Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Church insists that we not take lightly that Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life and so this theme is repeated for three Sundays. The first Sunday was the multiplication of loaves and fish. The second Sunday we heard Christ’s Bread of Life discourse, and he told the crowds that they were not following him because of faith but because there were getting something to eat. However, the food that he offers comes from heaven. And today we hear that whoever eats this bread, his flesh, will live forever.
One thing that really helped me is the first reading from the 1st Book of Kings. Elijah is being chased and persecuted and is tired of announcing what the Lord told him to say to the people and he wants to die. He is sitting under a broom tree and falls asleep after trekking through the desert. Sleep is like a death and one day that sleep will be permanent so if you wake up a few times each night, don’t complain.
An angel comes to him to wake him up with a very specific word: ‘Get up and eat.’ He wakes up and there at his head is a baked cake and a jug of water. He ate and he drank and went to sleep again. So, the angel came a second time and said: ‘Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you.’ He woke up, ate and drank and strengthened by that food he walked for forty days and forty nights until he arrived at the mountain of the Lord. At every Eucharist we hear the same words: rise and eat! In every Eucharist this word is fulfilled in us.
Perhaps you come dead today, tired, destroyed, sad or depressed. Let us recognize our sins as we did at the start of this Mass, realizing that in some sense we are dead, and the Lord has forgiven us. He says to you and to me, get up and eat! At his word and at the preaching we get up, which is love. Every Eucharist has two parts, the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist where we receive the Body and Blood of Christ. The Word always wants to raise you up; to lift us up so we can go to the banquet and eat. The Word of God makes you feel loved, if it doesn’t raise you up, it is because you are dead. He wants you to get up and eat the Bread of Life.
In the psalm we heard, taste and see the goodness of the Lord. See how good the Lord is in every aspect of your life, so much so that his praise will always be on your lips. How good is the Lord who raises you out of your funk, your sadness. You start to see how good the Lord is in your life. The word helps you to stand up. The bread is a sign of his love for you. This bread is my flesh for the life of the world. That is to say the flesh of Christ on the cross gives life to the world. It also refers to the body and blood of Christ you receive in the Eucharist. What do you say when you receive the Lord, what do you do? Do you start the rosary or a novena to the Precious Blood, what do you do? Do you imagine a man with a beard and long blond hair, with nice eyebrows and a hand raised up?
I will give you a key today. When you receive Communion think of your sins and the great love he has for you, in the midst of those very sins: your selfishness, your pride, your judgments, your lust, etc. He gives his life for you despite your sins, despite what you deserve. Do you remember how beautiful it was when he said, the world will hate you, but know that it hated me before it hated you. Even though the world hates him, he offers his flesh for the life of the world. He wants the world to have life. He offers his flesh, which is the only thing that gives life!
He rises from the dead and he knows that you have a very deep death in your life, very deep, and you can’t stop murmuring and your gossip is unbearable. How many people have you destroyed with your words, with your false statements or detractions. This is a death; you are already in a tomb. You are dead because of the lust or disordered thoughts you have. You think the problem is always the other person. You love only those who are good to you. Your marriage is stuck because you use the other person, and this is why you are dead inside. You are envious and so proud that no one can say anything to you. If your wife tells you something, it is WWIII because of your pride, because you are in a tomb; you are dead.
Only our Lord can open this tomb and pull you and me out of our graves, and say, rise and eat. Walk and I will give you eternal life, a life so much better than the one you dream about. Today you don’t have life, only death inside of you because you are judging God all day long, judging your history. Why do I have to live this way? Why don’t I have more money, why this poverty, this disease, this neighborhood, why, why, why?
Today I want you to see how good the Lord is with you. When you eat this flesh, which is a sign of his love, you can experience it, and you can say from your heart, how good the Lord is, everyday is wonderful. He’s the cause for all my blessings. This cancer is a blessing, this woman you gave me, this illness, this handicap is a blessing. Even being alone helps me to call you, ‘my beloved’. What a gift that I am chubby or have a bad back or curly hair. How marvelous is this Eucharist, a real miracle that takes me out of death, that gives me a share of the resurrection. It is possible to leave the Eucharist with great joy, don’t you always leave happy? All your doubts go away. This Eucharist gives me an experience of your love, Lord; it gives me life.
It helps me to see that the other is an angel who comes to say, get up and eat, there’s a long road ahead. He wants to meet you, to love you, he wants to be with you. Let the dead bury the dead, you follow me, get up and eat, because the road is long. How our Lord insists these three Sundays that he is the Bread of Life. You know that without him there is no life. Life is given by him. Have you found this love personally in the depth of your sins? When you have an experience of this love you will not leave the Church. No matter what suffering or persecution you have, you are anchored to this rock, which is love!
Conversion is not to be sinless, to be perfect. Your sins are not the problem. You can confess every day if you want. The question is do you want to live without loving? This is the point. You continue to live without love because you have not experienced it, when you do, you will easily leave those sins. When you die, it will be in great peace. You will die like a saint. You will die with the absolute certainty that God loves you, even in your selfishness, your arrogance, your lust. You will even say like St. Augustine, ‘Late have I loved you, Lord. Late have I loved you!’ Perhaps you were ungrateful in your life because you were blind to him who cured you.
But now you will not forget how the Lord loves you, with this crazy love. How he gives me his body and how he gives me his blood, to nourish me so that I am able to live in peace for another week. I am able to love the world and to love the enemy!