• Home
• >
• News & Events
• >
• News Articles
• >
• 2024
• >
• August
• >
• 8/18 Homily for 20th Sunday Ordinary Time
• >

News Articles

Bishop's Homily for the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

August 18, 2024

[Annunciation Church, Waimea (Installation of Father Arnel Soriano as Pastor); Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Honokaa (Installation of Father Victor Diolata, SSS as Pastor)]

We know only too well that there is great truth to the saying, “You are what you eat.”  If we eat greasy foods, we are likely to develop clogged arteries or heart trouble. If we eat fast foods, we are likely to gain lots of weight. If we eat food fast, we are likely to miss out on some wonderful conversation with some good people. If we eat salty foods, high blood pressure is a danger. On the other hand, if we eat a balanced diet, including, in moderation, some things we like, we are more likely to be healthy. But we must learn how to eat well. It doesn’t necessarily come naturally. We need to be wise and discerning and disciplined.

What can be said of the other things we take into ourselves?  I was recently on a plane where each seat had its own video monitor.  I could see ten or twelve screens, and at any given time, at least one of the screens was showing an act of violence, a murder, or a war.  If we are constantly watching violent movies or TV programs, can we expect that there will be more peace in the world?  If our diet is pornography, whether hard or soft, can we expect that we will be more virtuous in our sexuality?  If we look at a news story on the internet, then look at the comments that follow it, we often see things that are very cruel and nasty.  If this is our steady diet, is it any wonder that the civility of discourse has broken down so much in our society?

But if we ingest good things, then we can expect that we will grow in goodness.  God has given us the best of food, the living bread come down from heaven, which is Jesus Christ himself.  He is the God who is love made flesh for us, and he offers his own flesh and blood as food and drink to us.  If we come here every Sunday – or more often, if we can – and eat the flesh of the risen Jesus, who is truly present here with us, we will be filled with the kind of love that helps us reconcile with those who have hurt us, that allows us to bring healing to the sick and the suffering, and that brings harmony and peace among us who so often tend to let our relationships disintegrate.  But if we come to wisdom’s feast, we will think thoughts of peace, even when it is difficult to do so.  If we chew on that notion long enough, we might just find that it has become a reality.  If we think thoughts of love for our enemies, as Jesus calls us to do, we may not be able to feel it at first or even for a long time, but by and by we will see that loving our enemies is the only way we can truly be free of the heavy burden of hatred.  What we take into ourselves, what we ingest, can have a great influence for good upon us, too.

And what if we ingest the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ?  We simply become what we eat.  Isn’t it love that really changes hearts?  Isn’t it love that makes us willing to lay down our lives for one another, to put up with suffering and difficulty for the sake of good, and justice, and right?  What better way to have the strength to face all life’s difficulties than to eat and drink the Body and Blood of Love incarnate?  If we truly open our hearts to the gift of wisdom, to whose table we have all been invited, we will see more clearly the wonder of this gift of the Eucharist.

It is an awesome gift, so awesome that we sometimes do not even believe it.  Some of the people in the gospel did not believe Jesus when he talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.  They thought he was insane.  But we know that this intimate and holy communion with the risen Lord Jesus that is offered to us can change us.

But this awesome gift is given to us not just for our own benefit, but so that we can take this nourishment we receive to the rest of the world.  We are called to go out to those who have never heard of Jesus or who only know him as a character from the history books, and to let them know that he is alive and his very life can feed and nourish us.  We are called to go to those who have forgotten what they once learned, and kindle back in them the fire of the love of Jesus, so that they can return to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”  Yes, some may reject or ridicule us, just as they did to Jesus so long ago, but some will decide to come in to wisdom’s feast, to partake of the Body and Blood of the risen Jesus, and to become what they eat, full of life, and full of love.