"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" #26

 MEMORABLE EATS 

I don't know if it was because we were hungry all the time back-packing around Europe or because of the beautiful settings, but I still remember several moments when food seemed especially "heavenly." 

One of my favorite things to do in Athens, Greece, was to sit in a large outside cafe in front of the McDonald's, across the square from the Parliament Building, and drink coffee and enjoy the delicious bread, butter and jam available close by.  From that spot, you could watch people from all over the world walk by. It was cheap, absolutely delicious and spectacular. I would go there at least once, twice or three times a day just to sit, sip and spy on the crowd walking by!  I would sit there for hours in a perfect state of relaxation. 

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On another occasion, my traveling friends and I were invited by some people we met in Taize to stop by a chalet in Switzerland where they were staying. We got there late in the evening, so we could not see much of the setting. I guess we were lucky to even find it. Anyway, stayed up drinking with them until it was time to go to bed. In the morning, we woke up to one of the most beautiful rural settings you can imagine. What woke me up was the sound of a bell around the neck of a grazing cow. We were on the side of a mountain, looking at snow-covered mountain peaks across the valley from our chalet. Some of our group had gotten up early and made coffee and breakfast. They had it all set out on a table outside waiting for us! All you could hear was the whispering breeze, a cow bell off in the distance and a rooster crowing! It had to be the most amazing breakfast experience I have ever had, even though I have no memory of where it happened in beautiful Switzerland! 

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The food in Taize, where we camped out with hundreds of youth from around the world, was minimal: boiled eggs, sliced French bread, sausages and a slice or two of cheese. However, we would hitch-hike to the next town where the historic Abbey of Cluny once stood to a little tea shop. There we could enjoy the little French pastries that the French are famous for! They were no bigger than an inch across, each one holding a small piece of some kind of fruit or cheese, but out of this world delicious. 

One day, we decided to stop at a truck stop for lunch because we had heard that truck stops in France were known for serving inexpensive hot lunches. They were right! French food on the cheap! It was delicious, inexpensive, filling and lip-smacking! I decided that day that if I ever went back to France, I would only stop at truck stops out in the country and avoid the expensive, irritatingly snooty and stingy portions of the urban restaurants. 

THOUGHTS ON TAKING SOME TIME TO GET TO KNOW ONESELF

 

I am about to get to the end of yet another one of my "projects" - this time a church in Kenya. At this point, for the umpteenth time, I always tell myself that I will never get involved with another project ever again! My "projects" include remodeling old buildings for new purposes, building a teaching kitchen and coffee shop, writing yet another book, building a new church, starting  a new program or even revitalizing a parish. I have made that promise and broken it so many times before that I decided to stop for a minute and really assess what makes me promise that and then proceed endlessly to break my own promise and take on yet other new project. It's either I am hopelessly addicted and can't help myself or else I am lying to myself for some hidden reason  - hidden from even myself! 

With the help of many friends, I don't think I have ever taken on a major project that has ended in utter failure so I have a proven record of successes, so what is the cause of my promise-breaking? Maybe that is the very reason I fear taking on another project, I subconsciously believe that I should quit while I am ahead because, down deep, I must believe that people are only entitled to a limited number of successes? 

I don't really believe that, so maybe the real reason is that I am tired - tired of all the work - and I want to avoid the protracted periods of uncertainty and stress, to escape the crushing fear of embarrassment that might come with failure and to be relieved of the unrelenting amount of focus and faith that it takes over long periods of time to arrive at completion.  

On the other hand, maybe I want to escape the responsibility that goes with "to whom much is given, much is expected?" I feel blessed in so many ways which drives me to try to share what I know and what I have with those who do without even the simple things in life that I take for granted. I really do not crave "more." I feel I have "enough" and then some! Yes, maybe I really want to escape the responsibility that goes with "enough" when so many have never had such an experience.  

