Today, we hear Jesus describe himself as both the Good Shepherd and as the door to the sheepfold. 

A good shepherd is one whose sheep recognize his voice when he enters the sheepfold and then follow him out to pasture.  To verdant pastures, as Psalm 23 today tells us.  The shepherd enters through the door.  Robbers enter via other means to do harm to the sheep. 

The door is what governs entry to the sheep and what allows access for the sheep to pasture.  Jesus is that mediator between us and the Father.  His mission and sacrifice are what open the way for us to eternal life. 

The sheep hear the voice of their shepherd.  Yet, the Pharisees do not understand what Jesus is saying…because Jesus is not their shepherd.  They will not allow him to be.

Jesus is still today that Good Shepherd that leads us to verdant pastures.  He remains the door, the mediator, between us and the Father.  He remains our access to those verdant pastures.  While he is no longer with us in the way that he was before, he has left us the Eucharist and his Church to nourish us and to carry us to eternal life.

He has also left us other shepherds to continue to guide us.  First, there were the Apostles.  Now, there are the successors to those Apostles – the bishops.  We also have priests who are ordained to share in the bishop’s ministry. 

Priests do not choose the priesthood.  They are called to it.  The priest is not his own, as Archbishop Sheen wrote.  Just as Christ is both priest and victim, so is the ordained priest.  He is priest by acting in persona Christi capitis (in the person of Christ, the head of the Body of Christ) at Mass.  He is also victim in offering himself for the sake of his people.

Every priest who fully answers his call hears a two-fold meaning at Mass when he repeats Jesus’ words of institution:

         “…FOR THIS IS MY BODY,

         WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU.”

And then again:

        “FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD,…    

         WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY…”

This is both Jesus and the priest speaking.  The priest offers his own body for the sake of the salvation of his people.  He pours out his own blood (and sweat, and sometimes tears) for their good.

While a medical doctor helps our physical bodies in this life, a priest is a doctor of souls who helps our souls gain eternal life.  The priest is also a spiritual father who encourages, counsels, consoles, and sometimes challenges his people to grow closer to God.

Priests become priests for the sake of the salvation of souls.  They answer the call that comes from God.  We might feel that we have a shortage of priests.  But God calls enough men.  We do not have a shortage in the number who are called.  We have a shortage of men who answer the call.

Are we all doing our part to nurture, and certainly not to discourage, that call?

If someone asked you why you were Catholic, how would you answer?  If someone told that I could only give a one-word answer to why I am Catholic?  My answer, probably not surprisingly, would not take long.  “Eucharist.”

That is not the only thing that the Church offers.  There are many other great things.  Other sacraments. Especially Reconciliation.  Proclamation and interpretation of Scripture.  Two millennia of tradition and development of doctrine.  Really too many things to mention if I am honest.

But many of those same things are found in other faiths.  Perhaps some are unique to the Church.  But the Eucharist as Jesus gave to us in which the substance of the bread and wine change to his Body and Blood is not found in Protestant churches.  It is not found in non-Christian faiths. 

All this week in John 6, Jesus has been increasing his emphasis on the need to consume the Eucharist.  Jesus first says that he is the bread of life.  Then, he says that we must consume this bread of life.  Next, he says that we must both eat his flesh and drink his blood.  And, in today’s passage, many people leave.  They return to their former ways of life.

Jesus turns to the Apostles to ask if they too will leave.  Peter, once again, is the first to respond.  “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and are  convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” 

If I answered Jesus himself about remaining in the Church, I would paraphrase Peter.  “Lord, to where else should I go?  It is here in your Church that I can find your Real Presence, body and blood, soul and divinity.”

Even in our own families, we see some leaving the Church.  But do they really know what they are leaving?  Do they really understand?   Bishop Fulton Sheen said, “There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”  G. K. Chesterton wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”  It seems that people leave the Church and/or come to dislike it because of a lack of understanding about it.  It does not help that some opponents of the Church have successfully constructed some grossly distorted strawmen of the Church.  If I believed those mischaracterizations, I too would not want to be part of the Church.

