My friends, I would like to share two stories today as we begin, to set a focus for the readings and message from the Scriptures for this weekend. 

   The first story came to me from Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) as I was driving to Lacrosse this past week.  MPR’s morning show was looking at how animals, cats, and dogs, specifically, effect and affect the lives of humans. 

   This 1^st story is about a cat named Jasmine and her human friend; I will call Julie.  It seems that Julie was in a bad “human” relationship wherein her life was often being threatened. As is usually the case in such situations, Julie routinely did nothing to protect herself, until one day, her attacker threatened the life of Jasmine.  This last threat caused her to act—she got a restraining order, and as she said, “That was the end of that.” 

   Later, she got into a good relationship and was planning her wedding.  One week before the big event, Jasmine died.  Julie said, “It felt like Jasmine knew that now I was in good hands and that she could go.”

   The second “story” isn’t really a story per se, but more of an explanation for a strongly held belief.  Bishop Robert Barron, of the Winona/Rochester, Minnesota Catholic diocese, wrote with a great deal of emotion in the most recent issue of The Courier, the  diocesan paper, his feelings about the June 15, 2023, Eucharistic Congress held in Mankato. 

   In common parlance, we could say, “He was over-the-moon” with how the event played out—stating, [It was] “one of the greatest days of my priesthood.” His joy was truly about the great number of people who attended and of their reverence for the “real presence,” body and blood of Jesus on the altar.  

   Within his comments for The Courier, the Bishop shared some of his message to the people who attended the Eucharistic Congress.  I was taken aback by the following quote from him:

          “I do believe that in the years following the Second Vatican Council, we tended to de-emphasize doctrine and hyper-emphasize social justice.  One bitter fruit of this is that many of our young people cannot articulate why it makes sense to believe in God; another is that 70% of Catholics don’t believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  As Jesus himself demonstrates clearly, the first great expression of compassion is teaching. So it remains true today.”

   My friends, I placed the 1^st story of a loving cat and her human friend alongside an episcopal explanation of doctrine, in the words of each “story-teller,” as examples, of “real presence.”  I will let that sit for the time being as we look at the Scripture message and challenge for today. 

   In the 1^st reading from the prophet, Isaiah, we hear: “My word will go forth from my mouth and will not return to me empty, but will carry out my will…”

   Bishop Barron seems to be caught up in the fact that 70% of Catholics don’t believe in the “real presence” on the altar—in his mind, that the elements of bread and wine are actual human flesh and human blood. 

   I don’t recall our brother Jesus ever saying that this is what he wanted from us.  Furthermore, with all due respect, I believe the Bishop’s comments about the focus of Vatican II and the movement away from doctrine to social justice is indeed what Jesus always asked of us—not that we get caught up in doctrine, for doctrine’s sake. 

   Again, with all due respect, does it really matter if 70% of Catholics don’t believe in transubstantiation, but do instead believe in the real presence of Jesus within us and each and every person we meet?  It should be remembered that Jesus in his earthly life railed against the apparent need of his fellow Jews in fastidiously keeping over 600 rules and regulations for daily living, yet not showing compassion for the poor and suffering on the fringes of their society. 

   I believe the Bishop has it all turned around.  He is also lamenting that young people can’t articulate, “why it makes sense to have God in their lives.”  I would want to know what his definition of God is in order to fully comment. I personally know many young and younger people, including my own two adult children and their spouses who are not in agreement with what they hear this bishop proclaiming about “real presence,” yet I believe they hold their own definitions of God, that in many ways guide their lives. 

   Let’s return for a moment to my 1^st story about Julie and her cat, Jasmine.  I suggested that this is one of “real presence.”  My definition of God as depicted by our brother Jesus, who said, “If you have seen me, you have seen Abba God,” is one who loves us in an over-the-top way as shown in the parables of the Prodigal and that of the Good Shepherd, to name just two.  In other words, our God wants good for us in this life, not bad, and through the faithful love of Jasmine, Jesus’ (God’s) real presence was there for Julie. 

   None of us gets to see God in this life, but we do get to see each other, our pets, and the beauty of and strength in nature—what wonderful opportunities for our God to be present to us! Let’s not make it so hard to see our God who is continually present to us in all of the above ways!  And of course, this can only happen if we, as Matthew says in the gospel today, have “eyes that truly see, ears that truly hear, and hearts that can truly love.”

   My friends, our faith calls us to go so much deeper than belief in physical elements—we must find Jesus’ real presence in each other, in those who are abused, even, if possible, in the abuser; and in those who suffer injustice in so many ways because of how and where they happened to have been born…

   Paul, in his letter to the Romans today, prays the prayer, I believe, of our brother Jesus who wept over Jerusalem shortly before he died, because even his closest followers just didn’t get it.  Paul says, “the entire creation has been groaning in one great act of giving birth…”

   Paul continues in his encouragement, that we be “a revelation to the world.”  If we check the definition of the word, “revelation,” we find that it means, “a surprising and previously unknown fact.”  

