Weekly HOMILY for June 14, 2009: Eucharist -- The Divine Embrace

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Cycle A
Our Lady of Grace
June 14, 2009

Eucharist: the Divine Embrace
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


A Rabbi’s Embrace

There is a story about a six-year-old Jewish boy named Mortakai.

Mortakai refused to go to school. Each day, his mother took him to school, but as soon as she left him, he ran back home only to have his mother bring him back to school once again.

This scenario played itself day after day. No bribe or threat could convince Mortakai to change his mind.

In desperation, the parents contacted their rabbi. The rabbi said, “If the boy won’t listen to words, bring him to me.”

And so, the parents took Mortakai to the rabbi. As they entered his study, the rabbi did not say a word, but simply picked up the boy and held him to his heart for a long time.

Then, without speaking, the rabbi set the boy down. Amazingly, what words alone could not accomplish, a silent embrace did.

Mortakai began going to school willingly every day. And beyond that, he went on to become a famous Jewish scholar and rabbi.


God’s Embrace

One of our current Catholic spiritual writers, Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, says that this parable expresses the essence of the feast we celebrate today, the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Through the Eucharist, God physically embraces us and holds us close to the divine heart. Words are important in life and that is why the Word of God has such a prominent part to play in our celebration of the Eucharist.

But, at times, words can fail us. I have to think of my visits to funeral homes.

The older I get, the more I realize that it is more important that I am just there with a hug or a firm warm handshake with a parishioner who has suffered the loss of a loved one and is grieving. My presence is a spiritual embrace and that communicates more than my words.

Certainly, Jesus makes powerful use of words and we hear his words in the Gospels. But even Jesus’ words have limits and so he resorts to another language – the language of ritual and action.

This is what the gift of his Body and Blood in the forms of bread and wine is all about. It is Jesus doing what that rabbi did for young Mortakai; it is Jesus’ physical embrace, his holding us near to his heart.


A Parent’s Embrace

Ronald Rolheiser offers another example.

He says that there often comes a time, usually late in the afternoon, when little children can get very tired. Perhaps they have been to pre-school and did not get much of a nap. At such times they can get into all sorts of cranky behaviors, like tormenting the cat or the dog.

The child is tired and begins to whine. The mother is also tired and begins to reprimand the child.

The child simply whines all the more and now the mother knows exactly what to do.

She scoops up the child and without speaking, just holds the child to her heart.


The Eucharist’s Embrace

Rolheiser says that this is a good image of the Eucharist.

We all come to the Eucharist, at times, tired, strung out, lonely, preoccupied, worried or just plain cranky. There are times when we have no words to say and cannot really hear or heed any words.

And then, in that moment, God touches us and picks us up, like a mother calming her child. In that moment, only a physical touch or embrace will work.

This is why God, in Jesus, gives us the Eucharist. It is this physical embrace by the Divine that we celebrate today.

No wonder the Eucharist is such a powerful sacrament. No wonder we have a hunger for it, even if we have not been here for it for some time.

No wonder those who are not Catholic also have a hunger for it. We human beings all need and we all have a hunger for the Divine Embrace that the Eucharist is.


Conclusion

When we are sacramentally and physically embraced by Jesus here in the Eucharist, we become one with the very God who nourishes us. We find a profound comfort in our human upset and anxiety.

We find a profound satisfaction for our human tiredness and searching.

That is what the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, is for us: the divine embrace that communicates without any words at all.