Today is the Memorial of Saint John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests. He was known for “his deep devotion to the Church and his dedication to the sacrament of confession” (Franciscan Media). “His deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary earned him the title “Mary’s Priest” or “Maria of Ars”. . .His devotion to the sacrament of confession inspired many to return to their faith and receive God’s forgiveness. . . One of his famed miracles was the ability to read the souls of his parishioners and offer them the perfect penance for their sins. . . His work as a confessor is John Vianney’s most remarkable accomplishment. He was to spend 11 to 12 hours daily reconciling people with God in the winter months. In the summer months, this time was increased to 16 hours.”
Saint John Vianney’s feast day is an important reminder for us to pray for our priests because without priests we would not have access to the Eucharist and Confessions. We also pray also for our seminarians and for more men to have the courage to answer Jesus’ call to the priesthood. Speaking of praying, in his catechetical instructions, John Vianney wrote that “the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. If you pray and love, that is where a man’s happiness lies. . . Prayer is nothing else but union with God. . . In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can ever pull apart. This union of God with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding. . . [our] hearts are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven. . .” (Catechisme sur la prière: A. Monnin, Esprit du Curé d’Ars, Parish 1899, pp. 87-89).
My sisters and brothers in Christ, for us, we experience the “foretaste of heaven,” that Saint John Vianney wrote of, is prayer during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Here at the altar of the Lord, the priest, in persona Christi (“in the person of Christ”), through the power of the Holy Spirit, turns bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Our Lord instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood at the Last Supper because he loves us and, as we heard in today’s Gospel’s account of the feeding of the five thousand (5,000), “his heart was moved with pity for [us],” and so he gave us his Body and Blood in the Eucharist to heal us. Jesus tells us this himself: “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” (John 6:54-57).
When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we will be left satisfied. And so, my sisters and brothers in Christ, we come to the altar of the Lord with reverence and thanksgiving to our Lord Jesus Christ as though it is our first Mass, our last Mass, our only Mass.
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