But, if only more people knew the truth…if only more people knew what they were missing…if only more people knew what they were leaving behind…

Today, we hear more from John’s Bread of Life Discourse.  Jesus has been telling the people that he is the bread of life and that eating this bread of life is necessary.  The crowd grumbles yet again during this passage.  We can imagine some of their questions.  Is he speaking of cannibalism?  Or is this mere figurative language?

Jesus admits to neither.  Instead, he insists even more on the necessity of eating the bread of life.  On eating his flesh.  Not only that, but, in today’s passage, he tells them that they must drink his blood too.  Jews did not drink blood.  It had been prohibited of Noah and banned in Mosaic law.  For Jesus to demand this was scandalous and repulsive to them. 

Yet, he did not explain that this was mere figurative language.  John’s account emphasizes Jesus’ insistence even more by changing the original Greek verb in verse 54.  Jesus would not have given this discourse in Greek, but the original New Testament texts were written in Greek because it was a more universal language in that part of the world.  John’s Greek text changes the verb that, prior to verse 54, had been a somewhat generic version of “to eat.”  In verse 54 and following, that verb changes to a more graphic one that can mean to gnaw like an animal.  John is clearly trying to make us understand that Jesus is talking about truly eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

As Catholics, our life is centered on the Eucharist.  Jesus calls us to consume his flesh and to drink his blood.  At the Last Supper, he showed us how that would be done and commanded us to continue to “do this in memory of me.” 

We could hear the word of God proclaimed in the churches of other denominations.  We could feel a real sense of community in those other denominations.  We could have our emotions lifted in the services at other churches.  We could even be greatly entertained. 

But we come to the Catholic Church to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  We come to be part of the re-presentation of Jesus Christ’s Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension.  The re-presentation of his sacrifice that was done once for all.  It will be a tremendous grace to be able to return to the public celebration of this wondrous event every week (or even every day). 

In the meantime, how does one prepare for this return?  For a people whose faith, and whose lives, become centered on the Eucharist, how do we deal with the loss of reception of that great gift?  How does someone cultivate their devotion to the Eucharist at a time that they cannot receive it? 

Do not overlook what we do still have.  We can be in the presence of Christ before the tabernacle.  We can adore Christ in the monstrance, albeit from the isolation of our automobile.  Do not despair over what is lost for now.  Instead be thankful for what we have.

Today, we continue to hear from the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6.  Immediately prior to today’s passage, the people started to grumble about Jesus’ claim that he is the bread of life.  Rather than back down, he is getting ready to double down.

He continues to explain how he is the bread of life.  He starts to tell the people that they must consume this bread of life.  And he is getting ready to really drop a bombshell on the people.  He is not backing down.

This is not a Messiah who comes to affirm everyone where they are.  Certainly, he comes to meet people where they are.  But he calls them to something much more.  This is clearly a Messiah that challenges us.  This is a Messiah that shatters preconceived notions.  The idea that we could say that Jesus was just a good man and nothing more is ludicrous.  If he is not who he says that he was, then we should regard him as a complete fraud.  But, if he is the Son of God as he claimed, then that changes everything.  And Jesus does not just come to change things himself.  He comes to fulfill God’s promises.

Eating another man’s flesh is a shocking idea.  However, knowing of the Eucharist, it is not shocking at all.  Seeing this whole discourse as a call to Mass and to the Eucharist, it makes sense.  Of course, we have the benefit of 2,000 years of hindsight.  For the first century Jew, this was an incredibly difficult message.

I am not sure how close we are to the end of this forced isolation.  I am not sure when public Masses will return.  I know that they will.  But I do not know when it will happen and with what restrictions. 

At this point in our time at home, we can take stock of what this forced abstinence has done for our faith.  Do we hunger and thirst for Jesus’ body and blood in the Eucharist?  Or do we find ourselves falling away from the Church and getting used to being away from the Eucharist?

