Podcast | Corpus Christi And The Claim That Changes Everything | (Episode 153)

Welcome to Heart of the Homily Podcast.

My name is Michelle Lopez, and I'm here with Father Ragoa.

How are you doing, Michelle?

Doing wonderful.

Great to be back here.

Um, continuing to look at these amazing feast days that we're celebrating, these celemanies.

Um, so Corpus Christi was yesterday.

What a great feast day.

That's it is the center of our faith.

It's what we hinge everything on, right?

Source and summit.

Yeah.

Source and summit.

And something that I I like to ask people if someone were to ask you why are you Catholic?

And I think one of the easiest answers is I am Catholic because I love Jesus in the Eucharist.

That's beautiful.

And that's it right there, right?

The whole of it.

That's what makes it different and distinct and um and at the heart of how we worship.

So yeah, exactly right.

Great.

Well, we're gonna hop into your homily, um, kind of looking at the feast of Corpus Christi, which is a celebration of Jesus giving himself in the Eucharist, body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ.

Um, and I I love how you started, Father, because it's it was an amazing story with uh Flannery O'Connor and kind of the the defense of the Eucharist.

I would love to hear um when did you first hear that?

And what did you because I had heard it a while back.

Um and something that's interesting, uh some of the people after mass, and I I got an email.

Um never heard of Flannery O'Connor, which was kind of mind-blowing to me.

But it's it's she's probably one of the greatest American writers in the 20th century.

And um she comes from Georgia, the deep south, the Bible belt, but she was this uh devout daily mass goer, um, which in that time and that place made her a bit of an odd duck.

Um, but it she's a fascinating character in that she wrote these dark, strange, funny kind of unsettling short stories.

Um in her stories, it's almost like uh Grace shows up um in the most violent, kind of grotesque, unexpected places because that was like her whole thing.

Like that was her conviction that um that conviction that makes God break into where we least expect him to.

Um, I don't know if you ever heard of a good man is hard to find.

That's from her.

Okay.

And um, but she was uh she got sick as a young person.

She came down with lupus.

Um I think it's the same disease that killed her father, but she was diagnosed at 25.

Can you imagine?

Wow.

And she knew more or less that it was going to take her life, and um but she spent her last years on a farm in Georgia.

Uh, she was living with her mother, writing some of the best fiction.

If you want to look her up, I would say it's just solid, solid literature.

And um, oh, and one I I remember reading this about her once that she loved peacocks, she raised peacocks.

I don't know about you, but I hate peacocks, uh there's a lot of peacocks in Coral Gables, and they're so loud and messy and gross, and but she adored them.

I don't even know why, but but um to go back to your question, it's I love this story, and I had heard this story a lot uh of how because she was a very quiet person, she would go to dinner parties and she wouldn't say much.

But this woman, uh, I think her name was Mary McCarthy.

She was a brilliant woman, uh big intellectual there at that time, but um she had drifted away from the faith.

And this Mary McCarthy, who was the hostess, she says something like, Well, you know, when I was a little girl, I used to think that the host, uh, I used to think of the Eucharist something like the Holy Spirit.

Um, but now that I'm grown, sophisticated, I think that that the Eucharist is more like a symbol.

And she actually said, Oh, and it's a beautiful one, like this beautiful symbol.

Almost like to impress the people there, right?

But Flannery O'Connor comes out and she says, Well, if it's a symbol, the hell with it.

I think that's so and I love that because it's so much, it's so true.

And I can imagine all the people that are sitting there, like it they just stopped, right?

Oh my gosh.

But how I mean, so it's so boldly clear.

Yeah.

Because that's the truth.

If it is a symbol, then what are we doing?

Yeah, because that's I I tried to build the whole harmony around it because she put her finger on the only question that actually matters this weekend, right?

She she's saying, not is the Eucharist beautiful, not that oh, the Eucharist is so meaningful and so important for our lives, or uh the way that the Eucharist makes me feel.

No, the question is very simple.

Is it really truly Jesus?

Is it him?

Yes or no?

Because if it's not, well, the hell with it, right?

Because if it's just a symbol, then we're just wasting our time.

I I I think of my own life like a priest.

It's like, well, you just kind of like made a big mistake there.

Uh you build your entire life around something that's a symbol.

I don't think so.

Yeah, definitely not.

And also you look at the 2000 and more history of the church, like either everyone's crazy, right?

Or it really is who Jesus says he is in that uh gift of the Eucharist.

You're right, because no one's gonna give their life for a symbol, for a metaphor.

No, nobody, I don't think anyone ever has.

And you think about the martyrs, I mentioned them on Sunday.

Those Christians, there's those these Christians are really cool in Abiline.

It was like around the year 304.

I just like subtly put that in there, but the Roman Emperor had made it a death penalty crime to celebrate the Eucharist, and they kept gathering.

They were, no, we're gonna gather for Sunday Mass.

And they got caught and they were judged.

And um, they there they have that famous saying that they said, Well, without without the Sunday Eucharist, we cannot live.

And we won't live.

And so they were killed for it.

Wow.

That's so beautiful.

Yeah, it's it's so powerful.

And I think these are the questions we need to be asking ourselves.

Do you die for a symbol?

Do you let them take your head off for a metaphor?

Or for even a nice story, something I'm famous of saying, I like to say, for a nice man who went around doing nice things.

No, of course not.

Nobody bleeds for an idea.

Nobody's gonna die for a person that is not really truly the son of God.

I mean, you can die for someone you love.

Those martyrs didn't go to their deaths for a concept, but they but they went to their death because they knew who was in that bread that they were receiving.

Who was that person?

Well, it's Jesus, really truly present in the Eucharist.

I love it because it's so challenging to, I think, I mean, our culture today, and even like our, you know, people that come to Mass, you know, asking some real questions about do I approach the Eucharist as if it's a symbol?

Or do I approach it with a humility and an awe of it being Jesus, of it being Jesus?

Do you think people ask that?

I don't think they ask it enough.

Like I don't think it's something, especially just like culturally Catholic, like you get so used to the mass that the mystery and the miracle can be lost sometimes.

And I think it's a I mean, that's why this feast is on the calendar every year to wake us up to be able to be like, and don't forget, like as you approach this altar, like it is Jesus.

Like this is at the heart of what we believe.

Um, and I think it is um questions people need to ponder over and over again.

Like as they grow up, it's not like a one-time shot, you get your first communion, and now you you understand the mystery and you don't have to think about it, like, but no, it's something I think as you age, this mystery should get deeper and better and more like more understanding of why like Jesus gets himself like to us through the Eucharist.

Um, so I think it's a mystery that we don't spend enough time with.

Yeah, I agree.

And it I it reminds me of that story of uh the Asians who were um visiting St.

Peter's.

You've heard this at St.

Peter's Basilica, and they were going around all the treasures of St.

Peter's Basilica, and here's this and here's that, look at these beautiful mosaics, and um the guide took them into the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

You know where it is when you walk into the right there, and um and he said, Well, let me just show you now uh the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, and this is what we believe.

We believe that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, and he started giving them a little teaching because they were really not familiar with what Catholicism teaches.

And one of the Asian tourists uh he said, Well, if this is true what you're saying, which you're just blowing my mind, but if if this is true what you're saying, that that is the biggest treasure than all of this it contains in this basilica.

Wow, right?

That's so accurate and so deep.

And we could be around it and miss it.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

And I think Corpus Christi is such a beautiful feast to ask that that personal question of like, do I do I really believe this?

And I and I think we have to be unafraid to be honest with Jesus to say, like, I believe, but help my unbelief.

And to Yeah, and I got an email this week and said, Thank you for the email, and I still struggle and I know that it's a mystery, but I am much closer today than I was yesterday.

Yeah.

Um, and it's it's like you're saying, uh, Lord help me with my unbelief.

Yeah, and to not, it's not it doesn't mean you don't believe.

It means like, okay, Lord, you bel I believe the mystery, continue to unfold it for me.

Because I think sometimes we try to have faith apart from God, where it's like, I need to figure this out and have faith, and then like I'll come to you, God, and be like, okay, see, I'm here, I've arrived, I believe.

Where it's like, no, we need Jesus to help us.

Yeah, you know, like he needs to give us that conviction of heart and an experience of him in the Eucharist that can help us um allow our head and heart to connect to this great mystery and this great feast.

But it's something that hopefully everyone can get on board, and I think of Carlos Acutis and all of that he's done for the Eucharist, and so powerful to be able to see teenagers and young people, young adults to relate to him, right?

Um I guess it's the first saint for kids, the kids' generation, video games, sneakers.

Um, and I love that he said that he called the Eucharist my highway to heaven.

But again, you don't talk about that if it's a symbol.

No, no, you talk about that when you really truly understand who is in that Eucharist.

And then all if you go through that website, I don't know if you've ever been, but if you go through that website, it's it's powerful how he's able to put all those Eucharistic miracles together.

Yeah, no, that I remember finding out that website and um in college and visiting it and being amazed, but also being like scared.

Yeah.

Because I was like growing in my belief and understanding of the Eucharist at that time.

And I remember looking at this website being like, oh my gosh, it's really you, Jesus.

But then I had a moment of like, thank you for tasting like bread and wine.

I was like, thank you, Jesus, that you taste like bread and wine.

Yeah, that it's under the um the skies of bread and wine.

Like I know for myself it was just this moment of understanding the mystery a little deeper of like this is the greatest gift and it's true and it's real, but God also knows me and knows that in order for me to receive him, like that's the that's what I need.

Yeah, is because I don't know about you, but that'd be a little hard if I came up to receive communion and it tasted a little bit like flesh.

Like I don't know about I'd be a little, I don't know how often or if I ever would receive communion.

Like I don't know, I think that's kind of part of like the beauty and amazing thing about God.

Like he knows that's crazy, Michelle.

I don't I don't think I've ever thought about that.

I've never thought about that.

Well, it's the the Eucharistic miracles that got me thinking about that back in the day.

Like receiving the Eucharist and tasting flesh.

Yeah, I mean, and yeah, God's mercy.

It's because of God's mercy that it that it doesn't for our sake, not for his sake, but for our sake that it And He knew that He knew, yeah.

So He wants to transform us from the inside out and and be in a real covenant, and so God meets us in our humanity like that, and it's it's marvelous, and it's something to Yeah, to allow the miracles and things like that to increase our faith, but also increase like our understanding of how good and merciful God is to meet us like that.

Yeah, and the second part I that I I wanted to develop here in the homily was that of course we say that the miracle, this great miracle that the Lord does for us, where the Eucharist is that bread becomes the body and blood of Christ.

And that's true, that's a complete miracle that happens every single day on every altar in the world.

But I wanted to take a step back with uh and and ask a different question.

Not how does he do it, but why does he even want to?

And that was what I wanted to maybe that's the the the point that I wanted to drive home.

Um because here's something every single one of us knows in our bones.

Um when you love someone, you want them to be near, you want to be close to them, you want to spend your life with them and and be up all over each other.

But you can't stand, and and it's it's you can't stand being away from each other.

So think about when you're in love or your your spouse or when you're dating, uh you text goodnight, you drive across town to see each other, being apart physically hurts.

Uh even uh a new mom with the baby.

Um but it's think about the long distance too.

Everybody who's done it, you can count down the days until you're finally in the same room.

I I we've had couples here that either they're doing their residency in medicine or they're doing this or that, and they've had to live for a while this long distance relationship, and all of them say, I don't like it, I don't like being apart, I don't like to be separated from each other.

Um, but that's the thing about love.

Love hates distance.

Love is always, always trying to close the gap.

Love wants to be present, love wants to stay.

And um that was that's what I was trying to drive home because I think people can relate to that, right?

Absolutely, something so earthly, it's something that everyone has experienced.

Um and so if you can bring it down to your own personal experience and then bring it to, well, let's times a thousand you know, percent to uh what how much the Lord loves you, right?

Yeah, it's so beautiful.

And the do this in memory of me is a is a direct invitation of like do this to be in communion with me.

Right.

You know, it's very um, yeah.

I mean Well, think about it.

If Jesus when Jesus rises from the dead, Easter, right, resurrection, and then 40 days later he goes back to the Father, he and and here's what I I want you to notice, he didn't have to leave us anything.

And I I mentioned that in the homily, he was done.

And he could have just gone back to him and said, I've taught them well.

I hope that they they pass on what I've given them, the teachings.

I died for them, I I rose from the dead to give them salvation, I gave them the gospel.

That's enough.

I'll see them when they get here.

He could have said that.

Yeah, he could have left us a book, and um honestly, a book would have been generous.

He could have left us a memory, uh a feeling, a beautiful tradition.

But Jesus is in love with us, and we need to understand that, and I think that we need to believe that because a lot of times we believe it to some degree, but we don't believe it to the extent that it's real.

Because um, you know, love doesn't the love does not do long distance if it has to have any other choice.

Love refuses to settle for a memory.

Uh love will always find a way to stay.

And this is where I I love it because at that last supper at the institution of the Eucharist, the night before he dies, uh he's already built a bridge for us.

He takes bread and he says, This is my body.

And he's already figured out how he's gonna stay, not as a symbol, not in a story, not in a photograph on the fridge, really, truly bodily with us every single day on every altar and every tabernacle until the end of the world.

What I love about John's chapter six is, and I would recommend and encourage all of you to read John chapter six, it's where we get our theology for the Eucharist.

But if you read it, he is there saying it over and over and over again.

There is uh he it's almost like I want you to understand this because I'm repeating it because there's no confusion here.

I am the true bread, right?

Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.

For my food is true drink, uh true bread, true food and true drink.

I am the bread of life.

And he and it's just over and over and over again.

And um and what I love is what I mentioned this in the in the homily, is that this is a hard teaching because the Jews that are listening to him and all these people that are following him, this is blasphemy, right?

It would it would ritually deem you uh not clean.

Right.

And so they were very careful to touch blood or flesh or you know, kosher laws, you gotta separate this from this, and um so it's blasphemy.

They're like, we can't we can't accept this.

Uh and so John's chapter six, verse 66, and those who did not believe left him.

Think about it.

666.

What is 666?

The separation of God.

And so these people left Jesus.

Um, they couldn't accept the teaching.

There's no way that I'm going to um accept this.

And what I love about this, something I didn't mention in the homily, but Jesus uses the word, and it in the translation it's troll gain.

It's almost um this it though the actual words that he's using is like gnaw.

Like when you gnaw on a piece of meat or or chew it like very intensely.

It's it's not just consume my flesh, it's actually like gnaw on my flesh.

I mean, pretty graphic.

I mean, there's no wonder they're like, no way, I'm out of here.

I'm not gonna eat his flesh.

Almost like what you were talking about earlier, where it thank God that that that our Lord gives us the Eucharist where it it's doesn't taste like flesh.

Yeah, right.

But what I'm trying to say here is that there were a lot of the disciples who left.

I think it's the only time in the in the gospels that we hear that people left Jesus.

Yeah.

And he's like, Are you gonna leave me too?

I'm like, where are we gonna go?

You have the words of words, uh everlasting words, right?

Yeah.

It's such a beautiful um and and striking gospel.

I remember um I remember bringing that into adoration when I was beginning my belief in like a deeper understanding of of our Lord in the Eucharist.

And I remember bringing that scripture adoration over and over again to be like, is it really you, Jesus?

But doing that work of, and I think that's my invitation.

People is like, we gotta like wrestle with the mystery, yeah, like and do the work from our side of like, I remember I would bring that scripture and be like, I believe I helped my unbelief, and feeling like the apostles, you know, being able to hear Jesus be like, Will you also leave?

And I'm like, but where do I go?

Like, and but I know you will unfold the mystery for me, Jesus.

I don't have to do it myself, you know.

If you ask, right?

Yeah.

But I that's what what I was trying to s to mention here is that the the real miracle of Corpus Christi is not just that Jesus becomes present in the Eucharist, but the real miracle in a lot of sense is that he wants to be with us and remain with us.

The miracle is that he loved us so much that he could not bring himself to go back to the Father and leave us alone.

He couldn't do that long distance.

He stayed.

And the Eucharist is Jesus refusing to say goodbye.

And he says it in the in the gospel.

He says, I will be with you always.

Yeah.

And he did that because he knew.

He knew there were gonna be times when we We're gonna be struggling.

And I'd love in your homily, Father.

You listed off specific struggles.

And I I think it's um it's an amaz like you listed off different struggles that we all go through in different seasons.

Um, but I love how you're pointing to the Eucharist.

Like, do we bring these aches to the Eucharist?

Exactly.

That's exactly what I wanted to say.

And I and I love that because especially in the struggle, sometimes we don't feel God's presence or we can think because I don't sense him that he's not here.

But that's we gotta point to the Eucharist.

Like Jesus like traps himself somewhere in a way that like he's we can find him.

Well, think about this.

If you're struggling because of your marriage, you're struggling because of your children, you're struggling because of a diagnosis, you're struggling because of the death of a loved one, or you're lonely, or whatever it is, that these are real struggles, right?

Think about that.

But he's not gonna leave you to face them with a symbol.

Right.

It's gotta be concrete help where I am physically there with you because you're struggling, you're going through a difficult time, and I want to be able to walk with you.

A symbol's not gonna be able to do that.

So true.

Right.

And do we go?

And I think that's a a great question in the midst of all this is like, do I do I go to just allow Jesus to be with me and to be with Jesus in the Eucharist?

Yeah, exactly.

And you could go to any church, anywhere in the world, and in that tabernacle, Jesus is saying, I'm here.

Bring your cares, your hurts, your brokenness.

Bring it all to me.

You are not alone.

I want to walk with you.

And it's that whole footprint, which is so famous, right?

That beautiful poem.

It also reminds me of something Mother Teresa said.

She said, When I look at the crucifix, I know Jesus loved me.

When I look at the Eucharist, I know Jesus loves me.

Right.

It's like here and now, like loves me here and now.

And the Eucharist.

And that's the whole thing, Michelle.

Like exactly what you're saying.

You don't need fancy prayers like this litany of fancy prayers.

Just sit there and say exactly what you just said.

Why?

Because he's there.

It's not his memory, it's not a symbol.

It's the God who made the galaxy.

It's the God who's waiting in a quiet room, an off chance that you'll come by and visit him.

I think it's um it's important for us to really see that love for for what it is and how he makes it available, especially to the brokenhearted.

Yeah, and I think also uh there's a temptation to be like, oh, well, when I understand it, then I'll trust it.

And I think that's where we might um get caught up in thinking like we have to fully understand the Eucharist or what Jesus, like we have to do this whole thing, where really we just have to trust and to be able to like start there, you know.

I believe help my unbelief, but here I am.

And and put the pressure on Jesus, like Jesus, reveal yourself to me in the Eucharist, like you you do, you increase my faith, you know.

Um, instead of again kind of putting the pressure on us to to understand or to have to get things in a perfect place in order to to trust and to believe.

Um think about all the saints that went through that, that same struggle, that same conversation.

And yeah, they probably did a lot of heroic things, but they did heroic things because they kept the faith and they were they they wrestled with it.

I mean, and think about like this weekend, I was thinking about Thomas Aquinas.

Um, and I mentioned in the homily, he spent hours kneeling, right, before the Blessed Sacrament.

But I don't know if most Catholics understand that every time you go to adoration and you sing Tantum Ergum or Osalutaris or Manis Angelicus, those were written by him, by St.

Thomas Aquinas more than 750 years ago.

And he wrote them exactly for the feast day that we just celebrated.

Because when the Pope established Corpus Christi in um, I think it's 1264, um, he hands Aquinas the job and he says, Hey, can you write this liturgy?

I need you to write the Mass, the prayers.

And then Tom Thomas gives us these three hymns Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, and uh Osalutaris.

