Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B - 7/28/2024)

Good afternoon. In July of 2019, I presided at my first funeral vigil and served at my first funeral Mass. It was an emotionally hard experience for me - not because they were my firsts as a newly ordained deacon nor was it because the Mass was mostly in Vietnamese - but because four months prior, the deceased was present at my Ordination Mass, sitting in the pews with the rest of our family on one of the most joyous days of my life. You see, the funeral was for our cousin. He was only 24 years old when he died that summer. With today being World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, one of the most tender moments from his Vigil service was seeing my wife kneeling beside his maternal grandmother. She was heartbroken and my wife was there to comfort her. (To all grandparents, always remember that God loves you and that you are valued and still have so much to offer your families, especially praying for your family.)

Now, in the days, weeks, and months that followed his funeral, I had time to reflect on the experience. I realized that I got through it because of my faith, my wife, and five years of Diaconal Formation, all of which helped to prepare me spiritually, emotionally, and mentally to serve my family and accompany them in a time of loss and grief. I found solace in my belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Eucharist - his Body broken and given for us (Lk. 22:19) and his Blood poured out, “shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt. 26:28). Knowing this brought me great comfort; however, I could not quite articulate what I was feeling until the Vigil Mass last Saturday, which happened to be on the 5th anniversary of his death.

In his homily last weekend, Fr. Michael briefly reflected on this verse from today’s Gospel: “So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat” (John 6:13). He said that the people had “the best leftover” for their journey home. When I heard him say that, I was like “A-ha!” For us Catholics, our “food for the journey” home is the Eucharist in viaticum, “the sacrament of passing over from death to life, from this world to the Father” (CCC 1524). Along with Penance and Anointing of the Sick, the Eucharist is “‘the [sacrament that prepares] for our heavenly homeland’ or the [sacrament that completes] the earthly pilgrimage” (CCC 1525). And while our cousin did not receive the Eucharist in viaticum, because he died suddenly and unexpectedly, I believe that God provided the grace he needed in his last Communion for his journey home.

We know and believe with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind (Mt. 22:37) that God keeps His promise to us in the Eucharist. Jesus “came so that [we] might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). In the Eucharist, “we shall eat and there shall be some left over” (2 Kings 4:44), because the “grace of God and the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow” for us (Rom. 5:15). Moreover, at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus commissioned the Eleven to “[go], therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the [Holy] Spirit. . .”, he also made this promise to us: “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt. 28:19-20). In the Eucharist, we are united with Christ - “one body and one spirit. . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all. . .” (Eph. 4:1-6).

Jesus is the “good shepherd [who] lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He is the Crucified One who “with that last ounce of breath. . . [offered] on the Cross his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in loving obedience to the Father. . . the Father was glorified. . . and the world was saved” (Fr. Mike Schmitz, NEC). We are saved. Through the Sacraments of the Church, Christ gives us his Body and Blood in the Eucharist because he loves us and wants us to remain in him and him in us, and he will raise us up on the last day (John 6:54-58). The Eucharist is the “gift that [satisfies] hunger for all and forever” (Ratzinger, 265). We ask God for this gift every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer: “. . .give us this day our daily bread.”

God answers our prayers and gives us the Bread of Life, which we receive at Communion. In the Mass, the Word becomes flesh (John 1:14) and satisfies our deepest hunger. We are fed by the word of God in the Liturgy of the Word and, in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we are nourished by the Incarnate Word of God - his Body, which is “true food,” and his Blood, which is “true drink” (John 6:55). Over the years, I have heard many Catholics who say that they stop going to Mass because they do not get anything out of the Mass. I sincerely believe that they are missing out on something vital to their souls by not coming to Mass - the Eucharist. We all know someone who has stopped coming to Mass. Let us never stop inviting them back to the table of the Lord’s Supper and help them to remember what the Eucharist means to them.

That is a good question for all of us to reflect on. What does the Eucharist mean to us? Actor Jonathan Roumie portrays Jesus in “The Chosen” series. I want to share with you what he had to say about the Eucharist at the National Eucharistic Congress, in Indianapolis, last week. He said, “[as] a Catholic, I understand the weight, I understand the reality of what it is that we believe, and what that host represents, and what that bread and that wine - once the Holy Spirit comes down and changes them - what that actually means to us and who that actually is now that we are about to receive. . .” And this is what the Eucharist means to him: “The Eucharist for me is healing. The Eucharist for me is peace. The Eucharist for me is my grounding. The Eucharist for me is his heart within me” (Jonthan Roumie, National Eucharistic Congress).

The Eucharist is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet and a glimpse of eternal life in the heavenly kingdom (CCC 1326). The Eucharist is Christ himself who is the “source and summit” of our Christian life (1324). Jesus loves us unconditionally and desires for us to be in relationship with him. For us Catholics, that intimate relationship with Jesus finds its source in the Eucharist, which we receive at Mass and adore in all the tabernacles in the world. We know this because, in a few minutes from now, Father will say the prayer of consecration as he elevates the Body of Christ and then the Blood of Christ, and end the prayer with these words of Jesus: “do this in memory of me” (Lk. 22:19). Jesus wants us to remember him so he gives himself to us in the Eucharist. He wants us to remember that he died on the Cross for us so that we are no longer slaves to our sinful desires. Our Lord does this not for his sake but for our sake. Therefore, everything we say and do ought to be said and done “in a way that honors Christ at the center and puts everything else in that perspective” (J. Liedl, July 20, 2024), because our life should be “bound up with the Eucharist and [is] oriented toward it” (CCC 1324).

I want to conclude with a request and a plea that I think will help us keep the Eucharist at the center and put everything else in that perspective. Here is my request: pray for our priests. Without priests, there is no Eucharist. Without the Eucharist, there is no Mass and no Church. Here is my plea: after Mass, go to the table in the narthex and sign up to participate in the Vocations Chalice Program. The Vocation Chalice is a Catholic tradition that encourages families and individuals to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. The program uses a consecrated chalice as a reminder of the Church’s intention to promote vocations, considered gifts from God, and calls from the Holy Spirit. You and your family have the blessed opportunity to bring the Vocation Chalice into your home to pray for priests and for vocations to the priesthood, the diaconate, and religious life. And so, my sisters and brothers in Christ, love your grandparents, pray for our priests, and sign up for the Vocations Chalice Program.