homily notes: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I think it's good to have friends who disagree with you, whether that's about politics, sports, music, or movies. Having someone who challenges your beliefs can be a good thing - it makes you really look at what you hold to be true and really know why you believe what you believe.

That applies to religion too. It's easy to say, "I'm Catholic," when no one questions you about it, but when you're challenged, you have to understand and make those beliefs your own.

Once, I was talking with a protestant friend about the Eucharist and he was trying to understand what I believe as a Catholic. He said something that really struck me. He said that, either the Eucharist is what we say it is - it really is Jesus present under the form of bread and wine - or we are all committing idolatry, worshipping what, in the end, is just food and drink.

I appreciated that challenge, because that is what we all have to face.

In John 6, when Jesus tells the crowd that He is the bread of life - that whoever eats this bread will live forever, and this bread is his flesh that he will give for the life of the world - they can't believe it. How can this man - just an ordinary man - say this?

Well, we know and confess that Jesus is more than just an ordinary man, so when he says these words, we know that he is speaking the truth - he is speaking a about a mystery that goes beyond what his listeners, then and now, could understand.

It is a mystery and that is something we have to deal with - even as Catholics who are hear at Mass and come every week. Other Christians don't necessarily believe what we do. They see the celebration of communion as a symbol, something that shows their unity as a body of disciples.

But our belief is distinct. Based on the words of Christ in the Scriptures and the consistent teaching of the Church, all the way back to the time of the apostles, we believe that Jesus is here. He is present, though all we can see is bread and wine. When he says, "I am the bread of life," when he says, "This is my body ... this is the cup of my blood," we believe it.

That's easy to say, but if the Eucharist is real, it has to make all the difference in the world to us.

If this is real, our lives have to be different.

If this is real, we have to prepare ourselves for Mass - more than just brushing our teeth and taking a shower. We have to be in a state of grace, celebrating the sacrament of confession regularly. Going to Jesus to be forgiven of our sins so that we can worthily - as worthily as we can, at least - receive him in the Eucharist. We have to be living a life in conformity to the commands Jesus has given us - about life, about marriage, about how we treat ourselves and the people around us.

If this is real, it explains why we don't share in the communion of other Christians who don't believe in it. I'm not saying that's an easy or joyful thing - it's a tragedy and a scandal to the world that the disciples of Christ are not joined as one, but we cannot claim with our actions what we do not believe. If Jesus is present in the Eucharist, that's where our true unity comes from.

If this is real, it explains why we, at least traditionally, dress up a little but for mass. It explains why we genuflect at that brass box before we take our seats. It explains why this building, unlike every other building in this city, has that sanctuary lamp that tells us Someone is here, even when we are not.

If this is real, our participation at Mass isn't just something to do all together. It's worship, real worship, of the Lord who is all good and all loving.

If the Eucharist is real, our lives have to change. We don't just have a God who made us and died for us but also a God who gives Himself to us in the most intimate way possible. God isn't just some spiritual concept off somewhere far away. He has become flesh, and raised up our humanity to the divine. And he's taken the "stuff" of bread and wine and made them into more than we could ever imagine.

If this is real, we have to cultivate that relationship, that union, within our hearts. This can't be the only time during our week that we pray, that we intentionally put ourselves in God's presence.

Brothers and sisters, if this is real, then this is all that really matters.

Either this is just bread, or we are in the presence of the God of the universe.

He is here - for us. What are we going to do for Him?