Homily for June 3, 2018 (Corpus Christi Sunday)

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On Wednesday June 6^th, I will celebrate my ninth anniversary as a priest. And as I remember Ordination day and the day after when I celebrated my Mass of Thanksgiving, there is one phrase that echoes through my memories: I will see you in the Eucharist.

Normally at the celebration of Mass, I preach. However when a new priest celebrates his first Mass, the new priest usually invites another priest to preach.  The homily at the first Mass of a newly ordained priest is not usually preached to the congregation; it is preached directly to the new priest.  It is a conversation between brothers and the congregation is allowed to overhear the conversation. I invited Father Jim Erving of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to preach at my first Mass.  I met Father Jim a few months before I entered seminary.  He was only a few years older than me, but I knew when I met him that I would invite him one day to preach to me at my Mass of Thanksgiving.  Throughout my time in seminary, whenever I would speak with Father Jim, he would always remind me, “I will see you in the Eucharist.”  It was a promise of his prayers, but more than that it was the recognition that when we celebrate the Eucharist, we are mystically united with all of the baptized.  When we come to adore the Savior in the Blessed Sacrament, we are united with all of those who keep watch before his holy presence. There is no distance between us when we are gathered around the Altar of the Lord and the tabernacle in the Church.  We will see each other in the Eucharist, even though many miles separate us.

We celebrate today the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. It is the mystery of Holy Thursday celebrated in the radiant glory of Easter. We celebrate the gift of the priesthood of Christ and the gift of the Eucharist. Christ Jesus, who is the eternal High Priest, shared his priesthood with his apostles so that they would be an extension of his priesthood.  From generation to generation the priesthood of Christ has been handed on so that the words that Christ spoke on Holy Thursday could be powerfully spoken in every place and time. The Lord Jesus consecrated bread and wine, and he consecrated his apostles. Jesus consecrated all who share in the ministry of the apostles, so that they would consecrate bread and wine. The words that he spoke, they would speak. The bread that he broke, they would break. The body and blood that he gave, they would give. When we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, we join in the eternity of heaven. All time passes away and we are present in the upper room in Jerusalem. We are present with the Lord and with all of those of every time and place who have looked to him in hope.  In the celebration of the Eucharist and before the tabernacle of the Lord we are united with our Great High Priest who lives forever to make intercession for us.  We will see each other in the Eucharist, though hours and days and generations are between us.

I will see you in the Eucharist.  I thought of those words on an October evening in 2013 when I received the news that Father Jim had a brain tumor. I sent him a simple message. I will see you in the Eucharist.  When he called me on Christmas Eve that year, we spoke some about his illness. We spoke more about faith, about our unity in the Eucharist, and about the privilege of being priests.  I asked for his blessing.  I gave him mine.  And we promised to see each other in the Eucharist.

I will see you in the Eucharist. I thought of those words often only a few months later when Father Jim was called to the house of the Father. It was very early in the morning on the 18^th of March in 2014. And my first thoughts were, I will pray for him today at the Eucharist.

Distance and time are not the only things that fall away when we celebrate the Eucharist and adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.  When we celebrate the Eucharist and when we kneel before the tabernacle, we are in the presence of the one who has conquered death forever.  The power of the Eucharist is stronger than death.  When the Eucharist is celebrated the demons cry out in terror and death falls silent before the Word of eternal life. We see each other in the Eucharist, because Christ has conquered sin and death.

This is the gift of the Lord Jesus that we celebrate on this most holy day.  The Lord Jesus gives us himself in the Eucharist.  He gives us a share in his sacrifice so that we can receive his sacrament of unity.  He invites us to the banquet where distance and time and even death pass away.  The Lord Jesus invites us to see him, and each other, in the Eucharist.  Amen.  

Homily for May 27, 2018 (Holy Trinity Sunday)

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I get asked a lot of questions, but not the kind that you would think. Rarely does anyone ask me what happened at the Council of Ephesus in 431 or what happened at the Finance council meeting a few weeks ago. Most of the questions are pretty simple. “Does it bother you to have to wear the same thing every day? Are you ever allowed to wear regular clothes?” My favorite of these types of questions begins, “Since you only work on weekends, what do you do during the rest of the week?” But sometimes the questions are a little more pointed. Sometimes they are a little more personal. “Are you ever lonely? Do you ever feel isolated?” Those are more than questions of history or clothing. Those are questions you can’t run from too easily. Those are questions that we all have an answer to. And those are questions that we all have to answer.

Adam was alone in the Garden, but then the Lord gave him some animals to name. But Adam still felt like he was alone in the Garden, and the Lord created Eve. And at last Adam wasn’t alone.

But when Eve was alone in the Garden, the serpent came to tempt her. When King David was alone in the palace and he gazed on the rooftop of his neighbor, he embraced temptation and sin. When the Lord Jesus was alone in the desert and later in the garden, the devil came to tempt him. Temptation often finds us in isolation and loneliness.

We weren’t created for isolation and loneliness. We certainly experience them. We certainly suffer from them. Sometimes the people who were supposed to be there with us are the ones who place us in isolation and loneliness. The ones who were supposed to gather us are the ones who separate us. We experience it. We suffer from it. We fight against it. We weren’t created for isolation and loneliness. We were created for something else. We were created for something better.

God was not alone when we were created. We are not the result of the Lord God looking for company. We were not created as the answer to the question if God was lonely and isolated. From all eternity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have lived in perfect harmony, perfect blessedness, and perfect communion. Nothing is needed. Nothing is lacking. There is no loneliness. There is no isolation. Only love. And from this love, and for this love, we were created. Not needed, but wanted. Not needed, but loved. Not needed, but desired.

God created us for communion, with him, and with creation, and with each other. The tragedy of sin, the echo of the No of Adam and Eve, fractures that communion. It damages those relationships. It leaves us, at times, in isolation and loneliness. But the triumph of grace, the echo of the Yes of Mary, the ever present reality of the Yes of the Lord Jesus, the continual Yes of the Church to her Lord, my Yes and yours, draws us, bit by bit and day by day, and moment by moment, into the communion for which we were created. The Lord Jesus, who conquered sin and death by the blood of his cross, desires to conquer our loneliness and our isolation.

As he draws us now into the mystery of the Eucharist, into that Holy Communion where the choirs of Angels and the Citizens of Heaven above sing in exultation, we admit our need. We admit our loneliness and our isolation. We cast the brokenness of our hearts into the fires of his Sacred Heart. And he will say to you and he will say to me, as he said to Peter, and Andrew, and Matthew and John, “Come, Follow Me” and the Lord Jesus will lead us into that perfect Communion where he lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.