The more I think about it, the more I really think my wanting to give up being involved in "projects" may be related to my fear of "giving up" on life, "giving in" to laziness and even "getting old." I think my being "preoccupied" with my projects actually distracts me from focusing on aging and "the end" that is coming! If that's the case, maybe my constant string of "projects" is not so bad after all? 

Without my projects, I would be slapped with that truth every day that the "end" is coming and then fail to enjoy what can still be done in the time that I have left!  After some time to reflect, and a reasonable wait-time for clues on how to proceed, that should offer me enough reasons to be open to yet another of my "projects" - but next time maybe on a less grand scale. Maybe the best way forward is to tell myself, "Slow down a little, but don't ever stop!"    

 

CALLED TO A HIGHER STANDARD

 

Jesus said: "You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.”

Matthew 5:38-42

Few passages of the New Testament have more of the essential teaching of Jesus on how we ought to behave in the world than the chapter 5 of Matthew’s gospel.  In short, Jesus raised the bar on how people ought to treat each other to a much higher level than what was generally accepted.

In essence, to be Christian is to be different, to stand out, to swim against the stream, to hold oneself to a higher standard, to be "the light of the world and salt of the earth" - otherwise we are no better than "pagans," we are no better than unbelievers. Sadly, many who call themselves "Christian" don't even know that Jesus raised the bar on human behavior and therefore they do not even attempt to measure up!  Some even think the Church ought to lower these high standards to better match the level of our behaviors or be ignored altogether!

Jesus begins his teaching today by citing the world's oldest law---an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That law is known as the Lex Talionis, which can best be described as the law of “tit for tat.” This law is found in the Code of Hammurabi, who reigned in Babylon from 2285 BC to 2242 BC. The principle is clear and apparently simple----if anyone inflicts an injury on anyone else, an equivalent injury shall be inflicted on him. Even though it is not universal, that law was absorbed into the teaching we find in the Old Testament.

As savage as it may sound, this law was, in fact the beginning of mercy. It, at least, limited vengeance. Before that law, unlimited vengeance could be taken not only on the perpetrator, but anyone in his family, including death for a minor slight. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth deliberately limited vengeance.  The law lays it down that only the man who committed the injury must be punished, and his punishment must be no more than the equivalent of the injury inflicted and the damage done.

Another thing is worth noting here. This law never gave a private individual the right to extract vengeance. It was always a law that was laid down to guide a judge in a court in of law in assessing punishments and penalties for violent and unjust deeds.

Still further, this law was never, at least in semi-civilized society, carried out literally. Very soon after the law was written and accepted, the injury done was assessed at a money value and the injury was assessed on five counts - for injury, for pain, for healing, for loss of time and for indignity suffered. Sounds remarkably modern, doesn't it?

As advanced as it was for its time, Jesus comes along and obliterates the very principle of that law, because retaliation, however controlled and restricted, has no place in the Christian life. Jesus abolishes the old law of limited and controlled vengeance and introduces the new spirit of non-resentment and non-retaliation.

To take these words of Jesus in a crude literalism is to miss the point, as in the case of "turning the other cheek and offering no resistance to injury." He is certainly not advocating physical and emotional abuse! If a car runs over you, don't just stand there and let it happen again and again! The first thing to do is to get the hell out of the road and don't let them do it again!  The next thing, after recovery, is to resist trying to "get even" or worse to "carry a grudge." The ability to do that will help you, not the perpetrator!   One cannot have a full life under the shadow of bitterness!

To opposite of crude literalism is to dismiss what Jesus is saying here.  Jesus is teaching his followers that they must live at a higher level than what is generally accepted. In the case of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," if we lived that way, we would all be blind and toothless in no time! What he is saying is to stop the revenge! Find out where the hurt that would drive them to do such things is coming from and try to heal it, if possible!   Both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. showed us that nonviolent resistance can bring down oppressive governments and change the hearts of a nation, while violence only begets more violence.

