(Howdy, Church fans! Still working on the video thing due to Facebook’s new algorithm that makes it impossible to download videos. In the meantime, go to our parish FB page by clicking here and scrolling to the homily. Sorry for the extra work. Blame Zuckerburg.)
It’s providential that Corpus Christi falls on Father’s Day this year. So much of this feast bespeaks of God the Father’s love for us in providing for our physical and spiritual need in abundance.
I’ve said this before on a few occasions, and it true. There are two ways of approaching life, the universe and everything. (Extra points for those of you who can cite that reference.) One can do so with a spirituality of scarcity or with a spirituality of abundance. Which you decide will make all the difference in your life. It is good to reflect on today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord (“Corpus Christi”) in this context.
First we have to acknowledge a couple of things. If one approaches life with a spirituality of scarcity, they will never have enough. No amount of wealth, fame, pleasure or power will satisfy. However, if one chooses to approach life from a spirituality of abundance, he or she will want for nothing. Our God is the God of abundance. This is true in the material and the spiritual.
The reality and the power of the Eucharist that we celebrate today is a good example of this. In our earlier catechesis on the Eucharist, you may recall that the Eucharist is at once a true sacrifice and a shared meal. Today, in the interest of time, I’m just going to concentrate on the sacrifice part.
In the Biblical pattern of sacrifice, you needed four things. You needed
a priest,
an altar,
an offering and
a reason.
Let’s look at each one of these.
The priest is the one who offers the sacrifice on your behalf. He is the mediator. As we look to the Paschal Mystery, we see that Christ himself is the Great High Priest, who, starting with his one perfect sacrifice on the altar of the Cross, continues to offer himself, and us, to the Father in a living and eternal sacrifice. The Eucharist is the means he gave us for our true and substantial participation in passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, now offered in an unbloody way on the altar in the church. This is how the reality of the Paschal Mystery as a real for us today as it was for the first disciples.
As I mentioned, Christ himself is the also offering, but we too bring our own offerings. Like Melchizedek of old, we bring bread and wine, but we also bring our gifts of time, talent and treasure, indeed, our very selves. Like the sacrifices of old, what is offered is immolated and transformed. The bread and wine become the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ.
Our time, talent, and treasure become the practical means for the apostolate to continue in the parish, and we ourselves are transformed more and more by grace into the image and likeness of our Creator and Redeemer.
It’s important to remember that we ourselves cannot work this miracle of transubstantiation and transformation. It is Christ who works the miracle. Our job is simply to bring the fish. Just like the apostles in today’s gospel, Christ cannot work the miracle if we don’t offer what we have, trusting that he knows what he’s doing.
Finally, one needs a reason. In biblical times the four main reasons for sacrifice were to establish covenants, to remember, to forgive sins and to give thanks. A quick review of the words of institution in the Eucharistic Prayer reveals what the Church has always held –that all previous sacrifices were fulfilled and brought to perfection in the one perfect sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
Finally, a word about abundance. The gospel passage for today is no mistake. It speaks of the abundance of God in providing for the needs of his people. How do we know this? There are leftovers—lots and lots of leftovers. So to with the grace given to us in the Eucharist. Here at the Lord’s Supper, we receive more than we need. Why? So that we may share this reality with others.