Have Some of This

Accepting our Father’s Food gladly and gratefully

11/13/2023

Lk 17:1-6 Jesus said to his disciples, "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him." And the Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."

Sometimes our experience of the Mass can feel mundane and even monotonous. But every now-and-then, it can also feel magical and even miraculous. I would like to share a very magical moment for me at Mass yesterday. In the past few years I have noticed a curious custom my father has when we eat a meal as a family. I cannot remember how long he has been doing this, but as he gets close to finishing his food, he takes a little portion and offers it to me. He says very kindly and lovingly, “Here, have some of this.”

At first I used to get frustrated at him and snap back, “No, dad, I have more than enough on my plate! I can barely finish my own food.” More recently, however, I realized this small portion of his food was an important gesture of his love for me, and I now accept it humbly and eat it gratefully, even though I am still full.

But yesterday at Spanish Mass, while I was distributing Holy Communion, it suddenly struck me: I am doing exact what my dad does! It is as if I were saying to all those Catholics coming up in my line, “Here, have some of this.” And tears welled up in my eyes when I suddenly realized what I was doing: a spiritual father, which is what priests are in their deepest identities, was feeding his sons and daughters, like my dad feeds me.

And how do some Catholics respond to this gesture I make every Sunday to eat some of my Food? Some say like I used to: “No, dad, I have enough food on my plate! I have no room to eat the Eucharist!” That is, my spiritual stomach is full of the things of this world and I am not hungry for the Mass. Yet other Catholics come to Communion begrudgingly, again, like I used to with my dad, and force down the Food of Angels, but all the while we can’t wait to get back to our own plate, and devour more of our worldly diet.

But every now-and-then, we come to Mass and suddenly we see – like I did yesterday – what is really happening here. It is as if scales fall from our eyes, like they did for Saul the Pharisee after he saw Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts 9:18, and we realize Holy Communion is when our heavenly Father says, though the voice of his human interpreter the priest, “Here, have some of This.”

And what the heavenly Father offers us his beloved children is his own Son, Jesus Christ, in the form of Bread and Wine. How could any Catholic possibly say, “No thanks” to such a kind and generous offer? Well, how did I say, “No thanks, dad” for so many years when my family ate a meal together? It's hard to fathom the depths of human stubbornness and stupidity, at least mine.

As you know we are in the conclusion of a three-year program called the Eucharistic Revival. The United States bishops have been watching with growing alarm that Catholic Mass attendance has been dwindling. Thankfully, that is not the case here at I.C. but it is generally true around the country. Perhaps you know someone in your own family who grew up Catholic but no longer goes to Mass?

Don’t worry, I do too: plenty of my Catholic classmates from grade school, high school, and even college no longer attend Mass. In other words, the bishops are hearing Catholics across our country saying in effect, “No, dad, I have enough to eat on my plate! I don’t want that little portion from your plate.”

But Catholics have forgotten that the Food the Father offers us will give us eternal life, whereas the food we stuff ourselves with only offer us earthly life. The bishops are calling for a Eucharistic revival so that the scales will fall from all Catholics’, indeed from all Christians’, eyes so we can “taste how good the Lord is” (1 Pt 2:3). The bishops are saying to the whole world: “Here, have some of This.”

Bishop Robert Barron made this beautiful observation about how meeting Jesus at Mass always changes us. He wrote in his book Catholicism, “In his meditation on the story of the visit of the Magi, Archbishop Fulton Sheen indicated that the three kings…”having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way” (Mt 2:12). 'Of course they did,' Sheen concluded, ‘for no one comes to Christ and goes back the same way he came!’”

Bishop Barron continued: “The liturgy is the privileged communion with the Lord; it is the source and summit of the Christian life. And therefore those who participate in it never leave unchanged; they never go back the same way they came” (p. 194). That is, we will be changed at every Mass, provided we are humble enough to say “Sure, Dad, thanks” when the heavenly Father says, “Here, have some of This.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!