Eyes and Ears

Learning to listen before we speak

04/22/2024

Jn 10:1-10 Jesus said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers." Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."

Recently I have enjoyed reading Bishop Robert Barron’s book “The Great Story of Israel.” Piggy-backing on a Jewish rabbi, Bishop Barron offers this insightful remark: “Jonathan Sacks famously distinguished between the ancient Greek culture, which is ordered to the visible, and the ancient Jewish culture, which is ordered to the audible. If the eye is the principal organ for Greek wisdom – and indeed the centrality of Plato’s eidos (form) indicates this – then the ear is the principal organ for Jewish wisdom” (p. 116).

By the way, my dog Apollo is a great example of this because he relies on his ears far more than on his eyes. His name Apollo, therefore, is rather ironic, since even though it is a Greek name, he is a far better Jew than a Greek.

In the gospel today Jesus also emphasizes the ear in following the Good Shepherd. He says: “The Good Shepherd walks ahead of his sheep, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will turn away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” In other words, the Christian religion, built on the foundation of Judaism, is also principally based on hearing more than seeing.

To use an analogy, Christians are like submarine captains who must navigate deep under water not by sight but by sound, by sonar, by listening. But the prerequisite to listening is silence. We must stop talking in order to hear. In other words, silence, in order to activate our sonar system, is the first step of all sound prayer, to hear the Good Shepherd and follow him.

May I draw out one practical application of prioritizing the ear over the eye (and the mouth), which goes beyond the scope of religion and touches all relationships? Every week I work in the marriage tribunal with the ministry of annulments. I read cases of sadly failed marriages that end in divorce and investigate whether or not there is enough evidence to grant an annulment.

As I read through the testimony of both the former husband and former wife, almost invariably the breakdown of the marriage was caused by poor communication. And I would argue further that the first step of good couple communication – like the first step of prayer – is not speaking but listening, to close your mouth and open your ears. It’s easy to talk, which usually devolves into shouting and yelling, than to attentively listen to what another person shares.

In John’s gospel this morning, he also notes the tragedy of failing to listen, writing: “Although he used this figure of speech” – that a sheep hears and recognizes the shepherd – “they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.” How often in couple counseling the wife will complain: “He’s not listening to what I am trying to tell him!” Or the man will lament: “She never listens to what I am trying to say!”

And sometimes they try to drag me into the argument. “Fr. John would you go and talk to my husband, maybe he will listen to you!” “Fr. John would you talk to my wife?” People think the solution to poor communication is more “talking.” How refreshing it would be if a wife came to me and said: “Fr. John, would you listen to my husband? I can no longer hear what he is trying to tell me.”

The first step of all good religions, and all healthy relationships, is to listen not to talk. Foster a spirit of silence and listening to others and to God. You are the captain of a submarine and must navigate by sonar and silence, not by sight or shouting.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Eyes and Ears

Learning to listen before we speak

04/22/2024

Jn 10:1-10 Jesus said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers." Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."

Recently I have enjoyed reading Bishop Robert Barron’s book “The Great Story of Israel.” Piggy-backing on a Jewish rabbi, Bishop Barron offers this insightful remark: “Jonathan Sacks famously distinguished between the ancient Greek culture, which is ordered to the visible, and the ancient Jewish culture, which is ordered to the audible. If the eye is the principal organ for Greek wisdom – and indeed the centrality of Plato’s eidos (form) indicates this – then the ear is the principal organ for Jewish wisdom” (p. 116).

By the way, my dog Apollo is a great example of this because he relies on his ears far more than on his eyes. His name Apollo, therefore, is rather ironic, since even though it is a Greek name, he is a far better Jew than a Greek.

In the gospel today Jesus also emphasizes the ear in following the Good Shepherd. He says: “The Good Shepherd walks ahead of his sheep, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will turn away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” In other words, the Christian religion, built on the foundation of Judaism, is also principally based on hearing more than seeing.

To use an analogy, Christians are like submarine captains who must navigate deep under water not by sight but by sound, by sonar, by listening. But the prerequisite to listening is silence. We must stop talking in order to hear. In other words, silence, in order to activate our sonar system, is the first step of all sound prayer, to hear the Good Shepherd and follow him.

May I draw out one practical application of prioritizing the ear over the eye (and the mouth), which goes beyond the scope of religion and touches all relationships? Every week I work in the marriage tribunal with the ministry of annulments. I read cases of sadly failed marriages that end in divorce and investigate whether or not there is enough evidence to grant an annulment.

