THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Sixth Sunday after Pentecost 24 July 2011

The Sunday Sermon

  Dear Friends,

Our Lord multiplies His graces as He had multiplied the loaves of bread and fishes in today’s gospel.

Those who love God and feed daily upon His words follow Him every day just as the people in the gospel today. They followed Him physically and we must follow Him spiritually. His presence is just as real to the Catholic today as it was to the people that followed Him when He walked this earth.

God’s love for us is the same as the love He had for them. He fed them with His words and He fed them with bread, but He indicated that there is a greater bread than what they were eating. We have been given the opportunity to taste of this heavenly bread in the Holy Eucharist.

Jesus remains present in the consecrated hosts as long as the form (shape, color, taste, etc.) of the bread remains. He is truly present in both His Humanity and His Divinity. This is the bread that we are told will give us eternal life if we partake of it. He has told us that those who eat His Flesh and drink His Blood will have eternal life in them.

We first begin to receive His graces when we are baptized. From that moment we have become true children of God and He takes special care of us, especially for our souls. At every stage of our lives we are given sacraments to feed us and give us the grace and strength necessary for the vocation or stage of life we are entering. Above all of these sacraments is that most necessary one of the Holy Eucharist, where we feed and nourish ourselves with God Himself. We enter not only into a spiritual Communion with God but also into a profoundly physical Communion. We receive Him into our bodies so that we can be transformed into Him.

As often as we receive Jesus into our bodies in Holy Communion, His presence among us is increased, rather than decreased as with natural food. In Holy Communion we now have Christ living within us and in this way we are to bring Christ to the rest of the world.

There are some very serious dangers for us to be aware of as we prepare to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion. St. Paul warns not to receive Him unworthily because we will only be bringing upon ourselves our own destruction – damnation. God has provided a means for us to cleanse ourselves and thus be humbly prepared to receive Him without condemnation. That means is in the sacrament of Penance (Confession). A simple means where we humbly confess to God’s minister our sins and receive through the priest God’s pardon. In this state we are now ready to receive God in Holy Communion, still unworthy, but in a state now receptive to grace rather than in opposition to it. For those who truly love God they find that they can never receive Him often enough, and panting after Him they are always eager to receive not only His words but Jesus Himself in Holy Communion. God in His generosity has provided still another means to satisfy this love – Spiritual Communions. If we are unable to physically receive Him in the Holy Eucharist we can do so through love and desire. With a simple act of our wills we can make an act of Contrition, we can make acts of Faith, Hope, and Love and in these dispositions of our hearts we humbly make bold to beg the grace of God’s presence in the Holy Eucharist.

God who reads the hearts of men takes these holy desires for the deed. It is a frightful thought that the man who lusts in his heart is already guilty of adultery, but it is a consoling thought that the man who craves God’s graces and presence will be spiritually rewarded with that which he desires.

Let us each time we receive Our Lord pray for those who are unable to receive Him that they too may profit from a similar grace. There are many who because of the great apostasy and the scarcity of true priests do not have the opportunity to receive as we do. They are often reminded that they are never far from the Church or God because He is everywhere and His grace is not impeded by time or space. To make these Spiritual Communions requires a greater faith but it is likewise rewarded with great graces too. As we are more than just one family, but are actually one body in Christ, it is good for us to always pray for one another as we receive Our Lord -- either in the physical Holy Eucharist or in a Spiritual Communion.