One thing that distinguishes us as human beings is our rational nature.  It means that we do not have to be a slave to our passions, our emotions, or our feelings.  It means that we can make a decision that overrides those things.  Perhaps it means that we “fake it until we make it” as the saying goes.  Perhaps our feelings will take some time to catch up.  But we can make that decision. 

At this point in this time of isolation…with regard to our faith, what do we decide?

Today, we celebrate the patron saint of our parish, Saint Catherine of Siena.  In the Roman Missal, there is a Table of Liturgical Days that gives us the priority for various celebrations.  The “Solemnity of the Title of one’s own church” outranks even Sundays in Christmas Time and Sundays in Ordinary Time.  So, we celebrate this day as a solemnity.  More than a feast or a memorial.  A Mass on a solemnity includes both the Gloria and the Creed.  For a feast, there is a Gloria.  For a memorial, there is neither.  For others without a similar attachment to Saint Catherine, today is a required memorial.

There are specific readings for Saint Catherine of Siena.  The Gospel from Matthew 11 begins, “At that time Jesus responded…”  What follows then is a prayer from the Son to the Father.  There are at least three significant insights from which we can learn.

First, “at that time” is more than just a chronological specification in the original Greek.  It is an announcement of an event.  It is not just showing the sequence of happenings.  It calls our attention in a special way to what follows.

Second is that Jesus responded.  Not just that Jesus said.  He responded, but to whom?  He responds to the Father because the Father has spoken to him first.  Almost like listening to someone talking on the phone, we hear only one side of a two-sided conversation.  But this is not just any conversation.  We are given a privileged gift of hearing the divine communication between God the Father and God the Son.  It is a small sliver for us of entry into the interior divine life of the Trinity.

Third would be what Jesus says, but also how he says it.  His words give a sense of joy, peace, and thanksgiving.  He gives praise to the one that he calls Father who is, at the same time, Lord of all.  The Son is a sharer in the Father.  Jesus’ prayer indicates the special intimacy of the persons of the Trinity.

Saint Catherine of Siena, as a mystic, would have shared in a special way herself in the interior life of the Trinity.  Her actions were impressive, especially her ability to convince the pope to return to Rome from Avignon, France.  This is even more exceptional when we remember how young she was at the time.  She showed great authority in the Church.  But this authority did not come from a formal title in the Church hierarchy.  It came from her recognized holiness, much like our more modern example of Mother Teresa.  And, of course, her holiness came from her special intimate relationship with God. 

Saint Catherine was a mystic.  But are we not all called to be a mystic?  Are we not all called to enter into the interior life of the Trinity?  What is holding us back from answering this call?  How do we let go of those things that hold us back?

In today’s Gospel passage, the crowd asks Jesus:

“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Most of the rest of this Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel is Jesus using that last sentence as the basis for his response.  The crowd is referencing both the original event in Exodus and Psalm 78’s mention of it. 

This manna was called bread from heaven because it fell from the sky.  As is so often the case with Old Testament passages, it also prefigured the true bread from heaven that is Jesus Christ.  He is what comes from heaven to give life to the world.

The people were locked into their old paradigm of the Jewish faith.  Not just their understanding of manna, but their understanding of Moses, the Law, and the Torah as what gives life to Israel.  Jesus once again is challenging the people to look to him as the fulfillment of all that.  He is the true bread from heaven that gives life, not just to Israel, but to the whole world. 

For so many, Jesus was not able to free them from that old paradigm.  The long-awaited Messiah stood in front of them.  But, because he did not conform to their pre-existing notions, they could not accept him.  Instead of seeing how he was greater than what they expected, they challenged him to fit within their expectations.   

Do we challenge Jesus to fit within our expectations?  Do we demand certain outcomes as a prerequisite to accepting him as our Savior?  Are we willing to follow the way that he shows us?  Or do we insist that he help us to go on the way that we want?

