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20th Sunday - homily

When I was young, I worked as a rectory aide at my parish, Our Lady of Lourdes in Bethesda. For four hours every Thursday, I answered the phones, answered the door, and locked the Church. It was a pretty good gig: I made $7 cash plus two Cokes! The highlight was whenever the priest would come to visit me or check in. I was at the far end of the rectory, so I would always hear the priest coming. This gave me time to straighten myself up, turn off the TV, and look holy or something. One night during the summer, I heard a priest coming to see me. I got myself in order and then he popped in. He was wearing a t-shirt, swimming trunks, a funny hat, and had a towel draped over his shoulder. He said, “Hi, I’m Father Wells, the new priest”. “Hi”, I said. “I’m going to a pool party. You wanna go?”, he asked. “I have to answer the phones”, I replied, kind of mystified that he would even ask. “Ok, see ya later”, he said. Then, he was gone. I was thinking to myself, ‘what just happened? Who was that?’

That was Father Wells. We hit it off after that and for many years remained good friends. We reunited years later when he was the pastor of St Mark’s in Hyattsville and I was helping out with the youth group there. We hung out quite often for golf, with friends, vacations, and Church events. He was a great priest – very faithful, holy, brilliant, and a ton of fun. I would pick his brain all the time, trying to gain some of his wisdom. One day - I remember it so clearly – we were sitting in his office, shooting the breeze. At one point, I said, “well, you know, Father, the Eucharist is just a symbol”. “What?”, he said, with a look of total shock. Now, this was a man who completely believed in the Eucharist – that the bread and wine truly become the Body and Blood of Christ at Mass. “It’s a symbol?”, I said shakily. Then, he said something that changed my life: “Greg, this is my body means this is my body”.

After 21 years of going to Church every Sunday and after 12 plus years of Catholic education, this was the first time I really ever heard the teaching about the Eucharist. It finally hit me. So, I had to pursue it. I started to go to daily Mass (in addition to Sunday) to hear the words I had heard so many times before. In hearing those words anew and in seeing the faith of the priest and people, I realized that this is for real. It really is the Body and Blood of Christ! I also started going to Eucharistic Adoration which they had perpetually at St Marks. What was going on was a relationship. I was entering into a relationship with Jesus Christ who is truly present in the Eucharist. And so, I began to say to Him, “Lord, you gave me your life, I want to give you my life”. It was not long after that that thoughts of the priesthood began to enter my mind and heart. The funny thing was when I went to tell Fr Wells that I was “sort of, kinda having some thoughts, maybe, about the priesthood”, He said, “Can you hold on?”, and then picked up the phone, called the vocations director, and said “Hey, Mark, it’s Tom. Yeah, we got one”! (A year later, I was in the seminary).

My vocation came from the Eucharist; the Eucharist is the source of my vocation. It is the center of my vocation. I have dedicated my priesthood to the Eucharist. I have dedicated my ministry to the Eucharist. So often in ministry, I refer to these lines from today’s Gospel. When kids ask me, “why do we have to go to Mass every Sunday?”. I’ll say it’s mainly to receive the Eucharist. I’ll ask them if they want to go to Heaven. They’ll immediately respond with “Uh huh, uh huh”. Then, I’ll tell them that Jesus said we need to receive the Eucharist at Mass if we want to go to Heaven. My point is based on John 6, verses 53-54: “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”. We need the grace of the Eucharist and Baptism to get to Heaven, to have eternal life.

Now, the Eucharist is not just our ticket to Heaven. It is our chance to have Heaven on Earth: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life”. That means that in a few minutes we will have Heaven dwelling within us because we will have Jesus dwelling within us, and Jesus is the Kingdom of Heaven. At that moment, we will have the happiness, joy, peace, and all the things of Heaven in our bodies and souls.

Finally, it is not just about what we get from the Eucharist. It’s about what the Eucharist helps us to do. Elsewhere in John’s Gospel, Jesus says that, “whoever remains in me and I in him bears much fruit”. He makes it clear in today’s Gospel that the best way to remain in Him and Him in us is in the Eucharist. So, if we remain in Him and Him in us in the Eucharist, we will live fruitful lives. We will live the lives we truly want to live. If any of us is struggling with faith or virtue, we should go to Eucharist. It will help us to bear much fruit.

May each of make the Eucharist C.O.O.L. (center of our lives). May we center our lives on the Eucharist, bear much fruit, and have eternal life through the Eucharist.

19th Sunday - homily

Is there any difference between Communion that is offered at a Catholic Mass and Communion that is offered at a Protestant service? I’ve heard many people, including Catholics, say no, there is no difference. A good friend of mine, Ken, would answer differently. Ken was a Protestant who came to RCIA when I was leading it in my last parish. On the first night when everyone introduced themselves to the group, Ken made it very clear that he had no intention of becoming Catholic. Married to a Catholic with two kids in a Catholic school, he said that he simply wanted to go deeper in his study of the Bible; he had studied the Bible extensively before RCIA.

