Let me tell you about a miracle and a martyr. The miracle happened to a friend of mine when he was in high school. We will call him Michael for the sake of anonymity. Michael was a bit of a wild child during his high school years. Even though he went to a Catholic all-boys high school, he made some decisions that led him away from the Lord. Michael began to drink during high school and at times even came to school intoxicated. So it was that one morning he was drunk while attending a school Mass. When it was time for Communion, Michael went up in the line to receive, not thinking much of it. But as he took a drink from the chalice, something crazy happened. He became instantly sober. You would think this would have an immediate effect and bring Michael to his senses, but that wasn’t exactly the case. In fact, at that time Michael’s main reaction to the miracle was anger! He wanted to be intoxicated. But this was just a link along a chain which eventually led Michael to embrace Jesus in a much deeper way. Today he is a family man and a strong Catholic. I can only imagine that he looks back on that period of life with contrition in his heart.
Now let’s talk about a martyr. He is St. Lawrence, the martyr we actually celebrated yesterday. St. Lawrence was one of the early Deacons in the Church. In the 3rd century, St. Sixtus, who was pope at that time, ordained Lawrence a Deacon and eventually appointed him the archdeacon of Rome. As archdeacon, Lawrence was one of those entrusted with distributing alms from the church’s treasury to the poor of the city. The Roman prefect became aware of this and demanded that Lawrence hand over the church’s treasure to Rome. Lawrence purportedly asked for three days in order to gather the treasure, and during that time, worked to distribute all the money in the church’s treasury to the poor of Rome. When he appeared before the prefect who had demanded the treasure, Lawrence presented a crowd of the poor whom he had brought with him and said, “Here are the treasures of the church. You see, the church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor!” For this, Lawrence was sentenced to die and a grille was brought out on which to roast him. Tradition says that St. Lawrence endured the torture bravely and at one point even joked, “I’m well done on this side, turn me over!” Unsurprisingly, St. Lawrence is the patron saint of comedians.
What could enable St. Lawrence to have a sense of humor even in the face of torture and death? I would argue that it was because he was fed on the Bread of Life, as Jesus teaches us about this Sunday. St. Lawrence was fearless not because of any special bravery he possessed on a natural level, but because in His heart He was in communion with Jesus, who had strengthened Him over and over in the Eucharist. St. Lawrence took Jesus at His word in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. Let’s open up our hearts to Jesus’ words there:
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus gave us the greatest possible gift in the Holy Eucharist. In this Sacrament, he gave us the ability to feed on Him over and over, to be so intimately united with Him that we share in His life and love, the life and love that conquered death itself. He tells us that by feeding on His flesh we will never die, that it is His flesh which will give life to the whole world. And this is the reality in the Church today. All over the world, Catholics are gathering to be fed at Mass by Jesus in the inspired words of Scripture and above all in the Holy Eucharist. If we allow the Father to guide our hearts, we can recognize that Jesus comes to us humbly, but powerfully in this Sacrament of the Altar.
The Church says this about the Eucharist: “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.” The whole spiritual good of the Church is here for us at Mass: Jesus Himself, our pasch, meaning the one who accomplished the passover from death to everlasting life for us. When we receive Jesus in faith in the Eucharist, He fills us with Himself and His power, with the Love which defeated death itself on the Cross. What a privilege, and one which we so often just take for granted!
Friends, let’s open our hearts to the One who wants to meet us at the Altar today, the One who wants to transform us by feeding us with Himself. My friend Michael sobered up all those years ago not by drinking a little sip of wine, but by partaking in the Precious Blood of the New and Everlasting Covenant, the Blood shed on the Cross for his sins and those of the whole world. When you’re in a room and think you’re alone, a tap on the shoulder alerts you to the fact that someone is with you. In that moment, even though Michael resisted acknowledging it, the Lord Jesus was tapping him on the shoulder, so to speak, to let Him know, “I’m here.” Eventually, Michael recognized Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist. And St. Lawrence laughed in the face of death because His heart was fed by the Bread of Life!
The Lord gives each of us those taps on the shoulder. I pray that we lean into the faith of our baptism so that we are awake when they happen. Jesus wants to feed us with Himself so that nothing in this world can defeat us. He wants each of us to be so filled with Him and the hope of Heaven that we can approach difficulties with the same sense of humor that St. Lawrence did in the face of torture.
When we eat the Bread of Life, our lives and hearts are meant to be drawn up into Jesus’ own life. Let’s allow Him to draw us into Himself at this and every Mass!
+ Heavenly Father, thank you so much for giving us Jesus to be our Heavenly Food at every Mass. Jesus, thank you for the Food which conquers death, the Bread that is your flesh for the life of the world! Holy Spirit, deepen our faith in Jesus’ presence with us in the Eucharist so that our hearts can be nourished and strengthened by Him as we receive Him. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +