Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Whose Job Is It To Take Care Of The Poor?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, September 8, 2024

A few years ago, a Catholic priest in Nigeria did something totally startling and downrightly dramatic. He wanted to see how his parishioners would respond to an impoverished man begging for charity. One Sunday morning, this priest dressed up in torn and worn-out clothing he collected during the week, put some dirt on his head and face as a way of disguising himself and then sat in front of his church begging. Aside from a sign in his hands that reads, “Help the poor” he also adopted a sorrowful tone of voice as he pleads, “Please, help me. I am hungry and homeless.” The priest made sure he sat outside of the main entrance to the church before people started to come to Mass. As he sat there begging, a few people who entered the church gave him money, while the rest, the vast majority of the people, wondered why a beggar was allowed to sit there and beg. Eventually, the priest who disguised as a destitute was harshly ordered to leave. When he hesitated and continued to beg for help, some men came, picked him up and threw him out of the church compound. And they made sure he didn’t come back. To make the long story short, the priest eventually made his way back to the rectory and dressed up for Mass. By the way, this whole drama was captured on video by a young man who was hired by the priest. During his homily, the priest stood before his parishioners and said something like “Brothers and sisters, I am that poor beggar at the door that was thrown out of the church premises.” And that was his entire homily. The silence that followed was deafening. 

In today’s second reading (James 2:1-5), St. James sharply criticizes Christians who discriminate against the poor just as the disguised priest in the story was treated by his parishioners. In Catholic social teaching, there is something called “preferential option for the poor.” It is a principle which is littered throughout the Bible that encourages all people and particularly Christians to prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable in society. It says that priority should be given to the well-being of the poor and the powerless in our society. Now, before you frown, “option for the poor” is not a slogan that pits one group against another. Instead it is a way to recognize and always remember that the deprivation of the poor affects not only the poor but the whole community and the whole society. What does this entail? Here in our country, hundreds of billions of dollars are yearly budgeted for military purposes. While this is necessary, the Catholic Church urges our leaders to also prioritize production that meets social needs. The Church also encourages everyone to help the poor, to think about the poor and to follow Jesus’ example and teaching. Jesus taught that feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, and caring for the sick are ways to look after him. The Church has always seen almsgiving, which means all kinds of charity to the poor, as an essential part of the Gospel, not an extra or a specialization for a few. 

How are the poor discriminated against? One of the ways we discriminate against the poor is not always very obvious. It is rather subtle and subdued. We do this not so much by commission as St. James says in our second reading for today, but by omission. We do this by ignoring the poor, deliberately avoiding the poor, not paying attention to their existence and their needs and by convincing ourselves that there is nothing we can do to help them. We give reasons why they are poor, which is always their fault. Another way we discriminate against the poor is giving undue and disproportionate attention to the well-off. In some Christian churches, some individuals are assigned to particularly attend to the rich who come to church. The pastor caters to them, pays particular attention to them and regularly recognizes them individually in the assembly. Meanwhile the not so rich members who ensure that the church is tidy are hardly recognized. Finally, another way we discriminate against the poor is by ignoring the spiritually poor and their spiritual needs. We forget that some of the poorest people in our society are actually people with good and comfortable houses, good jobs, and fat bank accounts. But by our very calculations, they are truly rich, materially rich. But by God’s calculations, they are the poorest among us. 

Now, what is the Catholic Church’s position on this matter? Everybody, from the leadership of the Church to the man and woman in the pews, should care for the needs of everybody. If the spiritually alert among us are materially poor, the Church must preach and promote causes that lift them up. And if the materially wealthy among us are spiritually poor, the Church must speak the truth to them. From the lips of Jesus we hear, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). The materially poor and spiritually poor need our charity, and the foremost and greatest act of charity we can give, the great St. Thomas Aquinas writes, is to lead our neighbor to the truth. In reality, everyone is poor, either materially poor or spiritually poor. As such, everyone needs to be led to Christ Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Speak the truth in love and practice charity with clarity!

And may God give you peace!

