20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday’s Gospel is the fourth consecutive Sunday that the Gospel is taken from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel.   The Bread of Life Discourse from the 6 ^th chapter of John’s Gospel reaches a crescendo with startling hopes and startling claims.  “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”   The second claim is:    “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”

You will recall the 6 ^th chapter of John’s Gospel began with Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five barley loaves and two fish.  After the miracle of the 5,000, everyone wanted to follow Jesus.  “Free Food,” they declared, anticipating that Jesus was another Moses who was going to shower down manna and quail on his followers.  Everyone was touched with the offer of free food – a graciously abundant gift and a welcome relief to their hunger.  Even now, the best way to get a good crowd at a parish event is to offer food – “Free Food.”

But today’s Gospel is not about Jesus as a worldly cafeteria manager; Jesus is drawing a radical line in the sand.  We are followers of Jesus not because we attend potluck and social gatherings that we call Christ-centered.  Rather, we are the followers of Jesus when we share in the Body and the Blood of the Lord.  “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”  There is no diet on earth healthier than this.

Our discipleship of the Lord Jesus is not just about getting free food; it is about us as a Eucharistic community witnessing to the love of Jesus.  It is about our union with Jesus as the way to eternal life.

To share in the Body and Blood of the Lord expresses our willingness to be the followers of the crucified Christ as well as the Risen Christ.  We need to ask ourselves the questions:  Are we willing to die with Jesus?  Are we willing to share in the same suffering that the Lord Himself experiences?  This is what it takes to be a follower of Jesus.
The question for our gospel reflection today is how far are we willing to go with Jesus?  Do we want eternal bread or do we want everyday bread?  The desire to grab a free meal can disable us from hearing Jesus’ invitation to the eternal.  In this Eucharistic discourse, Jesus is drawing lines, dividing his followers between those who are looking for a handout and those who will go the distance.  Quite literally, Jesus is telling us:  “If you are not willing to share in my death and drink from my suffering, then you should turn back now.”
When you consume Christ, he becomes part and parcel of who you are.  He energizes you to do His work of ministry.  The bread of our Lord is empowering.  It not only can fill the heart, but it can also lead the recipient to overflow into actions of love.  As was said of Francis of Assisi, “It is in giving that we receive.”  We are called to bring the love of Christ to the broken places of our Church and of our world.

The broken place in the Church that is on the mind of many of us is the horrific scandal of clergy sexual abuse.  This criminal violation of the sacred trust given to priests by Catholic families is unthinkable and a betrayal of our Gospel values.

It has been a weird week to be a faithful Catholic and to be a Catholic priest.  It seems that the rock upon which the Church was built is sinking further and further into the mud.
We need to get to the bottom of this dark hour in the Church’s life where the trust of so many faithful Catholics has been rocked by the sexual abuse from its leaders.  If there are horrific secrets that have not as yet been unearthed, we as a Church need to be transparent to one and all.

We as a Church need to honestly ask ourselves how we are to witness to the love, the healing, compassion of Christ in the midst of the horrific tragedy of clergy sexual abuse.  We as Catholic priests, Catholic Bishops and as a Catholic Church need to very transparent; acknowledge the criminal abuse of God’s precious children; and seek to do whatever is necessary to restore trust in the priests and bishops of our Church.
The Church I love.  The Church I was raised in. The Church in which I have served as a priest for 50 hears is the Church I now am heartbroken and remarkably let down by priests and bishops.
 
But this Church is still guided by the Holy Spirit.   Jesus is still Lord.  I know many good and faithful priests, good and faithful bishops and many good and faithful Catholics in this parish.  We need to come together as a body of believers.  Now is not the time to hide.  We need to be honest, to be seen, to be forthright and come before the light of Christ.
 
The Church at Eucharist is a community aware of its sinfulness and repentant of its sins.  It is a community convinced of the power of God’s grace, a community ready to serve others, i.e., to carry out “the breaking of the bread” beyond the church, and a community, here and now, open to the presence of the Lord and the Spirit.  This is the community we become when we share Jesus’ real food and real drink together; constituted as such by the Eucharist, it becomes both the privilege and responsibility of all who eat the Bread of Life together to become bread for the life and salvation of the world.

At Eucharist, we are interconnected with Jesus, and we are interconnected with God’s people.  In Eucharist, we are committing ourselves to being connected with the Church.  The Eucharist is a Sacrament of the Church.

Yes, there is much bleeding in the Church today.  We come before the Lord seeking for the grace to trust again in each other.   We are still missioned and it is still both a  privilege and a responsibility of all who eat the Bread of Life together to become bread for the life of the world.