Father Riley's homily from August 19, 2018, Christ Church, Bastrop

Breaking News:  
...The Vestry of Christ Episcopal Church, Saint Joseph, will be meeting with The Rev. Canon John Bedingfield Saturday, August 25th in our Parish House.  As Canon to the Ordinary, Canon John is in charge of transitions, congregational development, and more.  We look forward to Canon John helping us plan our future.

...The Rev. Canon Gregg Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist Sunday, August 26th.

...Sam Corson will be attending "Reimaging Faith Formation for the 21st Century" workshop at Saint James, Alexandria, Sept 15th.

...Diocesan Convention will be held in Pineville, Nov 3rd.  Sam & Faye will be attending for CEC.

...Ordination of seminarian Garrett Boyte (and others) to the transitional diaconate will be held at Saint James, Alexandria, Nov. 24th at 10am.



13 PENTECOST, PROPER XV - B - 18           JOHN 6. 51-58

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven, whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

I cannot tell how many times as a young lad I was sent to the neighborhood grocery, a little mom and pop operation, only a few blocks away, to buy bread. Mother would be in the process of preparing supper and discover there was no bread for the table. So I was sent with a quarter in hand with the words “bring back my change.” Remember when bread was that cheap?

Today’s gospel is a continuation of Jesus’ “bread of life” discourse from the 6^th chapter of St. John. For the past four weeks our gospel has been focused on bread, the bread of heaven, the bread of life, the bread come down from heaven that gives eternal life and today Jesus shocks his listeners with the added words “and the bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

It all began you may recall four weeks ago with the miracle of Jesus’ feeding 5000 people with five loaves and two fish. This amazing feat got people’ attention, and soon they were seeking Jesus out to make him their king. They misunderstood who he was, and what he had done in feeding them by multiplying the loaves and fishes.

They had their own agenda which was to make him king so he could satisfy their every physical and earthly need. However, Jesus withdrew from them and crossed back over the sea to Capernaum. When the crowds who had been fed by him discovered that he was gone, they too crossed over and sought him out. They were hoping to see more miracles and perhaps be fed again.

They were focused on lesser physical things, physical blessings, verses deeper spiritual ones that Jesus was teaching through his healings and miracles. Are we any different? How often do we find ourselves in this sacred space week after week and before the Real Presence in the Reserved Sacrament and are focused on what Jesus can do for us?

Aren’t our thoughts often on lesser things, physical blessings? If we are honest with ourselves, we have to confess that there are those times when we really don’t hear what the lessons are saying. Moreover, I am sure there those times when your thoughts are elsewhere when the homily is being preached. We may lose our thoughts during the readings and or the homily but when it comes to the Eucharist our focus should be on Him.

Today’s passage is the climax to the whole of John’s 6^th chapter. Jesus declares that in order for Him to be truly united with his believing followers, it is necessary for them to “eat his flesh and drink his blood.” The ancestors of those Israelites in his presence had eaten the bread they were given, but they still died.

This bread, this bread-of-life which is Jesus himself, is given to be broken in death so that those who eat of it may not die, but have eternal life in the present and the future and be raised up at the last day. There is a hidden message in what Jesus is saying: he will willingly sacrifice his life for the life of the world. This will become clear to the disciples later when in the upper room Jesus will institute the sacrament of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

That is not what his audience hears. Is it any wonder that his words about “flesh and blood” caused a stir? It still does today. However, what we might call “sacramental” thinking is absolutely essential to John’s gospel. In his prologue he wrote that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Jesus makes it clear that His flesh is food indeed.

In last week’s passage Jesus made eternal life dependent upon faith in him as the one who the father has sent. In today’s passage, it is made to depend on one’s participation in the Blessed Sacrament. However, they are not two separate doctrines as attested to by the words the priest proclaims as he places the consecrated bread in your hands and touches the cup of salvation to your lips:

“The Body of Christ the bread of heaven. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on Him in your hearts by Faith with Thanksgiving. “

That is the reason we kneel. We are in the Real Presence of Christ. In the Eucharist heaven and earth meet. We humble ourselves before God’s altar and extend our hands through the veil that separates heaven and earth to receive the bread of heaven and to drink from the chalice of God’s love.

We may have come with our thoughts focused elsewhere. Our hope that God in Christ would be able to do something for us, grant us a physical blessing, take care of an earthly need. We may have been deaf to today’s readings; you may even be somewhere else with your thoughts even as I speak.

But when it comes to celebrating the Holy Eucharist our thoughts, our focus should be on Him who sacrificed His life that we might live. There is a reason the altar is the central focal point of the churches architecture.

The sacrament of Christ’ own Body and Blood is God’s gift to us who believe that He is indeed the One who the Father has sent. It is by Faith we receive Him and feed on Him in our hearts so that we might be one with Him and He with us. The Blessed Sacrament is our spiritual nourishment for the time being.

What we do here in the Eucharist is but a foretaste of the heavenly banquet we hope to one day participate in which will be presided over by Christ himself. Thus, we do not take our participation lightly but reverently and with Thanksgiving for the bread of life which did not come cheap. The cost was His sacrificial death on the cross.

To participate in the Blessed Sacrament by Faith enables us as His followers to realize the meaning of His life of service and His death and sacrifice with all its atoning values, and accept service and sacrifice as the notes of our own life in Christ. The elements of the Holy Eucharist symbolize and convey the Divine Life, which makes service and sacrifice possible.

There is no deeper spiritual meaning we can hope to receive this day or any other, than to take and eat the bread of life God has given us in Thanksgiving and in remembrance of Him who died and rose again that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” AMEN+