 

Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Ritual Practices Must Lead To Encounter

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, September 1, 2024

In all religions, observing the norms of purification play a crucial role: first, they give us a sense of the holiness of God. Secondly, they shine a spotlight on our darkness from which we must be set free if we are to be able to approach God. In Judaism at the time of Jesus, observing the laws of purification dominated the entire life of Jewish people. But in today’s Gospel (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23), we see Jesus challenging this idea of obtaining religious purity through ritual actions. The main issue is: before God, what makes a person pure? Is it the washing of hands before eating? Is it the purification of oneself after returning from the marketplace? Is it the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds? Does purity come from ritual activities? For Jesus, it is not ritual actions that make us pure. For Jesus, purity and impurity come from within a person’s heart and depend on the condition of the person’s heart. My late mother, she is a saint, was fond of saying after opening her hands and showing them to her listeners, “Just because I washed my hands properly with soap and water does not mean my hands are clean.” Another thought provoking comment she used to say during her earthly life was, “Having a good bath does not mean you are clean.” These words of my late mother can help us understand our Gospel passage for this weekend.

But how does the heart become pure? In the Beatitude, Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). Who is the pure in heart who can see God? Liberal theology says that Jesus has replaced obtaining purity through ritual acts with morality. So, in place of the washing of hands before eating etc. we now have morality. But the problem with this view is that it reduces Christianity to be essentially about morality, about being good and avoiding evil. But Christianity is much more than that. Christianity is not primarily about ethics and morality, about “being a nice person” or “having a heart of gold.” If the ultimate goal of Christianity is to make us morally better people, then why evangelize? I tell you, if you go round the world, you will meet people who are not Christians nevertheless, they are very good people, and they live an ethically upright life. Now, should a Christian live an upright life? Yes indeed! But is that what Christianity and Christian living is primarily about? Not at all! Christianity is about forming a relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s about walking in his footsteps. It’s about surrendering to his lordship. It’s about making Jesus Christ the fundamental organizing principle of your life. The amazing thing about Christianity is that it is not a set of ideas. It is not merely observing rules and norms. Deep down, Christianity is a relationship with someone, a person— who is both human and divine, and who has a voice. If we listen to his voice at all times, we will never go astray. 

In place of ritual purity, what we now have is not merely morality and a collection of laws, rather the gift of encounter with God in Jesus Christ. After his lengthy teaching on the sacramentality of his Body and Blood in John 6, we hear what I consider as one of the saddest lines in the New Testament, “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (John 6:66). Then in one of the most dramatic and frightening moments in the New Testament, Jesus turns to the Twelve Apostles and asks them, “Do you also want to leave?” (John 6:67). Christianity is about declaring, stating and insisting over and over again Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-70). Every religious ritual and practice must lead to an encounter with God. All Catholic rituals like the sacraments, attending Mass on Sunday and holy day of obligation, praying the rosary, lighting candles before the icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Guadalupe, blessing yourself with holy water, bowing and genuflecting before the Blessed Sacrament, the altar etc. must lead us to real encounter with the one who is present in all the sacraments and whose power is infused in all the icons. If they don’t, then we are like the Pharisees who honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far away from him. 

May God give you peace!

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The Real Presence: Where The Rubber Meets The Road

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Today we come to the end of the extraordinary sixth Chapter of John’s Gospel. For five straight weeks, we have been reading and reflecting on the Eucharistic discourse of John. In last week’s Gospel, Jesus told his listeners, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (John 6:53). This sets the stage for what we see in today’s Gospel, which is, by the way, the final act, the culmination and the climax of the entire discourse. Today we hear, “many of his disciples who were listening said, “This is a hard saying; who can accept it?” (John 6:60). Notice who is speaking. They are not a neutral audience; they are not enemies of Jesus. These are his disciples, people who are following him about and listening to him. Yet, they found his speech extremely shocking and too hard to accept. Knowing their utter consternation, Jesus does not say, “Hey, I am only speaking symbolically.” Instead he says, “Does this shock you?” (John 6:61). If I were there, my response would be a loud YES! When Protestant Christians read John chapter 6, they understand it in a more or less symbolic way. But the question they have refused to attend to is this: if Jesus were speaking merely in a symbolic way and the people knew it to be so, why would they be so shocked and threatened to leave? And we have instances where Jesus speaks symbolically. When he refers to himself as the true vine, as a good shepherd, as the door and even compares himself to a mother hen, no one fumed because it was clear he was speaking in a metaphorical way. But in the Bread of Life of Discourse they knew he was speaking in a shockingly realistic way. That was why they were murmuring, quarreling and threatening to leave. 

