Saturday, August 1, 2015

8/2/2015 - 18th Sunday of Ordinary time – John 6:24-35 – Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24

     The crowd ate the food that Jesus multiplied for them from the several loaves of bread and the pair of fish that a small boy had with him.   Eating until it was full, the crowd saw Jesus as the true prophet of God in their midst for having performed this amazing miracle.  Yet, the crowd still had doubts and questions.  That seems to be a common theme in the Gospels, doesn’t it? The people see a sign, they begin to believe and to grow in their faith, and then doubts and misgivings return.  For five weeks in a row, we’re going to be hearing readings from the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel.  We started hearing readings from this chapter at mass last Sunday.   The crowds wonder as they follow Jesus around the towns and villages of the countryside: Who is this man Jesus and what is he all about?  Is he going to provide for their earthly needs, symbolized by the lunch of bread and fish with which he fed them?  Or is there more beneath the surface.  Is he going to fulfill some other needs that they have.
      This 6th chapter in the Gospel of John is called the bread of life discourse.  Christ tells us today: “I am the Bread of Life.  Whoever comes to me will never hunger.  Whoever believes in me will never thirst.”  We Catholics gather for the Eucharist as a community of faith on the Lord’s day, receiving the bread of life that sustains us on our journey of faith each day.  In the Gospel today, we hear the crowd clamoring for more signs in their desire to see and believe.  We hunger and thirst as modern disciples of Christ just as the crowd did in the Gospel.   In response to our longing, the Eucharist is an important sign that we receive from Christ – the sign of his true presence with us.
       Pope Francis has a way with words that has touched many lives.   Many of us Catholic priests, as well as many Protestant ministers, use quotes from Pope Francis in our sermons and homilies because they so capture the attention of the people.  Pope Francis has spoken very bluntly and directly about the importance that Eucharist should have in our lives as Catholics.  The Pope asserts that Christ’s gift of himself in the Eucharist is not only a model for Christian life, but it acts to transform us interiorly.  He explains that as we participate in mass and are nourished by the Body of Christ, Jesus and the Holy Spirit act within us, shaping our hearts and communicating interior attitudes to us that are to translate into behaviors that reflect the values of the Gospel.  Thanks to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, our very lives become “broken bread” for our brothers and sisters.
       Just how are we to live out to the Eucharist – to be leaven in the world? At the forefront of a lot of people’s minds these days are the many difficult issues that we’ve been dealing with as a society in recent weeks.  This summer, we’ve been faced with changes in the definition of marriage, with the affects of a severe drought and water shortage in California and throughout the West, with mass shootings and racial tensions, with the issue of changing the Mississippi state flag.  It is interesting how I’ve encountered some people here in Tupelo who have voiced their disappointment in not having these issues brought up in their home church, even though this seems to be all people are talking about. But hopefully here at St James you've heard me and other Catholic church leaders bring up these issues and address them from a perspective of faith.  One message you have heard from us is that as Christians, we are called to treat others in the discussion of these issues with dignity and respect even when we do not agree.  And in living out the spirit of the Eucharist in the world, probably one of the most difficult situations we are faced with is trying to love someone in the sense of Christian fraternal love when the other person does not return that same sense of love and respect. If we know that the other person does not wish us well, it is easy to carry ill will in our hearts.  One of the hardness things we are called to do in our lives is to love someone who doesn’t love us, to forgive someone when they don’t think they have done us wrong.  In the spirit of the Eucharist that Christ invites us to receive in our lives, Pope Francis asserts that we are to oppose anger and ill will with good will and pardon, with sharing and welcome.  The spirit of the Eucharist is a spirit of charity, a spirit of giving hope to the disheartened and giving a welcome to the excluded. 
       As I thought about the message that we hear from the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel, I thought about the way I am living out the Eucharist in my life as a priest.  And I think all of us, no matter who we are and where we are on our journey of faith, can look into our hearts and see the ways the Eucharist is calling us to transformation and renew on our road of discipleship.  But we called to do more than ponder and reflect upon it – how is the Eucharist really transforming and converting us? 

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