As I read through the testimony of both the former husband and former wife, almost invariably the breakdown of the marriage was caused by poor communication. And I would argue further that the first step of good couple communication – like the first step of prayer – is not speaking but listening, to close your mouth and open your ears. It’s easy to talk, which usually devolves into shouting and yelling, than to attentively listen to what another person shares.

In John’s gospel this morning, he also notes the tragedy of failing to listen, writing: “Although he used this figure of speech” – that a sheep hears and recognizes the shepherd – “they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.” How often in couple counseling the wife will complain: “He’s not listening to what I am trying to tell him!” Or the man will lament: “She never listens to what I am trying to say!”

And sometimes they try to drag me into the argument. “Fr. John would you go and talk to my husband, maybe he will listen to you!” “Fr. John would you talk to my wife?” People think the solution to poor communication is more “talking.” How refreshing it would be if a wife came to me and said: “Fr. John, would you listen to my husband? I can no longer hear what he is trying to tell me.”

The first step of all good religions, and all healthy relationships, is to listen not to talk. Foster a spirit of silence and listening to others and to God. You are the captain of a submarine and must navigate by sonar and silence, not by sight or shouting.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Childhood Memories

How we never forget the day of First Holy Communion

04/21/2024

Jn 10:11-18 Jesus said: "I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."

There are some childhood memories we never forget. They are indelibly etched on our souls, as if chiseled on stone like the Ten Commandments were. Let me share two such memories for me that taught me how much God loves me. The first was when I was seven years old. My family left India and immigrated to the United States. I have shared this before about how traumatic that event was for little seven year-old Fr. John, because I felt like I had lost everything I knew.

But that trauma also taught me a great truth: even though I lose everything and everyone I know, I will never lose God. I often return in my mind to that experience of loss but also of gain, like a deep well where I can continue to draw the water of eternal truths. Have you endured any childhood traumas that taught you undeniable truths? They are unforgettable, and that is a good thing.

My second childhood memory occurred a year later when I was eight years old. My family had set up camp in Hillsboro, Texas. It was the day of my First Holy Communion. I can still picture perfectly in my mind kneeling in the front pew – because my last name starts with “A” so I was first in line! – feeling both super-nervous but also super-excited. My tie felt really tight around my neck and I thought I would choke on Jesus! But Jesus was very nice and easily dissolved in my mouth and I had no trouble swallowing my Savior.

That too was an unforgettable day because I became one with Jesus in such an intimate way that it can only be compared to how a husband and wife become one on their honeymoon night. How is that even possible? Well, just like the two become one flesh in marriage, so Jesus and I become one Flesh in Mass. That is why little boys and girls dress up like a bride and groom at their First Communion. To make the connection clear between marriage and the Mass. That was an unforgettable experience – chiseled on my soul like on a stone. And that is a good thing.

How providential, then, that on this Sunday we should celebrate so many First Holy Communions. Why is that? Well, because today is not only the fourth Sunday of Easter, but also Good Shepherd Sunday. Hence, the gospel reading is always taken from John 10, the eloquent portrayal of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. One distinctive characteristic of the Good Shepherd how he knows us. Jesus says: “I know mine and mine know me.”

But notice the knowledge Jesus means here is deeper than head knowledge, like we know that 2 plus 2 equals 4, or we know that Arkansas is located north of Mississippi. It is rather biblical knowledge like when Adam “knew” Eve and she conceived and bore a son. Or, when Mary asked the angel: “I do not know man” so how can I become the Mother of God? In other words, when the Good Shepherd knows his sheep he really means he wants to become one with us as a Husband and wife. The best descriptor of the Church is as the Bride of Christ.

Do you remember that dreamy song called “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole? I believe it captures what happens on the day of First Holy Communion. Listen to these lines: “Unforgettable, that’s what you are. / Unforgettable, though near or far / Like a song of love that clings to me / How the thought of you does things to me / Never before has someone been more / Unforgettable in every way / And forever more, that’s how you’ll stay / That’s why darling, it’s incredible / That someone so unforgettable / Thinks that I am unforgettable too.” That is, what really happens at our First Holy Communion is that not only does Jesus become unforgettable to us, we become unforgettable to him! We are chiseled on his soul as if on stone.