Once again, Jesus has the opportunity to clarify his language, to tell his disciples that he was speaking metaphorically, instead he says, “There are some of you who do not believe” (John 6:64). He is not trying to make it easy for them; he is recognizing the fact that there are some of them who do not believe. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is the standing or falling moment. This is where we have to make up our minds. Do you accept this teaching of Jesus or not? From the very beginning the Catholic Church has always insisted upon the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. We didn’t invent it. It is not a product of the medieval era. Rather, it goes all the way back to this sixth chapter of John. Now, as if to rob be all in, Jesus says, “What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail” (John 6:62-63). Jesus is human and also divine. While his humanity comes from the earth, his divinity comes from the higher realm. Jesus is God. And what God says is. God’s speech is not descriptive like ours, his speech is rather creative. God makes things through his intelligible speech. From the Book of Genesis we hear, “God says, ‘Let there be light and there was light.” “Let the dry land appear” and so it happens. When God speaks, things happen. Speaking through prophet Isaiah God says, “Just as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, so my word does not go forth from me in vain but rather accomplishes what it set out to do” (Isaiah 55:10-11). Jesus is not one prophet among the many, but the very incarnation of Yahweh. John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word became flesh in Jesus” (John 1:1). That’s why what Jesus says is. To the paralyzed man Jesus says, “My son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). When he said that, the scribes correctly questioned, “Why does this man speak that way…Who but God alone can forgive sins?” But what Jesus says is. To the little girl of 12, Jesus says, “Talitha Koum” which means “Little girl, get up” (Mark 5:41). And she got up! To the dead brother of Mary and Martha Jesus says, “Lazarus come out” (John 11:43), and he came forth because what God says is. Then the night before he died, Jesus took the Passover bread and said, “This is my Body.” After that he takes the Passover cup and says, “This is the chalice of my Blood.” You can say those words and mean them in a metaphorical way. But when Jesus says them what he says is. Why? Because he came from heaven; he is not one figure among the many, but God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. People who first heard him understood what was at stake too, and that was why they kicked and balked at what Jesus was saying. 

Having taken in all he said, we hear one of the saddest lines in the New Testament: “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (John 6:66). Jesus’ enemies opposed him in every direction, but these people who left him in great numbers and never followed him again are his followers, his disciples. They just couldn’t accept this particular teaching. Then in one of the most dramatic and frightening moments in the New Testament, Jesus turns to his inner circle, the Twelve Apostles and says to them, “Do you also want to leave?” (John 6:67). Then Peter, the impetuous one speaks as he often does for the Twelve, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life” (John 6:68). Peter is saying something we should all pay attention to: “You have the words of everlasting life,” It is by those words, those eternal words that the Eucharistic change is effected. In Caesarea Philippi, Peter confessed the messiahship of Jesus, he confessed the divinity of Jesus. Now, he is confessing Jesus’ power to effect the Eucharistic change. Praise the good Lord that the Twelve did not leave. If they had left, the whole project of salvation could have collapsed. In 2007 when I was preparing for my priestly ordination, I started to think of words in the Bible that best describe my journey, and I would use those words for my ordination postcard. Among the many words in the Bible that appeal to me, it came down to these two: My zeal to your house O God burns in me like a fire,” (John 2:17) therefore, “Lord, to whom shall we go to since you have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). By using the words of Peter, I state that I am in complete agreement with Peter. Wholeheartedly I believe that Jesus’ words are the words of eternal life, and it is those his eternal words that change bread and wine into his Body and Blood. So, are you with the Eucharistic Jesus or not? Do you accept this teaching or not? If Jesus asks you the question: “Do you also want to leave?” I hope your answer will be the same as Peter’s: “Lord to whom shall we go?”

God bless you!

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Lord, To Whom Shall We Go?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Today we come to the end of the extraordinary sixth Chapter of John’s Gospel. For five straight weeks, we have been reading and reflecting on the Bread of Life Discourse of John. Among the four Gospels, John records the lengthiest and the most complete teaching of Jesus on this most precious gift of inestimable value— the gift of the Lord’s Body and Blood. In last week’s Gospel, Jesus told his listeners, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (John 6:53). Today, we have the final act, the culmination and the climax of the story. We hear that “many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, ‘This saying is hard; who can accept it?’” (John 6:60). Notice that we are not talking about the enemies of Jesus, rather his followers. Yet, they found his teaching impossible to accept. After expressing “difficulty to accept the high christology reflected in the Bread of Life discourse,” we hear one of the saddest lines in the New Testament: “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (John 6:66). The number of people that left was so many causing Jesus to wonder aloud to the Twelve Apostles, “Do you also want to leave?” At this point the whole Christian project was at risk of collapsing, it was hanging in the balance. But glory be to God that Peter speaks, as he did in the synoptic Gospels to another of Jesus’ probing questions: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” In Peter’s answer, we find the great Catholic answer to why we believe.

