Aug. 2, 2020 Homily

Post date: Aug 04, 2020 8:24:21 PM

August 2, 2020 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray

Mother Teresa told how she once came across a Hindu family

that had not eaten for days. She took a small quantity of rice

and gave it to the family. What happened next surprised her. Without a

moment’s hesitation, the mother of the family divided the rice into two.

Then she took one half to the family next door who happened to be Muslim.

Mother Teresa said to her, “Is there enough for yourselves?”

The woman said, ‘But they haven’t eaten for days either.’

Generosity like that makes us humble.

You can see why today’s miracle of the loaves and fish would be called a

miracle of generosity. But generosity is not always about giving things.

More often it is about giving of ourselves, of our time, our gifts.

Giving things and money can be easier than giving of oneself.

The feeding of the people also prefigures and looks forward to the

Holy Eucharist. The very language used is eucharistic, the very language

of the Last Supper. “Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it

to the disciples to give to the people.” The image of the Last Supper

was taking shape as the people sat on the grass.

Jesus would give them ordinary bread today, but he would give them

Eucharistic bread tomorrow. The 5 loaves would keep them going

for a day. His Body and Blood will keep us going for a lifetime.

So how do we respond to Christ’s love,

especially the gift of himself in Holy Eucharist?

First, we need to be aware of what is happening.

To put it bluntly, we are not in line for wafers!

We are about to receive Christ, to encounter him sacramentally in the flesh,

to be as close to him in this life, as is possible.

We put our hands out invitingly, don’t we? To take our Lord to our hearts!

We must do that as consciously, as reverently and as prayerfully

as we can.

When he is good enough to come to us, we need to be totally there!

Eucharist is a call to conversion. It is a daily challenge to change.

When we get into line for Communion,

we are not just following the person ahead of us.

The person we are really following is Christ!