The day of our First Holy Communion we make childhood memories that we can never erase. And Jesus can't either. They are forever chiseled in our souls as if on stone. They are a deep well where we can constantly return and draw the water of profound truths. Jesus told the Samaritan woman who came to draw water at a well: “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14). And that is a very good thing.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Hunting Habits

Learning how Jesus’ death gives us life

04/20/2024

Jn 6:52-59 The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "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. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 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. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever." These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Living on the Western frontier of Arkansas puts us in close contact with Oklahoma and several Indian Nations, like the Cherokee, Shawnee, and Muscogee. And we can learn a lot from them, especially their hunting habits. In an article I read recently about the Plains Indians, there was this fascinating observation: “Every part of the buffalo was used in some aspect of Native American life: the hide for clothing and teepee covering, the sinews for bow strings, the bones for cutting and digging implements, the bladder for water bags, the tannin in the brains to tan the hides so they would be soft and pliable.” And then the author of the article drew this profound conclusion: “For the human being to live, he had to slay his prey.”

But there is another Indian tradition that is even more extraordinary and even a little eerie. Some Native American tribes, after killing their prey, actually cut the heart out of the animal (bear or buffalo) and would eat the heart still dripping with blood. Why did they do such a gory thing? They believed that gesture would communicate to them all the admirable qualities of the animal. Human beings would receive the animal's bravery, its strength, its agility, etc.

I know that sounds gross, but we super sophisticated, scientific Americans believe virtually the same thing when we say: we are what we eat. Or to put it more colloquially: a minute on the lips and a lifetime on the hips." In other words, what we eat shapes us in profound and permanent ways. Food shapes our bodies but also shapes our spirits.

I think this Native American custom can shed some light on today’s gospel from John 6. Jesus says rather shockingly to the Jews (and to us!): “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.” Now, try to hear those words through Native American ears. We would hear: “For the human being to live, he had to slay the bear.” Similarly, our sins crucified Jesus on the cross, and therefore we are the true cause of his death. We slayed Jesus the Bear. But now his Flesh and Blood are truly present in the Eucharistic Bread and Wine.

And just like Native Americans ate the “heart” of their prey to receive its admirable qualities (speed, strength, agility), so we Catholic Christians receive Holy Communion to become more like Christ. In other words, Communion is a “minute on the lips but an eternal life-time on the hips,” meaning our bodies will rise from the dead and live forever like Jesus. Think about it: what we eat, especially here at Mass, truly shapes our bodies as well as our souls.

Boys and girls, I don’t know how many of you have gone hunting before. In some families going hunting is a rite of passage and a special time for bonding between a father and a son or a daughter. I remember as a small kid I was shooting a bee-bee gun in a field close to our house with some friends. We decided to see if we could hit a bird in a tree about fifty yards away.

They all missed but I winged the bird. He fell to the ground and I went to inspect the suffering I had inflicted. A friend came up and put his fingers around the bird’s neck and snapped off his head to stop the suffering. That was the right thing to do even though it may sound cruel. But I have never gone hunting again because I felt so bad for that unnecessary death.

But even if you don’t like to hunt like me, every time we come to Mass we adopt some of the Native American hunting habits. How so? Spiritually-speaking we witness the death of Christ due to our sins and hence, this is called the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But it is an unbloody sacrifice because Jesus died 2,000 years ago and is now risen in glory. We don’t kill Jesus again.

Nonetheless, like the Native Americans believed: “For the human being to live, he had to slay the bear,” in our case, the Bear is Jesus. His death is our life. Further, if we want to receive all the virtues and strengths of our divine Prey – Jesus’ holiness, his courage, his tenderness – we must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood, which is what we do in Holy Communion. In other words, at every Mass we reenact the hunting habits of the American Indians.

We can learn a lot from the Native Americans who lived on this land before the European colonists arrived. They can even give us a penetrating insight about the very heart of our faith, namely, the Eucharist, the Flesh and Blood of our Savior.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Lunch and Life

Learning to rely on God for everything in the Eucharist

04/17/2024

Jn 6:30-35 The crowd said to 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." So Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." So they said to Jesus, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

Around lunchtime someone at the church office always asks: “What’s for lunch today?” My response is invariably: “Manna from heaven!” That is, someone always brings the priests lunch, or there will be leftovers from dinner the previous night, or I will heat up one of Peggy Brandebura’s Jenny Craig frozen dinners – yum, yum! Or, I pull out one of my literally hundreds of gift cards to local restaurants and pick up a sandwich or salad or hamburger. But the point is that I try to have a total reliance on divine providence to provide lunch for me every day.

But my further and deeper prayer is that this attitude of trust really seeps into every crack and crevice of my life so that I rely on God, not just for lunch but for everything – my food, my clothing, my shelter, my friends, my health, my rest, my peace, etc. In other words, the manna is a symbol for my whole life, and just like I do not worry about where lunch is coming from, so I try not to worry about where life is coming from either. Put simply: lunch and life all come from God.