And, you, what about you? Do you live a life of “tit for tat,” a life of always “getting even” when you are hurt or snubbed? How do you try to live the challenging words of Jesus in today's gospel?  It is not easy for any of us, but Jesus offers his own Body and Blood to strengthen us to do for each other what he always does for us - love us without condition!

Christianity is more than minimalism. Christianity is more than doing just enough to get by with! Christianity is about going beyond the call of duty, beyond measuring out love in small thimbles. It’s about giving one’s all - to both friends and enemies!

 

 

 

Bread Broken and Wine Poured Out For Us

 FEAST OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST 

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, a melding of two former feasts. Until a few years ago the church celebrated the “body” on one day (Feast of Corpus Christi) and the “blood” (Feast of the Precious Blood) on another.

 

Even though the church encourages us at every Mass to spend a brief period of silence after communion, this Feast encourages us to spend some longer devotional time before the Blessed Sacrament so we can reflect more deeply on this great mystery. I believe the pastor here moved the tabernacle back to the center so that people would recapture that quiet time before Mass to prepare themselves for this great celebration. The time spent reflecting on this great mystery reminds us that we become what we eat so that we too can become the self-giving Christ for others.

 

The evolution of the Last Supper into the Mass we know today is quite interesting. 

 

Did you know that the first record of the Eucharist was not the story of the Last Supper in the various gospel accounts. The stories of the Last Supper were actually written down later. The very first record of the Last Supper comes from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians written in about 54 AD. 

 

Brothers and sisters:

I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, 

that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, 

took bread, and, after he had given thanks,

broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me."

In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 

"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, 

you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

I Corinthians 11:23-26

 

The first Last Supper account, from the Gospel of Mark was probably written 66-70 AD, about 12 to 16 years later than the Last Supper account from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. 

 

At the time of Paul, when he composed our second reading today to the Corinthians, it was customary for Christians to hold an “agape meal” before the Eucharist. It was some sort of pot-luck dinner that the rich and the poor shared. However, in Corinth things had gotten a little out of control and the art of sharing was being lost. The rich would not share their food, but ate it in little exclusive groups by themselves, hurrying through it so they did not have to share, while the poor went with almost nothing. Some of the participants even got drunk at these meals. Did you know that Paul basically reams them out for their drunkenness in this same letter we read from today? And we think we have problems with things like when to sit and when to stand which keep changing!  

 

Did you know that St. Clement of Alexandra had to write a letter to his people in the year 200 about the problem of lengthy mouth-to-mouth kissing during the sign of peace? 

 

Did you know that in the year 350, the Council of Nicea actually outlawed the practice of kneeling during Mass as “novel,” preferring the older custom of standing as the proper way of praying at the Eucharist?

 

Did you know that the Mass changed from Greek to Latin in 384 so that people could understand and participate in their own language – Latin! Even in the old Latin Mass, we had some hang-over Greek words – words like Kyrie Eleison are Greek words, not Latin words! It wasn’t changed again until 1963, when we went to English, for the same reason – so that people could understand and participate in their own language? 

 

Did you know that lay people had their parts of the Mass taken away around the year 1000 and they were not restored to them till Vatican Council II? Growing up the priest and the altar boys, and maybe the choir, interacted while people said the rosary or read along from their missals in silence.  The Mass today is more like it was in the church’s early years than it was when most of our older members like me were growing up. 

 

Did you know that tabernacles in churches did not start till the 12th century and did not become standard until the 17^th century? Did you know that Protestants invented pews? Catholics had been using chairs, as we do here in our Cathedral, just as they do in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome today and in most European Cathedrals? There weren’t even chairs in the early church. People stood, even during long homilies. They did provide a bench along the walls for the sick and elderly. 

 

Did you know that so few people were going to communion in the 13th century, because they considered it too sacred to receive, that the Pope had to make a law saying people must receive communion at least once a year? It came to be called our “Easter duty.” Did you know that veneration of the Blessed Sacrament at Benediction and the custom of Corpus Christi processions became a substitute for receiving communion during this period? 