As you read this reflection, please consider these questions: if Jesus’ words were meant in a symbolic sense, why did many of his disciples leave him? If what Jesus meant was simply, “the bread is a symbol of my body,” why would there be such a strong reaction? I tell you, if his words were meant to be understood in a metaphorical way, they would not have had such a shocking effect. And the Jewish Scriptures deal in poetic metaphor all the time. The disciples who left Jesus understood exactly what Jesus meant. And given every opportunity to explain and clarify himself better, Jesus does nothing of the kind. Instead, he doubles down and rebukes them for their lack of faith. This is why the Catholic tradition has insisted that Jesus’ words should be taken straightforwardly. 

But why do we need the Eucharist? Life is a journey. And on this journey, we need nourishment. We need sustenance. We need refreshment. No other food can offer and guarantee us all these but the Body of Christ. Moreover, Jesus knows the brunt of this journey of life. He lived it himself. So, in the Eucharist, Jesus journeys with us and offers himself to us as our nourishment and support.  

God bless you!

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Profound Means We Find Union With God

 Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, August 18, 2024

From the ancient times to the present day, some Christians have tried to misread, to misinterpret, and to soften what Jesus meant when he said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” They argue that Jesus was speaking figuratively, that his words should be understood from the standpoint of metaphor, a sign and a symbol. But what these people refuse to take into account is the reaction and response of the crowd, the Jewish crowd that first heard Jesus make the audacious claim of the sacramentality of his Body and Blood. When Jesus declares himself as the “living bread that came down from heaven” the crowd queried: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They know Jesus is not speaking in a metaphoric manner. They understand he is not peddling in a symbolic language; that is why they protested.

But why did the Jews react negatively to his language? Littered in the Hebrew Scripture, which is the Old Testament, is the prohibition of eating meat with blood. In Genesis, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, the eating of meat with blood is obviously forbidden. The blood of an animal was seen as its life. So, it was not only disgusting for Jews to eat raw meat, it is against their law. Now, if the consumption of animal flesh and blood was forbidden by their law, how much more human flesh and blood? Yet, that’s what he says. Jesus was given every opportunity to render his word more acceptable by making them metaphorical and symbolic. But rather than take that route, he doubles down. When his Jewish audience rightfully asked, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus ratcheted up and intensified his language: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” 

Come with me to John 3:1-21. In this chapter we read of a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him.” Refusing to get carried away by the Pharisee’s nice words, Jesus immediately said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.” At this point, the Pharisee got confused. He took Jesus’s words literally. So, he asked Jesus, “How can a person once grown old be born again?” Nicodemus’ question is a question of clarification: How can an adult return to the mother’s womb and be born all over again? Jesus realized Nicodemus is interpreting his language strictly and literally. So, he corrects him, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” Jesus is speaking about baptism. So, we have an account of Jesus in the Bible clarifying himself when he was misunderstood or taken too literally. 

But in our Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus’ speech was also taken literally. When he said, “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” the Jews agitated, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They took him literally and resisted him. But rather than clarify his statement, Jesus doubles down: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” The Lord was given the chance to render his language as a metaphor but rather than do so, he raises the temperature. He makes it more vividly realistic and if you want, more appalling. To rob it in, he adds, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” No religious founder or leader: Moses, Elijah, the Buddha, Mohammad etc. ever spoke that way. What does this tell us? It communicates profoundly that Christianity is not primarily a system of ideas or moral recommendation. Jesus is not one teacher or guru among the many. Christianity is a relationship to Jesus. It is an organic friendship with him. We remain in him and he remains in us. What is the means by which we remain in him and he in us? It is primarily the eating of his Body and the drinking of his Blood. So, see the Eucharist as the most profound, the most supreme and the most real way to remain in Jesus and Jesus in you. Look at the Eucharist as the real and concrete way you can remain in the Lord and the Lord remains in you. As the song goes: “Look beyond the Bread you eat, see your Savior and your Lord; Look beyond the Cup you drink, see his love poured out as blood.” This substantial change happens at the deepest level, and not at the level of appearance or taste. This is what we call Transubstantiation, which says that in the great act of consecration, the substance of the bread and wine, their deepest and core reality changes into the Body and Blood of Jesus, even as the appearances of the bread and wine remain. The Eucharist is finally the means we find union with God. 

May God bless you!

And may God grant you peace!

