what does it mean to live?

Homily

11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Solemnity of Corpus Christi

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

14 June 2020

AMDG +JMJ +m

What does it mean to live?

That's the easiest pivotal question of all time!

Jesus the author of life gives us the answer.

To live is to eat my flesh and drink my blood.

No ifs, ands or buts.  That's it.

There's been a lot of talk in 2020 about saving lives that matter.

There's been too little talk about what it means to truly live.

Jesus gives us the answer.

To truly live is to eat my flesh and drink my blood.

Anything less than this is simply existence that fades into death.

The recent Pew Study says that 70% of Catholics don't believe Jesus.

I think that number is too low!

I would say almost 100% of Catholics don't believe in the Real Presence.

I think the number has always been close to 100%

Now don't freak out.

That's not my survey answer.

My survey answer is that I truly believe.

But it's my heart answer.  My gut answer.

What percentage of Catholics are truly saints?

That's your number - of how many truly believe.

St. John Vianney who adored Jesus in the Eucharist constantly, had it right.

If the Eucharist is really what Jesus says.

If it is all of God - all reality, all mystery, all story, all grace, all of life -

than anyone who actually receives what this gift is - would die.

Which is to say that he would stop simply existing,

and pass over to live only the eternal life that is the fruit of the Eucharist.

I wish that was me!

But it's not, not yet anyway.

I seem to be existing just fine,

with or without the Eucharist.

The COVID restrictions haven't killed me.

Which means only that I have yet to begin to truly live,

to fully believe.

So put me in the 70% or the 100% who struggle to receive this gift.

God help me.

Lord, help my unbelief.

Ultimately, I don't believe because I don't want the responsibility that comes with the gift.

That's how things work - we know it.

There is no gift without responsibility.

Regarding the responsibility of the Eucharist - 

it's way more than mere obligation to get your rear here every Sunday!.

No - it's a freedom, an energy, a capacity - an ability to respond to ultimate gift with ultimate thanksgiving and ultimate generosity!

Corpus Christi is the day marked for such ultimate responsibility - thanksgiving and generosity.

It's the day for me to take Jesus outside!

I've gone to enough World Youth Days to know how this works.

Jesus belongs ultimately not merely inside, but also outside!

I've gathered outside with millions - the largest, most peaceful, most diverse and unifying crowds in human history - gathered around the Eucharist.

But still I'm the worst at taking him outside, at sharing Him with others.

Instead, I'm tempted to use the Eucharist as a weapon for Catholic insiders - as part of the cancel culture judging who counts and who doesn't.  As a litmus test for identity politics - who's a real Catholic and who's a pretender.  To reduce the full sign of the Eucharist to mere virtue signaling of who's holy and who's not.

But shame on me if I abuse the Eucharist in this way!

The Eucharist, especially today, is meant more for outsiders than insiders.

The Eucharist was never given to be the magic pill or secret sauce of gnostic Catholics.  The gift is wasted if it is only a private possession hoarded from the inside, instead of fulfilling its destiny to be the universal sacrament of salvation for all people, and the only true hope of the world!

How dare I claim the Eucharist to be the source and summit of the Catholic faith if I do not also know it to be the engine of the Church's mission of evangelization to outsiders!

This is what it means to embrace the ultimate responsibility that comes with ultimate gift.

Why do black lives not matter?  Why is there still so much death?  So much doubt, discord, disagreement and distance, when the source of meaning, life, faith, communion, peace, reconciliation and intimacy is staring us right in the face?

The answer is too simple, but nonetheless true.  It's because I have barely started to unwrap and share the sublime gift of the Eucharist with outsiders.

Moses says to remember where we came from.

The Eucharist is a sacred remembering - yes!

Yet we remember not in order to go back,

but to activate the launching pad for going forward.

For all her rich history of Eucharistic tradition, theology and piety,

to mark Corpus Christi today, 

is never to wish we could go back,

but is a confession that I need to go forward in realizing this gift

and sharing it with outsiders.

What does it mean to live?

To live is to eat my flesh and drink my blood.

Lord, help me not to hoard this perfect gift!

To know that will never work!

May my one desire going forward,

be to unwrap this sweetest of gifts, and to share this most wonderful sacrament with outsiders!