My friends, as promised, today and the next several Sundays will be, big picture, about the “body and blood of Christ,” and it is important, thinking about the “big picture,” that when we speak of “Christ,” we don’t mean Jesus’ last name, but a concept that Franciscans, Ilia Delio and Richard Rohr, as well as other expansive thinkers, of the ilk of Diamuid O’Murcho in Quantum Theology, speak of as inclusive of all peoples, times, and places—in other words, Christ is for all. 

   So, my friends, the chosen readings for today are so good in that they indeed tell us how to receive Jesus’ body and blood, and what to do with it once received.  I believe these readings do tell us how to get out of the small boxes that our Church hierarchy have been, sadly, famous for putting us into. 

   The 1^st reading from 2 Kings gives us the prophet Elisha telling “a giver of bread” –20 loaves, to, “give it to the people.”  As we humans tend to do, we see the “small picture,” as the giver of the loaves says, “How can I serve it to 100 people?” 

   Likewise, in today’s gospel from John, we see the same phenomenon—too little food, too many people.  The prophets Elisha, and Jesus simply say, “Give it to the people.”  And miraculously, in both cases, while not enough to start with, there are leftovers!  So, what can we make of this?  Clearly, something beyond physics is going on…

   Psalm 145 gives us an initial clue:  “You open your hand and [you will] satisfy.”  It has been said by others that the small offering given, in both readings, became great because of the example given by one person that encouraged others to give what they had too when they saw that there wasn’t enough to go around. Or, one can simply believe that the “blessings” of the prophets, Elisha and Jesus, miraculously multiplied the loaves, and in Jesus’ case, the fish, to make not only enough, but more than enough. 

   I personally like the idea that both Elisha and Jesus initially, “showed the way” and others responded in kind…  Jesus, in my read of Scriptures was always “showing the way” to be our best selves. 

   Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, our 2^nd reading, fleshes out beautifully I believe, just how we are to be “our best” in our earthly existence:  He says, “I plead with you then…to lead a life worthy of your calling…” basically, treat others charitably, with unselfishness, gentleness, patience—doing all you can to preserve unity. 

   It seems then, that there is always the chance that when we “give what, as Saint Francis of Assisi said, is ours to give,” there is the possibility that more will be added to our gift by others.  We should never underestimate our personal power in this regard, to start the ball rolling, so to speak.  At the very least, we have the responsibility to, “show up,” –the Spirit will probably take it from there. 

   So my friends, we can’t really speak about the “body and blood of Christ” in the Eucharist without mentioning the extravaganza, to the tune of $28 million held by the hierarchy of our Church, in Indianapolis last weekend.  To be fair to our Winona/Rochester diocesan bishop, Robert Barron, I felt I had better listen to what he had to say at the Eucharistic Congress. 

   Bishop Barron is definitely what some would call, “a charismatic individual,” which can be a good, or not so good thing, and people needing perhaps, a strong message, are very much attracted to him—they in fact, love him, and his words. 

   In his talk he spoke about what is wrong in our world, and to him, it is that “love is not being addressed, or applied.”  He told those gathered that they need to be, “Lumen gentium,” light of the world, only he doesn’t ever say what that means. He does say in so many words that we as individuals have no right to, “listen to ourselves,” or act on our own desires—that is God’s to do—to tell us who we are, and how we should act, and interestingly enough, “God’s message” is exactly what the hierarchical Church teaches.  What was, as a good friend of mine says, “crazy-making,” to me, was his dialog about “not listening to our egos” –only his persistence on doing things by the rules and regs (his way, in fact), without any thought about listening to our own beings, made him sound quite egotistical, and arrogant, something he, I am sure, is totally unaware of.  I am always a little skeptical of someone who is so sure that they have the absolute truth. I always thought that God gifted us with free wills—but not so, it would seem in listening to Bishop Barron. 

   So, the more that I listen to him, the more I know quite clearly, why he won’t come and speak with us…

   But going back to his notion that what is wrong with the world is that, “love is not being applied, “ I would ask him, if that is the case, why does he never speak about, nor  encourage his followers to address climate change (talk about Word/World on Fire), poverty and hunger in our world, ceaseless wars, nuclear proliferation, the death penalty, acceptance of those who have struggled to live within the narrow confinements of gender okayed by the Church hierarchy, God’s equal calls to women and men to serve at our liturgical tables—to full leadership in our Church.  In my mind, it’s because he doesn’t understand the profound nature, and expansiveness of love as depicted by our brother Jesus.

   In conclusion then, Bishop Barron’s Word on Fire, that he hopes to ignite within his following, and spread throughout the world, I would say will not have the massive effect that he hopes for because it clearly, in my mind, is not about “love” in the grandest sense of the word.  It has no direction beyond its narrow scope of what is acceptable –it is exclusive, arrogant and small-minded. 

   I say “small-minded” because in its attempt to have us all spend our creative minds and energies merely accepting that “the bread and the wine of communion is human flesh and human blood,” rather than what Jesus’ body and blood transformed in us is doing, or should be doing in our world, extending acceptance, kindness, open ears and hearts, hearing individual and unique things our God is doing in the world, seems to me to have missed the point! Truly, I would say that when, “the Word, is truly on Fire, people will keep finding more and more ways, not less, different nuances of what love means.  And let me be clear, I am not saying that followers of this movement are not doing “good” things in this world, as I know they are, but if we are about love, in the memory of Jesus of Nazareth, then, no one can be excluded, everyone is worthy, and certainly, not, “a waste of time,” as Bishop Barron said of us! Amen? Amen!

