Come to Jesus in the Eucharist always present to heal our brokenness, Homily 16th Sunday Cycle B

 This has been quite a week for me, and 60 other parishioners, along with 50,000 pilgrims who traveled to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress.     It has been an amazing experience being with Catholics from all over the country and even throughout the world, who came to Indianapolis out of their love for Jesus in the Eucharist.   I need to admit it has been a little overwhelming with the pace of the schedule.    It has been hard for me to keep up with my prayer routine in the midst of all the activity.  But, I did each day, find time, to do what Jesus said in the Gospel today, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  There was an opportunity each day to spend time with Jesus at Mass and just being with him Adoration of the Eucharist.

Coming into this week, I had the intention of experiencing Jesus in the people that I met at the National Eucharistic Congress.   I really did not know what to expect.    As I arrived at the congress it was a bit like what Jesus encountered when he got off the boat with the apostles. 

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.    Indeed, this is exactly what I saw many people gathered in vast crowds, being taught many things, by people who our Shepherds, the Bishops, who organized the event thought best to shepherd their people.    I am grateful for our Bishops in organizing this conference to help us grow in our love for Jesus in the Eucharist. In the sessions I attended one of the consistent messages I heard was about our God, who wants to be in personal relationship with us, to heal us through his grace and mercy, in the Sacraments of the Church, especially in the Eucharist and Reconciliation

I did want to share with you a few of the experiences I had encountering Jesus at the conference.     The first one was a woman who came to the Saint Meinrad booth to learn about retreats.  She had recently moved to West Lafayette, IN and was interesting in finding a spiritual place that she could also bring her family.  She had a nine-year-old son, and I told her that Holiday World was right next to Saint Meinrad and would be a great place where the family could come visit or even stay.   I let her know the Benedictine hospitality of the monks to greet all visitors as Christ would be a welcoming place for her family.   She then told me that she had a recent reversion back to the Catholic faith.   She had been raised Catholic, but married a man who was from the AME tradition, and had left her Catholic faith for years.   She then had contracted cancer in her eye that had cause her to lose her vision.   She was on chemo to battle the disease with the hope of a cure.  A friend of her recommended that she pray a rosary daily, asking for the intercession of St. Padre Pio to heal her.    She did so and returned to practicing her Catholic faith and receiving the sacraments.  Her friend also encouraged her to make a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Padre Pio.   She made that pilgrimage and after attending Mass at the Shrine, she regained her sight.  This was a beautiful example of the healing power of Jesus.

Another lady named Joan who is a 17-year cancer survivor, told me her story of healing, and then gave me a wrist band.   Before she gave it to me, she asked me, what can I do about changing the past.   I told her nothing.   She then asked, what can I do to affect the future?  I again told her nothing.   She then put a wrist band on me that said “Be in the moment”, and said, all you can do is to be in the moment, seeing the presence of God in your circumstance that you are in.   I really took this to heart.   I just read a book on the ministry of the diaconate that emphasized to be present in the moment to be Christ the Servant.   It emphasized that deacons can be so involved in the ministry of doing, and not being present to others as Christ the Servant.   I think we can all take to heart to be present to people that we encounter and trying to see Jesus in them.  Many people are hurt and broken, and really need to be present to them, so we can be the presence of Jesus to them.

Yesterday my wife Linda and I took a break from attending evening sessions and went off by ourselves to a restaurant.   On our return to go home we stopped at Saint John Church which was the Adoration Chapel for the Congress.  As we entered a little girl escorted by a religious sister, gave us a flower and said to give them to Jesus. What a beautiful gift! We sat down and prayed for a while and Linda asked me what I saw in the flowers. I told her that I saw the beauty of God’s creation.    She told me to look closer.   Each of the flowers was broken in one way or another, but they were still beautiful. 

She said that how God sees us, broken but still beautiful. Broken, but still beautiful!  After some time in prayer, we went up close to Jesus on the altar to offer the gift the little girl gave us to offer Jesus.  We had to wind our way through dozens of people that were kneeling on the floor to be at the foot of altar where Jesus was.  As we approached, we could see dozens of bouquets of flowers surrounding the altar.   Linda placed the flowers in one of the vases.

Seeing them from a distance, they were beautiful.   We couldn’t see the imperfections of the broken flowers. All we could see was the beauty surrounding Jesus and that is how He see us! The little girl gave us a beautiful opportunity to give Jesus the flowers in love and recognize how he loves us in our brokenness. 

I thought this gesture of love of giving Jesus the broken flowers is symbolic of the relationship he has with us.   In our brokenness, we come to Jesus in the Body and Blood of the Eucharist, who willingly allowed his body to be broken, so he could spiritually heal us in our own brokenness.    For he knows each one of us are all broken in some way and wants us to heal.   We just need to be willing to come to Jesus and allow Him to bring us healing with his grace and mercy.   Jesus becomes broken for us, so we can heal our brokenness, each time we come to be with him in the sacrifice of the Mass. The Eucharist is the remedy to heal our broken world. Be in the present moment each day and invite those you know who have been away from the Church, to come back and receive the healing presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.