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Real And Profound Means We Are United To God

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, August 18, 2024

In Christianity, there are two scandals. The first scandal is the scandal of the Incarnation. In the prologue of the Gospel of John, Jesus is described as the Word made flesh, which is another way of saying that God became human, that God, the creator of all things, has pitched his tent among us. He has become one of us, that the man Jesus is literally God, and his death on the cross literally gives us eternal life. The second scandal is the scandal of the Eucharist— that what we eat and drink at Mass called the Eucharist is not something but Someone, that bread and wine, as it appears to be, is truly and literally the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. In today’s Gospel (John 6:51-58), we continue to read the great Bread of Life Discourse. Speaking to the Jews, Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:51). Based on this declaration, the Church insists that the Eucharist is the food that feeds us and equips us for life in the heavenly realm. It is like a lifejacket. If you are going to travel on a boat across a sea, you have to put on a lifejacket. On April 10, 2024, a young and popular actor in Nigeria named Junior Pope and three other actors died while they were returning from a movie set. How did they die? The boat they were traveling in across the River Niger capsized. The actors who survived the accident were those who wore lifejackets. The Eucharist is like a spacesuit. You have to wear it if you are going to walk in space. Life is a journey. And on this journey, we need nourishment. We need sustenance. No other food can offer and guarantee us all these but the Body of Christ. Moreover, Jesus knows the brunt of this journey of life. He lived it himself. So, he journeys with us. He goes before us and offers himself to us as our nourishment and support.

When the Jewish crowd heard Jesus declare himself as the “living bread that came down from heaven” they resisted him: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they quarried. Why did the Jews react negatively to his sermon? Littered in the Hebrew Scripture, which is the Old Testament, is the prohibition of eating meat with blood. In Genesis, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, the eating of meat with blood is obviously forbidden. The blood of an animal was seen as its life. So, it was not only disgusting for Jews to eat raw meat, it is against their law. Now, if the consumption of animal flesh and blood was forbidden by the Jewish law, how much more human flesh and blood? Yet, that’s what he says. Jesus was given every opportunity to render his word more acceptable by making them metaphorical and symbolic. In the Gospel of John chapter 3, we read of Jesus meeting a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus. This man came to Jesus at night for fear of being seen by fellow Pharisees. In their conversation, Jesus told Nicodemus about being born again: “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). Because he took Jesus’ words literally, Nicodemus wondered, “How can a person once grown old be born again?” Of course, Jesus corrects him for taking his words literally, when he says, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” So, we have an account of Jesus in the Bible clarifying himself when he was misunderstood or taken too literally. 

In our Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus’ speech was also taken literally. When he said, “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” the Jews became more angry and agitated, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked. They understood what he was talking about. They took him literally and resisted him. Rather than clarify his statement, Jesus doubles down: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” Jesus was given the chance to render his language as a metaphor but rather than do so, he raises the temperature. He makes it more vividly realistic and if you want, more appalling. To rob it in, he adds, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” Moses, Elijah, the Buddha, Mohammad, or any religious founder ever spoke that way. What does this tell us? It communicates profoundly that Christianity is not primarily a system of ideas or moral recommendation. Jesus is not one teacher or guru among the many. Christianity is a relationship to Jesus. It is an organic friendship with him. We remain in him and he remains in us. What is the means by which we remain in him and he in us? It’s the eating of his Body and the drinking of his Blood. So, see the Eucharist as the most profound, the most supreme and the most real way of remaining in Jesus and Jesus in you. Even if you don’t really understand the Church’s teaching on Transubstantiation, which says that in the great act of consecration, the substance of the bread and wine— that is to say, their deepest and core reality change into the Body and Blood of Jesus, even as the appearances, accidents, species of the bread and wine remain, look at the Eucharist as the real and concrete way you remain in Jesus and Jesus remains in you. The Eucharist is finally the means we find union with God. 

In the sixth chapter of John, we find the main reason why up and down the centuries, the Catholic Church continues to resist all attempts to soften the words of our Savior, to turn them into a mere symbolic speech. It is precisely because he is who he is. This change can be effected at the deepest level. Check this out! Anyone of us can effect a symbolic change. There is a red cap of my late father in my possession. My dad died on June 11, 1984, that is 40 years ago. But I still have the same cap he wore, and I consider it the symbol of my father. We can read sermons and writings of great saints. We can read speeches of great political figures in the history of the country. We can even mimic the way they spoke and then conclude that these speeches offer us the spirit of those great figures. That’s fine. We can all effect symbolic changes, but God by his speech effects being at the deepest level because God’s speech is the means by which the world comes into existence. Jesus Christ is not one human being among the many. He is the Word made flesh. Therefore, whatever he says is. His speech is not descriptive but creative. The Eucharist is the means by which we are united to Christ and therefore to the Father. If you get this and understand it, I tell you, you will never miss Mass for the rest of your life. 

