{"id":1352,"date":"2014-05-04T18:48:28","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T22:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2014-05-04T18:48:28","modified_gmt":"2014-05-04T22:48:28","slug":"3rd-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/3rd-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"3rd Sunday of Easter, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

3rd<\/sup> Sunday in Easter, Year A<\/a>
\nActs 2:14, 22-33
\n1 Peter 1:17-21
\nLuke 24:13-35
\nMay 4, 2014<\/p>\n

First Communion<\/p>\n

The disciples are walking on the road to Emmaus, troubled by what has happened, naming the Crucifixion and the empty tomb.\u00a0 As they walk, they do what we should all do, they are discussing faith.<\/p>\n

As they walk, Jesus comes along and joins them but they do not recognize him.\u00a0 He asks them what they are talking about.\u00a0 They are astonished that he would ask the question.\u00a0 How could he not know what they were talking about?<\/p>\n

For them, nothing could be more important than what has happened to Jesus.\u00a0 They cannot imagine someone not knowing and talking about this.<\/p>\n

Has your faith ever been that important to you?\u00a0 Do you talk about our faith?<\/p>\n

The disciples continue on their way as they converse with Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus talks to them about how everything that has happened is in accord with what had been written down in scripture.\u00a0 The disciples listen attentively to what Jesus says but they do not realize that he is Jesus.<\/p>\n

They like what they hear enough that they invite him to stay with them.\u00a0 As he stayed with them, they shared bread.\u00a0 It was when Jesus broke the bread that they realized who he was.<\/p>\n

This is fitting for our faith for it was no ordinary breaking of the bread that Jesus offered to them.\u00a0 It is the Eucharist, the bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Jesus, Jesus made present in the bread and wine in a way never heard of before.<\/p>\n

It is this same breaking of the bread that we celebrate every time we come for Mass.\u00a0 Our belief in the breaking of the bread and the real presence<\/em> is fundamental to our identity as Catholics.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, we celebrate something very special this weekend at all our Masses.\u00a0 We have eighteen of our children receiving their First Communion this weekend.<\/p>\n

They have been preparing for this special day since January.\u00a0 Actually, their preparation for this day began with the baptism, continued as they came to church and their parents taught them about our faith.\u00a0 It took on a new level when they started in our school or religion classes.\u00a0 Really, the preparation work they did in the last four months is really the culmination of all of this.<\/p>\n

So this is a very special day for them, a day to remember<\/em>.\u00a0 I think it can also be a day for all of us to think about what it means to receive Communion.<\/p>\n

For me two phrases come to mind, real presence<\/em> and reverence<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Real Presence<\/em> because it is not just bread and wine we receive.\u00a0 It is Jesus.\u00a0 It still looks like bread and wine.\u00a0 It still tastes like bread and wine but it is Jesus.\u00a0 In coming forth for Communion, we desire to become what we receive.\u00a0 We desire to become like Jesus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Because we believe it really is Jesus that we receive in Communion, we must show a great reverence<\/em>.\u00a0 We don\u2019t just pass the consecrated hosts around as we would with a bowl of candy.\u00a0 We come forth in solemn procession.\u00a0 Our coming forth is an expression of our desire to come to Jesus.\u00a0 So, it must be done with reverence.\u00a0 We forth in orderly lines, attentive to what we are about to receive.<\/p>\n

As the person ahead of us in line steps away after receiving the Body, we bow.\u00a0 Why do we bow?\u00a0 As a sign of reverence to our king, Jesus, present in the consecrated host.\u00a0 The minister holds up the host in reverence and says \u201cthe Body of Christ\u201d to which we say Amen.<\/em>\u00a0 Not thank to the minister but Amen!<\/em><\/p>\n

Amen means \u2018yes I believe\u2019.\u00a0 I believe it really is Jesus.\u00a0 We hold out our hands, one over the other making a \u2018throne\u2019 as St. Cyril described it in the fourth century, for Jesus.\u00a0 We immediately consume the host.\u00a0 Then we repeat this with the cup.<\/p>\n

We return to our pews quietly praying.\u00a0 We say thank you to God for giving us his Son in this way.\u00a0 We say thank you to Jesus.<\/p>\n

For those receiving your First Communion today is a very special day for you.\u00a0 But remember what this day means not just today but every time you receive Communion in the future, remember the precious gift we receive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3rd Sunday in Easter, Year A Acts 2:14, 22-33 1 Peter 1:17-21 Luke 24:13-35 May 4, 2014 First Communion The disciples are walking on the road to Emmaus, troubled by what has happened, naming the Crucifixion and the empty tomb.\u00a0 As they walk, they do what we should all do, they are discussing faith. As …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘3rd Sunday of Easter, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-lO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1353,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions\/1353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}