my sermon for the first sunday after trinity

Bread and wine to flesh and blood!

A story about the power of the holy blessed sacrament!

On the 17th of December, 1899, the fast mail on the way from Bordeaux to Paris met with a collision. In the mail car was a post office express clerk, Gabriel Gargam, thirty years old. At the time of the wreck the train was going at the speed of fifty miles an hour. By the crash Gargam was thrown fifty-two feet. He was terribly bruised and broken and paralyzed from the waist down. He was barely alive when lifted onto a stretcher. Taken to a hospital, his existence for some time was a living death. After eight months he had wasted away to a mere skeleton, weighing but seventy-eight pounds, although normally a big man. His feet became gangrenous. He could take no solid food and was obliged to take nourishment by a tube. Only once in twenty-four hours could he be fed even that way.

Gargam's condition was pitiable in the extreme. He could not help himself even in the most trifling needs. Two trained nurses were needed day and night to assist him. Previous to the accident, Gargam had not been to church for fifteen years. His aunt, who was a nun of the Order of the Sacred Heart, begged him to go to Lourdes. He refused. She continued her appeals to him to place himself in the hands of Our Lady of Lourdes. He was deaf to all her prayers. After continuous pleading of his mother he consented to go to Lourdes. It was now two years since the accident, and not for a moment had he left his bed all that time. He was carried on a stretcher to the train. The exertion caused him to faint, and for a full hour he was unconscious. They were on the point of abandoning the pilgrimage, as it looked as if he would die on the way, but the mother insisted, and the journey was made.

Arrived at Lourdes, he was carried to the miraculous pool and tenderly placed in its waters--no effect. Rather a bad effect resulted, for the exertion threw him into a swoon and he lay apparently dead. On the way back they saw the procession of the Blessed Sacrament approaching. They stood aside to let it pass, having placed a cloth over the face of the man whom they supposed to be dead.

As the priest passed carrying the Sacred Host, he pronounced Benediction over the sorrowful group around the covered body. Soon there was a movement from under the covering. To the amazement of the bystanders, the body raised itself to a sitting posture. While the family were looking dumbfounded and the spectators gazed in amazement, Gargam said in a full, strong voice that he wanted to get up. He got up and stood erect, walked a few paces and said that he was cured. The multitude looked in wonder, and then fell on their knees and thanked God for this new sign of His power at the shrine of His Blessed Mother. For two years hardly any food had passed his lips but now he sat down to the table and ate a hearty meal.

On August 20th, 1901, sixty prominent doctors examined Gargam. Without stating the nature of the cure, they pronounced him entirely cured. Gargam, out of gratitude to God in the Holy Eucharist and His Blessed Mother, consecrated himself to the service of the invalids at Lourdes. Fifteen years after his miraculous cure he was still engaged in his strenuous and devoted work. He was for years a living, visible testimony of the supernatural.

John 6:53-56- Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

Before this was said about 1500 years before was a great miracle. The People of God ate Manna in the wilderness for forty year as it says

Exodus 16:30-31 - So the people rested on the seventh day.
And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

35-And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

This bread keep them alive in a strange land till they made it to the land God had given them. It gave them strength, it gave encouragement that God was with them still even though they failed many times, It was a grace given to them because they stood unworthy before God to receive anything but out of his mercy He gave it to them, and another things it was a way they communed with God.

Now our blessed lord says this to what happened to them in response to a Jew speaking about how their fathers ate manna in the wilderness.

John 6:32-35 - Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

The fact Jesus can say this is that He is our everlasting bread and drink. He will never stop after forty years He keeps going and once we have reached our promised land He is still the one who sustains us. He is the true Manna from heaven and He will never go away from us.

What does that looking like to us today?

John 6:51 - I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

We call this holy flesh and blood the Eucharist. This means thanks giving in the Greek. The Eucharist is the sum of our faith. We have creation, the fall, and redemption shown to us within the Eucharist. Because seeing how the Eucharist is Jesus and Jesus was are creator, redeemer, and sanctifier.

The church has celebrated the Eucharist since the days of the apostles since they were the ones the Lord commanded to celebrate the Eucharist. We have done this ever since that time.

Origen says this about the Eucharist. “ we also eat the bread presented to us. And this bread becomes by prayer a sacred body, which sanctifies those who sincerely partake of it.”

“We have a symbol of gratitude to God in the bread that we call the Eucharist.”

When does that change happen from bread and wine to the real flesh and blood of Christ?

During that cannon of the Mass when the words of institution are spoken over the elements and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The words of institution are:

Matthew 26:26 -28 - And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

This time is when you see the celebrant kneeling and lifting up the host and the chalice.

Are we re-sacrificing Christ? No we are connecting into the moment when the sacrifice happened.

In Revelation 13:8 we read “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

This would mean before time but yet He died 2000 years ago how can this be said? Because this death surpasses time and that is why we connect into it during the mass. So that is why we can say that we are not re-sacrificing The Christ.

What are the benefits of partaking of the Eucharist?

•The Eucharist reinforces our union of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ because for He who abides in Him will drink His blood and eat His flesh. This is part of our fellowship with Christ.

St. Cyprian says that the Eucharist does this. “They drink the cup of Christ’s blood daily, for the reason that they themselves also may be able to shed their blood for Christ.”

This shows the belief that our Holy Communion strengthens us by the grace within it. And because we are part of Him who died for you we are able to lay down our lives for His sake.

• The Eucharist also separates us from sin because Christ forgives sin and we are partaking of Christ. This is why we have the general confession before the Eucharist it gives us time to tell the Lord we are seeking forgiveness of our sins. Which we find within partaking of communion in a worth manner. The sins that are forgive are only temporal sin we still must use the sacrament of absolution to deal with mortal sins.

• Another thing that happens if that it unites us to the mystical body. Just as the Lord prayed in

John17:11 “Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.”

St. Augustine said this “ O sacrament of devotion! O sign of unity! O bond of Charity!”

We are united to all those who partake of the Eucharist truly and we are one body. Those in Africa, south America, Russia, Rome, England, Australia and the list can go on. We are united to the living and “dead” (if they can be called that) Christians.

• The taking of the Eucharist should make want to help the poor.

St. John Chrysostom said “ You have tasted the blood of the Lord, yet you do no recognize your brother,… You dishonor this table”

• The last thing it does is that it’s a picture of the wedding feast of the Lamb of heaven. It also shows the Lord is coming even now but He is veiled and we wait for the day when He comes unveiled.

The last thing we need to look at is the subject of taking the Eucharist unworthily.

Matthew 5: 23-24 - “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

We need to be in a state that we have forgiven others for their mistakes against us and that those we have hurt have forgiven us. This is one of the greatest strengths of Christianity, the fact we forgive each other.

Do you have someone you need to seek forgiveness from?

Do you have someone you need to forgive?

As a Christians these are thing that need to natural and something we want to do because our blessed Lord forgave us! So we have no right not to forgive someone else!

Listen to what to those who took the Eucharist unworthily.

1 Corinthians 11:27-32 - Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

Origen says this “ that which is sanctified through the word of God and by prayer does not (by its own nature) sanctify the one who uses it. Otherwise, it would sanctify even him who eats unworthily of the bread of the Lord. In that case, no one on account of this food would become weak, sickly, or asleep… accordingly, in the case of the bread of the Lord, there is an advantage to him who uses it only when he partakes of the bread with undefiled mind and pure conscience.”

St. Cyprian says this about the un-baptized “What a crime is theirs who rashly seize communion and touch the body and blood of the Lord… even though their foulness is not washed away by the laver of the church for it is written, “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord”

As we can plainly see that taking the Eucharist is no joking matter and it should be done with the utmost caution. For those who are baptized but those who aren’t even baptized need to not even touch it for it could be dangerous for their souls. This is why we don’t let non baptized Christians take communion. This is a precaution that the Church has set into place for their safety.

Those of us who are baptized need to make sure we have found forgiveness of other and that we have forgiven others before we take communion. This is one reason some churches during the “peace” pass the peace to each other. It looks like this. The priest says “the peace of the Lord be with you” Then people respond “ and with thy spirit” then they turn to one another in the congregation and say “the peace of the Lord be with you” while shaking hand or want ever may be appropriate within that church.

So know that we are partaking of the very real flesh and Blood of the Lord. Which was giving for us on Calvary. But we need to be careful not to take it lightly because it can harm us should we take it unworthily, but if we do take it worthily it holds many blessing and honors.