VOCATION CRISIS IN HONG KONG—SOLUTION?
John 6: 41-51 August 17, 2003 19 Sunday Yr. B.
How are we to solve Hong Kong’s vocation crisis. Why are there so few seminarians in our diocesan seminary? There are many learned and well-researched answers. I think the answer lies in today’s passage from John’s gospel. Although we give notional assent to the doctrine of the Eucharist, we have lost the sense of surprise and wonder at this Eucharistic mystery. If we really appreciated the gift of the Eucharist, our St. Patrick’s community would break legs to insure that there would be sufficient priests to give us, Jesus, the Bread of life. At the same time, our young people would form long queues to get into the seminary. Today, we will remind ourselves of Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist.
WORD OF GOD “If anyone eats this
bread…he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of
the world.” John 6: 51. Notice in St. John’s gospel that the people found it
difficult to accept Jesus’ words: “I am the bread of life.”
Jesus could have said: “Hey,
folks, I was just speaking symbolically.”
And the crowd would have kept on listening to him. Certainly, Jesus’
listeners could understand symbolic speech. For example, Belvedere is speaking
symbolically when he says: “Bibiana, I give my heart to you.” Everybody knows that if Belvedere took a
knife and cut his heart out and handed her the gooey organ, Bibiana would be
horrified and vomit. Belvedere is just
saying symbolically that he loves Bibiana so much that he would make any
sacrifice to make her happy.
But Jesus doesn’t say: “I was just speaking symbolically.” Instead
in verse 52 of next week’s gospel Jesus will repeat his statement in stronger
and more concrete terms and makes the crowd even angrier: “I myself am the living bread come down from
heaven. If anyone eats this bread he
shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the
world.” Jesus will say the same thing in the other three gospels at the Last
Supper: “Take this and eat. This is my
body. … This is my blood, the blood of
the covenant, to be poured out on behalf of many.”
CHURCH TEACHING: Many Catholics remember from their catechism that in Holy
Communion they receive the “Body and Blood” of Christ. However, they overlook the most exciting
part of the doctrine:
#1334 “In the most blessed
sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and
divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the
whole
Christ
(exciting part!)
is truly, really, and
substantially, contained.’”(Council of Trent (1551): DS 1651). (Emphasis added)
The words “Body and Blood”
may disgust non-Christians. These words might make even Catholics feel
uncomfortable. Isn’t it disagreeable to
eat someone’s flesh and drink someone’s blood—especially a dead person’s flesh
and blood?
In the Semitic language, “Body and Blood” mean the
WHOLE PERSON! In the Eucharist Jesus is
saying something very beautiful and amazing:
“I am giving you myself, my whole being, my whole divine and human
person to you in the most intimate relationship possible in the form of
FOOD. When I eat a carrot, the carrot
becomes a part of me. When I eat Jesus
in the Eucharist, he becomes a part of my life: both my physical body and my spiritual
self.
#1413 “Under the consecrated
species of bread and wine Christ himself,
living
and glorious,
is present in a true,
real, and substantial manner: his Body
and his Blood, with
his soul and his divinity.”
(cf. Council of Trent: DS 1640;1651).
[Emphasis added-et].
Recently I was sick in the
hospital and feeling miserable. But
when the Communion minister brought me the Body of Christ, I would remember
that the whole Resurrected Christ, was now united with me spiritually and physically. I suggested that His physical self share
with me some of His cancer fighting cells.
After all His entire self, both spiritual and physical, was then in
intimate union with my entire self. If
for some reason He couldn’t arrange that at least we were in this thing
together.
OUR RESPONSE: This morning as we receive
this sacrament of the Eucharist let us remind ourselves that the whole
person of Christ comes and resides in our whole person both
physically and spiritually.
If our Hong Kong Christian communities were to appreciate the mystery of the Eucharistic Jesus, we would certainly be willing to break legs to insure that our seminaries would be sufficiently populated. And candidates would form rowdy queues to gain entrance into our diocesan seminary.