May God give you his peace!

Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Food For Spiritual Exhaustion

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, August 11, 2024

What is Elijah, the greatest prophet of all time doing in the desert? Is he there to reflect, to recollect and to pray? Is he in the desert to prophesy, to preach and teach? Not at all! The desert is a very dry place and there’s hardly any life there. But what is he doing there? And why is he beckoning on God to take his life? Why is he praying for death? Elijah is running away from the king of Israel at the time, Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. Why? As a judgment for their idolatry, Israel had gone for more than three years without rain in the land. The drought has adversely affected every aspect of life in Israel. As a result, prophet Elijah confronts king Ahab and challenges him to a spiritual showdown. After agreeing to the contest, king Ahab summons the people of Israel to gather on Mount Carmel. He also invites the 450 prophets of the false god Baal. On Mount Carmel, Elijah says to the people of Israel, “How long will you waver over this issue? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). But the people remained noncommittal. Elijah then turns to the prophets of Baal and challenges them to prepare a bull as an offering for their god and to call upon the name of their gods. Elijah also promises to do the same. Then he adds, “The God who answers with fire is God” (1 Kings 18:24). At this time, the people of Israel chanted, “We agree!”The prophets of Baal went first. They cried out and danced around their altar from morning till noon with no answer from Baal. Elijah began to mock them saying, “Call louder, for he is a god; he may be busy doing his business, or he may be on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened” (1 Kings 18:27). So the prophets of Baal “shouted louder and even slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.” Midday passed and evening approached, yet, “there was no sound, no one answering, no one listening” (I Kings 18:29). 

After that, Elijah invites the people to draw closer to him, and they did. He rebuilds the altar of the Lord that had been destroyed. When it is ready, he cuts up a young bull and lays it on the wood. He then asks the people to dump twelve large jars of water on the altar of sacrifice. The water soaked the sacrifice and the wood. Elijah then prays, “Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord! Answer me, that this people may know that you, Lord, are God and that you have turned their hearts back to you.” Then God did what Baal could never do: the fire of the Lord fell from heaven and consumed the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and lapped up the water in the trench. Having witnessed this great event, all the people fell down on their knees and said, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!” Right away, Elijah instructs the people to seize all the prophets of Baal and put them to death. Following this event, the Lord ended the drought and sent rain upon the land. When Ahab, the king of Israel got home, he narrated everything that Elijah had done, how he had murdered all the prophets of Baal by the sword. In anger, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah and said, “May the gods do thus to me and more, if by this time tomorrow I have not done with your life what was done to each of them” (1 Kings 19:2). Upon hearing the serious message of threat to his life, Elijah flees the city and is now hiding in the desert. Sitting under a broom tree completely exhausted physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, Elijah prays for death, “This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors” (1 Kings 19:4). He has hit the wall and can no longer go on. Did God answer Elijah’s prayer? No! As Elijah was sleeping, the angel of the Lord brought to him bread and water and said to him, “Get up and eat.” After eating, Elijah goes back to sleep. Yet again the angel comes back to him and says, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you.” And for the second time, Elijah got up and ate. Having been strengthened by that food, “he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb” (1 Kings 19:8). 

Sisters and brothers, are there times when like Elijah, you feel you have hit the wall? Are there times when spiritually and psychologically you feel you have hit the wall? You don’t know what else to do or where else to go. You may have even prayed for death or wished death could come. Spiritually you feel you can no longer go one. Now, in those moments, what do we need? Food from this world? Not so much. If you notice, the food that Elijah ate was provided by an angel, which is a symbolic reference to the fact that the food we are talking about here is food from another world. It’s food from another plane of existence. In this life, we need to eat and drink this heavenly food if we are to go on. When we are out of gas spiritually and then hit the wall, what we need is food. But not earthly food, but heavenly food. 

