We Are His Body, He Is Our Blood:The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Friends, thanks for your feedback. In response to your input, I tightened up the intro and, in section three, I heightened the emphasis on the material aspect of the Sacrament. These alterations made the homily much better.

An audio version of this homily will be posted on my parish web site (St. Aloysius) early next week.

Also, my new book, "Preacher in a Hard Hat" has just been released and is now available for purchase.
Thanks for your help! JMS

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
[Second Draft]

Back in the time of Christ,
I suppose that working in a vineyard and pruning vines
was as common as filling a car with gas
and commuting to work
is a part of life for a lot of people today.

Unless you happen to work at a place like Peter’s Nursery
down on Harrison Pike,
and are up to your elbows with English Ivy
or Periwinkle or Pachysandra,
you probably have not given more than a passing thought
to vines or branches in quite awhile.

Yet, the need to hear the message in today’s gospel
is important.
Vitally important.
It’s vital because, if we take Christ at his word,
that means that unless we’re connected to him…we’re going to die.

So, to get the full impact of today’s gospel,
let’s not think in terms of branches on a vine,
let’s think about plastic IV tubes in a hospital.

Let’s think about blood transfusions.
Let’s think about kidney dialysis.
Let’s think about whatever we need to think about
to bring home the message that without Christ…we die.

__________

Let me tell you about a young woman I know.
She has a nice home and a close family.
She also has a good man to stand by her,
a husband who loves her with all his strength.

She has a lot of blessings.
But she also has something else.
She has AIDS.

Every now and then,
the disease gets activated and tries to get the upper hand.
Each time that happens,
it’s a life-and-death struggle.

Few of us here know what that’s like.
But this young woman is a fighter and she’s determined to live.

But she has more than determination,
she has faith.
You see, once the nurses in the hospital
disconnect those IV tubes
and she returns home to regain her physical strength,
she knows that it is only Christ,
and her connection to Christ,
that keeps her spirit strong and her life full of hope.

The importance of faith
in the life of this young woman
is obvious to everyone who walks into her home:
there are crosses and crucifixes in every room.
Her faith doesn’t make her suffering any easier,
but it helps it make sense.

She knows a truth in her soul
that most of us only mouth with our lips,
and that truth is this:
if we are one with Christ in his suffering,
we will be one with him in glory.

__________

Now, let’s think about how this truth takes hold of us.

The only way to be convince of this truth
is through maintaining a deep, intimate connection with Christ.


Now, this connection—
this vital connection that gives hope
to a young woman with AIDS—
is her “connection” to Christ
just a spiritual reality?

Is it just some sort of attitude she cultivates
to help her get through a tough time?

Is it just mindset that she adopts from a wide selection
of optional religious, psychological and emotional support systems?

Not on your life!

The fact of the matter is, she believes in Christ.
She believes so deeply that she knows,
in a way that most of us have not yet experienced,
that Christ is the Vine that gives her life.
__________

Like us, she is a Catholic.
And, like us, she knows that in receiving the Holy Eucharist
we receive the real presence of Christ in its totality:
the Body, the Blood, the Soul, the Divinity of our Savior.

This is what happens when we receive the Eucharist:
we receive the full reality of Jesus Christ into our bodies…
not just our minds, our hearts, our souls…but our bodies.

He is our food.
He is our strength.
He becomes part of us and we a part of him.

This is what that young woman believes.
This is what she knows to be true.
And her dependence on Christ is going to shed light
on the words of today’s gospel
and on the meaning of today’s Mass.

You see, this isn’t just a worship service going on here this morning.
This isn’t just fellowship with other believers
(as nice as that experience might be).
This isn’t just remembering an important event
that occurred centuries ago on a hill called Calvary.

This is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
where the walls of time fall away…
and Christ, the eternal Word of God
again takes on human flesh in people like you and in me.

Here, in this time and in this place,
through the work of the Holy Spirit
and in the Holy Sacrament we receive,
Christ comes to dwell with us and within us.

We are part of him and he is part of us.

So, yes, he is the vine, we are the branches.
And, yes, he is the medicine, we are the vein.

But more than this, much more than this:

We are his Body; he is our Blood.