20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 (9a)
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
August 18, 2024
Jesus says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”
To have life, we must eat and drink. That is the reality of life. To have eternal life, we must eat and drink spiritually. Jesus tells us that the food we must eat is “the flesh of the Son of man” and the drink we must drink is his “blood.”
Jesus would not tell us we must do this within giving us a way to do it. He gives us his Body and Blood in the bread and wine that are consecrated at Mass. The Eucharist is our true food and true drink for eternal life.
Jesus says we need to eat his flesh and drink his blood yet our Catholic Church has rules on who can receive Communion.
We are not to receive Communion in a state of mortal sin. This is not a punishment. It is a call to worthy reception. Paul cautions us today, “Watch carefully how you live.” In 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, Paul writes “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
When we know we have committed mortal sin, we need to seek God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation before receiving Communion.
Our Catholic faith also says we need to be Catholic to receive Communion. This has origins in Exodus 12:43-48 where God instructs the Israelites that no one who is not an Israelite may share in the Passover. They must first be circumcised. To receive Communion we must first be in Communion.
We become Catholic by being baptized in a Catholic Church. If we were baptized in another Christian church, we can seek to be received into the Catholic Church.
It is our reception of Baptism/reception that makes us Catholic.
Now, I would like to shift and talk about our parish census. For both St. Mary’s of the Lake and St. Benedict’s we have a computer database of everyone who is registered.
Registering in a parish is not what makes you Catholic. Registration is a matter of logistics for us to have contact information and who is in the household.
It has been a long time since we have done an updating of our census. Our records are out of date. Phone numbers are often out of date as landlines get dropped and people do not provide us with a new phone number. The next most likely thing to be out of date is adult children who remain listed but live elsewhere. If they don’t live here, they shouldn’t be registered here. It doesn’t change their status as Catholics or mean they can’t get married here. Taking them off the list simply means they don’t live here anymore.
In 2 Samuel 24 we read how King David took a census to be able to boast of their numbers. That’s pride and pride is a sin. For his sin, the nation suffered a plague.
Censuses aren’t always bad. God ordered a census in Numbers 1.
We have a better reason than pride for our census. We are updating our census to make sure we can communicate with our parishioners outside of Mass and to better know who our current parishioners are.
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At this point, I would like the ushers to come forward and hand out the census cards. As they do so, I ask our visitors to be patient with us for a few minutes. (You might ask yourself if your own parish has up to date contact information for you.)
For those who already completed the new census online, thank you. For today if you could just print your name and email address on the card and check the box saying you completed the census online, that gives the consultant the means to verify it.
If you would prefer to complete the census on your phone, you will find a QR code at the end of each pew. You can scan that code to go the census website for our diocese (https://communitycounseling.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4OWsV6vO4iw4daC).
I’m not going to walk you through each box. In a moment, I will stop talking to allow you to complete the census card without disruption but I do need to highlight some items.
- Please be sure and mark which parish you wish to be registered under. It doesn’t have to be the one you most attend.
- The census cards asks which way you prefer to be contacted. You can mark more than one. Just circle the ones you prefer.
- The additional information section invites you to let us know if you would like us to contact you for something.
Now, our musicians will play some instrumental music while you complete the cards.
When it looks like people have finished, I will invite the ushers to come forth and collect the cards.