Homily

Saturday, July 16 and Sunday, July 17, 2005

Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

St. Paul’s on the Lake, Grosse Pointe; St. Hedwig’s, Detroit (Spanish)

Imitate the Eucharist

            My dear brothers and sisters, imitate the Eucharist, so that you can be counted among the wheat (cf. Mt 13:24-43).

            This is the year of the Eucharist, extending from October 2004 to October 2005. It will end with a Synod of Bishops, and yes, our Cardinal Maida will participate. A synod is a “A general term for ecclesiastical gatherings under hierarchical authority, for the discussion and decision of matters relating to faith, morals, or discipline. It corresponds to the Latin word concilium.”[1] Synod has a Greek root, Council has a Latin root, and in English we reserve the word Council for the 21 Ecumenical councils – the latest of which was Vatican II. At this synod, much about the Eucharist and the Sacred Liturgy will be discussed and promulgated to the world. Let us pray for the Bishops as they prepare for the synod.

            So we need to be thinking about the Eucharist, praying about the Eucharist, making the Eucharist the center and heart of everything in our lives. For indeed, the Eucharist is the source and center of everything in the Catholic Church.

            What does the Eucharist have to do with the readings we just listened to, God’s Word proclaimed in the midst of the faithful?

            The Lord says the world is a field, in which there is good seed and bad seed planted. The seeds are persons, as we all live in society, the righteous shoulder to shoulder with evildoers, to use the Lord’s terms. And at the end of time, each one will be judged and rewarded or punished for his or her own merits or sins, completely independently of how the persons sitting next to them conducted themselves. The message is very clear, as full of promise and hope as it is of warning and foreboding.

            It is striking that to describe the good seed, the Lord Jesus said it grew to be… wheat. Wheat is the only substance from which the bread of the Eucharist can be made. What happens to this wheat? It is grown, then it is harvested, then it is ground up and made into unleavened bread of pure wheat. No other ingredient may be used, and if it is, the bread used for the Eucharist is not valid matter for consecration.

            Then the priest takes in his hands this wheat, lifts it up, and in the person of Christ, changes the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, Son of God, and Son of Mary. Thereafter, the faithful, at least those who have no mortal sin on their conscience which they have not yet confessed, approach humbly to eat their God, and become what they eat.

            This is why St. John Chrysostom says, “When you see the Lord sacrificed and lying before you, and the High Priest standing over the sacrifice and praying, and all who partake being tinctured with that precious blood, can you think that you are still among men and still standing on earth?”[2]

            Well, what happens when suddenly, we are the ones called to be that wheat? The same is true for all of us: we grow, but then we are purified by many crosses. The end result is that, Jesus, the One Priest, offers us up to the Father, once we have been transformed, by the cross, into himself. We grow, we are purified, we are transformed into Christ.

            The ideal can sound very high indeed, and we run the risk of becoming discouraged. For we all know how sinful we are. Who could reach such heights of the spiritual life?

            That’s where St. Paul comes in. If you feel weak, St. Paul writes,[3] “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness.” If we can’t pray, “The Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” If God is too high for your poor soul to reach, “The Spirit intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.” And if you have sins that weigh you down, the Book of Wisdom states, “You gave your children ground for hope, that you would permit repentance for their sins."[4]

            In other words, all the supernatural means are there, means that exceed our natural powers. The only thing, the only thing God needs, is our freedom. That’s right: to be the good seed or the bad is not a matter of how we are made, of genetic composition, of the family we are in, of the parish to which we belong, of the friends we keep or the city or nation where we live. All this is of no consequence. Indeed, sometimes we’re tempted to use these things as excuses for being the weeds instead of the wheat.

            You can be the wheat if you only want, and if you entrust the success of your spiritual life to the power of the Trinity.

            So in this one life God has given you, be wise, be the good seed, be the wheat. And once you are the wheat, accept that cross that will crush you into flour, accept the transformation of Christ’s grace that will make you, through the transforming power of the Spirit, pleasing to God the Father.

            In a word, imitate the Eucharist. Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, will help you.