God's Greatest Gift: The Holy Eucharist

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, May 29, 2016

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Tucson, AZ

Today, we celebrate the greatest gift ever given to the world: the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Today's celebration of Corpus Christi was formally instituted by Pope Urban IV in 1264, but in reality the Church has been celebrating it  since Our Lord turned bread and wine into His Body and Blood on the night before He was sacrificed. We call this feast the Last Supper or Holy Thursday. Since the Last Supper, the Church has firmly taught that the bread and wine used in the sacrifice of the Mass become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ -- without destroying the appearance of bread and wine in the process.

The bread we eat looks and tastes like ordinary bread. The wine we drink looks and smells like ordinary wine. Yet, it is through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, that  Our Lord manifests Himself in our lives in deepest intimacy.

In fact, there have been many saints who have lived extraordinary lives because of their faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. 

For example, in the 1300s, Saint Catherine of Sienna and in the 1600s,  Saint Joseph of Cupertino both received no nourishment apart from the Eucharist for the last years of their lives.

Another saint is Blessed Alexandrina da Costa. She lived in Portugal during the early 20th century and became bedridden as a young woman after she fell out of a window because she refused to have sex with three men who broke into her home. This woman offered up all of her sufferings to Jesus, and she answered Our Lord’s call to fast on the Holy Eucharist. In fact, she lived on nothing but the Holy Eucharist for the last 13 years of her life!

My brothers and sisters, today’s celebration of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ, calls us to deeper love and reverence for Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy

Eucharist celebrated during Holy Mass! It is a sacred oath given to us by Jesus Himself, which the Church has celebrated ever since in obedience to His Word, "Do this in remembrance of Me." (1Cor 11:24)

Saint Paul tells us in today’s reading that “on the night he was handed over [He] took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in

remembrance of me.' In the same way also, Our Lord took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes!” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). 

These words of Saint Paul remind us that the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is a sacrifice. When we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we are not simply making a gesture to be more loving and caring. 

No! When we worthily receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist we enter into His death. We share in the sacrifice that He suffered on the cross so that we can become one with Him in His resurrection! Therefore, as Jesus offered Himself to God as a Sacrifice, He expects us  to offer ourselves to God as well. We must be willing to sacrifice our own will and desires and pick up our cross and follow Christ. 

 
Many today in our culture do not want to give anything up. We want to live for ourselves. Our culture teaches us to indulge ourselves regardless of God’s laws and His teachings! But as Catholics we are called not to frequent the wayward places of our culture, but to live for God.

As Catholics, our job is to celebrate the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist with much  reverence. Therefore it's necessary to prepare to receive Our Lord worthily.  For, when we eat Our Lord’s Body and Blood worthily, we become what we eat! We become a holy temple because our Sacred

Lord lives inside of us. This is why we do not want to come to receive our Lord if we are conscious of grave sin. For, it is an act of pride and arrogance when we receive Our Lord knowing that we are living a lifestyle that contradicts the teachings of Christ's Church.

My brothers and sisters, the gift of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the greatest benefit ever bestowed on mankind! In the Eucharist, we receive Jesus in His True Presence. We should never take this gift for granted! May the grace of the Holy Eucharist protect us from all harm and from all evil so that we can live in Peace with Our Lord for all eternity. Amen!

THE FATHER AND I ARE ONE

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

The Most Holy Trinity, May 22, 2016

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Tucson, AZ

This Sunday our Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity -- One God in three Persons -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Today’s celebration holds a deep place in my heart. 

I am a convert to Catholicism and was raised and baptized Mormon. I was very involved with the Mormon Church as a child. It was not until God called me to be Catholic several years later that I learned to understand the most important teachings of our Christian faith, including the significance of the Holy Trinity. 

The Mormon Church does not believe in the Trinity. Mormons believe in God the Father, and in Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit, but they do not believe that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one and the same God in three Persons. The Mormon Church believes that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separate beings. Therefore, even though I was baptized Mormon at the age of eight years old, I had to be re-baptized as Catholic because the Mormon Church does not baptize in the name of the Most Holy Trinity.

