Homily by Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, D.D. Bishop of Fargo  June 25, 2005 – 100th Anniversary of Corpus Christi Mass
(Given at St. Mary Catholic Church, Dazey, ND)
 
 
My dearest brothers and sisters in Christ,
 
In this year of the Eucharist, our late Holy Father John Paul II desired that we as a
Catholic people renew and rekindle our love for the Eucharist—that we grow in our
understanding of the Eucharist and our faith in the Eucharist.  He desired that our hearts
burn within us with love for the Eucharist as the hearts of the disciples burned on the road
to Emmaus.
 
In the first reading for today from Kings (Kings 19:4-8), we see how God feeds Elijah. 
God through an angel of the Lord provides him with a hearth cake and a jug of water.  
There are examples throughout the Old Testament of God feeding His people—the
manna in the desert, the bread given to David and to those who were with him.  But it is
in the New Testament that the true bread is revealed, and that bread is Jesus Christ.
 
We see this truth in the Gospel reading as Jesus teaches the disciples.  It is a teaching that
reveals the truth of the Eucharist and the meaning of the Eucharist.  “I am the living bread
that came down from heaven” (John 6:41).  Jesus himself is the living bread, the second
person of the Trinity, the Son of God.  He goes on, “Whoever eats this bread will live
forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
 
When we look at those words we hear the promise of eternal life given to us who feed on
his body and his blood.  We hear that the flesh that he gives is “my life for the world.” 
He offers himself on a cross for you and me.  He then goes on to state, “Unless you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (John
6:53).
 
He reminds us of the importance of the Eucharist, of this bread of life.  He reminds his
disciples and speaks to the great truth, that “if you do not feed on my body and my blood,
you will have no life in you.”  This too is a promise, a difficult promise, but it is a
promise given to us.  If we feed on his body and blood, we will have eternal life.  If we
do not, we will not have eternal life.
 
The Jews quarrel over this.  “How can he give us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink?”  
Jesus goes back and reinforces the teaching with the words, “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” (John 6:55-56). 
 
My dearest sisters and brothers, in those words he reveals to us the truth that the bread
and the wine truly become his body and blood, that it is real food and real drink for us.
The communion we have is communion with him, with Jesus.  Every time you receive
the Holy Eucharist, you are receiving the second person of the Trinity.  You receive, as
the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, and as we have been taught for 2000
years, the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.
 
When you genuflect before the Eucharist, you are worshipping the second person of the
Trinity present in the tabernacle.  When you share Eucharistic adoration, you are
worshipping and acknowledging in humility the second person of the Trinity.  We enter
into communion with God himself.  The truth is, my dearest brothers and sisters, that
when you receive Jesus, you also receive the Father and the Holy Spirit.  You enter into
communion with the very life of the Trinity.
 
When I look at the truth of our faith and the teaching on the Eucharist, it always fills me
with wonder, wonder at the greatness of our God, the generosity of our God, the
lavishness of our God as he gives himself to us.  What a tremendous gift!  
 
It fills me with wonder, too, at how Catholics can so easily take for granted this great
communion and gift.  It fills me with wonder how people on Sundays can miss Mass and
pass up this great mystery. 
 
Our God has promised us this gift and he promises to remain within us.  “Just as the
living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on
me will have life because of me” (John 6:57).  Everything depends on Jesus, everything
in our faith, and so we are called to give ourselves to the fullest, to place our faith in him
and our trust in him.
 
We know that this teaching was divisive even for the early disciples.  At the conclusion
of the sixth chapter of John, we are told many left him because his teaching was too
difficult. He then turns to the twelve and asks them, “Will you too leave me?”  And Peter
speaks, “No, Lord.  We have come to believe, we are convinced, that you are the son of
God.”
 
My dearest sisters and brothers, every time you and I receive Holy Communion, we
should be making the same act of faith—that we are convinced, we have come to believe,
that Jesus Christ is truly present, that he is the Son of God, the Savior of the world and
the only Savior.
 
In the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he reminds the Corinthians
and he reminds us today that the gift of the Eucharist comes from Jesus himself.  “I
received from the Lord what I also hand on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he
was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is
my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me...This cup is the new covenant in
my blood.  Do this...in remembrance of me.  For as often as you eat this bread and drink
the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” (I Cor 11:23-26).
 
My sisters and brothers, look at those words, look at them personally for you, because our
Lord says, “This is my body given for you, my blood for you.” That wasn’t just for those
twelve gathered around the table.  That was not just for those who were with Jesus.  That
is for all of us, all of humanity; it is for each one of us present here today that he has
given the gift of himself.
 
That is how much he loves you.  That is how much he cares for you.  And he reminds us,
he gives us the command, “Do this in remembrance of me.”  And when we hear this
command, we cannot but be taken to the words in John’s gospel, where Jesus says, “If
you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
 
“If you love me” -- he is calling us into intimacy.  He calls each one of you today into
intimacy and love with him.  Make the decision to love the Lord and let that love grow
each day.  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  “Do this in remembrance
of me...and you will proclaim my death, you will make present, through that Eucharistic
action, my cross and my death.”
 
Today there is a crisis of faith among Catholics, among Christians, among all peoples of
the world.  There is a crisis of faith in the person of Jesus Christ and in the Eucharist.  We
as a people today are called to renew our faith, to deepen our faith in Jesus Christ and
trust in His word to us.
 
The Second Vatican Council taught us of the importance of “full, active, conscious
participation” in the Eucharist.  And many of us took that in a superficial way.  We
thought of it in terms of the responses, in terms of music, and the focus became on
ourselves.  That is not the purpose of the Eucharist.  
 
As important as the music and the responses are, what is absolutely essential is the full,
conscious, active participation of our hearts, of our minds, of ourselves.  That is at the
heart of the teaching of the second Vatican Council.
 
Just as Jesus made himself a total self gift to the Father on the cross and uttered those
words, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46), so too must each
one of us make that kind of surrender every time we attend Mass.   
 
We as a people are called first of all into intimacy, intimacy with our God, a God who has
called you son, daughter, a God who has given His life for you, and we are called to love
that God.  No one in this world has loved us as much as God has loved us. God is love in
all purity and in all eternity.  God has given each one of you your names.  God has called
you into history at this time and given you life through Jesus.    
 
As we celebrate the Mass the cross is present here and just as Mary and John and Mary
Magdalene stood at the foot of the cross, so too are you there today, in this Eucharist,
standing with them, reflecting and experiencing the love of God for you.  Live in that
love, my daughters and sons, receive that love and grow in faithfulness.  Then the words
of Jesus will truly be fulfilled in our faith. “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.” (John
6:55-56). 
 
What a tremendous gift!  What a tremendous promise!  May our hearts burns within us
with a deep love for Jesus present in the Eucharist and in our hearts as we receive him.