Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • June 9, 2023 5 9274 Hwy 49/Airport Gulfport, MS 39503 228-863-5525 1-800-880-2446 FAX: 228-863-9612 www.butchoustalet.com MORE THAN FUNERAL DIRECTORS We are Professional Remembrance Planners Explore the many unique ways to honor and celebrate lives. Call or visit Bradford O’Keefe today. BRADFORD-O’KEEFE FUNERAL HOMES Professional. Compassionate. Dignified. 228-374-5650 • Bradfordokeefe.com Opening Remarks -- Story: A Satanic Temple group announced that a “black mass” would be held at a pub on Harvard University’s Cambridge campus. A “black mass” is a reenactment and mockery of the Catholic Mass that includes worshipping Satan and desecrating a consecrated host. In response, the campus CSA (Catholic Student Association) held a Eucharistic procession on campus that stretched several blocks at the exact time the “black mass” was scheduled to take place. Hun- dreds of worshippers solemnly processed to St. Paul’s Catholic Church, where an estimated 2,000 people attended an hour of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, ending with Benediction. Without explanation, the “black mass” never took place at the time and location announced. One eyewitness wrote, “We didn’t merely win a spiritual battle; we launched an offensive.” God Shows Up: In today’s first reading, Moses admonished the Israelites to remember their forty-year experience in the desert and how God tested them with hunger but then fed them with manna from heaven. And, when threatened by scorpions, serpents, drought, and a fiercely powerful enemy, God showed up in power, took up their cause, and saved them from death. These and many other actions initiated by God to encourage His people were tangible signs that God would take care of them for all time. Then, for emphasis,Moses repeated the admonition, “Do not forget the Lord, your God….” But they did forget. When suffering and in dire need, they cried out to God, but in times of plenty, good health, the defeat of enemies, and strength as a nation, they somehow convinced themselves that these blessings were attained by their own skill and intellect. Instead of God’s dramatic rescues building faith and trust to bolster them for their next challenge, they grumbled and complained like people without faith or hope. They negated God’s interventions on their behalf as if they did not exist and turned to worshipping idols (a golden calf) in rebellion against God’s ways. Thereby convincing themselves they did not need God. Reflect: Are we following in our ancestor’s footsteps by forgetting to worship and praise God for His goodness? Have we become comfortable and self- satisfied with our affluence? Do we deny Jesus, Bread from Heaven, Bread of Life, truly present in the Eucharist, as our first and true source of spiritual nourishment? Do we cling faithfully and acknowledge with grateful hearts to the Lord’s word, the sacraments, the Liturgy, and teachings of the Church? Is our trust in God glaringly evident and contagious to those around us? Jesus, Present in the Eucharist: Dr. Scott Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister and now well-known Catholic teacher, apologist, and author, attributes his discovery of Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist as the turning point in his conversion to Catholicism. Regarding Jesus’ words, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Dr. Hahn says, “I had been trained to interpret that in a figurative sense -- that flesh and blood is just a symbol of His body and blood --- but that interpretation makes no sense at all. Thousands were following Jesus, and suddenly they were shocked that He said, ‘For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink’ (John 6:55), and with that, thousands of disciples left Him. If Jesus had intended that language only to be figurative, He would have been morally obligated as a teacher to say, ‘Stop, don’t go away, I only mean it figuratively -- He didn’t do that. Instead, He turned to His twelve apostles and asked, ‘Do you also want to leave’ (John 6:67). So, He had to have meant it literally!” United With Christ: Chapters 10 and 11 of first Corinthians are the earliest commentary on the Church’s celebration of the Eucharist (56 AD). In today’s second reading, Paul teaches how the Christian community is united by participating in the Body and Blood of Christ. Communion with Christ and one another is crucial in winning victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil (Ephesians 6:12). Live Forever: In today’s Gospel and indeed throughout John chapter 6, there is no question that Jesus’ hearers understood He was speaking literally. They were horrified at the thought of eating flesh and drinking blood, and when Jesus did not recant His statement, they walked away. The verb Jesus used for “eating” His flesh was that used for an animal munching or gnawing on its prey. John used it for emphasis on the reality of the flesh and blood of Jesus (v. 55). An additional promise of Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse (John chapter 6) is “whoever eats this Bread (Eucharist) will live forever.” Now, however, more than two thousand years after John chapter 6 was written regarding the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, people are still arguing about this reality. Polling data shows that 69 percent of self-identified Catholics deny Jesus’true presence in the Eucharist, believing it is only symbolic. Fortunately, what is fundamental in determining core beliefs of the Catholic faith are not how people ‘feel’ but what Jesus said and how the Apostolic Church acted on Jesus’ words. Closing Reflection: Four years after Dr. Scott Hahn became Catholic, his wife Kimberly was received into full communion with the Church. When finally coming to believe in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and reflecting on the years she rejected that truth, Kimberly lamented, “It’s not fair, all these years we (Protestants) have been reading the menu, but they (Catholics) have been eating the meal.” Deacon Ralph Torrelli lives in Hattiesburg and is assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. Visit his website: www.homilypearls.com . 1st Reading: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16 Responsorial Psalm: 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20 2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 Gospel: John 6:51-58 Body and Blood of Christ Jesus -- Bread of Life Deacon Torrell i Sunday Scripture Commentaries