I can remember that as I went through the

Fr. John Paul Shea

Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) to become Catholic that it was as if I had already known in my heart that God is a Trinitarian Being even though I had not been formally taught such.

I can remember that as I learned about the Trinity that I searched the scriptures and read the many passages that relate to the triune Godhead. For example, I looked at the beginning of the Gospel of John where it teaches us that the Word, who is Jesus, was with God, that the Word was God, and that this Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us (John 1:1). 

I read further into the Gospel of John where Our Lord relates that the Father is in Him and that He is in the Father… Our Lord says, “Believe in me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:11). Our Lord says that the Father and He are One (John 10:30), and He says that the Father will send the Holy Spirit in His name to teach us all things and guide us to all Truth, as we heard in today’s Gospel passage (John 16:12-15). 

I read Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians where it says Jesus is the "image of the invisible God” and the "firstborn of all creation.” Not only that, but Jesus is “before all things” and that through Him all things were created! (Colossians 1:15-17).

And I looked at the miracles of Our Lord Jesus during His time on earth. He walked on water. He controlled the weather. He forgave sins, and He cured people. Our Lord did these things because the mighty power of God was in Him. 

My brothers and sisters, the Holy Trinity, that God is one God in three Persons, is a central belief of our faith! In fact, there have been many Christians who have been persecuted and martyred for belief in the Trinity!

It is through the Trinity that we Christians are able to share in the very life of God. It is through Our Lord Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit that we receive Him in the Holy Eucharist. If God was not a Trinitarian God, then we would have no Eucharist! If we did not have a Trinitarian God, then Our Lord would not have had the power to breathe the  Holy Spirit upon His apostles after the Resurrection.  When He did that, He gave them -- His priests -- the ability to forgive sins.

 
Today’s solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity teaches us that our God is a God of relationship! He is a Community of Persons!

Our God is huge and incomprehensible. Our God, Whom no eye has seen and no ear has heard, is a God of love. And in His love, He has made His dwelling among us through His Son Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, He has given us the Holy Spirit making us His

children by adoption! It is through the Holy Trinity that we share in the very life of God!

Yet, let us be reminded, that if we want to share in the life of God for all eternity, we must take to heart the salvation that has been won for us through the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Even though Jesus is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity; even though He is in the very form of God; even though He is the imprint of God’s very being, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death -- even death on a cross! (2 Philippians 2:5-8). 

Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge the significance of the Holy Trinity in the life of our Catholic faith. As the world indulges itself in materialism, let us

follow Jesus Christ in humility so that we can live with Him in the love of His Father through the gift of the Holy Spirit for all eternity.

"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.”

AN APPEAL TO HUMANITY FOR UNITY

on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

by Edwin Rodrigues

of Chandigarh, India, who can be found at @EdwinEd1667 on Twitter

Work for unity, clarity, charity and every virtue.

Start this Sunday, when we adore

the Most Holy Trinity, undivided Unity.

  

Our prayers and tears are not in vain!

For the One to Whom we pray, listens,

He listens even before we say,

“Let us work for unity, charity, clarity of every faculty

in myself, our families, in everyone,

the entire human community!

And particularly in our Roman Catholic Church.”

For we pray for vision clarity

especially for the beloved -- ignorant of Holy Mother Church

and her teachings

on chastity, purity, humility;

They do not know

the preciousness of unborn life, the holy breath of elderly & handicapped.

The innocent threatened with early death wear real crowns of thorn.

O Divine Majesty, three distinct Persons, living in cohesive, triune Unity,

look with pity on humanity that blinds itself with vanity, cruelty, and lust.

These are deeds You see before they come to pass.

Have compassion on us, and most of all on me!

I am always in need of your merciful love, always in need of Thee.

I ask this  through the intercession of the angels and saints,

and through their Queen, Mother Mary!

May the fruit of these efforts be ours,

for without sacrifice and love,

we surrender humanity to darkness and dark powers.

Let us pray for showers of healing and peace!