So, RCIA began and was rolling along for Ken until we got to the teaching on Communion…the Holy Eucharist. I presented the teaching of the Church that is based on the Gospel we hear from today and these weeks: John 6. We especially focused on the words of our Lord, “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world”, and how we take them literally. In other words, Jesus says that the Eucharist really is his flesh and blood and we believe him. Now, this was a problem for Ken. After reading John 6 with us, he realized that the Eucharist is not just something the Church came up with. This is straight from the lips of our Lord himself. We talked for a while after the next few RCIA meetings, particularly about the difference between the Eucharist in the Catholic Church and in Protestant denominations.

My basic point to him paralleled the one Christ makes to the Jews: the difference between the Protestant Eucharist and Catholic is the same difference between manna and the Bread of Life. The Protestant Eucharist is just bread in the same way that manna was just bread. It is natural food only. The Catholic Eucharist is the Bread of Life to which Jesus is referring in John 6. It is supernatural food. Ken and I focused very much on the stark difference that Christ presents: “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven…whoever eats this bread will live forever”. There is a huge difference between manna and the Bread of Life. There is a HUGE difference between the Protestant Eucharist (which is just bread) and the Catholic Eucharist (which is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ).

This was the turning point for Ken. In these talks, I could literally see the scales drop from his eyes. As I said, he was very much a student of the Bible. But, this was all news to him. And, it was good news! He realized that he had to receive the Catholic Eucharist, so he realized that he had to become Catholic. He struggled with some of the other teachings of the Church, but over the next several months…well, I straightened those out for him! It was an exceptionally beautiful and powerful process to witness for me and the others in RCIA. The climax was about two weeks before Easter which is when those in RCIA become Catholic. Ken was still struggling. He told the group in a very personal way how difficult it would be for him to become Catholic – mainly because he could never received Communion in his Protestant denomination again. It was very anguishing for him, something that made a huge impact on me and the others. He decided to come into the Church and is now one happy Catholic who received the Bread of Life weekly. He is very active in the parish and will be a solid teacher of the Catholic faith to so many.

Finally, the last line of today’s Gospel, verse 51, is so incredibly powerful. “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world”. Our Lord is saying that the flesh and blood that we receive in Holy Communion is the same flesh and blood that was on the Cross. We can make this line an equation to show this. “The bread that I will give” means the Eucharist… “Is” can mean equals…”my flesh for the life of the world” means the flesh and blood that he shed on the Cross because it is on the Cross that Christ gives his flesh for the life of the world. So, the Eucharist = Christ’s flesh and blood on the Cross. Christ doesn’t die at every Mass; death has no more power over him. It is His risen Body and Blood that is re-presented to us at Mass through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Eucharist truly is the Bread of Life to which Christ is referring. ”Whoever eats this bread will live forever”.

Fixing up the Newman Center

I've been getting thoughtful emails and notes from former parishioners and friends, asking how things are going here at the Newman Center. A few of them have made the comment that it's probably quiet here now, with the students away on summer break. Sha! I understand their thinking, but there has been much going on here this summer. We've undertaken many projects to fix up the Newman Center; most to address structural problems in this 100 year-old home and some to improve things aesthetically.

Here are pics of the Center - these qualify as "before" pics - and some of the projects that we are working on. I will post their "after" counterparts in the next few weeks. It's very exciting!! Btw, we welcome donations - these are expensive repairs and improvements.


Let's just say that the Center will get a facelift!


We'll spruce up the front yard with some flagstone and new landscaping.


We'll clean up the mess in the backyard and build a brick door at the pit. Also, the University will be replacing the broken fence.


If you've been in the kitchen anytime in the recent past, you've seen the mold problem on the wall. The basement has some pretty bad water damage. We're waterproofing the foundation as much as possible and then putting up new drywall. Also, we just got a new stove! Score!


Ewww..dirty kitchen floor. We'll clean it and make it shine as much as possible. Also, we'll replace broken tiles.


Water has been leaking from the balcony roof into the parlor ceiling...not good! We'll fix that, and then maybe even rearrange the parlor a bit. I want the Center to have a mini-library of cool Catholic materials (brochures, pamphlets, booklets, books, etc.). The parlor is my first choice, but it may disturb the "lounge area" of the parlor, so we would just put the resources elsewhere in the Center.


The deck on the roof will be looking sweet in a few weeks after some repairs, powerwashing, and staining.


One change we did not wish to make has to do with our beloved campus minister, Alecia. Alecia and her husband, John, are moving to North Carolina this month because John recently accepted a position at Wyngate University. We will miss Alecia very much! She has given her heart, mind, soul, and strength to GW students for the past four years. We wish her and John well. We will never replace her, but hope to find someone to fill her position asap. Please pray that God sends us the right person.

