THE TABLET, OCTOBER 22 2005

HOMILY CLOSING YEAR OF THE EUCHARIST

Homily at Votive Mass of the Most Holy Eucharist closing the Eucharistic Year, in St. James Cathedral Basilica on Saturday, Oct. 15.

During these days of seemingly ceaseless rain, I began thinking about the days of Noah and the great flood, and so I turned to the Book of Genesis and read about the original days of the flood. You know, Noah is one of my heroes. On my coat of arms is Noah's Ark, which is a symbol of the Church, the Church that is able to save, save through the waters of baptism, save from the dangers of sin.

Well, we realize that it only rained for eight days here and in the Book of Genesis we read that it was forty days. Our event was cancelled, or rather downsized, and moved here to the Cathedral Basilica of St. James because it was not possible to set up on the soggy field. The Lord, indeed, did grant us a wonderful day today. It was a disappointment to all of us as we tried to make the ending of the Year of the Eucharist something truly memorable.

We see from what went on in the preparation that truly people are attracted to the Eucharist. When we first conceptualized using the stadium, everyone said, "Well, we cannot fill that," and little by little not only could we fill it, we did not have enough seats. As time went on, it got bigger and bigger, because people indeed do understand the Eucharist as central to our life as a Church.

I take this opportunity to thank Monsignor Frank Caggiano, Vicar for Evangelization and Pastoral Life, and his committee, the parish coordinators, our benefactors, all who have made this day possible. As we come here, we still have the great mystery, the great gift of the Eucharist that has drawn us together.

When Noah left the Ark, we read in the Book of Genesis, he built an altar where he could offer sacrifice to the Lord. How important is the concept of sacrifice to the various covenants that God has made with His people. The covenant with Noah was the first, then with Abraham, then with Moses, and then the New Covenant in the Blood of Jesus Christ. Sacrifice is essential to covenant, to relationship with God. And so, we too come to this altar today to renew our covenant, the New Covenant in the Blood of Jesus Christ, given to the Apostles on Holy Thursday, and offered on the Cross and so that we too have this memorial re-presentation of that wonderful saving event.

Yes, we are before this great mystery today, and we truly partake of the one bread, the one Body that makes us the family of Christ. Just as Noah and his family were saved to become the beginning of a new creation, so now we who are members of the Church also are saved through baptism and through the bark of the Church, symbolized as that great Ark that gathers all humanity, all creation into it. It is the role of the Church to be the beginning of the new creation, which gives glory to God---the Body of Christ, the Church, which partakes of the one bread of the Eucharist.

Our Gospel today recounts for us the only miracle of Jesus that is brought to us in each of the four Gospels in somewhat different form, yet each one of them speaks about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. How very central is that miracle to understanding and anticipating and pre-figuring the Eucharist, which was established on Holy Thursday and completed on Calvary on Good Friday, the very same Eucharist that we celebrate today. There are some clear parallels between the scene on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and the event that was planned on the shore of the Atlantic at Coney Island. Today we moved it to the bank of the East River, so we are not very far away from water, water that drenched us for the last week, water that saves us in baptism. Oh, how glorious water is, let us never curse water, let us bless it.

If we look to the parallels, we recognize that there was a great crowd that followed Jesus, 5,000 men, not counting the women and the children---unfortunately they seem to have been secondary in those days---but we know there was probably at least 10,000 people. That was almost exactly the number we could fit in KeySpan Park. What a parallel---a great crowd. The disciples went to Jesus and said dismiss the crowd, we have nothing to give them to eat, there is no more room for them. Well, we had a few people telling me that also.