In the gospel today, Jesus begins in earnest his Bread of Life Discourse in John 6. The people quote Exodus 16 saying, “He (meaning Moses) gave them bread from heaven to eat.” But Jesus corrects their understanding by adding: “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven…I am the bread of life.” That is, the people are just thinking about lunch, like our church office staff does every day.

But Jesus wants to expand and elevate their thinking so that they see that lunch is really a symbol for their whole life. And the bread he will give them – by which he means himself in the Eucharist – will be real life, that is, eternal life. In other words, while Moses’ manna will help you live on earth, Jesus’ Manna (the Eucharist) will help you live for eternity.

My friends, how do you look at the Eucharist, and coming to Mass? Everyone who comes here comes for different reasons, even priests do! Some people see Mass as a mere obligation. If I don’t go to Mass on Sunday I commit a mortal sin. So, I better go but I only see Mass as a necessary interruption to all the more pleasant things I would rather do on Sunday. Our most popular Mass on Sunday is 7:30 a.m. which is early and has no music. Short and sweet. We check the Sunday Mass box and get on with our day.

Other people come to Mass because they need something. They come to ask God for a special intention: the healing of a loved one who has cancer, help with a spouse who drinks too much, prayers for children and grandchildren to go to church again. The petition list is long and as diverse as the congregation that walks through the church doors.

But there is a third group of people who come to Mass for an utterly unique and other-worldly reason, namely, they see that little white Wafer not as lunch but as life. These people don’t just come to Sunday Mass to check a box. They don’t come merely to ask for some petition. They come because they have glimpsed that Mass is not an interruption to their day, but rather in a spiritual sense, the Mass is the highlight of their day and everything else is of far less importance. Or better, everything finds its true meaning and measure in light of the Eucharist.

Bishop Robert Barron expressed it eloquently describing the Manna of Exodus 16: “In this strange substance, we sense something of signal importance – namely, that even as God sustains his people physically, his ultimate purpose is to sustain them spiritually. Coming ‘from heaven,’ the manna is an evocation of the higher, supernatural life to which he is summoning his people” (The Great Story of Israel, 52). Changing metaphors: the Mass is the mountaintop while the rest of the day is down in the valley. That is how the saints see the Mass, and one day, that is how we will all see the Mass.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Where We Put Jesus

Trusting the sensus fidelium of the people of God

04/16/2024

Jn 6:22-29 [After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.] The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left. Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “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.”

There was unanimous excitement and agreement when I announced that we would move the tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament back to the middle of the sanctuary here at Immaculate Conception. Not one person thought that was a bad idea. But several people did ask me why on earth the tabernacle was moved to the side altar in the first place. Who ever thought that was a good idea? That decision was made in the years following the Second Vatican Council which was in session from 1962-1965.

The Council Fathers (pope and bishops) wanted to emphasize the importance of the Mass so they implemented a number of changes in a document called Sacrosanctum Concilium. Some of you look old enough to remember them. For example, the priest faced the people instead of facing east (ad orientem). And the Mass was celebrated in the vernacular (local) language instead of in Latin. Such changes were intended to promote the active participation of the people.

Another decision (not made at Vatican II but later), again in order to promote active participation, was to move the tabernacle to the side or to another chapel for private prayer. The thinking was that somehow Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament might be a distraction to the primary focus of the Mass, which is the celebration of the Eucharist, what the priest and people do as the Body of Christ. So, theologians distinguished between the “static presence” of Christ in the tabernacle versus the “active presence” of Christ during the Mass.

In hindsight, however, I believe that thinking was erroneous. The people of God have a profound spiritual sensibility when it comes to the Eucharist. The Catholic faithful can easily, and even eagerly, distinguish between private devotion (like praying the rosary before Mass) and the main attraction of the Eucharistic liturgy itself. This instinct for the faith by the faithful (called the sensus fidelium) was famously developed by St. John Henry Newman in his book “On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine.”

Newman gave this example: “Thus we talk of ‘consulting our barometer’ about the weather:- the barometer only attests the fact of the state of the atmosphere.” That is, the laity don’t make the faith, but they know it when they hear it. In other words, if the pope and bishops after Vatican II had consulted the Catholic faithful about moving the tabernacle to the side altar or to a private chapel, they would have heard a world-wide “No! Don’t do it!” But alas, they did it.

And so today, if the Pew Research Center reports that only 30% of Catholics believe in the true and real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, well, we only have ourselves to blame. How so? By moving our Lord to the side, we diminished his prominence in the church. That was not the intention, of course, but it was an unintended consequence nonetheless. So, when people cheer the return of the Blessed Sacrament to the center of the sanctuary – like the people cheered Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem – we see the sensus fidelium is still alive and well. That spiritual sensibility has not be entirely killed.

