21st Sunday in Ordinary Time B
INTRO:
Interesting couple of lines in today’s Gospel:
Many of Jesus’s disciples who were listening said,
“This saying is hard, who can accept it?”
As a result of this many of His disciples returned to their
former way of life and
no longer accompanied Him.
How sad. Jesus was just explaining that he will give to all of us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink! Many couldn’t accept it.
In Robert Barron’s series called “Catholicism” he unveils the meaning of the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass.
He relates a story about the mother of the famous historian, CHRISTOPHER DAWSON. When DAWSON sought to convert from ANGLICANISM to Catholicism, his mother said; “It’s not the doctrine that concerns me, its now that you will be worshipping with “the help”!
Obviously not a very nice thing to say! She was someone who could not fully accept our teaching about EUCHARIST and going to Mass.
BUT that is the beauty of gathering for Mass each Sunday.
Some of you might know many who are here and some of you might know only a fraction of those who gather.
The Mass draws ALL PEOPLE from ALL WALKS OF LIFE and ALL BACKGROUNDS, not just the rich.
A person present at Mass might be a millionaire, a doctor, a blue-collar worker, or someone who may not know where the next meal may come from.
God calls all people to gather at Mass – the rich, the poor, the sick and the healthy. WHY?
Because we desire the real presence of JESUS CHRIST! Not a sign nor a symbol of Jesus Christ.
We come
I come here to CONFECT the bread and wine brought to the altar by YOU into JESUS CHRIST because I need HIM, because WE NEED HIM inside of us
To keep us in line
To keep us in tandem
To keep us in sync
With His way of life, His thinking, and His acting. This miracle in us makes the world a better place.
The millionaire and the poor one all of us need JESUS CHRIST.
This teaching that we receive, that we consume the REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS CHRIST in the form of BREAD AND WINE is tantamount to all Catholics.
“I AM the living bread that came down from heaven; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world!”