   In the words that I quoted from Bishop Barron above, he stated that, “the first great expression of compassion is teaching.”  If this Bishop is intent in keeping us “stuck” in “doctrine” rather than “social justice,” as proclaimed by Vatican II, then his attempts to bring more young and older people into the Church will be akin to,

 “the seed that fell on rocky ground where it had little soil and because it had no depth, when the sun rose…it withered away.”  Amen? Amen!

   My friends, today I would like to speak about “peace” –personal peace, national peace, and world peace.  This topic of peace is one that I think a great deal about because on many levels, in our world, there seems to be so little of it.  And additionally, I am inclined to do so because today’s Scriptures speak either directly, or indirectly to the issue of peace. 

   The prophet Zechariah says very directly, “The warrior’s bow will be banished, and peace will be proclaimed to the nations.”  Paul, in his letter to the Romans speaks more indirectly about the goodness of peace and searching for this alternative to personal and worldly problems experienced in our lives: “You are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.” 

   We as humans are capable of great good, but equally, of great evil.  The daily news lets us know this to be true.  I personally crave stories that tell of the goodness of us humans as opposed to the failures within humankind to meet that bar of goodness.  CBS news correspondent, Steve Hartman, in his “On the Road” segments, each Friday night, never fails in finding and producing good, human stories. 

   Several years ago, we had the opportunity of seeing a one-person play, entitled, An Iliad, through the Great River Shakespeare Festival (GRSF).  The play was a take-off on Homer’s, The Iliad and viewers were confronted with humankind’s propensity to make war, instead of peace.  Clearly, when one thinks about it, making “war” is the easier solution to any conflict. Making peace will always be the harder action because it calls for restraint, listening –being willing to hear another side –basically, calling forth the best in us. 

   Now I, like you, struggle with the hard work that making peace calls for and at times, tend to think that it can’t be done.  At times like this, Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Gospel today are good to reflect on: “Come to me, all you who labor and find life hard, and I will refresh you.”  In other words, take the burden of following me—being true to the way of life that I have given you, upon your shoulders, learn from me, my gentleness, my humility—for that is how it must be done—not through angry words, or the violence of war. 

   When it comes to “making peace,” big enough to cover our war-torn world, most of us realize that the job is bigger than any one person can handle.  But, one person, added to another person, to another, can do great things.  That is why I love the work of Steve Hartman, who routinely shows us examples of some-one-person, doing something wonderfully good, and just like those who do evil in this world, will find followers, those who do, not only good, but good beyond measure seemingly, will find followers too.  World peace does indeed start small, in individual cases, and grows from there. 

   It is also good for us to remember that we are truly capable of great goodness, if we live more so, in the Spirit, as opposed to the body.  I love the person who originally said, “We are spiritual beings here, having a human experience.”  In other words, we came into existence with “original” goodness, not “sin,” as Matthew Fox has said so well.  That kind of shoots the whole theology of redemption, doesn’t it?! We aren’t here, in our humanity to become more spiritual—we are of God already, attempting through our humanity to be true, ultimately to God’s Spirit already within us!

   So, as An Iliad stated, since B.C.E. times to the present, there have been more than 100 wars. If that solution was what was needed, our world should be without war and conflict today! Right?

   It seems to me, when we truly think about it, even if we can come up with a justifiable reason, this decision to go to war is to have failed in our humanity to be our very best.  War should only come about as truly the last thing we try.  Sending our young men and women to fight these endless wars seems to me to be an insane action; unworthy of a God who has first loved us so much and trusted us to care for others in like manner.

   These are tough times my friends, when every week it seems, sometimes even every day, in our country, we must continually hear of mass shootings because we don’t, as a country, have the “intestinal fortitude,” as my friend, Paul Nelson used to say, or even the wisdom of children, as Matthew speaks of today, to do the right thing—to make it impossible to easily pick up a weapon to express one’s anger, hurt, whatever it might be, on our unsuspecting sisters and brothers in our world. We might well consider directing the millions used today to prop up the National Rifle Association, towards cleaning up the arsenals that litter our towns and cities and truly assist those needing psychological and emotional help so as to live more constructive lives. 

   Our God truly calls us to so much more goodness than our country and world is displaying today. And even though it may seem an impossible task, I would challenge each of us, this week, to make our world better by writing or calling someone in power to demand a world that is safer, freer from evil and violence than it is today.  Let’s demand a world that is more equal and fair for all; being unable to truly be happy with all we have, when so many have not even the basics.  Let’s advocate for goodness, for becoming our best selves—for everyone.  Jesus merely got this started, and when he left us physically, in time, he said that we would do greater things than he did.  Amen? Amen!