Now, the story of Elijah, his hitting the wall, his spiritual exhaustion, and praying for death is meant to prepare us for today’s stunning Gospel from John 6:41-51. Speaking to the rebellious Jews, Jesus refers to himself as “the Bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:41), and as “Bread of life” (John 6:48). He is not talking about dessert; he is not talking about some side dish rather the main food. And this food, this bread is not ordinary bread, rather the bread that came down from heaven, bread from a transcendent source. What’s the difference between ordinary bread and Transcendent Bread? Jesus says, “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died, this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die” (John 6:49-50). Physical food allows us to live for a time and indeed for a very short time. That’s why we eat several times a day. Physical food sustains physical life in a restrictive way. But the Bread which Jesus is is not the bread just for one day or for a few hours or for the moment. It is the bread that lasts to eternal life. Do you want to live forever? Do you want to live in this perfectly heavenly realm? You need this sustenance. We have within us a desire not just for life in this world. We have a desire within us to live forever. If you want that life, you have to eat. End of story! The spiritual physics in full display here is, if you want to live in the eternal realm, you have to eat the food that prepares you and sustains you for that life. Think of Jesus not merely as a teacher, but as the Bread of life!

May God bless you and give you peace!

Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Nothing In This World Can Satisfy In The End

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Puritanism, which originated in England in the late 1500’s attempts to promote rigidity and austerity, especially in matters of religion or conduct. Simply put, puritans advocate a flight from the goods of this world. Why? Because they consider them evil. But the Catholic Church rejects this belief system and way of life because we are meant to enjoy the world that God has made. In the book of Genesis, we are told that what God has made is good and we are meant to enjoy them. Although the Catholic Church rejects puritanism in all its forms, there is something it is saying that is true; and that thing is the reason why puritanism has lasted this long. We believe the world is created good. We believe we live in the world of good things, but nothing in this world can ultimately satisfy the deepest longing of the human heart. Look around you. There are lots of good things, pleasurable things, yet the hunger of our heart goes beyond this world. For this reason, we should not be drawn completely into the goods of this world. There has to be a balanced approach when dealing with the world. We accept the goods of the world, we enjoy the goods of the world, we say yes to the world, but then in a very serious manner, we detach from the world. We say no to the world. 

Everyone knows there is a restlessness and a longing in all of us. Think of the greatest moments in your life, like the time when you found your sweetheart, when a proposal to get married was made and accepted. Think of the excitement you had when your first child was born, when you applied for your dream job and got it. Think of the time when your team secured a victory, or when you achieved something significant. Think of the time when you met an important person in society, a celebrity. About two weeks ago, I had a dream. And in my dream, I met the great St. Pope John Paul II and we had this wonderful conversation. In that dream, I was shaking with great excitement as I said to him, “Holy Father, it is really good to see you.” I held his hand; with smiles he spoke to me, and there were thousands of people watching us. After my conversation with him, I turned to the people and said, “For everyone here, we have known just one Pope, John Paul II and we are all children of this beloved Pope. At every Mass we attended, the name we all heard is Pope John Paul II.” At the end of it, he blessed me and as people were cheering, I woke up. I tell you, for the next couple of days, I was so happy, so excited that I started a Novena prayer to St. Pope John II. Now, what do these great moments in our life have in common? Although they bring us great happiness, the happiness will eventually fade away. You experience them for a while, and the experience might be really strong and intense, but it does fade away eventually and you find yourself longing again for more pleasure. On every July 4, some of us go out at night to watch the fireworks. When a firework goes off, you see this great display of extremely beautiful lights. My parish in Memphis, Tennessee was located close to the downtown, and from the rectory, I did see what I am talking about here. Watching fireworks, especially the big ones, is really beautiful. But then as you watch and are filled with great delight, what happens? It disappears! In an instant, in the twinkle of an eye, it is gone! And the saddest thing about this experience is that its disappearance happens while you are still enchanted and enjoying its beauty and elegance. I tell you, in many ways, that’s how life is like. In an instant, it appears. We shout with great delight. But then, it vanishes and goes and we are left wanting something more. 