"Quo Vadis Days"

Next week, the Archdiocese is hosting a retreat for high school young men, "Quo Vadis Days". This retreat has been held in other dioceses, with 100 boys attending in at least two dioceses. Currently, there are less than 30 signed up to go next week. We need more guys going! It will be a GREAT experience for the boys to enjoy some fraternity and grow in holiness. Please encourage any high school boys who you think may be interested to go...and bring their friends!

Contact Fr. Rob Walsh at the # below, and tell him that Fr. Greg said to waive the $100 cost. Money should not stop any boys from attending. Thank you very much!


High school young men: Quo Vadis: Where are you going?

Legend tells us St. Peter asked Jesus this question on the outskirts of Rome. We know where Jesus went in response to His Father's will. He knew that only by doing what the Father asked of him would there be true joy and fulfillment in this life.


Where are you going?

What is the Father's will for you?

Want to learn more?

Quo Vadis Days will give you the opportunity to learn more about discernment of your vocation. A four-day camp for high school young men, activities will include prayer, hiking, games, sports, talks, and lots of great food. Sign-up now as space is limited.

Quo Vadis Days will be held August 9-12, 2009 at the Msgr. O’Dwyer Retreat Center in Sparks, MD. The cost is $100, which includes room, board and transportation.


Contact:
Father Rob Walsh
301-853-4580
PO Box 29260
Washington, DC 20017-0260

18th Sunday - homily

“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life”. This teaching from our Lord reminds me of a friend of mine. When I met her a few years ago, she basically admitted that her life was all about food that perishes, it was all about this world. She was living a secular lifestyle and pursuing a secular career. It wasn’t all bad, but she wasn’t happy. At the same time, she wanted to go deeper in her Catholic faith. It was so cool to see her go deeper during those weeks and months and begin to work for food that endures for eternal life. It didn’t surprise me, then, when she called me sometime later to let me know that she was entering religious life as a sister. Very cool stuff! It is so amazing to see young people go deeper in their faith, be open to God’s Call, and then follow it. Now, we don’t need to enter religious life to live out this teaching of Christ’s, but my friend is a great example to us. We should all look at our lives and see if they are just about this world only or if they point to something else: eternal life.

“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life”. The reaction of the crowd to this teaching might have been our reaction: “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” We would probably have been focused on we need to do, how to get involved. It is important for us to get involved – in the Church, in our family, in our community, in our country. It is important for us to get involved, for example, in the current health care debate. We should contact our representatives in congress and the senate and ask them what the Bishops’ Conference has asked: keep health care “abortion neutral”, please. Right now, it’s not. This is part of what it means to work for food that endures for eternal life.

But, Jesus tells the crowd and us, first things first: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” It all starts with faith. It’s all about faith in Christ. This is what it means to do the work of God: to believe in Jesus. Now, I would guess that many of us here would say, ‘Lord, we already believe in you. What do we do next?’ But, there is one thing that we Catholics have a hard time believing in: the Eucharist. A study from years ago found that 70% of Catholics do not believe in the Eucharist. 70% believe that it is only a symbol of the Body and Blood of Christ. Personally, I believe that most if not all of them haven’t really heard the teaching from John 6 which we are hearing these Sundays and from the Church. That might be a fault of the Church not preaching it clearly and consistently.

It is a hard teaching. It takes a lot of faith to believe that a change happens in the bread and wine at Mass even though our senses don’t pick up a change. It still looks like bread and wine. It still tastes like bread and wine. Why do we believe in the Eucharist? Because of four words: “This is my body”. Jesus didn’t say, “This represents my body” or “This symbolizes my blood”. He said, “This is my body”. The Apostles believed Him, the early Church believed Him, and we believe Him. It really is Him! It’s an amazing thing that will happen here in a few minutes – Jesus will become present on the altar through the words I will say and we will receive Him in Holy Communion. What a gift!

Again, it takes a lot of faith in Christ to believe in the Eucharist. This is what our Lord is asking of us. It is no coincidence that his line about believing in Him is in the middle of his teaching of the Eucharist. We are hearing these weeks from John 6, the Bread of Life discourse. He is laying out the teaching and the crowds are having a hard time believing Him. He is saying to them and to us: believe in me and what I am teaching you here. In a couple of weeks, we will hear Him get much more specific and emphatic: “my flesh is real food…my blood is real drink”. It is certainly not a discourse that can be taken symbolically.

Back to my friend: at the heart of her story is the Eucharist. Her faith took off because she went to the Eucharist more. She focused on the Eucharist at Mass, began attending daily Mass and Eucharistic Adoration. It really is like the parable of the mustard seed for her or any of us whose faith grows because of the Eucharist: at first, it’s small but then grows and grows and grows into something very big. The Eucharist is the center of it all for us Catholics. It is the center of our faith in Christ. It is the center of our lives. If any of us is struggling in our faith, we should go to the Eucharist. It really is the best way for us to live out this challenge from our Lord. It is the best way for us to work for food that endures for eternal life. It is the best way for us to believe in the one God sent.