The
Diet for the Kingdom
May
30, 2005 Homily
John
6:51-58
Fr,
George Smiga
You
might have seen a movie that was out last year called SUPER
SIZE ME . The movie was created by a man named Morgan
Spurlock, and it chronicled an unusual experiment that he
performed over the course of a month. Spurlock wondered what
would happen if he ate all of his meals at McDonald's. So
that is what he did. For an entire month, every day, three
times a day, he drove up to the Golden Arches to dine. By
the end of the month, he had gained 30 pounds, his cholesterol
was off the charts, and his doctor was warning him that he
had to change his eating habits if he intended to survive.
This movie gives visual form to a saying that we have all
heard. You are what you eat. If you eat junk, high
choleric fatty foods, your health deteriorates. If you eat
healthy, natural, nutritional foods, your health improves.
You are what you eat.
This
saying is good news for us today as we celebrate the Feast
of Corpus Christi, because it is on this day that we reflect
on the marvelous gift of the Eucharist. Our belief is that
when we eat the bread and wine of the Eucharist we take into
ourselves the very life of Christ. We believe that as we weekly
celebrate the Eucharist at this altar, the bread and wine
is changed during the Eucharistic Prayer into the Body and
Blood of Christ. The bread and wine is no longer bread and
wine, but the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Risen
Christ. We do not understand how this can happen. It is a
great mystery, one of the central mysteries of our faith.
But it is also a remarkable gift, because Christ becomes for
us our food and w e are what we eat .
This
is not a new idea. In the third century the great early Christian
father Augustine wrote, “If you receive the Eucharist well,
you are what you eat . Since you are the Body of
Christ and his members, it is your mystery which you receive.
As you come to communion, you hear the words ‘The Body of
Christ' and you answer ‘Amen'. Be, therefore, members of Christ
that your ‘Amen' may be true. Be what you see. Receive what
you already are.” In this profound paragraph, what Augustine
is saying is that the Eucharist is nourishment to us for what
we already are. We are already united to Christ through faith
and baptism. Each time we receive this sacrament we grow in
that shared life of Christ. We become more of the person that
we already are.
So
what then should this mystery of the Eucharist do for us?
How should we change as we receive the Eucharist from week
to week? The Eucharist should give us more courage and more
confidence.
When
we receive the Eucharist with faith we grow in courage, because
the one we receive is Christ who faced the evil of the world.
Christ knew what betrayal was, what suffering was, what loss
was, what death was. He faced those evils with courage in
the Father who loved him. The Eucharist then should be for
us a way of dealing with the trials of our own life. It should
give us strength to deal with rejection, with sickness, even
with death. When we receive the Eucharist, we receive the
very courage of Christ, the strength through which Christ
was able to face his passion.
The
Eucharist should also make us grow in confidence. The Christ
who we receive is the Risen Christ, the Christ who now sits
at the right hand of the Father, the Christ who is leading
the world into God's kingdom. The Risen Christ is a Christ
of limitless power and of limitless love. Therefore we can
receive this Christ in confidence, because his power and his
strength will be with us. Therefore there will always be hope
for the future.
Today
then, on this Feast of Corpus Christi, let us bring the issues
of our life, whatever they may be, to this table. Let is bring
here the things that trouble us, the things that hurt us,
the things that we are afraid of, all the things that preoccupy
our minds. As we pray the Eucharistic Prayer in a few minutes,
let your ‘Amen' to that prayer be your affirmation that the
bread and wine on this altar is becoming for us the Body and
Blood of Christ. As you come forward and extend your hands
to receive communion, let your ‘Amen' be the affirmation that
the Risen Jesus is becoming our food and drink . We are
what we eat . So let us rejoice today. In this marvelous
gift of the Eucharist we become courageous people, sharing
in the very strength of Christ, which allows us to live today.
In this holy meal we become confident people, sharing in the
very power of the Risen Christ that always provides us with
hope for tomorrow.
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