Bishop reflects on the Gospel of St. John

July 24, 2003

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Holy Father has recently written a letter on the Eucharist. For the next five Sundays, parishes in the Sioux City Diocese are going to be reading Chapter 6 of St. John's Gospel. The bishop wants to share some reflections of those readings. These reflections will be printed in The Globe for the next five weeks.

Homily Notes

Homily 1: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Beginning today and for the next four Sundays, we interrupt the continuous reading from the Gospel of Saint Mark. During these Sundays, we will read Chapter 6 of the Gospel of Saint John, a chapter centered on the multiplication of loaves and fishes, and followed by a long discourse or sermon by the Lord Jesus on the meaning of this sign, a sign that points to him as the Bread of Life, a sign that looks forward to the institution and celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is central to our faith as Catholics, for by it the whole Christ is contained. Our intimacy, growth in faith, and deepening of love for him and for others, is the very reason for the Holy Eucharist. Our reflections on this Chapter 6 of the Gospel will enable us to deepen this rich and inexhaustible mystery of Christ's love and self-sacrifice for our salvation and his obedience to the Father. Since the Eucharist is "spirit-filled", our reflection will also allow us to think more specifically on the mystery of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

To help us in this reflection, we are going to also comment on the recent Encyclical ("Circular Letter") of the Holy Father on the Eucharist. He published it this past Holy Thursday, in the 25th year of his guidance of the Church as Pope, as an anniversary gift to the whole Church. Usually, the Pope writes a letter to priests every Holy Thursday. In this special anniversary year, he has decided to extend a letter to the whole Church. It is a deeply personal reflection on the gift of the Eucharist and its meaning for the Church. I hope to be able to unpack some of the themes of this encyclical as we meditate on the Gospel passages from Chapter 6 of St. John.

A hungry crowd is fed. Jesus has mercy on those who are indeed physically in need. But the "sign" he performs is to say something about himself and the mystery of who he is. Notice the incomprehension of the disciples. In wonderful irony, they pose questions to which we the readers already know the answer. We also note the words used by St. John to describe the sign: Jesus "gives thanks"; they distribute; the fragments are gathered up into unity. The scene has unmistakable overtones of the Last Supper and the early celebrations of the Eucharist.

The sign is misunderstood. The miracle becomes an occasion to use Jesus for other ends, for political purposes, for "bread and circuses." Jesus flees from such an interpretation of this sign of mercy pointing to a deeper mercy, HIMSELF. It will be necessary for him to reapproach the crowd next week in Capernaum and begin to unveil the meaning of this sign.

In the Introduction to his Encyclical, the Holy Father speaks of the Eucharist as the heart of the mystery of the Church. It is the fulfillment of Jesus promise to be with us always until the end of the ages. Christ remains for us always our Passover and our living bread. For this reason, the Holy Father invites us to return again in wonder to the Upper Room, Gethsemane, The trial and Crucifixion of Jesus, His life giving death and his Resurrection. He invites us to return again to the "Sacred Triduum," the time that marks the turning point in our salvation. It is the "hour"; the meaning filled time when Christ's broken Body and life-giving blood are given to us. By bestowing on us the gift of the Eucharist, Christ brought about a mysterious "Oneness in time" between those events of his Passion and Death and the passage of the centuries.

The Eucharist, then, is a profound mystery of mercy, the very way that the Lord Jesus, who loved his own and loved them to the end, can continue to show his love throughout time. Christ's sacrificial death is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that he offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it. Thus the sacrifice of the Cross, represented in each celebration of the Eucharist, is constantly made available to us throughout the ages. The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross: it does not add to it nor multiply it.

In the reaction to the multiplication of bread in today's Gospel, there were faulty interpretations. Jesus flees from such thinking. It should not be surprising that the Eucharist as well can receive faulty interpretations. The Holy Father is candid in his estimation of erroneous interpretations of the Eucharist today. Some people reduce the meaning of the Eucharist and deprive it of its sacrificial nature. It becomes only a fraternal banquet, a purely horizontal means of fellowship. Some reduce the understanding of the priesthood and obscure its meaning in the Eucharist. But the priesthood is part of the reality of apostolic succession, that Christ gave the Eucharist to the Apostles to be carried out in time. Priests act in the person of Christ in the Eucharist in a sacramental identification. They are not functionaries. Another error the Holy Father laments is the reception of the Eucharist unworthily. Those in serious sin, and that includes those who have absented themselves from Sunday Mass without a just cause, cannot receive the Eucharist worthily without first receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist demands reverence and discernment by the Church as to its proper celebration.

Next week we will continue our discussions on the Eucharist as we hear the words of Jesus in the Gospel: "I am the Bread of Life." May that same Lord Jesus sustain us this week and always in our life of faith.