Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the holy gospel according to John glory to you Lord.
Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world, and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So during supper, fully aware that the father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, master, are you going to wash my feet?
Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing you do not now understand, but you will understand later.
Peter said to him, you, will never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.
Simon Peter said to him, master, then not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well.
Jesus said to him, whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over.
So you are clean, but not all, for he knew who would betray him. For this reason, he said, not all of you are clean.
So when he had washed their feet, he put his garments back on and reclined at table again.
He said to them, do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me teacher and master, and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore the master and teacher have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.
I have given you a model to follow so that as I have done for you, you should also do the gospel of the Lord.
I have to admit, in my 30 years as a priest, I have been really shocked several times when the bishops conference comes together and decides to do something. And they don't call me for my opinion first, because every once in a while they do some things that make me go, yeah, I don't think they quite get it.
And I'll explain to you what I mean.
At this point in time in church history, we are in the midst of what's being called a eucharistic revival, and that comes from a study that said the majority of Catholics do not believe in the real presence.
And I got to admit one is, I thought the question was a little bit off, and that in reality, people believe much more than the bishops want to give them credit for.
But they don't ask the question in the right way, and they don't take it out to its logical conclusion.
A better way to ask it, I think, would be to ask, do you believe that you are becoming the presence of Christ?
Because everything we do around this table is set up and meant to do that.
And I think that's a lot harder question to answer, but one that can truly stretch our faith in ways that we don't often give credit to.
Because the reason Jesus took those ordinary things of bread and wine that represent something else that's very ordinary, our lives took those ordinary things and transformed them into the extraordinary. His body and blood was not to just change bread and wine into his body and blood. That's only a part of the steps.
It was meant to change all us into his body and blood, his presence in the world.
And that has a twofold understanding. The first is it's the ultimate desire to be intimate with us, that Jesus loves us so much that he literally wants to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
But the second part is the commission that all of us have promised to do, beginning in our baptism. And that is to take that real presence that becomes one with us and allow his presence to be active and known in the world.
And I think all the church need to do is look at what we do on this day, this day where we celebrate the Lord's supper and are reminded of all those gifts. What's the gospel? We hear that that transformation that happens is meant to call on us to serve one another, to wash each other's feet, there can't be a clearer way of understanding than what was just proclaimed.
And I think by and large, as we grow in our faith and we come together week after week, we can see and begin to believe that we are being transformed into Christ.
Now, none of us feel like we're there yet.
I for 01:00 a.m. About 18 million light years away.
But I also believe he's working through me, in spite of my brokenness, in spite of my sinfulness.
And I know for sure that he's working through all of you.
A second question we can ask ourselves is, if we believe we're being transformed, do we believe that all these other people are being transformed as well?
Because if we say yes, and I think we do. I know I do.
Then that requires me to look at all of you differently.
I can't hold a grudge. I can't hold hatred. I can't hold contempt, because if I do, I'm not just holding it for you as a human being. I'm holding it for you as the presence of Christ in the world.
And that means I got to change my outlook.
I think if, as a church, we talked about the Eucharist in that way, that it is a transformative moment, allowing us to be one with Christ and allowing us to change the world by that presence that becomes one with us. I think we'd get 100% of people saying, yeah, I buy.
They might think like me. They're a long way from fulfilling it, but they understand the love. They understand the presence. They understand what Christ does for us.
So who knows? Maybe they'll call me Monday.