   My friends, once again we come to celebrate in our time a woman, Mary the Tower—formally known as Mary, from an obscure town—Magdala.  True exegesis done in our time tells us that in fact there is no town of “Magdala,” and that is because the word, “magdala” is not a place, but an adjective for a woman maligned throughout our religious Christian history in order to keep her in a place where her call and mission, given by our brother Jesus would remain little known to the world going forward.

   “Magdala” in fact, in Aramaic, means “tower” and was given to Mary as testament to her “tower of faith.”  In our past celebrations of Mary Magdala, we have uncovered the recent work of women scholars demonstrating the tampering done with Scriptural texts by bishops, popes, and perhaps others to combine all the “Marys” in Scripture stories minus Jesus’ mother, into a composite labeling them in the person of Mary from the supposed town of Magdala as a prostitute, rather than her true identity of prophet and priest. 

   There is evidence as well that the persons and actions of Mary and Martha, usually connected with Lazarus, as one family, being switched over time and the words in Scripture voiced by Martha, after Lazarus’ raising from the dead by Jesus, proclaiming him, “the Christ,” were really Mary’s, the one who would go on to form a house church after Jesus’ earthly life. 

   We must remember that Mary’s words are the same ones uttered by Peter which ultimately christens him, “the Rock.”  And if Mary’s words are essentially the same, then we have a problem as the men establish the Church going forward—unfortunately for women claiming their God-given calls to ministry, our beloved Church was founded on Peter the Rock instead of Mary the Tower of Faith.  My friends, this is what happens when Scripture texts are, as Sister Sandra Schneiders says, “written by men, about men and for men!”

   In our past Mary Magdala liturgies I have quoted chapter and verse where changes were made over time and if you haven’t been here at a time when I did that, and would like to know more, I can supply them to you—it is quite a tangled web…

   This year, because there is so much happening in Indianapolis this week around two very different Church views on the gift and meaning of the Eucharist, I thought it would be good to use the selected Church readings for the 16^th Weekend in Ordinary Time to be in line as much as possible with the Church of us all. The readings as such have much to say to us about what the Eucharist truly is, in light of the prophets of old, including Jesus, and his desire of how we should minister in our world. 

   Let’s begin with Jeremiah, prophet in Old Testament times who speaks our God’s words: “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!”  Most, if not all of us, are not “shepherds who care for sheep,” but Jeremiah was speaking to folks who were shepherds, so this was most meaningful to them.  The transition is easy enough for us to assign the prophets words to “leaders” in our own time.

   Our “supposed” Catholic leaders, bishops from across the country are meeting in Indianapolis this week, along with 50,000 devoted Catholics, for a 5-day event costing $28 million, wherein they are hoping to revive the Catholic church through an exaggerated presentation of the “Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,” with the special emphasis on this presence being actual flesh and blood. 

   They are being “hard-pressed” to justify this expenditure which includes a special monstrance (no doubt quite spendy as all Church religious articles tend to be) to house the sacred elements, when little attention, or any “real” deep concern seems to be spent on healing the thousands of victims of clergy sex abuse—this Body of Christ—this real presence has never received a true and sincere apology for the tremendous damage done to so many, and if that were truly seen as one of the most pressing activities that they as leaders need to do, I believe they might see more people in the pews, and it would not cost $28 million to do!”  “Woe to you shepherds…destroying and scattering the sheep in my pasture, the prophet proclaims today! 

   That same prophet also speaks these words of God” [Our God wants all of us] “to be fruitful and multiply.” 

   Indianapolis this weekend is also the sight of the “Eucharist of Equals,” sponsored by Roman Catholic Women Priests who are inviting those who attend to a wider, more expansive view of Eucharist, the one I believe is much more representative of how Jesus, our brother, envisioned this final gift to his followers. 

   At this liturgy and the liturgies of women priests across our country, and around the world, everyone who wants to be with us, and pray with us, is welcome to be there—no exceptions!  Our brother Jesus took his “liturgy” to the hillsides because everyone wasn’t welcome in the synagogue!  Unfortunately, with the Church men,

there are always “disclaimers and barriers” to their message.  The event at the Lucas Oil Convention Center (a curious place to hold this event it would seem) costs $300-350 to attend, not counting travel, food, and housing expenses, not something most, if any of the poor and disadvantaged could attend.

   One of the themes being uplifted by the women this weekend is of course “equality in ministry” –women too are called, and who are these so-called male “leaders” in our Church, to say, “women are not?”

   Looking at the other two readings for this weekend, we see more of the true nature and message of our brother Jesus.  Knowing himself how hard and physically, emotionally and spiritually draining, ministry can be, Jesus , in his compassion wants to take his apostles away for a time of rest, Mark tells us in today’s gospel.  The time of rest doesn’t happen in this story, but yet the counsel from Jesus to do so is there. 

   Paul’s letter to the Ephesians lets us know that “the Christ,” the only reality that Paul ever knew of Jesus, [will] “bring us all together.”

   I would say that in light of two very different views of Eucharist being presented in Indianapolis this weekend, it will be most important that we keep our eyes open, fully focused on Jesus’ actions and then he can more easily, “bring us all together.” As one of the banners that the women will be holding this weekend when they demonstrate outside of the Lucas Oil Convention Center says so well, “Jesus asks us to imitate, not adore him.” 

   So then my friends, we come back to one of the main themes of today’s liturgy—affording Mary Magdala, Tower of Faith, her true place in our struggle to be faithful witnesses to Jesus’ profound message of love and care for our world and all its many people in so many different stripes and colors.  Many women in our Church are already doing this—we aren’t waiting for the men to say it is okay! Amen? Amen!