Weekly HOMILY for June 22, 2014: Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Cycle A -- A Rabbi’s Embrace

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle
In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Cycle A

June 22, 2014

Saint Mark Parish, Fallston

A Rabbi’s Embrace

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

Mortakai was refusing to go to school.  Each day, his mother would take him to school, but as soon as she left, he ran back home.

Mortakai’s mother would then bring him back to school once again.  This scenario kept happening day after day and finally, in desperation, the parents contacted their rabbi. 

The rabbi said, “If the boy won’t listen to words or to reason, bring him to me.”  And so, the parents took young Mortakai to the rabbi. 

They entered the rabbi’s study and the rabbi, without saying a word, simply picked up the boy and held him to his heart for a long time.  And then, without speaking, the rabbi set the boy down. 

Amazingly, what words did not accomplish, a silent embrace did accomplish.  Mortakai began going to school willingly and went on to become a famous scholar and rabbi.

God’s Embrace

One of our current Catholic writers, Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, says that the story of Mortakai expresses something very core about the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Through the Eucharist, God physically embraces us and holds us close to his divine heart.  No question, words are important but at times, but they often do not go deep enough and they fail us. 

For example, the older I get, the more I realize that it is important that I am just there with an embrace or a handshake with a person who is grieving the death of a loved one.  My presence is a spiritual embrace that communicates more than my words. 

Now we all know that Jesus makes powerful use of words.  This is why the Scripture is so important here at Mass and why we listen especially to Jesus’ words in the gospel. 

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. 

The Eucharist is Jesus doing what that rabbi did for young Mortakai.  It is Jesus’ physical embrace, holding us close to his heart.

A Parent’s Embrace

The author Ronald Rolheiser offers another example.

He says that there often comes a time, usually late in the afternoon, when a little child can get very tired.  Maybe the child has been to pre-school and did not get much of a nap.

At times like these, a child can get very cranky.  He doesn’t know what he wants or what to do with himself.

She may torment the dog and begin to whine.  At the same time, the parent is also tired and may begin to reprimand the child.

But the child just whines all the more and now the parent knows exactly what to do.  They just scoop up the child and without speaking, just hold the child close their heart.

 

The Eucharist’s Embrace

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

Sometimes we come to Mass, to the Eucharist, feeling tired, strung out, lonely, preoccupied, or worried.  There are times when we have no words to say and cannot really hear any words.

And then, in that moment, God touches us and picks us up.  In that moment, only physical touch and embrace will work.

This is why God, in Jesus, gives us the Eucharist.  This is God’s divine, physical embrace.

So, no wonder that the Eucharist is so powerful.  Here we find inner comfort for our anxiety and upsets.

Here we find strength for our 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.