, to really open our hearts and souls so that the Lord Jesus will find a bigger place, a more welcoming place to dwell, that we will recognize how we are loved beyond all of our imagining?

We ask the Lord today to recognize that even though we may think what we have is little, like the boy who simply had five barley loaves and two fish, we may think that that’s us, too. What we have is little. What difference can we make, really? We know our faults. We know our sins. How is it that we can be vehicles of Jesus? But that misses the point, too. It’s not really about our working harder at our faith, but in our surrendering more to the Lord Jesus Christ, who makes us into his body.

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