Homily: September 16. 2024, Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Reason)

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”

There are many reasons people choose to go to a particular church on Sundays. Some say, “I like the music,” or “I like the homily.” Others might say, “My friends are going there,” or “I like the diversity of this community,” or “The Mass time is convenient.”

Some people choose to attend other denominational or non-denominational services to make their Sunday church experience more interesting.

What about you? Why do you come to church?

There could be many motivations too, but truly, any Mass at any Catholic church is the same, whether the homily is wonderful or awful, whether the music is traditional or contemporary, whether the community is lively or sleepy… because the exact same sacrificial event takes place at every Mass. Be it here in Iowa, or there in South Sudan, it is the same Jesus, the same sacrificial death on the cross, the same redemptive love at every Mass.

And so, we all should have only one reason why we attend Mass: to receive the precious Body and Blood of Jesus.

We’ve been reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians these few days. We can see that St. Paul had many issues to address the people in the Corinthian church. They had been converted into the faith, but their lives, attitudes and behavior remained the same, or worse in some cases.

In today’s reading, St. Paul addresses the divisions in the community which showed up in their breaking of bread gatherings. Apparently, the wealthier people who went to the gatherings earlier, were eating and drinking excessively while the poor laborers who went later after work had nothing left to eat.

Thus St. Paul had to remind them, “when you come together to eat, wait for one another.”

They had forgotten why they were there. It was to celebrate the Eucharistic meal together, a thanksgiving to God for sending His Son to die in our place, that we might live. It is not about eating and drinking, but about being in communion with one another, and with God, through the sacrifice of Jesus.

Together, means one body, one heart, one mind, one meal.

To wait for one another, does not just refer to the time of arriving, but also to the varying levels of faith, the different stages of growing and adapting to the new way of life. Be patient, wait.

So, why do we go to church?

To receive the Body and Blood of Christ, not as individuals, but as one family, one church. We are a Eucharistic community, and our focus must always be on the Eucharistic Lord, our goal is the Eucharistic meal, our way is communion, it is together as one.

Amen.