Holy Father Benedict, that filled with the same we too may strive to love what he loved and to practice what he taught through Christ our Lord. So this is the end. This is on the Eucharist, and I'll say this in the beginning. I think the best part is at the end. So if you fall asleep in the beginning, wake up in the end. I think historians reflecting on our 20th century, which I'm not going to be hesitant to tell us, to narrate for us, some of the terrible things that have occurred during these past hundred years. They certainly list wars, the likes of which have never been known before. They certainly list genocide, unnecessary famine, weapons of mass destruction, drug addiction and sex addiction, destroying the minds and hearts of minions, and on and on they go.

[01:06]

It has even been said that the young to whom hope seems to come so naturally actually live with little hope for the future. At least that is how many so-called experts are interpreting the rise of the use of drugs, random acts of violence, and increased suicides among them. Now, the reason I've listed those things, because I think we have to remember that this is the world in which the Gospel is to be announced. We cannot expect the Gospel to be heard unless it be announced as somehow addressing what the human person is consciously or unconsciously seeking, offering hope in what would be, without the light and power that comes from the Gospel, a hopeless situation. I'd like to suggest in this reflection that in the Eucharist we do discover the hope for which we long, and we discover Him for whom our human hearts were made.

[02:15]

In the celebration of the Eucharist we discover our dignity, who we are, what our destiny is, and we are given the means to arrive at the end. The Eucharist gives us the pledge for a bright future, and it lets us know and taste love and peace and a sense of order, and even now, despite what our present situation might be, I think if our times have taught us anything, it is our need for greater interiority. And for me, interiority, worthy of the name, is always God-centered and not self-centered. Now, over the years, I've discovered that there are certain things that happen to me, or words spoken to me, that have made a lasting impression.

[03:20]

I've come to see the Lord's hand in these events as His way of helping me not to forget some of the basics. I'll give you an example of what I mean. During my early days of formation in the novitiate, each month we had a day of recollection. Then sometime during that month the novice master would stop us and take us apart and speak to us. It just so happened that this particular year we had been on our walk on a Saturday and the month was already passing, and so he wanted to get it over with, so we just came back from a walk, and he kind of said to me, Father Joseph, and how are things going? And in my youthful innocence, Or was it my way out? I don't know. But I responded by saying, I should probably ask you that, how things are going. And what I thought I meant, I thought I was simply saying that as novice master, he was in a better situation to answer the question on how I was doing than I was in the report card business.

[04:29]

His response was, what's the matter? Haven't you got a conscience? And I have never, never forgotten that. A simple retort, but one I never forgot and one that caused me to ponder over and over again the absolute necessity of interiority and of accepting personal responsibility for my response to the Lord and the many ways in which He would manifest to me His presence and His will. That experience in time also taught me that not only must I have a conscience and respect for the workings of the Spirit within that conscience, but that the same attitude should be communicated to those I serve. It is not sufficient that I or others be able to justify actions or decisions on the basis of something simply external to either of us, whether that be what everyone else is doing or a somewhat literal interpretation of law or custom.

[05:39]

It is rather the case that our decisions must be made on the basis of individual interiority, for that is what caused us to accept Jesus as Lord to respond to his call in the church, to desire to dwell with him, and to choose a way of life under the rule and an abbot or a superior. I remember also as a young seminarian going to my spiritual director with a problem. Now, it's funny, I don't remember the problem, but I remember the answer. And he said to me, quod est est, what is, is. In other words, he was saying to me, to spend time on what you would do if things were only different, is never to tackle the real problem.

[06:42]

That is, being open to the Lord and his sanctifying spirit in the here and now, and in turn, redeeming our times. I mean, very simple, but I think extremely important. Now, why do I tell all these stories? First, in the hope that they will trigger in your own memories events or happenings that have occurred to you and that, as you reflect back, have been formative in your lives, and thus to help you realize how close the Lord has been and is to you and how he guides you ever so gently on the way." I say this over and over again because I think it is so true. Those events or happenings are meant to be for us, I believe, as Isaiah tells us, like a voice that sounds in our ears and says, this is the way, walk in it.

[07:48]

The second reason for telling these stories is in the hope that what helped me to respond to the Lord may be of help to you. And the third reason is that interiority is at the very heart of Eucharistic devotion. And now to turn to the Eucharist. We're all familiar with the offertory procession, that is, bringing the gifts of bread and wine to the altar. And so we asked a simple question, what is the significance of the action? The act is meant to nourish, I got to sidetrack, but this evening we read from Hebrews about the Lord being crucified outside And just last week, I don't remember having heard it before, I can't tell you which one of the fathers was, but he said the reason he was crucified outside was precisely to show that that redemption was for the Gentile world as well.

[08:53]

I never remember, see, I probably did, but you know how things hit you when you're old age? I got distracted on that one, but anyway. So what is the significance of this offertory thing? And the reason I do these little things is because I think we can get kind of in a habit and not reflect on the actions taking place. A simple thing that can help us to recall what is going on, what really is happening in this thing. That act of the offertory is meant to nourish our desire and our intention to become one with Christ in His sacrifice, in His handing Himself over to the Father for us and for our salvation. Now stop and think about it for just a moment. These gifts of bread and wine are not simply the fruits of creation, but they are, in a way, the fruits of creation joined with human history.

[10:02]

That is, they're not simply grain and grapes, but grain and grapes combined with human ingenuity. Or, in other words, they represent us and our lives, our labors, that is, they represent our natural God-given gifts, and not only the God-given gifts, but the way that we have and will continue to make use of them. In a sense, these gifts represent the whole created world along with the whole of humanity and its history. And so, at the offertory, with the presentation of the gifts of bread and wine, creation and humanity are placed into the hands of Christ. Christ comes to meet us where we are, in our present condition, and He reveals His solidarity with us.

[11:04]

And then, what happens? He takes our gifts, that is, our lives in their totality. That's what we're offering. He takes our lives in their totality into His hands, and in the course of the Eucharistic prayer, in the course of our thanksgiving, He joins them to Himself He transforms them so that we can be a light and a leaven for others as He is for us. Now, through communion with Christ and the gift of His Spirit, we become capable of being a sign of Christ's love and peace and compassion and forgiveness to our world. to eat the body of the Lord and to drink His blood, as the third Eucharistic prayer has it, is to be filled with His Holy Spirit and to become one body, one spirit in Christ.

[12:14]

That's what we say. We become one as a result of the Spirit. We become one, become one body with Him. We become one spirit in Now listen to Jesus as he tells us, just as I have life because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. And Saint Leo the Great did not hesitate to say that at Mass the very bodies and the very stories of those present, that means our bodies and our stories, are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. When we share in the Body and Blood of Christ, we become what we receive. We are, in other words, transformed more and more into Christ.

[13:15]

Saint Augustine tells us the very same thing, namely, that in the Eucharistic celebration we are transformed into the body of Christ." And this is a quote from Augustine. So, if you want to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle telling the faithful, you are the body of Christ and its members. This sacrament, after all, doesn't present you with the body of Christ in such a way as to divide you from it. The Apostle says about this Eucharist, we though many are one loaf, one bread. So you are beginning to receive what you are. You are beginning to receive What you are, what you have already begun to be, provided you do not receive it unworthily.

[14:21]

What you receive is what you yourselves are, thanks to the grace by which you have been redeemed. You add your signature to this when you answer Amen. What you see here is the sacrament of unity. That's all from Augusta. What you see here is the sacrament of unity. Now, in his encyclical on the Eucharist, the Holy Father reminds us that it is good for us, not only... and this is the part that I find somewhat different. I hadn't thought of it in this way before. But in that he tells us it's good for us to reflect not only on the dispositions that we should have when we receive the Lord, but we should also reflect on the Lord's attitude toward us as we approach Him. He reminds us that our incorporation into Christ

[15:27]

which is brought about by baptism, is constantly renewed and strengthened by sharing in the Eucharistic sacrifice. And then he adds these words, at communion we can say not only that each of us receives Christ, and I think you could change that to welcomes, at the communion we can say not only that each one of us welcomes Christ, but also that Christ welcomes each one of us. He enters into friendship with us. This is a quote. You are my friends, he says. Indeed, it is because of him that we have life. And how often have we heard those words, he who eats me will live because of me."

[16:29]

Again, the Holy Father reminds us that when we receive or welcome the Lord in communion, that communion brings about the mutual abiding of Christ in each of his followers. Recall how Jesus stressed this when he said, abide in me and I in you. Now, it seems to me that from these words of the Pope, three simple things are very clear. First, Jesus is no indifferent lover. He's not standing by indifferent to us. Secondly, from Him, especially in the Eucharist, our interiority, our interior life, our life of union with God is nourished and strengthened and our sense of identity, our awareness of our destiny, and the means of arriving are clarified and assured.

[17:36]

Recall the Holy Father's words at the Eucharist. Christ welcomes each one of us. He enters into friendship with us. And we all know one person can't be a friend by himself. Friendship can't exist between two people unless it is reciprocal. That's the very nature of friendship. There is no such thing as a one-person friendship. So, when Christ reminds us that he is our friend, that means that we can be sure that he will do his part in the friendship. And thirdly, The Eucharistic communion brings about a real union, a real communion, not only between Christ and me, as it were, but between Him and each one of us, His followers. That's why in Christ, we are brothers, right?

[18:42]

That's real, that's not meant to be poetry, you know? Now, theologians often remind us that the way the Lord is present, the way He exists in the sacraments, does not differ from the way He existed during the 40 days after His resurrection. Now, if we reflect on that, I think we get a glimpse of what the Lord is doing in the liturgy. He is making present to us His earthly life. When He appeared to the disciples, He didn't appear... I mean, it wasn't an abstraction for them. His whole being that they knew so well was there. So, He is making present to us His earthly life. He is making its meaning known to us. And He is giving us a share in that life, now resurrected, not unlike what He did with the disciples on the way to Emmaus.

[19:45]

That means that Christ's presence in the sacraments, as in the 40 days after the resurrection, is not in isolation from his earthly life, but rather is deeply rooted in his earthly life. We can say that in each sacrament the personal historical reality of Jesus of Nazareth is offered to us is made available for our participation, is, in a sense, given to each one of us personally. Jesus of Nazareth, crucified under Pontius Pilate, becomes present to us, becomes available to us, here and now, in virtue of His resurrection and in virtue of our faith. in virtue of His resurrection and in virtue of our faith. His presence granted to us in the Eucharist is a presence with Him in His sacrifice.

[20:54]

Meetings with Christ in the Eucharist are real meetings, and I think this is, I like this, meetings with Christ in the Eucharist are real meetings for Him too. Remember, if He's going to welcome us, then it's some response on His part. It's not dead weight. It's not a dead piece of bread. It's Christ. They are meetings for Him with me in my time. He brings the glory and majesty of His divinity, henceforth inseparably bound to His humanity and to the history He lived, into my time. and in my time he is met by me by means of faith." Now, isn't that what occurs in those 40 days after the resurrection, when Jesus is recognized by his disciples?

[22:00]

Weren't these meetings significant for Jesus and his disciples? Now, just stop and think about a few of them. Recall his appearance to Mary Magdalene. Not understanding the scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead, she had stayed outside the tomb weeping. And when asked by the angel why she was weeping, she blurted out, they have taken the Lord and I don't know where they put him. When Jesus first appeared, like the disciples on their way to Emmaus, she didn't recognize him. Thinking that he was the gardener, she again blurted out, If you're the one that carried him away, tell me where you laid him and I'll take him." At that moment, Jesus called her by name, and she recognized him. I say, remember, Jesus is no indifferent lover. How pleased he must have been by Mary's exclamation, or recognition, or bony.

[23:06]

Another scene during the 40 days. The Apostle Thomas was absent, as we recall, when the Lord appeared to the disciples in the upper room. And on his return, the disciples tried to share with him the joy that was theirs from having seen the Lord. But Thomas didn't want anything to do with that. Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hand and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And then a week later, Despite the fact that the doors were locked, the Lord appears, and Thomas, without hesitation, cries out, My Lord and my God. Now, do you think the Lord stood by indifferently at Thomas' profound act of faith? I don't think so. I think he was very pleased. Another scene. Jesus appears on the shore on the Sea of Tiberias. and the disciples, as you know, in the boat.

[24:09]

And when they first spot him on the shore, they don't recognize him. It is John, the beloved disciple, who cries out to the others, it is the Lord. Now again, do you think Jesus stood by indifferent? Or was he delighted that John recognized him? And Peter, when he heard those words of John, what did he do? He jumped into the water to get to him first. In his mind, the boat was too slow. Was the Lord standing on the shore totally indifferent to what was happening, or was he delighted? What do we see in all these encounters? I think we get a glimpse. Remember, the point I'm trying to make is this welcoming. Not only do we welcome Jesus, but Jesus welcomes us. We receive Christ, but he receives us. I think we get a glimpse of the joy that is the Lord's as he sees the fruit of his passion taking root within his followers.

[25:13]

He saw that those that he loved so much were beginning to understand how much they had been loved by him and how much he had accomplished for them. In the celebration of the sacraments, as Jesus turns his bodily presence toward us, the risen Lord, as it were, waits to receive what? Our faith, our recognition of Him. Our worship brings joy to His heart. Why? Because it expresses at least some beginning of understanding on our part of how much we have been loved in the mystery of the Incarnation, His Passion, and His Resurrection. I think that's very lovely. And I don't take the credit for that. The Holy Father inspired me in some of the things.

[26:16]

And I read a book by Jeremy Driscoll some time ago, and I came across some things from Von Balthasar. And so, who gets credit for this, I don't know. But this is, that's kind of the basic source of the thing, and I never had thought of it, I never had thought of it in that way. I never thought of it in terms of him welcoming me. I never thought of it that way. And it does something for you when you think of it that way. It does something for you when you make a little visit to the Blessed Sacrament. You know, and it's His, He has made His presence and we recognize that through that gift of faith that He's given us. And it's not an abstract Christ, it's the Christ who walked our earth, who understands the trials we go through as Hebrews tells us over and over again. Now, I'm at the conclusion.

[27:17]

And the conclusion is a very simple thing. There is a very beautiful antiphon at morning office on the Feast of Saint Andrew. And it goes like that. It always struck me. It goes like this. The Lord loved Andrew, and he cherished his friendship. The Lord loved Andrew, and he cherished his friendship. It's along the same lines of what we just said. And as much as I love that and a friend, and as much as I love the reason, because I never thought of the response on Christ, I wasn't able to draw it out as clearly as I have been from my readings recently. And so I simply say to you, the Lord loves each one of you, and he cherishes your friendship. And that's mutual.

[28:19]

Spiritual he cherishes how blessed you are to have such a friend as Lord and Savior He gives meaning to your life to your work to your joys and to your sorrows he enables you to recognize and to treat each person as brother and He gives you life everlasting in your death Now Augustine sums it up nicely when he said That's an expression we all know said a million times. Our hearts were made for you, O Lord, and they will ever be restless until they rest in you. And so that concludes our little conference. And I want to express my deep gratitude for being invited by your prior. I've enjoyed being with you. I've enjoyed praying with you. And, you know, as we all do, put your trust in the Lord.

[29:26]

Peace. Thank you very, very kindly. Thank you. It's all very simple when you're sitting here like this. I must confess, I really I'm convinced, in my utter simplicity, I'm only convinced that what Teresa of Avila said, you know, you've got to discover him in the pots and pans. You've got to discover him in the leaking roof. You've got to discover him when you're bearing someone else's burden who you'd like to kill. You know? Those are... It's hard, I know, but that's what it is, isn't it? you know, and he walked this earth, he was hungry, he was tired, he was weary, look how thick his disciples were, you know, at times.

[30:28]

I mean, you know, I often think of Moses, you know, when he came down, when the Lord said, I'm going to wipe these guys out, I'm going to give you a new group, you know, I often thought, well, you know, maybe he should have let them. Now I realize that that text is really kind of man's kind of arguing to kind of, I guess, give us an insight how patient God is with that, you know? I'd like to wipe him out. Well, do you really want to wipe him out? Okay, I'll wipe him out for you. Well, gee, I'm not sure I really want to wipe him out, you know? There's more to it than that. So I think there's, but I think that, no, that whole notion of the tangibleness of God, You know, and you can see him in the difficulties, because he went through difficulties. If he didn't have any part in it, you wouldn't see him in those difficulties. You know? Yeah. But you can see that's a good argument.

[31:38]

There are a number of times in the Old Testament, especially, where he changed God, changed his mind. God repented, well, you know. But I mean, it's a nice way, I think it's kind of the scripture's way of telling us to grow up. I really do, you know. You know, I never forget, one day, we had a problem monk. And I was, I don't know if I was prior or sub-prior, I'm not sure which it was, doesn't matter. But the old abbot asked me to drive him to the hospital to see him. And I was young and feisty. And so we were getting off the elevator at the hospital and I said, turn to the abbot, who was very strict, which I wouldn't usually do unless I was upset. I said, what do you do with monks like that anyway? Oh, he said, put him in the state of grace and shoot him. Do you know, what he was saying to me, what he was saying to me when I took time to think of it, what was he saying?

[32:39]

He was saying, grow up. What are you going to do with your brother? You're going to bear his burden. What else are you going to do? You're not going to put him in the state of grace and shoot him. I think that's how I see, as I get older, I see a lot of the Old Testament, and even the New Testament, I see a lot of those things more and more in the wisdom of the Desert Fathers. And I say that only because I see the Desert Fathers better. But I say that only because they come from that Eastern mentality. We have a group of bishops that we get together a few times a year. And in the old days, we'd sit and reflect on the readings coming up, and then we'd exchange what our thoughts were. And one of the bishops came, there were two Melkites, Melkite, Eastern Rite bishops in the group. And when they talk of the New Testament, I mean, it's in their bones.