Let’s make it more concrete. What happens when you purchase a beautiful house? You are so elated and people who know you celebrate with you for your achievement. Shortly after that, the thrill wanes. With the passage of time, that beautiful house will start falling apart and needing repair work. The old and smoky car you see on the road, I mean the ones we call “clunker” “jalopy” “hunk of junk” etc was once the most elegant on the road. Some people actually worked extra shifts just to save money and purchase it. Some people might have engaged in criminal activity like selling drugs just to buy it. But today, that car is a piece of junk and worth almost nothing. What about food? Food is essential. We cannot survive without it. From time to time, we enjoy a good and special meal, and there is nothing wrong with that. But after all the enjoyment, it does not take much time to start longing for more food. Sometimes after eating a satisfying meal, I say to myself, “this is it. I’m not gonna eat again today.” But after a few hours, I am hungry again and will require extra discipline to resist going down to the kitchen and opening the refrigerator in search of food. This tells me that my food is not designed to satisfy the deepest longing of my heart. What about entertainment? I love entertainment. I love music and movies, especially edgy horror movies and comedy. Sometimes, entertainment offers us real satisfaction and true happiness. But after a powerful, energetic and enthusiastic display and show, it is over. If you watched the movie in the movie theater, you get up and go home. If you watched it at home, you turn to the next thing to do. The excitement is over and you are looking forward to your next excitement. What about something more substantial like relationships? Relationships are extremely pleasing and satisfying. Marriage is amazing, and reflects God’s love. Some of the best moments in life happen within these relationships. However, like everything else in the world, the joy it brings is also limited. Every marriage or relationship or friendship has good days and bad days. The same event or experience that gave you a heightened sense of joy and satisfaction can be the source of intense sorrow and pain. And in the final analysis, all of our relationships will end because we will all die. Though the hope of meeting again in eternal life consoles us, it is only possible if we end up in the same place and in the halls of heaven. What about honors? Being honored generates some thrilling sensation. I have been honored in my life. There have been times when my professors told me that my research paper is so impressive that if I wanted, they would help me publish them. Did such comments make me happy? You betcha! My happiness was like the fireworks going off. But then, it is over. Here is the stubborn fact: everything in this world is evaporating. No matter what you are enjoying now, it’s not meant to satisfy the deepest longing of your heart.

But why am I spending this time talking about this sad reality? Inside of you, you might be wondering, “What’s the good news in this?” “Why is he depressing us?” By the way,  this is not meant to depress us but to wake us up again to this spiritual reality. Life on earth requires a balancing act. On one hand, accept that this world is good and we are made by God to experience the joy of honor, the satisfaction of food and drink, the warmness of relationship, the amazing benefits of work and all the good things God brings to our life. On the other hand, accept that none of these will finally satisfy you. All the excitements, the great delights, the real pleasures they offer us are but an image of heaven. Accept that in this life, we won’t be perfectly happy. Why? Because there is something in us that longs for something that this world cannot offer. Today’s Gospel (John 6:24-35) is a continuation of the Gospel of last weekend. John 6 begins with a symbolic memorial of the Mass. After Jesus multiplied the loaves and had people eat to their satisfaction, he sensed the crowd had the intention to carry him off to make him king, so he withdrew from there and went to the mountain alone (John 6:15). The next day, some people started to look for him. John says, “When they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Responding Jesus says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God has set his seal.” Every earthly goods in itself is good, but like fireworks that light up the sky at night and then vanish, they too would. It is necessary to work for food, yet food inevitably will perish, just like those it sustains. In contrast to perishable food there is another food that endures for eternal life. Just as natural food sustains bodily life, this food sustains us for eternal life. What’s this food? Jesus calls it the Bread of life. The Catholic Church calls it the Eucharist. Writing about the Eucharist, the great St. Thomas Aquinas said, “The Eucharist contains not just the power of Christ, the Eucharist is ipse Christus, Christ Himself.” This means that Christ himself is the only food that can satisfy us. You can now see why at Mass we joyfully sing, dance, and clap for it is the anticipation of heaven and the celebration of the only food that can ultimately satisfy us.

Beloved sisters and brothers, if you hear people say the Eucharist is merely a symbol and a sign of Christ, please do not believe them even if you view such people as smart and intelligent. I tell you, if the Eucharist is only a symbol and sign, what’s the point? But if the Eucharist is Christ himself (ipse Christus), then the Eucharist is the only food that can satisfy the deepest hunger of the human heart. This is the very reason why Vatican II insists that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. You can run after these wonderful goods of the world— wealth, power, honor and pleasure etc. but none of them can truly satisfy the deepest hunger of your heart. Only Jesus Christ can do that through the gift of himself— the Eucharist, the Bread of life. Are you not surprised that the real food that can finally satisfy us is not acquired but given? Just as earthly life is a gift and not acquired, so also eternal life. Though we must strive to receive eternal life, in the final analysis it is a gift. So, stop chasing the goods of this world with all your soul, heart, mind, and being. They won’t guarantee lasting joy. Rather, receive the food that guarantees joy, perfect joy, peace, perfect peace. What’s that food? The Bread of life! Jesus himself. 

God bless you!