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The Two Comings and His Remaining in the Eucharist
Homily St. Joseph Parish, Detroit
[As we mentioned at the beginning of Mass today, there’s much going on at our parish, especially today. It is the solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord; it is the day of First Communion for some of the children of the parish; and it is the occasion of the Maifest, by which we shed light on the German heritage of beautiful St. Joseph parish.]
Today is the Ascension, when Jesus truly and historically ascended into heaven in his resurrected body. Two angels were there at the ascension as well. When Jesus rose up and went into the sky, the angels spoke to the apostles, who stood there and were witnesses of Jesus’ ascent. They told them, that Jesus would come as they saw him go, that is, he would come from heaven to the earth. This is why Jesus once said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.”[1] And again, during his trial before the crucified him, he said to Pilate, “I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”[2] Christ will come again.
[A comment to the children: this is the most important day of your lives. For God made you for one reason: to be in communion with you.]
Therefore, we know that there are two comings of Christ. The first was the incarnation, when he chose Mary for his mother, and all knew him as the son of Joseph the Carpenter. The second will come when there will be great upheavals in the world, and time will end. The first was in humility, the second will be in glory. The first was in agony, the second will be in victory. The first was in poverty, the second will be in majesty. The first coming placed him among men, the second will be with the whole company of angels. Christ, indeed, truly died in the flesh; Christ has risen in the flesh; Christ ascended into heaven; and Christ will come again. Jesus left us, but yet he has extended his first coming, so that we too, who live two thousand years after his first coming, can experience some of the incarnation. We don’t see Jesus, with the majesty of his human voice, the beauty of his face, the lordship of his raiment, or the warmth of his hands as he blesses us. But it is this same Jesus, even in the flesh, who is present in the Eucharist. For when the priest says the words of consecration, he changed bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. The transformation does not appear to any of the senses of our body; but through the sense of hearing, we hear the words, and the Church teaches us what transformation takes place, and so in a way we receive our faith by hearing. His presence in the Eucharist is also a sacrifice; therefore, the body and blood are separate species. This is the same sacrifice about which we just read, where it says in the scriptures, “But now once for all, [Jesus] has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice.”[3] For God alone can take away sins, no man has the power to remove sin. And God has given this power to the Church. He came to earth at his first coming, in fact, for this very purpose: to save us from sin, and from the punishments of sin, so that all who should renounce sin and live as he taught us could get to heaven. And therefore, the Eucharist prepares us for heaven. It prepares us for heaven, because it keeps us close to Jesus. It prepares us for heaven, for it is the sacrifice which redeems us from our sins, and is the power behind all the other sacraments, including baptism and reconciliation. It prepares us for heaven, because we rehearse the love, reverence and fear we should have about Jesus’ second coming; indeed, just as we wash ourselves from sin, first by baptism, and then after baptism by reconciliation, in order to receive the Eucharist worthily, so too we hope that when Jesus comes in glory to bring and end to history, we will be ready then by being similarly free from the slavery to sin. For sin is the worst thing that could happen to anybody: it’s worse than getting sick, then becoming poor, than loosing an eye, indeed, it is worse than death itself. Let us therefore adore Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, as the Apostles fell down and did homage to Jesus when he ascended into heaven. For when we adore the Eucharist, we adore God, and we prepare for his second coming. Amen.
[For first communion, I wish the first communion children to approach the communion rail first, and their parents may come with them to help if they so wish. After which, the same parents may receive communion, and then the rest of the congregation may approach the communion rail as is our standing tradition in this parish.] |