Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time



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Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Aug 20, 2006)

Story: Mark Link wrote that during the Great Depression of the l930’s there was a monastery that passed out plain sandwiches in paper bags every afternoon. There was a long line each day at 5:00 PM. After getting their sandwich, people responded in quite different ways. Some devoured their sandwich immediately in a few bites. Some savored it slowly. A few would eat only half and save the rest for later. Others, after taking one bite despite their hunger, would grumble at the plainness of the sandwich and toss it away, because it did not fit their taste.

I) A) John tells how different people responded to Jesus giving himself to us: Some could not believe in Jesus at all; Some tried being disciples for awhile, but then walked away. It seems that only a small number were able to fully accept Jesus as the Bread from Heaven.

B) How do you respond when Jesus offers himself to you in the Eucharistic Bread.

· Do you get in line, shuffle up the aisle, put out your hand or tongue, quickly swallow the host and walk away – with only a little realization what you are doing?

· Or do you gratefully savor the moment to let it sink in that you have received Bread from Heaven?

· Or do you carry Jesus in your heart all day long, relishing this special gift?

· Or do you sadly lack faith and throw away the opportunity to take him in?.

If one thinks of the host as only a flat tasteless piece of bread; if one judges only by externals, it is not surprising that there are those not very impressed by Communion.

II) The problem of believing that God is in this bread is related to our problem of believing that God became an ordinary human being just like us. For me to be able to believe that God wants to make me his tabernacle, I have to first believe that God became a common human being.
A- Many who knew Jesus when he grew up, rejected him as being the Bread which came down from Heaven. How could the Messiah come from a poor working class family? He’s just like us. How can he say that he came down from heaven?

Image: Have you ever heard of Sam Hornish? People around Defiance , Stryker, Archbold and Napoleon have known little Sam and his family for many years. A very common and ordinary kind of guy, except for the fact that he has an amazing talent for driving cars very fast. Now his picture has been plastered all over our country as the winner of the Indianapolis 500.
To many people back in Defiance, he may be rich and famous, but he is still just Sam.

C- Because Jesus was so ordinary and was just like them, it was a great problem for the neighbors and disciples of Jesus to believe that he was anything more than a common human being. They had a problem believing that God could inhabit Jesus, let alone that God in Jesus could inhabit the bread.

Conclusion: Our problem is not just believing that God could inhabit bread, but also believing that God can inhabit us. Some of you may wonder why I do not face the Tabernacle at the end of Communion time. It is because I believe that at that moment Jesus is just as present in me and in you as he is in the Tabernacle. That He who is the Bread come down from Heaven is now living in us.
How sad it is when some don’t appreciate what we have received and throw it away.

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Aug 20, 2006)

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Aug 20, 2006)