Homily for January 2018 \u2013 Year of the Eucharist
\nIsaiah 60:1-6
\nPsalm 25:1, 4-5, 8-10, 14
\n1 Corinthians 1:10-17
\nLuke 10:25-37<\/p>\n
The Jews were called to be the people of God.\u00a0 What we call the Old Testament was the Hebrew Scriptures to them.\u00a0 What they called the Torah, what we know as the Pentateuch (the first five books, attributed to Moses), held the highest status.\u00a0 There are also the prophetic writings as well as the narrative books that tell the story of God and his people from the time Joshua led them across the Jordan River leading up to the time of Jesus.<\/p>\n
The scriptures revealed God\u2019s way to them.\u00a0 Our psalm tonight is the 25th<\/sup> psalm and it refers to God\u2019s ways (paths\/truth) no less than six times in thirteen lines.\u00a0 If one is to be faithful to God, one must learn God\u2019s ways.<\/p>\n Of course, we know that the truth is the Jews didn\u2019t always follow God.\u00a0 They strayed numerous times.\u00a0 God allowed to them to choose their own way but when they strayed, they faced consequences.<\/p>\n One of the times the Jews strayed was in the 7th<\/sup> & 8th<\/sup> century B.C.\u00a0 So, God allowed them to be defeated by the Babylonians.\u00a0 Many were taken into Exile.\u00a0 Our first reading is written at the end of the Exile.<\/p>\n It is the same reading we heard recently on Epiphany.\u00a0 Isaiah speaks to the Jews of how the light of the Lord again shines on them as God forgives them and sets them free.<\/p>\n They are to live as children of God and be examples to others.\u00a0 Isaiah writes, \u201cNations shall walk by your light, kings by the radiance of your dawning.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 They were to show the light they had received to others.<\/p>\n I mention the Epiphany because visit of the magi is the part of the Christmas story that reveals the gospel message will ultimately be for all, not just the Jews.\u00a0 From the Epiphany story, we recall how it was the Magi who were Gentiles rather than King Herod, a Jew, who recognized the grace of what was going on.<\/p>\n Jesus Christ came first to the Jews but then the gospel was taken to the Gentiles.\u00a0 Our whole Christian Church is founded upon Jesus as its one foundation.\u00a0 We are to unite through Jesus as \u201cOne Lord, one faith, one birth!\u201d (quote from the hymn \u201cThe Church\u2019s One Foundation.)<\/p>\n Beginning with the Apostles, the Church as we know it began to grow and spread the gospel message.\u00a0 It was centered on Christ but people\u2019s different views caused some division.<\/p>\n We see this in Paul\u2019s first letter to the Corinthians.\u00a0 He calls them to \u201cagree\u201d and \u201cthat there be no divisions among<\/em>\u201d them.\u00a0 Yet, there are \u201crivalries among\u201d <\/em>them.\u00a0 Some say they belong to Paul, others Apollos, and still others Cephas.<\/p>\n Now, while there is also going to be differences of human opinion, we need to put the focus on God\u2019s ways.\u00a0 Are we living as Christ calls us?\u00a0 Jesus refers to Deuteronomy 6:5 when he says, \u201cYou shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind<\/em>\u201d and Leviticus 19:18 when he calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves.<\/p>\n Who exactly is our neighbor?<\/p>\n For the Jews, it was narrowly defined and centered on other Jews.\u00a0 To lead us to understand that everyone is our neighbor, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.\u00a0 Samaritans were despised by the Jews.\u00a0 Yet, it was not the priest or the Levite who stopped to help the man who had falling victim to the robbers.\u00a0 It was the Samaritan who showed love for his neighbor.<\/p>\n 2,000 thousand years later are we doing any better about divisions?\u00a0 First, while gone are the Roman and Greek \u201cfalse\u201d gods, there are still numerous religions besides Christianity.\u00a0 There are the Jews and the Muslims who share the God of Abraham with us.\u00a0 There are also Buddhists, Hindus, and various tribal religions to name a few.<\/p>\n Even within Christianity we have Catholics, Episcopals, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists,\u2026.the list goes on.<\/p>\n And let us not forget the agnostics who question<\/strong> the existence of God as well as the atheists who deny<\/strong> the existence of God.\u00a0 We have moved from Psalm 25 where God\u2019s ways were desired to what we call \u201crelativism\u201d today that says there is no one truth.\u00a0 Anything goes as long as you don\u2019t hurt someone else.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t possibly address all these differences tonight.\u00a0 Tonight, I want to focus on Christian unity.\u00a0 Tomorrow is January 18th<\/sup> when we began a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that will end on January 25th<\/sup>, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.\u00a0 We ask God to bring us together in unity.<\/p>\n In a society where relativism is growing and many say religion is solely a private matter, it is hard to have genuine dialogue about our faith, our commonalities as well as our differences, but dialogue is exactly what we need.<\/p>\n We need to ask ourselves what is the goal of Christian dialogue.\u00a0 Some might seek more understanding of other denominations without expecting any real change.\u00a0 Others might want to say we should dialogue and then reach a \u201ccompromise\u201d on a common belief.<\/p>\n We should not and must not water down our faith.\u00a0 Genuine dialogue is not about proving who is right.\u00a0 The purpose of dialogue goes back to Psalm 25 where God\u2019s ways are what we seek.<\/p>\n I firmly believe our Catholic Church flows from the days of the Church that began at Jesus\u2019 Resurrection.\u00a0 Central in our belief is the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.\u00a0 Our belief that the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus is based on what we read in the Bible of the Last Supper.\u00a0 Jesus himself says \u201cthis is my Body\u2026this is my Blood.\u201d\u00a0 While we find this is found in the Bible and has been the teaching of the Church from the beginning, it is not a common belief to all Christian denominations.<\/p>\n As Catholics, we believe in transubstantiation where the bread and wine are permanently changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard of denominations that speak of \u201cconsubstantiation\u201d where Jesus becomes present in the bread and wine during the prayers but does not remain present afterwards.\u00a0 And, of course, there are Christian denominations who see Communion only as a remembering of the past.<\/p>\n As we come here for this holy hour with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, our belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is at the very center of why we are here tonight.\u00a0 In fact, the document Lumen Gentium<\/em> from the Second Vatican Council describes the Eucharist as the source and summit of who we are as Catholics.<\/p>\n So, out of genuine love for God and for our neighbor, let us pray for genuine dialogue between Christians and that all may know the presence of God that we find in the Blessed Sacrament that we see on our altar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Homily for January 2018 \u2013 Year of the Eucharist Isaiah 60:1-6 Psalm 25:1, 4-5, 8-10, 14 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 Luke 10:25-37 The Jews were called to be the people of God.\u00a0 What we call the Old Testament was the Hebrew Scriptures to them.\u00a0 What they called the Torah, what we know as the Pentateuch (the …<\/p>\n