This morning we hear from John 6, the great Eucharistic chapter of the fourth gospel. John illustrates with the multiplication of the loaves and the Bread of Life Discourse what Matthew, Mark, and Luke recount in the Last Supper narratives. And here Jesus expresses the true spirit of Vatican II and the sensus fidelium of sincere Catholics when he says: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”

And the Son of Man gives us this eternal Food in the Eucharist at Mass. But when our Lord is front and center in the sanctuary, we find it far more consistent with our faith in the Eucharist to worship him in the form of Bread. Of course we worship Jesus supremely in the Eucharist at Mass. But we want to continue to adore our Eucharistic Lord a lot longer than for just sixty minutes.

That is why Catholics come early for Mass and many people stay late after Mass is over. This is why our Hispanic prayer group wants Adoration all night long for the vigil of Pentecost. This is why Catholics sit and stare at what to the eyes of the world looks like a small white Wafer for 24-hour Adoration at St. Boniface. This faith in the Eucharist – both the active and static Presence of Christ – is the true sensus fidelium. And it will never be extinguished, no matter where we put Jesus.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Jesus and Juvenal

Seeing Jesus as our supernatural Bread King

04/13/2024

Jn 6:1-15 Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people recline." Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted." So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

In your classes of Humane Letters have you crossed paths with a Roman poet named “Juvenal”? he coined a phrase that captured the depravity of the desires of the Roman people. He said simply, “All they desire is bread and circuses.” The common people, in other words, no longer dreamed of Roman glory or honor or virtue, but just wanted food and entertainment, bread and circuses.

In the movie “Gladiator”, Russell Crowe defeats his opponent, a big thug, in the Colosseum, and then throws his sword at Emperor Commodus, sitting in his box seat. The gladiator shouts into the crowds, “Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?” Sometimes after a homily, I want to throw my Bible into the congregation and shout: “Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?” That is, some people just come to Mass for “bread and circuses” and I feel like the circus monkey doing tricks to make people laugh and be entertained.

In the gospel today we see Jesus is worried about the same base desires of the people as Juvenal would be seventy years later. Remember that Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish around 30 AD while Juvenal would write his Satires around 100 AD. We read in John’s gospel: “Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king” – a bread king – “he withdrew again to the mountain alone.”

Then, after crossing the sea of Tiberias to the other side, Jesus will teach them the “Bread of Life Discourse,” that is, all about the Eucharist. In other words, the people should not just be seeking bread and circuses, but rather the Bread of Eternal life, namely, Jesus. But the Jewish populace, like the Roman populace, was satisfied with “bread and circuses,” food and entertainment.

Well, isn’t it a relief that things have changed so much in 2,000 since those depraved Roman and Jews?! The populace of Northwest Arkansas, and especially here at Ozark Catholic Academy, doesn’t care for “bread and circuses” but only seeks virtue, holiness, service, and honor. Right? Hardly. C. S. Lewis described our desires starkly, writing: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.”

He continued: “[We are] like an ignorant child who wants to go to making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” You see, when Lewis uses the terms “drink and sex and ambition” he means what Juvenal did by “bread and circuses.” Instead of satisfying these base, animal, desires, Lewis points to the true Bread of Life, the Eucharist. Technologically and scientifically we may be far more advanced than our Roman and Jewish predecessors. But as for our shared human nature, we are the same or possibly worse.

Boys and girls, if there is one thing you are learning here at OCA, it is that there is more to life than bread and circuses, food and entertainment. Of course it’s great to live in Northwest Arkansas because of all the great restaurants (great food), and all the forms of entertainment, especially now that Coach Calipari is the new head basketball coach. But this school should force you to ask yourself everyday: is that all there is to life, just bread and circuses? If that is the height of our human desires than we are little better than the Romans and Jews of Jesus and Juvenal’s day.

By the way, have you ever wondered why the bread of the Eucharist is so small? Is it because the Church is so poor that we cannot afford to give each person at Mass a decent sandwich for Communion? No. It is because Jesus and the Church do not want you to look at our Lord as a natural Bread King, but as a supernatural Bread King. Have you ever complained: “Why is the Mass so boring?” That is another way of saying, “I am here to be entertained!”

The Eucharist is a test of faith. In other words, Jesus is not here to feed your face with lots of food or to be your circus monkey and give you endless entertainment. He is here to be your Savior. That test of faith in Jesus is the real test OCA is preparing you to pass by going to Mass several times a week The reason the Eucharist is so small is because it is a test. And not many people pass that test. “Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?”

Praised be Jesus Christ!