Let us see the other parallels. Jesus responds, give them something to eat. What He really said to them was do something impossible, because they could not give them anything to eat because it was in a deserted place. In the other Gospels we hear that two hundred days' wages could not buy enough bread, if they could find it, to satisfy that great crowd. Jesus then commands the people to sit down, and they all ate of those five loaves and two fish. How did it happen? Miraculously, we know, they all ate, and so too we today will all eat of the one bread and the one cup, the same Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, as all in 216 parishes of this Diocese partake of that same bread and the same cup, which is the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Then the Gospel tells us that they were all satisfied. The physical hunger that they experienced was alleviated, and how too also our spiritual hunger is alleviated as we too celebrate this Eucharist that fills us with the most wonderful of spiritual gifts. Then there were leftovers too, twelve baskets to be certain; they counted them. This miracle was not something that happened without notice. Everyone noticed what happened. They recognized, lest anything be lost, that all was picked up, perhaps to be given to others in need. How true this is today also that we are so generous in this Diocese. We have a multiplying effect of all the good that we do, the charity that we give, the ability to pull together in sometimes-difficult circumstances.

I think the miracle that happened on the shores of the Sea of Galilee repeats itself for us today in this Diocese. The miracle of Jesus recalled the freedom of the Israelites as they were traveling in the desert. The Lord God gave them manna to eat in their want, and it showed that someday there would be the true bread from heaven, the Body of Christ, to alleviate the hunger and the want that we feel on our journey towards the Kingdom. We who participate in the one bread are those who make up the one body of the Church, forming one family in the Lord.

The pastoral letter that I issued this week entitled, "The Family: The Hope of the New Evangelization," was an attempt on my part to show how, indeed, we are one family as Church, made up of the many families that are the small churches within the great Church of the Lord. Families today have enormous pressures and burdens that they bear in our society. We do not know how to be family-friendly in this society. We make it difficult at times, not realizing the terrible burdens that families shoulder. We also realize that it is not just family life that is important, but it is the Sacrament of Marriage that makes family life possible. How important it is for us as a Church to foster a true recognition of what this sacrament is all about, to prepare people properly, to make sure that people can live out the commitment they have made. There is much to be done.

I cannot repeat what I said in 14 pages of text, several thousand words. I am sure there are things that will help you understand how we need to become the one family of Christ. There are certain questions that might help us to focus our attention on what I said. In one place in the pastoral letter I said this, as I say at many liturgies, and as I do today, I frequently ask family members, is it fun to be in their family? That is a question that the smallest child to the oldest person can answer. Is it fun? But what is fun? Do we usually have fun? As adults it means satisfaction, it means peace, it is what we really seek in life. We do not always call it fun, but if our families were places where fun was the byword, how much happier we would be. It is true joy that we experience this fun we look for, the true joy when we are at peace with one another and at peace with God.

The family, our family, the family of the Church is the place to be. Yes, among the people that we love the most, that is where we want to be. That is what a family is, where we direct our restlessness to God who is the source of life and the ultimate source of happiness. Yes, as families we help each other to find God in our lives. That is the true essence and goal of what family life is about. In the letter I also look at the modern problems that face families. I offer the example of the Holy Family as a family who faced similar problems in a different world, but it was the same stress, the same difficulties, the same moments of trial. The Holy Family does not only offer us an example of happy living, but they also can give us the help to achieve it, because they are the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Teresa of Avila, a great mystic, but also a very practical superior and woman in the life of the Church. She is a Doctor of the Church, because her teaching was so important that it lasted through the centuries and has had a great effect on those who study what she taught. She was a discalced Carmelite Sister, who wrote many things in poetic form that would describe the contemplative relationship she had with God. In fact, she had a very familiar relationship with God. We know the famous story: one day, when she was riding upon a horse to visit one of her convents, the horse dumped her in the mud. She got up and said: "Well, thank you, God. If this is the way You treat your friends, I know why You have so few."

In a particular poem I would like to read today, entitled in Spanish, "Nada de Turbe" ("Let Nothing Upset You"), we hear good advice for families and for each and every one of us who are parts of families. Good advice because it helps us understand the normal upsetment and difficulty of life. Life is not a perfect road, it is a bumpy road, full of puddles sometimes, as it is today, full of all of those things that seem to stop us. This is what Teresa said, and we take her words to heart that nothing will upset us and that we will become "One Bread, One Body, One Family in Christ":

Let nothing upset you,

Let nothing startle you.

All things pass.

God does not change.

Patience wins – and seeks all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing.

God alone is enough.

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