Corpus Christi Sunday

May 25, 2008

Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

St. Thomas More Society

celebrated at

St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church , 1013 Wood Street

Scranton, PA

John 6:51-58

            In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen

            At the beginning of the month, all of the priests of the Diocese of Scranton attended convocation at Split Rock Resort in the Pocono Mountains.  The speaker this year was Father Brian Bransfield from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  His subject matter was Pope John Paul II’s The Theology of the Body, but in the course of his lectures he also told us a bit about Catholic identity in this country.

            Fr. Bransfield said that 80% of Catholics draw strength from the Creed, the same Creed we recite at Mass every Sunday.  He also said that 76% of Catholics are proud to be Catholic.  Yet here is the kicker:  only 32% actually try to go to Mass each week.  There is, in other words, a gap between how people identify themselves and their commitment to live according to that identity.  That is, people say they are Catholic, they even are proud to be Catholic, and yet in neglecting to assist at Mass each week, they show themselves reluctant to do as Catholics do.

            When we assist at Mass each week, we participate in the Sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf on the hill of Calvary.  This is, after all, Corpus Christi Sunday, and thus an excellent opportunity remind you Mass-goers that the Holy Eucharist we celebrate today is a re-presentation in an unbloody manner of the bloody sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.  Here on this altar we offer to God our heavenly Father the Body and Blood of the Son of God, which takes away the sin of the world.  And as we learn in our Gospel today, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”  The Body and Blood which takes away the sin of the world is our means to eternal life.  Indeed, it is the means to life even as we walk this earth, for it provides us the means to live as God would have us live.

            Therefore, when people who identify themselves as Catholics habitually do not go to Mass, it can be for one of only two reasons, and it may be that it is for both.  First, people do not go to Mass because they do not want, they do not think they require, or they do not understand exactly what it is we receive at Mass.  To receive the Body and Blood of Christ is to receive life itself, as necessary to our physical and spiritual health as meat and potatoes are to our sustenance.  If we do not understand that in this Sacrament is our very life, we may not feel the compulsion to receive it.  Likewise, if we know it is our life but we only need a dose occasionally to keep us going, we will likely not make Mass a priority either.  Finally, if we are feeling bad, so bad we think that death might be a relief from this valley of tears, we will avoid Mass like the plague, for we know that the Mass is life.  And if we do not want life, Mass is the last place we should go.

            The second reason Catholics skip Mass is connected to the first.  We know that in order for Holy Communion to be for us life and not death, we must receive our Lord’s Body and Blood in a worthy manner.  St. Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians that failing to discern the Body and Blood in Holy Communion can lead to sickness and even to death.  This is why Protestants cannot receive in the Catholic Church, not to exclude them.  We want them to be in communion with us.  But as long as we are not in communion with them we cannot know that they understand the nature of the Sacrament.  The Church protects them from possible sickness and death by not permitting them to receive.  To receive in a worthy manner we must not only believe that Holy Communion is, in fact, the Body and Blood of Jesus, we must understand ourselves to be participating in Christ’s Eucharistic sacrifice.  To receive Holy Communion is to offer ourselves to God just as Jesus offered Himself to the Father when he died upon the cross.

            Therefore, the reason people neglect their obligation to assist weekly at Mass has to do with their unwillingness to lay down their very lives for God.  If you do not want to offer yourself to Jesus—in other words, if you do not want to be a servant as Jesus is a servant, the Mass probably is not your idea of a good time.  If you do not aspire to be a better servant, skipping Mass is easy.

            When it comes to time for the distribution of Holy Communion, we will come forward to the altar to present ourselves humbly before God.  We present ourselves as servants in need of God’s grace to offer the service required of us.  If we do not want to serve, or if we do not think we need God’s help in order to be a servant, we should not present ourselves to God to receive His Son’s Body and Blood.  If you are wondering why your neighbors do not come to Mass, here is your answer:  either they do not want to serve or they do not think they need God’s help.  Perhaps both:  they do not want help and they do not want to help.

            If we are going to get those people who are proud to be Catholic but do not come to Mass back in the pews, if we are going to see them beside us as we offer ourselves to God, then we must be able to articulate for them why assisting at Mass is so important.  I am, in a certain sense, preaching to the choir today.  After all, you are here at Mass.  But I can only preach to those who come.  You know which of your friends and relatives are not coming to Mass.  When they ask you, “Why should I go to church—to Mass?” we need to have an answer ready.  They are missing out, and our witness to them may be for them the difference between life and death.

            What we do at Mass is a model of what we are to do in life—offer ourselves to Jesus and, in doing so, receiving from Him the grace we need to continue offering ourselves as we should.  When we skip Mass and the self-offering that this entails, it will not be long before we stop offering ourselves outside of the Mass.  Mass, then, is a lot like life:  it is not what we get out of it that matters most; it’s what we put into it that counts.  And only if we are Catholics of humble self-offering do we have something to be proud of.