And um imagine seven and a half centuries later, the church is still praying the same prayer.

Oh my gosh.

And in and if you read them, because I know they're in Latin, but if you translate them or you read the English, wow.

Yeah, so beautiful.

And that's good homework that we can give.

If you've never translated it, I you have to you have to.

You gotta understand what we're praying.

Um, and I know those prayers again, I I think in college is when I went on this whole like really deep dive into the Eucharist.

Yeah.

But I remember those prayers being familiar, but in Latin.

And then when I translated them, I was like, oh my goodness.

I was like, this is this is beautiful, this is brilliant, this is incredible.

And then I realized it was in 12 whatever that they were made.

So I was like, wait a minute, this is so old.

Yeah, like this belief is not anything new.

This is this is this is our belief, like this is our universal understanding of this great gift of the Eucharist.

It's nothing new, but it's something um, yeah, that I can stand firm in my belief because of who has gone before me, you know.

Powerful.

And I and one more story because I love all these Eucharistic stories, and and um if I would say if if you liked the Carlos Acuti's story, like if you liked his story because he's relatable, young people, or maybe you have a son or a grandson.

Um in the early church in Rome, there was a boy named Tarsissus.

Um, you probably heard of him, he's a patron saint for altar servers and uh for uh I think it's for extraordinary ministers of holy communion, but um when he was probably like 12 years old, um during that time, he was, and this is ancient Rome, right?

So during that time, he the Christians were being persecuted, and they would they use this little boy because they trusted him to carry the Eucharist through the streets to believers who were in prison, right?

People who had been uh rounded up because they were uh sharing the faith and celebrating the faith.

And so they were persecuting these Christians, and so they use these little kids to go and bring the Eucharist while they're in prison.

And a mob stops him and they demand to see what is he clutching to his chest, and the boy refuses to let them see or it doesn't want to hand over the blessed sacrament, and they beat him to death, 12-year-old, and he allowed himself to be beat to death rather than giving Jesus up, and he died protecting the host, and um, so think about that, and I love that because the Roman boy 2,000 years ago and Carlos Acutis with his laptop a few years ago, two kids 20 centuries later, who understood something a lot of grown-ups miss.

Wow, that it's worth dying, that it's not a symbol, that it is a person with a capital P, it is Jesus Christ.

So beautiful.

So powerful.

There's so much.

I mean, we could talk for hours about the Eucharist, right?

It there's so much, so much wealth.

And what does it mean to you personally?

How have you experienced Christ in the Eucharist?

What's your devotion?

How do you love him through the Eucharist?

Do you do enough?

Do you go to the Blessed Sacrament?

Do you get on your knees when you're feeling broken and in need of our Lord?

Go to the Eucharist.

Um, some of the best times are sitting in an empty church and allowing him just to wrap his arms around you.

Yeah.

Think about something that the church does, and I think that everybody can relate to this.

If you went to like an empty hall and you sat in a church, in an empty hall with chairs, okay.

Right?

It's like I'm waiting for an appointment.

Maybe you're just sitting there, but there's but you go into a church and you know that Christ is in the tabernacle, there's a complete different feeling.

There should be.

Why?

Because Jesus Christ is truly present.

You're with someone.

Right.

It's not something exactly right.

Or it's not, yeah, not something, but someone.

And I think that's a great switch, is when that kind of um goes from something to someone.

So wonderful conversation today, Father.

I think there's a lot of great challenges, especially of um, yeah, looking at like what is my understanding and belief in the Eucharist and beginning to ask Jesus to give us the belief to increase our faith in him being in the Eucharist.

And to be able to approach the Eucharist and when you receive the Lord in the Eucharist, to be able to say, Amen.

And when you say Amen, you're saying, I believe, I trust, I know that you stayed because you love me.

And you stayed because you want me to always be close to you.

So good.

Well, thank you for this time.

Everyone have a great week.

We'll see you next week.

Thanks, Michelle.

If you love this podcast, please share it, send it around, maybe write a review.

We hope to grow this channel so that others can come to know the Lord through the Sunday homily.

See you next week.

God bless.