THEME: In the sacrament of the Eucharist the whole Christ
is truly, really, and substantially contained.
“The Christ we receive is
the risen Christ who is with now, alive and active in the Church and in the
world.”
TEXT: “If anyone
eats this bread…he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh,
for
the life of the world.” John 6: 51.
SCRIPTURE
“If anyone eats this
bread…he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of
the world.” John 6: 51.
1.
Jesus
gives a hint of the mystery of the Eucharist
2.
Crowd
misunderstands.
3.
Jesus
repeats and makes it even stronger.
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:
#1413 “Under the consecrated
species of bread and wine Christ
himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his
Blood, with his soul and his divinity.” (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1640;1651).
#1334 “In the most blessed
sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and
divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly,
really, and substantially contained.’”(Council of Trent (1551): DS 1651).
REFERENCES
“The issue here is not
cannibalism but believe in God’s and Jesus’ power to give life by the means
they choose (v. 63). This ‘believing’
(not e the dynamic form of the verb used throughout) is the master key that
enables one to unlock and tap into God’s life imparted by Jesus, his envoy,
through word and sacrament.” Teresa
Okure, The International Bible Commentary, ed. by William R. Farmer (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1998), p. 1474.
“…’body and blood’ is a
Semitic phrase that means ‘the whole person.’” Mtch Finley, The Joy of being
a Eucharistic Minister (Mineola, New York: Resurrection Press, 1998) p. 17
“The Christ we receive in
the Eucharist is, indeed, the one who lived, taught, and died in first century
Palestine. But the Christ we receive in
the consecrated bread and wine is much more than that. The Christ we receive is the risen Christ
who is with now, alive and active in the Church and in the world.” Ibid. p. 19.
“The risen Jesus is himself the Resurrection, therefore
in Holy Communion we receive the power of Jesus’ Resurrection so that his
Resurrection and our own future resurrection have an impact on us and on our
life today.” Ibid., p. 23.
“….the flesh can also denote man in his concrete totality. ..By the term they can also denote the essence
of a person…” Xavier Leon-Dufour, Dictionary
of Biblical Theology (Chapman,
London: 1967) "Flesh” p. 161.
TIDBITS
Do Catholics
believe in the Eucharist? In 1994 there was a survey taken up among Catholics
in the United States. 63% of those
surveyed said that the consecrated bread and wine are merely “symbolic
reminders of Jesus.” Only 34 percent of
these Catholics said that they believed that the bread and wine consecrated at
Mass become the body and blood of Christ.
Now of these 34 percent who “believed”, I wonder how many were
merely saying: “If the Church says so, I believe.” I wonder how many of these
34 percent (who said that they believe) have a real appreciation of
what the Eucharist means. Would it
make any difference to many of them if at Communion time, the priest passed out
holy cards or rosaries as long as they got the same amount of grace? How many
Catholics receive Holy Communion mechanically, without experiencing even a
little bit of excitement, or joy, or peace, hope or intimacy with the Risen
Lord?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
CHEWING
THE WORD OF GOD
August 17, 2003 19 Ordinary Sunday (B)
John 6: 41-51
1.
Tell
something that you remember about your first Holy Communion.
__________________________________________________
2.
Under
the consecrated species of bread and
wine Christ himself, l_______ and gl_______s, is present in a t____,
r____, and substantial manner: his Body
and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity.
3.
In
the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist the w_____e Christ is t____y, r____y, and
sub_______y contained.
4.
When
you are dying and Jesus comes to you in
Holy Communion, write down something that you might want to say to him?
______________________________________________.
5.
(Optional)
(Write on back)
Explain the relationship between today’s homily and the solution to the
vocation crisis in the Hong Kong diocese?
(Consult, if you wish, The
Diocesan Synod Draft: “Group Seven – The Vocation and Continuous formation for
the Diocesan Priests.”) (Two extra
raffle tickets for those who work on this question.)
(Hints:
substitutionally, whole, truly, rightly, glorious, liberty, really,
living, true, real, religious,
substantially, spiritually, symbolically, where, people)