Homily for Opening Mass
of the Third Diocesan Synod
BY BISHOP WILLIAM K. WEIGAND
October 11-13, 2004 Synod Gathering
St. Isidore Church, Yuba City
Dear Friends,
"The Church draws her life from the Eucharist." (#1) So begins Pope John Paul II's recent encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, (April 17, 2003, Holy Thursday). "This truth ... recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church," (#1) says the Pope.
Quoting from the Second Vatican Council, the Pope continues, "The Eucharistic sacrifice is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life.'" (L.G. #11) "For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and living bread." (Presbyterorum Ordinis #5).
"Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of his boundless love. . . Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church the perennial making present of the Paschal Mystery ... The thought of this leads us to profound amazement and gratitude." (#1-5)
Thus, our Holy Father states why he has written the encyclical: "I would like to rekindle this Eucharistic ‘amazement' .... In the Paschal event and the Eucharist which makes it present throughout the centuries, there is truly an enormous ‘capacity,' which embraces all of history as the recipient of the grace of redemption. This amazement should always fill the Church assembled for the celebration of the Eucharist." (#5)
Let us take up the Holy Father's challenge "to rekindle this Eucharistic amazement." I propose three ways: study, prayer, and recalling the attraction, the amazement we have all experienced at high points in our encounter with our Eucharistic Lord.
One experience of my own easily comes to my mind and continues to motivate me. When I was 12 years old and in the 7th grade, "out of the blue" I was moved by God's grace to attend and serve the 6:30 a.m. daily Mass at the sisters' convent across town during Lent. I never missed a day. There was absolutely no precedent in my life or in my family history for this.
During that Lent, the Lord drew me into the divine action of the Mass and into a personal relationship with Himself that has had a profound influence on me ever since. For one thing, my vocation to the priesthood blossomed during that Lent. A love for the Mass and for devotion to the Blessed Sacrament also dates from the "Eucharistic amazement" that I experienced that Lent.
At mid-Lent, a boyhood friend joined me to attend and serve daily Mass. This friend also became a priest and, like myself, served as a missionary priest in Latin America for a number of years. God clearly has his own way of drawing us to Himself in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and subsequent devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Let us pause for a moment to allow ourselves to recall an incident of "amazement" we experienced in the context of the Eucharist. How have we been attracted to the Eucharist? (Pause)
In the recent encyclical, the Pope comments: "To contemplate the face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the ‘program' which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summoning her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization." (#6)
Our own history as a diocese will forever be marked by this Diocesan Synod. When we began our pastoral planning process in the Jubilee Year of 2000, it was, indeed, like "putting out into the deep" on unchartered waters. The CARA process and subsequent pastoral planning in the parishes, the endeavor to explore and experiment with collaborative efforts and ministry with neighboring parishes, the detailed process to prepare for our first Synod in 75 years were all new realities for us.
This took faith, boldness, perseverance, and a lot of work on the part of all of us. I want to express my deep gratitude, especially to Sr. Eileen Enright, R.S.M., Director of Synod Preparation, without whose leadership we would not have reached this solemn moment of formally opening the Diocesan Synod.
From the themes which surfaced for the Synod, it is evident that we are, indeed, striving to "contemplate the face of Christ" and that our intention is "to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization." (#6)
We now place the fruits of our labor, our sacrifice of praise, on the altar along with the gifts of bread and wine, so that the offering of ourselves might become commingled with the offering of Christ — and transformed into a perfect offering, in our name, to the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
At Mass, just before the Consecration, the priest extends his hands over the gifts and invokes the Holy Spirit upon them, to transform them: I will use Eucharistic Prayer #3, "And so, Father, we bring you these gifts. We ask you to make them holy by the power of your Spirit, that they may become the Body and Blood of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose command we celebrate this Eucharist."
And, then, following the Consecration, the priest invokes the Holy Spirit upon the assembly of God's people, to transform us: "Grant that we, who are nourished by his Body and Blood, may be filled with his Holy Spirit, and become one body, one spirit in Christ. May he make us an everlasting gift to you and enable us to share in the inheritance of your saints...." (Eucharistic Prayer #3) "May he (the Holy Spirit) make us an everlasting gift to you," Father. How awesome to consider that through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, each of us is a gift to the Father.
The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. Although we have already been incorporated into Christ through Baptism, our growth in holiness is slower. There are ways of hastening our transformation, however: striving for a more complete union of mind and heart with the divine action that is taking place in the Eucharist, that is to say, a more complete internal participation; making a deeper renunciation of sin; resisting the pride that inclines us to be "cafeteria Catholics," picking and choosing what suits us of our Catholic teachings and morality.
Other ways include striving to take on the mind and heart of Christ in all things, so that with St. Paul we might say, "I live now not I, but Christ lives in me"; following up on the Mass with regular prayer after Mass and throughout the week so that our faith might grow. Ideally, this would involve prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, wherein we might continue to plumb the depths of the mystery of the Eucharist. Reflecting on the Scripture readings of the last Mass and preparing those of the next Mass, would likewise assist our internal participation and, thus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, our sanctification and transformation into an "everlasting gift" to the Father.
We know, of course, that receiving Holy Communion is spiritually powerful for our sanctification. Receiving Holy Communion with a lively faith gradually transforms us into Jesus, especially if we have made the effort prayerfully to prepare for Mass. The process, while gradual, is also certain. "May he (the Holy Spirit) make us an everlasting gift to you," Father. We have good reason to rekindle a Eucharistic amazement, as Pope John Paul II suggests.
The Eucharistic commingling of our offerings with the perfect offering of Christ is effected every day in our parishes, and it is the very source from which our whole ministry, and all our works of faith flow. For, when all is said and done, the parish is nothing less than a Eucharistic community called together in faith around the altar, called to holiness and sent forth on our common mission as followers of Christ: 1) to transform the world, the workplace, the family, the civic community after the mind of Christ; 2) to make every effort to hand on the faith as effectively as possible at all levels – in the parish and in the domestic church of the family.
As Our Holy Father notes in Ecclesia de Eucharistia: "When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord's death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and the work of our redemption is carried out.' (LG #3) This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there." (#11)
We proceed now in the Mass to join Christ in the central event of salvation, made truly present for us, in which the work of our redemption is carried out. We will then move on to the solemn deliberations of our Diocesan Synod. We do so without any anxiety, strengthened and nourished by "the Bread of Life," and with the encouragement of our Eucharistic Lord: "Be not afraid."
The same Holy Spirit who transforms our offerings in the Mass and makes present the central event of salvation will transform us into a unity of love and guide us in all we do in the Synod. "Be not afraid." What we undertake now is God's work, even as the Eucharistic Sacrifice is God's work. We are God's instruments. "Be not afraid." It is Christ who summons us "to put out into the deep" on the sea of our diocesan history at the beginning of a new millennium of life in Christ.