Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The priest repeated, "The Body of Christ," and she responded aloud, "Ave Maria." The priest thanked her and said, "See you next time."

I visited a hospice to administer the sacraments to a person in the final stages of cancer. We began with confession, followed by the anointing of the sick, the last rites, and communion. After receiving communion, we prayed in silence for a couple of minutes. I gently asked if there was anything else we could do for her. Her eyes filled with tears as she expressed, " I wish my son could receive communion again. I wish my sons could receive the Eucharist again; I want my sons to be saved, too."

Imagine a mother suffering greatly and nearing death; her only concern is the salvation of her children. This is the language of love, the language of Jesus our God, who hung on the cross, desiring nothing for himself but our salvation. Her final words were, "I want my sons to receive communion, too." What a powerful mother who loves the Eucharist. She was hungry for the Eucharist and satisfied, and now she wants her sons to be satisfied by the Eucharist.

Have you ever felt hungry or thirsty for it? I think that the right question we need to ask is, “Why am I not feeling hungry or thirsty for the Eucharist now?

It's because we hunger for earthly things, thirst for worldly pleasures and desires rather than the things of heaven, and hunger for earthly bread rather than the bread of heaven. In short, it's because we fix our eyes on this life and not on the life to come.

Brothers and sisters, we need to revive our love and hunger for the Eucharist because it is the source and summit of our Christian life. The Gospel today tells us that Jesus is the true bread from heaven; he is the source of heavenly Bread and the source of life.

But how can we rekindle our love for the Eucharist? Listen to what Jesus said, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” And here is what St. Paul recommends, “You should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self.” Be renewed by the Eucharist, and become what you have received at this altar, as St. Augustine said.

St. Ignatius speaks of his desire for the Eucharist and how he prefers it to all earthly things: “Do not talk about Jesus Christ while you desire the world… I take no pleasure in corruptible food or the pleasures of this life. I want the bread of God, which is the flesh of Christ; and for drink, I want his blood, which is incorruptible love.”

One of my American heroes, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, one of the greatest American theologians of the 20th century and a tireless promoter of Eucharistic devotion, told a very inspiring story.

When the Communists came into power in China, one of the things they wanted to do was suppress religion, especially Christianity. So, Chinese soldiers destroyed Catholic churches across the country. They took tabernacles and sacred vessels and imprisoned Catholic priests. When they came to destroy a Church in the countryside, a young girl named "Little Li" 11 years old, was hiding and observing from the back of the Church.

She watched the Tabernacle being torn away and the Eucharist falling out and scattering on the ground. The girl saw the Eucharist on the ground.

That night, the girl waited until nightfall and snuck back into the Church. She knelt before the discarded Eucharist. She had been taught as a child not to touch the Eucharist with her hands, so she knelt, bent her face to the ground, picked up the Eucharist off the ground with her tongue, stood up, and made the sign of the cross. She was also taught that she only receives communion once. So, she got up and sneaked away into the night, secretly making her way back home. Thirty-two hosts had been thrown on the floor, and for 32 nights, night after night, the girl kept coming back and receiving the Eucharist in the same manner. On the last night, after the girl had received the Eucharist, she accidentally made a noise that woke the guards, who chased her down and beat her to death.

Brothers and sisters, the young girl was hungry for the Bread of Life, and she was satisfied and became what she received.

We have no idea how blessed we are when we are capable of receiving the Creator of heaven and earth into ourselves. In the eucharistic, we see God coming infinitely close to us, even to the point of allowing himself to be consumed by us so that we take him into our minds, hearts, souls, and bodies. We become radiant, beautiful, and divine when we have Jesus within us. Wow, what an amazing mystery.

Dear sisters and brothers! You and I have a job; our job is to be what we received here, to bring the Eucharist to the world, and to defend the Eucharist in the secular world, where the very substance of our faith is being attacked. It is our duty and responsibility to protect the Body of Christ, the Eucharist.

Be the Eucharistic people; I am sure you will set the world on fire by the Eucharist.You will make the world hungry for the Eucharist. Be the Eucharistic people, and you will satisfy the hunger by the Bread of Life. That Bread of Life is Jesus Christ, who is right here on this altar. He is the only one who can fulfill our deepest hunger, for “whoever comes to him will never hunger; whoever believes in him will never thirst.”

The body of Christ. Amen.