19th Sunday - B

My brothers and sisters!
When Jesus talked about himself as the bread of life and about His flesh He would give for the life of the world, the Jews were thrown into confusion. They murmured among themselves saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They didn’t understand Jesus’ teaching. Yes Jesus’ words were difficult to be understood. If we were there among the crowd, we would think the same. But now we have no difficulty to understand what Jesus meant when He said that unless we ate His flesh and drank His blood, we would not have life within ourselves. This doesn’t make us surprised. We understand that Jesus talked about Himself as the Eucharist.
At the last supper, the night before Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice on the cross, He performed the Eucharist. He gave His body and His blood in the form of bread and wine. What Jesus did that night is what we call sacrament, that means a sign or a symbol of his self-sacrificing on the cross the day after. On the cross Jesus truly gave his body and his blood literally. So we have to understand the feast of Holy Thursday in relation with the Memorial of Good Friday in the light of the resurrection. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist we represent Jesus’ sacrifice that brings salvation for us. That’s why we use the word Eucharist; the word comes from Greek word eucharistia that means praise and thanksgiving. In the Eucharist we want to praise and to thank Jesus the Lord for His sacrifice for our salvation. We want to thank Him for His love for us, because of His love He give His flesh and blood; because of His love He died that we may have life within ourselves.
That’s why I understand if we go to church or if we go to a mass celebration, it is not a duty as a catholic or an obligatory because of Law but a necessity. We need to praise God for what he has done for us. Because by going to Church, by receiving the Holy Communion, we express our faith in God, we thank Him for Jesus’ redemption upon us, we acknowledge Jesus as our Savior, as our Lord.
In one of the liturgical prayers, it is said that our praise and thanksgiving to God will never increase the glory of God but it is necessary for our salvation. So whenever we go to church or we pray, we do that not for the benefit of God, but for the sake of our salvation.
There is an old lady who loves going to church everyday. Her grandsons always make laugh of her, by asking her about the reading and the Homily of the mass. And their grandma always says that she doesn’t remember. And one of her grandson says, “So what for going to church if you get nothing?” Then she asks the grandson to bring her water from the river in a basket. The boy answers her, “How can I do that.” His grandma says, “Just do that.” The boy tries and tries to fill water in the basket and finally he returns home saying, “I cannot do that.” Smiling his grandma answers him, “You got no water in the basket, but at least the basket becomes clean.” And then she explains what she means by that, “The basket is me” she said, “it seems that I got nothing from church, but at least I am cleansed.”
How about you, how do you experience the Eucharist? How do you understand the life or the salvation you get in the Eucharist?
One thing I want to remind all of us. You know, every time we enter the church, we bow or kneel toward the Tabernacle. We want to honor Jesus the Lord who presents in the Blessed Sacrament. But do you realize that when we receive the Holy Communion, we are the tabernacle? Jesus is in us. This means that if we really want to honor Jesus who also presents in us, we should bow or kneel one to another after the mass. But in order that people will not think that we are going mad if we bow one to another every time we meet, just show your love by saying hallo one to another or giving a hug with a nice smile after the mass or wherever we meet. This will be an expression of our love for Jesus who presents in others.
And maybe a naughty boy will misuses this teaching by saying that Jesus is in him so his mother cannot punish him, when he does bad thing. But remember if Jesus is in us we will never do bad things anymore. Talking about the lives in God, St. Paul said, “How can we who died to sin yet live in it?” (Rom 6:2). Do you know what does it mean by dying to sin? There was a disciple in a monastery asked about this to his spiritual director. Then he was sent to a cemetery and there he was supposed to say bad words to the dead in the cemetery. When he got home, his spiritual director asked him, “How is the response of the dead?” The disciple answered, “There is no response!” The spiritual director said, “So is the man who died to sin, he will never be influenced by sins anymore.”
But the problem we have is we still live in this human flesh. At the one hand, we are saved by Jesus and we have tasted the heavenly food. But in other hand we still live in this world full of struggles and temptations. Jesus understands our human weakness but still he asks us to be holy and to be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. Jesus understands that we cannot be holy by ourselves. Only be with Him we can. That’s why He promised us to be with us always until the end of the world. The Eucharist is one of his ways, the best way, in order that he will be with us always, to strengthen us.
Like the prophet Elijah, we are on our journey in this world, and some time we say, “That is enough, O Lord.” We want to stop when all life seems to offer us is frustration and misfortune. But God comes to help us. Jesus gives us himself as the living bread. Let us come to Him in faith and devotion. May He give us strength, that we are able to continue our journey in this life with joy and hope. Amen.