20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B - August 18, 2024

 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B 

August 18, 2024      5pm 

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

A Sign 

 

Please just think for a minute about this simple truth: when parents hug their children, there are two realities present.

 

The visible reality is the physical hug. We can this with our eyes.

 

But there is also an invisible reality. And this is the love of the parents for their child.

 

We cannot see this with our eyes, although we might see it in the effects on the child – feeling valued and prized. So, there are visible and invisible realities to this one action – a hug.

 

Our sacraments are something like this. We say that they are signs.

 

The dictionary defines a sign as something that directly indicates or represents something else. A sign has both a visible and an invisible reality, like a hug.

 

So, our sacraments like the Eucharist are signs – and today we’ll focus just on the Eucharist. The visible reality of the Eucharist is the bread and wine.

 

But this reality directly indicates or represents an invisible reality. In fact, by Jesus’ own words and his power, the bread and wine actually become his body and blood. 

 

So, these signs have an effect. They make present what they signify.

 

And the bottom line of what the bread and wine signify is Jesus. He is really present.   

  

How Is Jesus Present? 

 

We cannot adequately explain how this happens.

 

We know that we didn’t invent or create this sign, this sacrament. Jesus did that at the Last Supper.

 

He is the Son of God incarnate, God on this earth in the person of Jesus. So, he has a power that is greater than any power we human beings know.

 

This is part of what we call “the mystery of faith.” We accept this as part of our faith and as mystery – something that we cannot fully understand. 

 

Holy Communion 

 

This is also why we call our reception of Jesus’ body and blood Holy Communion.

 

It is a communion, spelled with a small c. It is a sharing of life, a oneness with another person.

 

But it is also Holy Communion, spelled with a capital H and a capital C. It is Holy Communion because it is our communion, our sharing of life or oneness with the Holy One, with Jesus, with God himself.

 

Just think of that. Holy Communion is a communion with Jesus and because of who he is, it is a communion with God. 

 

God himself is present here and comes to us in the consecrated bread and wine, in the body and blood of Christ. Holy Communion! 

 

Reservation of the Eucharist 

 

This is why we treat this sign, this sacrament with reverence as we celebrate Mass.

 

We sing hymns and pray prayers. We bow our heads before we receive Communion. 

 

And then, after we have received this, we treat what is leftover carefully. We consume any remaining consecrated wine, the blood of Christ.

 

And we reverently place the remaining consecrated bread, the body of Christ, in what we call a tabernacle. This word tabernacle means a sacred house.

 

It is the house for Jesus who is still present in this sacrament. Originally, in our tradition, we reserved the remaining Eucharist in the tabernacle so that it could be taken to the sick.

 

In that way, Christ, still present here, could also be present to those who were unable to be present at Mass. As centuries passed, we also came to see our reservation of the Eucharist as a way for Christ to be present to those who are present here outside of Mass.

 

Christ is here for us. And his presence, of course, is signified by the lighted sanctuary candle near the tabernacle.

 

The flickering of the flame speaks of Christ as alive here for us. And the light of the flame speaks of Christ as our light.       

 

Conclusion

 

Maybe the best way to end these thoughts is to go back to where we began.

 

The hug of parents for their children is visible. And it represents something invisible – their love for their children

 

The sign of the bread and wine is visible. But it represents something invisible – Christ, really present here for us.   

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B - August 11, 2024

 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B 

August 11, 2024      5pm and 11am 

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

A Mother’s Love

 

Back in the nineteenth century, about two hundred years ago, there was a well-known French author named Victor Hugo. 

 

One of his stories is very touching. The setting is in France, in the year 1793, right after the French Revolution.  

 

A young mother and her two children are homeless and poor. They have wandered through the woods for several days and are surviving on any edible vegetation they can find.   

 

Then, one morning, they see two soldiers approaching, and they hide in the bushes. One of the soldiers – a sergeant – spots them and orders them to come out into the open. 

 

The captain realizes that they are on the verge of starvation, and he offers the mother a baguette of bread. She immediately breaks it into two pieces and gives half of the baguette to each of her children. 

 

The children ravenously eat the bread, and the mother just watches with satisfaction. The sergeant is surprised that the mother has kept none of the bread for herself.

 

He says to his captain, “Is it because the mother is not hungry?” And the captain replies, “No, Sergeant, it is because she is a mother.”     

 

God’s Love 

 

This mother’s love in Victor Hugo’s story is a wonderful reflection of God’s love for us.

 

This mother gives her children all the bread she has and in effect, she gives them her life. In a similar way, Jesus gives us the bread that he has and in effect, he gives his very life to us.

 

“The Bread of Life”

 

This is the “bread of life” that Jesus speaks of in today’s gospel, and it has two dimensions to it.

 

We may not usually think of it this way, but “the bread of life” is first of all God’s Word – the Word of God.  

 

In today’s passage, Jesus calls himself “the bread that came down from heaven.” He then says that “whoever believes” and receives his word, the Word of God, “has eternal life.”

 

So, let’s ask: has there been a time when the Scripture passage or the reflection here at Mass has gotten us through a rough time? Has there been a time when it has given us an insight on how to handle something?

 

Are there times when God’s Word feeds us with a word or sentence or story that just seems to speak personally to us? So, the bread of life is first of all the bread of God’s Word.

 

And then, Jesus himself is quite literally the “bread of life” for us.  

 

He says, “Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” So, Jesus literally gives himself to us in the bread and wine, his body and blood. 

 

Again, let’s ask: have there been times when we have really hungered for the Eucharist? Have there been times when we have felt alone or empty and we just needed this bread? 

 

Have there been times when we needed the closeness and fullness that the Eucharist brings? So, the bread of life is also the bread of Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist.

 

One Qualification: Hunger

 

I have one final thought.  

 

In Victor Hugo’s story, the mother gives the entire baguette to her children for one reason. They are hungry.

 

Jesus does the same for us. His bread, “the bread of life,” is here for us not just if we are perfect.

 

Instead, it is for us – human, imperfect, with a mix of virtue and sin. In the feeding of the 5,000 that we heard two weeks ago, Jesus offers the gift of bread to everyone because they are hungry.

 

And again at the Last Supper, he offers the bread and wine, his body and blood to all were there. Why? Not because they were perfect but because they were hungry

 

So, this is an important point. My experience tells me that very few of us are really unworthy to receive the bread of life because of something we have done, because of sin.

 

So, let’s be in touch with our hunger for the bread of God’s Word and for the bread of Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist. And with this hunger, we are assured that we will be fed by the One who is the bread of life.