Corpus Christi C.  June 6, 2010.  Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 7:30, 6PM.  Genesis 14:18-20.  I Corinthians 11:23-26.  Luke 9:1b-17. 

Why doesn’t the Eucharist seem to work?  Why do we celebrate Mass Sunday after Sunday and day after day and still feel far from God and far from one another?   This was St. Paul’s problem when he wrote to the people of Corinth.  Putting our second reading back into its original context will help us understand that the problems of the Church haven’t changed much over our two thousand year history.  If the Eucharist is the great miraculous presence of Jesus and his sacrifice given to us, if the Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus shared among us in us in five Sunday Masses and two daily Masses each week here at Our Lady of Grace, why aren’t we all saints?   Now don’t get me wrong.  I am amazed at the goodness of this parish community.  Your faith and generosity are a great joy to me.  Yet the question remains, if we share the sacrifice of Jesus and are nourished on his body and blood why aren’t we more than just good?  Why aren’t we saints?

St. Paul was pretty blunt and direct in facing the problem of weak celebrations of the Eucharist in the early Christian community.  In challenging his community he didn’t talk about the quality of the music, the eloquence of the preacher or the piety and ritual practices of those who come to the communion.  Paul got right to the point. He said. “When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!” St. Paul’s focus is not only on faith and piety.  His focus is on the way that the people in the Christian community treat one another.  God works the miracle of the Eucharist in our midst no matter how we act.  Yet a Mass celebrated without mutual love among those gathered for worship is powerless to make people holy and make Christ known and loved in the world.

The Eucharist is very important to the Apostle Paul.  Even though Paul said that he considered everything else in his life as rubbish compared with the privilege of knowing Christ, Paul quotes Jesus only three times.  He quotes Jesus saying “It is more blessed to give than to receive” in the Acts of the Apostles.  In the Second Letter to the Corinthians Paul quotes Jesus saying "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Both of these sayings of Jesus appear only in the words of Paul.  They appear no where else in the new Testament.

The only words of Jesus that Paul shares with the rest of the New Testament are the words of today’s second reading.  These were very important words that made a deep impression on him.   St. Paul said, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."  Paul believed that the Eucharist participated in the sacrifice of Jesus.  He added to his quotation from Jesus words that affirm the constant belief of the Church that the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of Jesus are one and the same reality.  Paul said, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

Now let’s get back to our original problem.  Why was the Eucharist so weak and ineffective in the early Church?   Paul blamed weak Eucharists on unworthy communions.  But Paul looked at unworthy communion in a different way than some people who talk about it today.  Paul’s approach to unworthy communion is not about finding reasons why other people should not receive communion because they are not as worthy of communion as we are.  Paul says that the insensitive way we treat others in the community – even in terms of judging them, is what makes us unworthy of communion and the Eucharist we celebrate weak. 

 Paul says “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.”  This is Paul’s warning against receiving communion in serious sin.  Paul doesn’t leave the matter there.  He goes on to say “A person ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”  This time Paul is speaking about the body of Christ that is the Church.  In other words, he is saying that anyone who eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist without recognizing and reverencing the body of Christ in the Church - in the gathered people - is eating and drinking judgment against himself. Paul’s conclusion is that our Eucharist is weak and ineffective not only because we don’t have sufficient reverence for Christ in his consecrated body and blood.  Our Eucharist is weak and ineffective because we do not have sufficient reverence for Christ in the people around us. 

St. Paul’s proposal for a more effective celebration of the Eucharist seems to be almost too simple. He ends this passage by saying “So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.”   In other words we will not successfully recognize Christ in the Eucharist if we do not wholeheartedly recognize Christ in the people around us.  The Eucharist Christ gave to us is not something that we do alone.  We come to Mass as members of a community of faith.  The way that we come to Mass and join in the community is very important to the effectiveness of the Eucharist in our lives.  The way that we leave Mass and greet members of the community along the way is a very important part of the effect of the Eucharist in our lives.  St. Paul says, “So then my brothers and sisters when you come together wait for one another.” Christ is truly hidden under the appearances of bread and wine.  He is also truly hidden and present in those who receive him.   For sensitivity to Christ in the Eucharist and Christ in the people who receive the Eucharist gathered around us we give God thanks and praise.