Homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B - 8/25/2024)

The Robert Frost poem, titled “The Road Not Taken,” starts with these words: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. . .” My sisters and brothers in Christ, after four (4) Sundays, we have come to the conclusion of Jesus’ discourse on the Bread of Life and, now, we too find ourselves at the fork in the road. We have the opportunity to choose our path forward, steadfast and firm in our faith and belief in the Real Presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. However, for us to move forward, it is sometimes necessary for us to look back and reflect in the same way that the tribes of Israel had to do when Joshua gathered them together at Shechem.

As we heard in the first reading, after Joshua had summoned their elders, their leaders, their judges, and their officers, and they stood in ranks before God, the Lord God had this command for all the tribes of Israel: “. . .FEAR the LORD and SERVE him completely and sincerely. Cast out the gods your ancestors served. . . and SERVE the LORD. . . CHOOSE today whom you will serve. . .” How did the tribes of Israel choose their path forward? By looking to their past, they realized as a people that “it was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. He performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed.” When they realized what God had done for them and continued to do for them, it was easy for them to come to their decision: “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD for the service of other gods. . . Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

Let us now take a few moments to look back and reflect on Jesus’ discourse of the Bread of Life, which we heard proclaimed from the Gospel of John over the course of the past four (4) Sundays, and realize what Jesus continues to do for us in the Eucharist. Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us, saying: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. . . I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. . . I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. . . Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. . . This is the bread that came down from heaven. . . whoever eats this bread will live forever.” After reading these powerful, loving words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, all I can say is, “Far be it from [me] to forsake the LORD. . . As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.,” because we are steadfast and firm in our faith and belief in our Lord Jesus Christ really, truly, and substantially present in the Eucharist.

In a few moments from now, Fr. Hai (in persona christi, ipse christus, Christ himself) (CCC 1548) will “make God of a piece of bread!” He will then raise the Host and the chalice with the Precious Blood and say: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb.” How does this happen to us, that the Lord should come to us? (Luke 1:43) Do we realize how blessed beyond measure we are to be invited to the heavenly banquet of the Lord of lords, King of kings, the High Priest of God at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on that altar in front of us, here at Saint Albert the Great Catholic Church? In that sacred moment, our Lord Jesus Christ looks at us and we gaze back at him. Jesus asks us the same question that he asked the disciples in today’s Gospel: “Does this shock you?” and says to us: “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” And so, we ask ourselves, “Do we believe? Do we believe the prayers that we pray at Mass? Do we believe the words that we profess in the Creed in at Mass? Does our ‘Amen’ in response to “The Body of Christ” and the “The Blood of Christ” express the steadfast faith and belief in our hearts that our Lord Jesus Christ is really, truly, and substantially present in the Eucharist? We do, and we respond, saying: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the words and my soul shall be healed.”

Last Saturday, I had the blessed opportunity to give a talk on “Prayer” at the Men’s Retreat. Paragraph 2567 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that“[man] may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as PRAYER.” Well, there is no greater prayer that we can offer to God than the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Pope Francis once said that “In prayer. . . we discover how much we are loved by God, which gives us hope and courage to live each day. . . as occasions to encounter God” (Angelus, January 9, 2022). Not only do we encounter God at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass but we are united with Christ intimately when we receive him into our body at Holy Communion. After all, as Saint Paul reminds us, “we are all members of  [Christ’s} body,” joined together to become one flesh in Christ Jesus And so, when the priest, the deacon, or the Extraordinary Ministry of Holy Communion raises the Body of Christ and says, “The Body of Christ,” and the cup and says, “The Blood of Christ, we are “called to reveal [ourselves] to God with a pure and humble [hearts], acknowledging [our] own smallness in the presence of the divine grandeur.” In humility before God, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity so that we may share in his divinity, we believe that the words God speaks to us and his flesh and blood that we receive are “Spirit and life.”

I want to close with the Robert Frost poem that I mentioned earlier, titled “The Road Not Taken.” The poem ends with “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” While “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied [Jesus],” let us not be like them. Rather, let us choose to be like the Twelve who took the road less traveled by others and continued to follow Christ. Their decision to stay with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ made all the difference in their lives. Therefore, let us respond to Jesus in the same way that Simon Peter responded to Jesus with faith, hope, and love, saying: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” If we choose to walk with our Lord every day. . . if we choose to believe and trust in Jesus every day. . . if we choose to live by the words of eternal life given to us by the Word of God. . . if we choose to receive him in the Eucharist. . . then God will make all the difference in our lives because He is Spirit and life, which he gives to us in the Eucharist.