From the Pastor - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Our readings today continue to educate us on the Eucharist.
Jesus tells us in our Gospel that He is this Food that sustains us as He says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” This bread He is referring to is His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity that we receive. This bread becomes the flesh of Christ Himself.
And in consuming Him, we receive every grace we need to live forever in eternal life. We are strengthened in virtue and united more closely to Christ. This is the Food that will fill us as we journey through this life.
Mistakenly we often take the Eucharist for granted. Maybe we come to Mass to “check the box” instead of actively partaking in this intimate exchange or we receive Jesus in the Eucharist and then forget about Him the second we leave the church after Mass.
To receive all that God wants to give us in the Eucharist, we must do our part in being receptive to His grace and living out active discipleship in our day-to-day lives.
Let us approach the Lord acknowledging His Divine Presence and be open to all the graces He desires to pour out on us. Then we must go forth, being attentive to the moments that the Holy Spirit is calling us to act as He acts — in total love and sacrifice.
The Eucharist affects our lives more than we can comprehend. We are receiving God Himself. Let us strive to receive Him reverently and with open hearts. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2024
Pastoral Pondering
As I am writing this, I just attended the funeral of Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, until his death last week, the pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Greensboro, NC. He had been the pastor of the parish for the past 24 years. Anthony and I attended seminary at the same time, he in Washington at the Theological College of CUA and me in Baltimore at St. Mary’s Seminary and University. He was ordained a priest in 1991, and I was ordained in 1992. Anthony was 61 years old.
Monsignor Marcaccio had some stomach issues earlier this year that turned out to be a ruptured appendix. It was discovered that the appendix had been cancerous, and the rupture let the cancer spread. Last week he had surgery to clean his stomach and and remove some cancerous parts. The surgery went well, but his organs began shutting down after the surgery, and he died a couple of days after.
As I told some of my priest friends at the funeral, “This one hit a bit too close to home.” Being confronted with our own mortality, I believe, is a good thing. We often take our lives for granted and forget how very quickly a human life can come to an end. In our minds we normally think that such a reality applies to someone else but never to us. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, sometimes the bell tolls for thee.
Life is precious and, in the scheme of things, relatively short when considered in light of eternity. What then is the Good News in the midst of these realities? For the Gospel at the Funeral Mass, Father Tim Nadeu, Monsignor Marcaccio’s best friend from seminary, chose Matthew 14:22-33 when Christ is walking on the water and Peter asks the Lord to allow him to come to Him and walk on the water as well. Father Tim made the point that in these times of loss, it is good to remember that in the difficult times in our lives, we have to remember to reach out and grasp the Lord’s hand. He is the only one who can lift us out of the jaws of sadness and sorrow.
We all experience loss along the way. When we do let’s remember that Jesus always asks us to come to Him, and when we begin having trouble in reaching Him and our faith begins to waver, we just need to cry out and grasp His outstretched hand.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.