18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

8/1/21

Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

I really can't believe that it's already August! The summer is going by quickly and we're pushing to have the new parish hall done by the end of this month so that we'll be able to use it for Religious Education this Fall. Supply chain problems continue to delay the project– please keep it in your prayers! We'll also begin construction of the adoration chapel in late August or in September.

Once we have McGuire Hall operational, we'll start many new ministries and events, so be ready to volunteer to help, especially if you have ideas about ministries to start. We have a lot of young adult ministries, which we'll continue and expand, but we also need to start ministries that are for a broader group than young adults, so please also consider those possibilities.

The Gospel this Sunday includes Jesus's revelation that He is the Bread of Life– the true bread from heaven. The Eucharist, communion, is literally the Body of Christ. When receiving the Eucharist we are receiving Christ directly– not symbolically or metaphorically, but truly and actually. That is why, just after the priest consecrates each species, that is Body and then the Blood, he elevates each species for the people to adore while kneeling. At that moment, we are worshipping Christ truly present in what was bread and wine, now Body and Blood. If the Eucharist were merely symbolic than such adoration would constitute idolatry. The liturgy reveals the truth of what is spiritually happening within the sacrament of the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is the primary place where we encounter Christ present to us. That is why the tabernacle is in the center of the church building and we have the sanctuary lamp to indicate His presence. That is why we genuflect when entering and exiting the church. That is why many people make the sign of the cross when walking by a Catholic church. We are responding to Christ's presence in the Eucharist. While God is certainly presence everywhere in the cosmos, after all He is holding everything in existence at every moment, God is especially present where the Eucharist is. The veil between our world and the heavenly realm is thinner, as it were, where the Eucharist is present. A passage exists in those places because the Eucharist is a heavenly and divine reality present in our earthly realm.

Let us live this great gift God has given us. When we worship at St. Joseph's, or any Catholic church, we're in an outpost of God's work among us– a beachhead of God's salvific work in our world. He is calling us back to Himself, our true homeland in heaven, and so when at church we're truly at home, enmeshed in the heavenly world that is our eternal calling.

God Bless,

Fr. Boniface