[33:39]

I mean, you know, it's not far away. It's their language, you know? And I think sometimes when you're reading even the New Testament, some of Christ's sayings and things, think of them along those lines, and I bet you it's amazing how some of those things you can say, yeah, that belongs in my medicine cabinet. You know? That's a story to be told. You don't tell that all the time. There's a certain time when you tell that story. Now maybe I'm, you know, I've got a scripture manual, I shouldn't say these things. But that, as I get older, that's when I'm, that's when... I think we're finding that now, as we're living over there in the Near East now, the mentality... Oh, yeah. You know, two things are going to make a change, I think, in the understanding of Scripture. I think one is going to be there's a much greater relationship between the Jews and Catholic scholars now, because I think also John XXIII, also especially the present Holy Father, a real difference in relationship.

[34:47]

And what's going to be fascinating as some of these Jewish scholars begin to read the New Testament with some of the prejudices removed and see them, what you said this morning, that's part of, I mean, that's part of their own breath, if they only knew it, huh? And it's going to be interesting to see what insights they're going to bring to us when we have already imposed so much of the Western mentality upon them. The other thing that's going to make a little difference, I think, in time, is when some of the women theologians have matured. I don't mean that badly, but I mean when they get over some of the hang-ups and are able to bring the women's mind, I think we're going to see, we're going to bring some new light. So, those are very profound observations. They're just off the top of my head. You know, I share with you what I imagine of India.

[35:51]

I read, I have the New Testament of the Hebrew Bible. I read that it's entirely different. You can hear Jesus speaking. I mean, there's a play on words, like I said, there's a play on words for truth, and also truly, and all these things, but you can only make them equal. And so you can just hear him playing with the words. I think, don't they sometimes give a Greek text and an English text in which the English is using whatever word they choose, but showing it's always the same word, the same, when they use, for example, truth, this is the word we use here, here, here, and here. which is very difficult, but we used words differently, but I think what you're saying is absolutely true. And so we miss a lot of things because of that.

[36:56]

And sometimes it's much simpler when you understand the language, because you don't have as many words to do it, much simpler. you know, I've never, I just didn't mention it off the top of my head, I just didn't take it. This is an exaggeration, thinking of the Old Testament, talking about Jacob using a stone for a pillow. And I actually saw that coming then. I actually saw them sleeping on, you know, stones for a pillow. And so, Lucent's heart, you know, kind of, in the past age, he went... I think one of my deepest kind of feeling for the incarnation happened when I was in Jerusalem. And it happened, things happen simply, as you know. We were moving along, and there was a little five-year-old boy. And I said, my God, 2,000 years ago, that kid could have been Christ, and I would have walked right by him. In other words, that's how real, how real the incarnation hit me there.

[38:00]

Now, I mean, it's saying the obvious, but somehow I felt it. You know, you say it all, you can always say it, but I felt it. Like, I said, wow. Yeah, that's what it was all about, huh? I thought that the little children at that time, years ago, changed a bit. At the school, the apprentices and the school there, all the little kiddies after school would go down into the creek there by the river. the church and the nativity, and I thought, Jesus must have wrote just that. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I want to say one other thing. I think this is the final thing I'll say. You know, you were talking in the main tomb outside the Bible about the saints, Padre Pio at some point being in the back then, so-and-so. That struck me when I was reading St. Teresa of Avila. I have this most beautiful book. Somebody gave it a look and read it, and the letters between Teresa and this priest she's sponsoring. Is this Avila or The Little Flower? The Little Flower. Yeah, okay.

[39:01]

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I remember reading, I've read it several times, but not too long ago, I reread the autobiography, the unabridged edition, you know, and I must confess, I got, because of her death, I got an experience of the passion like I never did before. I mean, it's just horrible what she went through. It's frightening, you know.

[40:03]

And yet, it seems that the greats sometimes, that's what happens, huh? Just boggles the mind. We should probably go to a station where the priests can see both things. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, no, I think I think you're just going to buy it. Yeah. Any profound questions you want to ask? Oh, we've come to the prior chance for sponsoring. I knew before it did, and it did it. But the response here is something I almost bludged. You don't remember? Yes, I do. Remember. Yeah, I know. But the thing that, but the, but the, the, the, the translate, the text was, wasn't, wasn't saying remember, it said the Lord remembers. You know, and you can see why we do need new translations, because that's pretty, I like that.

[41:11]

The Lord, he's not saying, oh, please remember. He was saying, the Lord, you know, he's remembered. I think it was the Lord has remembered, I forget how it was. Yeah, that was very good. Okay, may I also join in? Finish. Too many. Okay, thank you kindly everybody.

[41:34]

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