"Love, Believe, Share" - Corpus Christi Homily by Deacon Ted

Three words that I'd you to remember today, simple words in this order.

Love, believe, share.

Love, believe, and share.

So this is graduation season.

This is anniversary season for those of us who are ordained.

uh There's a lot of celebrations going on.

And it's wedding season.

And so I harken back to my wife and I when we got married.

And then I thought about when we courted.

And I thought about the love

When you first meet somebody, there's an interaction that occurs, right?

And that interaction gets stronger over time and might become emotional and then the feeling of love occurs.

And you love them and they love you and it's a mutual love.

And based on that love, you start to ask yourself questions.

and you start to believe in the answers which is like could we get married?

could we live together forever?

could we have children?

how would we raise them?

what happens if we have no money?

all those questions you tend to believe that the person you love

will answer those questions favorably and be there to do those things forever.

And when you feel that and when you know that and you convince yourself of that, what do you do?

You take your beloved and you start to introduce them to your friends and your family and you start to share them with others by entertaining and getting people together.

But you share your spouse with others.

Today we celebrate, Corpus Christi, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Three words, love, believe, share.

He loved us before we loved Him.

But we come to love Him.

We grow in a relationship that builds into love and we love Him.

And we love Him and He loves us because He is a living God.

He is present.

He is here in this church with us now.

And He will be made present

even more abundantly during the consecration.

We love him and he loves us.

You don't love an inanimate object.

And we believe in him.

And the more you believe in him and his words and what he says, the more you draw closer to him and the love becomes stronger.

People who enjoy the benefit of adoration know this.

When you walk into that chapel up the hill,

You feel the love of God in His presence.

And the feeling you have is none other than to fall down before Him, to honor Him, and to thank Him, and to love Him.

And you look for the words, and how do I express those things?

Then at that moment, you know, you know that you and God are in love, and you believe that His words are true.

and that through him we will have everlasting life and live with him forever.

And we want to share that.

We don't want to keep Jesus locked up in the tabernacle.

We don't want to keep him locked up in the chapel.

We don't want to keep him locked up.

We want to take Jesus out into the world.

And on this feast of Corpus Christi, we do just that.

We end the mass with a procession.

And historically, going back 852 years,

That procession went through the streets of the town or the city and it was the church's way of saying to the people, this is our God.

We're bringing him to you.

We want to share him with you.

Come, see him.

He's real.

He's alive.

And that's what today is about.

Today we honor the body and blood of Jesus because he loved us.

He believed in us enough to call us into his church.

And we want to share him with the world.

So the real hard part here is the believe part.

I teach OCIA and I teach non-Catholics about Catholicism.

And one of the hardest subjects to grasp onto is that this is a real God, a living God.

He is present.

And that you, each of you who have been baptized, who are in a state of grace,

can receive Him and receive Him into your body and the two of us become one.

Him and us and you and Him.

That is intimate love.

And then God takes it a step farther.

And He not only loves you as an individual and wants to be part of you, but He loves His church, which we all make up.

We and people throughout the world make up the Catholic Church.

And He looks first down upon that church and then upon the individuals within it.

And He loves it.

And so if we feel as though we are un...

unbelievable, unworthy of receiving him.

We have a sacrament that the church has called confession, sacrament of reconciliation, which Jesus in his mercy and love takes away our sins and makes us again eligible to

receive him into intimate communion.

oh

What love is that?

The love to forgive someone else's indiscretions.

The love to forgive somebody who has hurt us.

That's our God.

And today we celebrate the fact that He's alive.

And when you come to communion and the minister or the priest or the deacon says the body of Christ, you say,

Amen.

And amen means I believe.

You are saying I believe.

Now if we were in a court of law and you raised your hand, you would be oath bound to tell the truth.

Take a look, this is much more than an oath.

When you say, believe, and you open your mouth or open your hands, you mean it.

And if you don't mean it, don't get up and come to communion.

Alright?

Now you won't hear that from a lot of people, but I'm going to tell you this.

If you are not worthy, don't come in the line.

Or come in the line and cross your arms, but don't receive.

When I grew up in a small Polish community in Chicago, the church would be full.

But very few people would get up out of the pew

to go to communion.

You know why?

Because they truly believed.

They believed that last night they did something that was unworthy.

This morning over breakfast they had an argument.

They had an impure thought.

They believed it and they said, God, no I can't.

I can't worthily come before you and receive.

And I would sit there and watch all these people not partake.

And I never understood it until recently.

God's love.

You have to believe in Him.

You have to believe He's real.

And if you love Him and believe in Him, you will share Him with others.