Sunday - August 26th - Homily - We need to have faith too.

I am going to start posting the homilies that I give at St Teresa's here.  I hope they are beneficial.

21^st Sunday – Cycle B                                                                                 Deacon Michael Leach

Jos 24:1-2A, 15-17, 18B  * PS 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21 * EPH 5:21-32      * JN 6:60-69

In the first reading, we see Joshua gathering up the elders and leaders.  He is reminding them of who God is and what the Lord has done from them.  He tells them all to make a choice of who they will follow, the false gods of their fathers or Yahweh.  Joshua’s answer, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”.   Joshua had faith, we need to have faith too.

The psalmist encourages us to, “Bless the Lord at all times”.  It is easy to do when we feel particularly blessed, but not as easy when we feel abandoned or scared or angry.  I remember one day I was feeling angry about a situation that was out of my control.  I was sharing this with a friend and his response was, “Praise be to God”.  Praise be to God.  This phrase, at that particular moment caught me off guard.  He knew it did and then he reminded me that we should bless the Lord at all times.  Another verse from the same psalm says, “When the just cry out, the Lord hears them and from all their distress he rescues them”.  We need to have faith.

Our second reading, which came from Ephesians, is one of my favorites.  Not so much about wives being subordinate to husbands and husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the Church, but the last part of the reading.  “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”.  How can two become one flesh?  We need to have faith.

We now come to the Gospel of John and the conclusion of the Bread of Life Discourse.  For the past 6 weeks the Church has lead us through this chapter, which goes to show how important it is in the life of the Church and how important it should be in our lives as well.

The followers of Jesus had seen with their own eyes the miracles that Jesus did.  They knew that he was the messiah, the anointed one.  But Jesus was telling them something that was hard to hear.  They must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, or they would not have life within them.  How is this possible? This was too hard for them and they walked away.  Notice that Jesus did not call them back because they misunderstood him.  There are a few times in the gospels where Jesus is teaching and people misunderstand him.  He stops them and corrects their mis-understanding, but not this time.  He does not call them back and say, “I was just speaking metaphorically” or “I did not mean it that way”.  No.  Jesus said over and over again, “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink”. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him”.  How is this possible?  We need to have faith.

Jesus’ words were true.  The followers who left did not trust that it was possible.  Jesus asked the twelve apostles if they were going to leave also, and Peter says, “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  The apostles did not have it all figured out but through faith, they knew that Jesus was right, and their faith was confirmed at the Last Supper, when Jesus gathered the disciples in the upper room to celebrate the Passover.  Jesus took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body”.  IS my body.  Not a representation of my body.  Not a symbol of my body.  This is my body, which will be given for you.   In Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he says that, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes”.  Does that sound a little familiar?  In just a few minutes we will continue this tradition.

But before that, I want to jump back up to our 2^nd reading for a moment.  “And the two shall become one flesh”.  A man and a woman come together, before God and witnesses and ask to be wed, to be joined together in holy matrimony.  Now picture this…  Christ is the bridegroom and the Church is the bride.  Two shall become one flesh.  When we share in the communion meal, we, in a real and tangible way, take Jesus into our selves.  Jesus becomes part of us, and we become part of Jesus.  Two shall become one flesh.  We need to have faith.

We need to know with all of our very being that, when we leave this building we take Jesus with us as we go.  We are sent out on a mission to be Jesus to others and to see Jesus in those we encounter.