The Father’s plan for us is the best for us.  Jesus helps to show us that plan.  The Spirit guides us to follow that plan.  We need to trust in the Father’s plan rather than try to steer things onto a path of our own making.  Through our prayer and the sacraments, we can become more docile to the will of God and more receptive to the guidance that we need to follow that will.

Today’s Gospel passage immediately follows John’s account of the feeding of the five thousand and then Jesus walking on the water.  This passage is the beginning of the famous Bread of Life Discourse in John’s Gospel.  Many people from the earlier crowd have followed him to Capernaum.

One of the most curious lines in this passage might be something that we normally miss when we hear this.  Jesus tells the people, ““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.”

Immediately after Jesus’ miracle with the loaves and fish, John tells us that Jesus knew that the people wanted to make him king.  Now, they merely call him “Rabbi.”  And Jesus accuses them of not following after him because of the miracle.  Rather, he says that they follow him because he gave them bread that filled their stomachs.

So, do they come after him because he is the Messiah?  No.

Do they come after him at least because he is an amazing miracle worker?  No.  Not according to Jesus here.

Why do they follow him?

Free food.

Now, I am sure that this bread was exceptionally good.  Jesus is the Son of God.  I am sure that this was the best bread ever.  Better than any bakery that we know. 

But…really?

Does Jesus’ accusation hit home for us too?  At least in some way?  I know that there have been times in my life when it should have.

Why do we come to Mass?  What are our expectations regarding Mass?  Free food?  Well, yes.  But not a large amount.  Free entertainment?  I guess that depends on the celebrant.  Good music?  On Sunday, certainly.  But is that really why?  Is that really what we are looking for out of Mass?

As Jesus said, what about the miracle?  What about the bread and wine that become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ?  What about giving thanks to God for that miracle and for all else that we have been given?  What about the opportunity to worship God?  To come together as the Body of Christ and to join our prayers with those of Christ (with the priest acting in persona Christi capitis) and offering them to the Father through the Holy Spirit?

Are we looking for a temporary escape from reality or an entrance into an even greater reality?  Are we preparing through our participation in this earthly liturgy to be part of the great heavenly liturgy for all eternity?  Do we see Mass as an opportunity to partake in the divine life of the Trinity?

Perhaps these questions are ones that we need to ask ourselves.  Or perhaps they are questions that we need to find a loving way to ask others.  When we return from this time of forced abstinence from public Mass, what will be the expectations of ourselves and those around us?  To what are we returning?

This story is unique to Luke.  There is a two-verse mention of Jesus’ appearance to the two disciples in Mark.  But there is no description of what happened.  Luke provides much more detail with great depth to his story.  Even the mention of the name of one of the disciples – Cleopas.  In this story, God the Son walks simply on the road with two of his creatures.

This story might remind us of the story of Abraham’s three visitors in Genesis 18.  There, Abraham sees three men coming in the heat of the day.  He rushes to show hospitality to them.  There is disagreement over whether these visitors are angels or whether they are a manifestation of the Holy Trinity.  Nonetheless, Abraham’s hospitality is seemingly rewarded.  One of the visitors tells him that his wife would bear a son.

Here, the two disciples invite Jesus to share a table with them.  Their plea resonates even with us today – “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”  Something that many use in the prayer that ends their day.  These disciples are rewarded with the realization that they have had a manifestation of God the Son.

Do we make a similar plea for God to be with us?  Perhaps as part of a prayer that ends our day?  Perhaps at some other time of day.  Do we allow God to walk with us on the journey that is our life in this world?  Can we be aware of the ways in which God is with us in simple ways?

Are we willing to extend hospitality to those in need?  Perhaps even to people with whom we do not know well?  Can we see God in these people?  Whether they be the poorest of the poor in whom Mother Teresa saw Christ?  Or perhaps even in the family member that most tries our patience when we are isolated with them? 

In this difficult time, our prayer life is so important.  It is our plea for God to remain with us that makes us better able to remain with others and to extend care to them.

We hear today “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

How do we reconcile this requirement for Baptism with 1 Timothy 2:3-4: “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  This seeming contradiction can be difficult to reconcile.  The necessity of the Church for salvation versus God’s will that all be saved.

I am so thankful for the writings of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI for their foundational answers to so many questions.  During the pontificate of John Paul II, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (under Cardinal Ratzinger) issued a declaration called Dominus Iesus that addressed this issue.

There, we find the quote, ““it is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for this salvation.”  Both the Great Commissioning of which we hear a version today and the Universal Salvific Will of God that we hear in First Timothy must be held together.

Ignore the first?  Missionary activity becomes a waste of time. If others can be saved outside of the Church, but will not be saved if they knowingly reject the Church, why burden them?  The Catholic Church becomes just one church among many.  Per Dominus Iesus, “Christian revelation and the mystery of Jesus Christ and the Church lose their character of absolute truth and salvific universality, or at least shadows of doubt and uncertainty are cast upon them.” 

Ignore the second?  That God wills that all be saved?  Then we would also have to reject the Priestly Prayer in John 17:22: “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,..”  The idea of working toward unification with other faiths becomes useless.

How do we reconcile these two?  We value our Baptism.  We treasure the Church and the sacraments.  We recognize that others outside the Church can be saved.  We hope and pray that they are.  But we know that they are at a disadvantage.

We might compare this life to a transatlantic crossing.  Would we like to do so with all the advantages and protection and safety of an ocean liner?  Or would we prefer to do so in a very small boat, even one specially equipped for the hazardous journey?  Would we want to do so alone?

I know what I choose.  I choose the first.  I choose the Church, as a member of the Body of Christ.  And I thank Jesus Christ for the gift that is the Church.

Today, we hear of John’s account of the feeding of the five thousand.  Within the various accounts in the four Gospels of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, we find most, if not all, of the four verbs that form the foundation of the Liturgy of the Eucharist at Mass. 

Take.  Bless.  Break.  Eat. 

These are seen at Mass in the Offertory (when the priest takes the gifts from the people), the Eucharistic Prayer, the Fraction Rite (when the priest breaks the host during the “Lamb of God”), and the distribution of Holy Communion. 

In the Missal used by the priest at Mass, there are four primary Eucharistic Prayers along with two others for reconciliation and four for various needs.  Of the four primary ones, Eucharistic Prayer I, or the Roman Canon, is likely heard most often in our parish at the most solemn celebrations, but especially at Christmas and Easter.  Those who remember the Tridentine Mass or who attend Mass in the Extraordinary Form will be most familiar with this prayer.  Eucharistic Prayer II “is more appropriately used on weekdays or in special circumstances.”  I am guessing that Eucharistic Prayer III is most used in this parish for Sunday Mass. 

Keep in mind that, in the earliest Church, the bishop was the primary celebrant.  There was no single fixed text for this prayer then.  As one scholar points out, “Within a customary outline, the celebrant-bishop was, to a considerable extent, free to phrase the prayer as seemed to him best.”

But history aside, what should these prayers mean to us?

First and foremost, it is with these prayers that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Reflecting further, the Mass itself re-presents Christ’s sacrifice.  It calls to mind his Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension.  This is seen most clearly in the Eucharistic Prayers. 

Have we ever considered how this re-presentation happens?  Mystically, what is going on here?  Have we ever prayed over these prayers?  Perhaps just over a passage within one?  We could start with the anamnesis, or the “calling to mind” part of Eucharistic Prayer III:

         Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial

         of the saving Passion of your Son,

         his wondrous Resurrection

         and Ascension into heaven,

         and as we look forward to his second coming,

         we offer you in thanksgiving

         this holy and living sacrifice.

Consider how our celebration of the Mass is this re-presentation of these events that were done once for all.  Picture how the Mass in which we participate at one point in time here on earth is linked to the heavenly liturgy celebrated eternally. 

We are blessed to have the Mass.  Jesus told his Apostles at the Last Supper, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you…” (Luke 22:15).  I think we all can say the same for that day when we can finally come together again for Mass in our church.