Homily - Sunday
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA
Anytime I
drive to Las Vegas, I can’t help but to look a couple of hundred yards beyond
the side of the road, off the road far enough that it is pretty much the
natural surface of the ground full of rocks, and cacti, and I imagine what it
was like for those first settlers that came across the desert. How difficult it
must have been, not knowing where they were going, not knowing how far until
they got “there”, wherever “there” was, having no idea as to what obstacles lie
in front of them, what cliff, what giant canyon, or what waterway was waiting to
block their path, and on top of that, they were completely on their own to
provide their own food, water, and perform any repairs necessary to their equipment
while they traveled. They also had to be concerned about medical, for
childbirth, animal attacks, and general illness from unpreserved and untreated,
unrefrigerated food and water, coupled with infections to wounds that had no
antibiotic treatments at the time, all while having no communication to the outside world
to call for help, no 911, no calls to that helpful brother-in-law of yours that
knows how to fix wagon wheels really well, and no webmd or doctors to rely on for
medical advice. It must have been a real test of fortitude and endurance for
those journeying through the desert.
Today’s
readings also call to mind a journey through the desert, the journey of the
Israelites after escaping Egypt and its slavery. They too were in the desert,
but not for hours, days, or weeks, but for forty years. Forty years they spent
in the desert! Imagine that, wandering around between here and Las Vegas for
forty years, without the McDonald’s in Barstow Station, no rest stop at the
world’s biggest thermometer in Baker, no food or water…. That is except what God
provided: water, quail, and manna: water, meat, and bread.
Imagine you were given the opportunity to have
any meal prepared for you, what would it be? what meal is your favorite meal? Steak and lobster with crème brûlée for dessert maybe? Now, imagine having THAT
meal every meal for forty years… I think I would be done with steak and lobster
after about the third day. But forty years they had manna, quail and water,
which, while it met their needs, is no steak and lobster.
But they
survived. They survived on what God provided for them, they were nourished by
that manna and quail for forty years. It may not have been the tastiest meal,
it certainly didn’t offer much variety, it may not have been worthy of posting
pictures to Instagram, and I doubt the yelp reviews would have been very high
either, but the manna that came down from heaven and the quail, gave life to
the Israelites for forty years. Our loving God provided for them.
Today, God
provides for us not through manna, but through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As
he said in today’s Gospel, Jesus is the living bread that came down from heaven.
It is our belief as Catholics that Jesus is present in the Body of Christ in
the host, and in the Blood of Christ in the Chalice. It is a key belief of our
faith, and rooted in the scripture of today’s Gospel, and the Gospel of the
last supper, when Jesus spoke the words of institution we hear at each Mass: when
he says “Take this all of you and eat of it, for this is my body”, and “Take
this, all of you, and drink from it: for this is the chalice of my blood, the
blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for
many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” It is through Jesus
present in the Eucharist that we get to unite with God, that we consume Him and
he becomes present in us.
So when we
participate in communion and are dismissed at the end of Mass, how do we make the
Jesus that is present in us, present to those around us. As we walk out of
Church, and we drive down the road, as we make our way to our homes, work, or
marketplaces, how does our behavior make Christ present to others?
Our lives
are full of opportunities to be Christ-like to others. But what does it mean? To
be Christ like? We only need to look at what God has revealed to us. We can
look at the commandments, we can look at the beatitudes, we can look at Jesus’
own actions, and we can look at the lessons he would teach through parables,
and sermons.
The message
we see over and over in its simplest form, is love God, and love your neighbor.
How we are to live that out is defined throughout the Scriptures. We see it when
we look at Matthew 25 where Jesus talks about what we have done to the least we
have done to Jesus. We see it in the old testament, when we see to treat others
fairly, and to charge fair amounts for goods, and to not fix the scales in our
favor, and leave crops in the field for the hungry. We see it in the story of
the Israelites as God continues to encourage us to remember the time when his
chosen people were wandering in the foreign lands of the desert. And we see how
God provided for His people when they couldn’t provide for themselves.
If we
participate in communion at Sunday Mass, we get a weekly reminder that we are
called to be Christ to others, and as we recognize Christ in the Eucharist, it
also gives us a weekly reminder to recognize Christ in others. To see God in all
his creation: From the simplest of things, like the blossoming flower that
fights it way up through a crack in the sidewalk, to seeing God in our
struggles. With this spiritual nourishment, we can go out to the world and often
without even thinking about our actions be Christ-like, Godly people. So when
we see someone in need, it can be a reflex to help them without even consciously
thinking about what is the right thing to do. When we run into the obstacles
that lie ahead in our lives, we are reminded by are participation in Mass, and
communion that we are not alone, that God is with us, and will provide our
needs. That with Christ within us we can go forth glorifying God by our life
knowing that we are bringing Christ into the world, and that Christ is with us during
our times in deserts.
