Homily for 31 st Sunday in OT: year B; Mk 12:28-34 (On Eucharistic Miracles) From the days of Moses and the people of Israel journeying in the desert to the modern day Jewish synagogues of Brooklyn, Tel Aviv, Montreal and elsewhere around the world, at this very moment the prayer of shema Israel adonai elohinu adonai ahod is continually being offered up to heaven, hear o Israel the Lord is our God the Lord alone! In these few Hebrew words is a phrase that speaks to the deepest core of the human person, that we as a species are not alone in this universe, that there is something within in us that says there is someone else beyond me and all other people in this world, someone who sustains us, inspires us, assures that the whole cosmos will not just suddenly implode at any given moment, that there is a source of our infinite desires and longings, that there is a God above and each and every one of us is allowed to call upon Him. But while many dare to believe that the deepest longings of the human heart for eternity and for a relationship with the one who is love itself is what we have come to call God, so many others say that without some substantial proof, without some supernatural manifestation of divine 1
2 power, without eliminating the possibility that the idea of God is just some coping mechanism for the uncertainties of life, and without a personal experience of looking God face to face and saying Ok I guess you are real, then I will not believe. Does the Lord our God who we are to love with all our heart, mind, body and soul give us some concrete proofs that he exists? How often have we thought where are all the miracles of days gone past, where are the pillars of fire that lead Israel out of slavery, the visions of heaven and the angels that the prophets once saw, the countless miracles of Jesus Christ to heal the sick, exorcise the possessed and rise from the dead, why don t these happen anymore? Or do they, are there not some genuine miracles in our world right here and now that through an act of faith have allowed someone to say yes I believe this is a miracle, a sign from God that says yes I AM here? As Catholics we believe in miracles, the greatest of them being the Eucharist, that we receive the body and blood of Jesus even though our senses scream out it tastes like bread, looks like bread and everything about
3 it says its just bread and yet we are bold enough to believe no He is there, hidden and veiled from our senses, a reality we will never totally understand which God is perfectly OK with, but which we say yes I believe or even Lord I want to believe, help my unbelief! And though the typical encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist is under a veil, Jesus has nonetheless throughout history chose to reveal just how present he is in the Eucharist by surpassing the laws of nature to allow Eucharistic miracles to occur, to let us see with our own eyes and test through rigorous scientific investigations the various Eucharistic miracles around the world, where bread and wine transform into real flesh and real blood that we can see and believe! Consider for example the Eucharistic miracle at Lanciano. It occurred in 750AD when a host transformed into a piece of flesh, a piece of cardiac tissue which contains arterioles, veins, nerve fibres and an AB blood type, the same blood type of every single approved Eucharistic miracle! It is truly a miracle, but why do they occur? Does Jesus need to do this to affirm or justify himself and his teaching on the Eucharist, to prove to us that what he said in the scriptures are true?
4 Certainly not! No anytime the Lord has chosen to perform a Eucharistic miracle it was usually a response to the weakness of faith in a person or community, more often than not in the doubt the lingered in the heart of a priest towards whether Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist, though often the doubt of the priest was a reflection of the lack of faith in the community. Perhaps another reason Jesus performs such miracles is to truly make himself available to each and every human being, Christian and non- Christian alike. We know as Catholics that actual reception of the Eucharist comes with certain guidelines and restrictions, but to visit a Eucharistic miracle is available to everyone who can make their way to these sites. No membership card is required to allow entrance, you need simply show up as a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, atheistic, whoever you are and believe, all can stand before these miracles and we hope be moved by God to believe! And you do not have to go half way around the world to experience this, everyone in the city of Calgary can come by our parish to see our own Eucharistic miracle each and every Friday when we have exposition of the
5 Blessed Sacrament, anyone can go to our adoration chapel and be in the Lord s presence, that is how radically available and vulnerable Christ makes himself in the Blessed Sacrament! From Nov 13-18 th we are blessed at St. Michaels to have an exhibit at our church which will showcase various Eucharist miracles from around the world such as the one I mentioned from Lanciano in Italy. They are a chance to make a pilgrimage of sorts and be inspired by these miracles and to invite as many people as possible to come and see, Christian and non- Christian alike. Though we may never get to actually visit them, we can nonetheless be inspired by what they stand for and hopefully show us how every day we can visit our own Eucharistic miracle in our own church, that within this temple we built for God we house within the greatest treasure the world has ever known, Jesus Christ, veiled and hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, available always and forever to be adored, worshipped and glorified!