 

The feast we celebrate today didn’t come till the 13th century. This was when things began to really change. This is why and how all these “new developments” that did not exist in the first 11-12 centuries of our church came about. 

 

In 1263 a German priest, Fr. Peter of Prague, made a pilgrimage to Rome. He stopped in Italy to celebrate Mass at the Church of St. Christina. At the time he was having doubts about Jesus being truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. He was affected by the growing debate among certain theologians who, for the first time in the history of the Church, began introducing doubts about the Body and Blood of Christ being actually present in the consecrated bread and wine. In response to his doubt, according to tradition, when he recited the prayer of consecration as he celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, blood supposedly started seeping from the consecrated host and onto the altar and corporal.

 

Fr. Peter reported this miracle to Pope Urban IV, who at the time was nearby in Orvieto. The pope sent delegates to investigate and ordered that host and blood-stained corporal be brought to Orvieto. These were then placed in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they remain today.

 

This Eucharistic miracle confirmed the reported visions given to St. Juliana of Belgium just a few years before. St. Juliana was a nun and mystic who had a series of visions in which she said she was instructed   to work to establish a liturgical feast for the Holy Eucharist, to which she had a great devotion.

 

After many years of trying, she finally convinced the bishop, the future Pope Urban IV, to create this special feast in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, where none had existed before. Soon after her death, Pope Urban instituted Corpus Christi for the Universal Church and celebrated it for the first time in Orvieto in 1264 – in the mid13^th century - a year after the Eucharistic miracle that had been reported to him.

 

Inspired by the miracle, Pope Urban IV commissioned a Dominican friar, St. Thomas Aquinas, to compose a Mass and Liturgy of the Hours for the feast of Corpus Christi. Saint Thomas Aquinas' hymns in honor of the Holy Eucharist, Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, Panis Angelicus, and O Salutaris Hostia are the beloved hymns the Church sings on the feast of Corpus Christi as well as throughout the year during Exposition, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and in Corpus Christi Processions when the Blessed Sacrament is carried through the streets. 

 

Some of you older folks, my age and older, might remember the Corpus Christi Processions of the past. The Holy Name Society of Holy Name Church, out on Third Street near U of L, under the direction of Monsignor Timoney its pastor, sponsored a local Corpus Christi Procession. It was held originally where Bellarmine University is now, but he had it moved to Churchill Downs. An account from 1952, says that 50,000 Catholics from the area around Louisville attended on a Sunday afternoon. There were other processions out in the country in places like Flaherty. I can remember marching with my father, uncles, brothers and other men from neighboring parishes down in Flaherty, Kentucky. Of the 50,000 attendees here in Louisville, 15,000 men and boys marched around the track at Churchill Downs, while 35,000 women and girls sat in the grandstand and clubhouse. Devotional music was sung and the rosary was prayed. When all those men were on the track in position, the Blessed Sacrament was carried from altar to altar, until Benediction was finally celebrated with the newly ordained priests serving as assistants to the main celebrant, usually the bishop or archbishop. Those processions gradually died out in intensity after Vatican Council II when receiving communion was again more stressed and are only a memory except in a few places where they have been revived a couple of years ago.

 

My friends, the Eucharist has undergone many changes in its form, but underneath all these additions and subtractions over the centuries, its essence is still the same. Baptized believers have gathered around bread and wine, having become the body and blood of Christ, to be nourished, energized, transformed and strengthened for over 2,000 years. It’s a family reunion. It’s bread for the journey and strength for the trip. It’s an intimate meeting between a loving God and his adopted children. It’s at the heart of what being a Catholic is all about. That is why we are here today – to celebrate what has been handed on to us in its essence from the Lord Jesus himself! 

A PRAYER FOR PERSONAL CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION