This Sermon is prepared by
Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US
19th Sunday of Ordinary YearEucharist: not a Google search….A Great source…..!!I Kings 19:4-8, Ephesians 4:30--5:2, Jn 6:41-51Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, I welcome you all to today’s Eucharistic celebration. We shall thank God for all the experiences of blessings, goodness and newness we had last week. We come around the Eucharistic altar as loving Children of our God. So there is renewal of covenant, renewal of our call and renewal of our individual responsibility. This renewal moment offers and assures the strength and sustenance for our continuous life journey. We shall seek that necessary support which is the ever living and abiding presence of the Eucharistic Lord. We shall seek God’s mercy for relying only on our own ability and friends’ words by neglecting His loving and strengthening presence. We shall also promise as a community to be in His presence and to be a living Eucharistic people.A teacher was correcting the papers of students; she found a surprising note at the end of an answer paper where all the answers were left incomplete by a student. In the last page of the paper the student has written the following note: For further complete answers kindly refer www.google.com, please consider my request because I don’t have internet facility. We go to Google search for ready answers. “You name it you have it” A young man says I lost the job because I failed to provide the expected result….. Parents seek the school for children which have a record of giving good results…. Patients complain saying, ‘Dr gives a lot of medicine for every visit without offering answer’….. People express that we pray so many novenas, but God does not answer……. We look for answers and results; it should be immediate and instant, because we get answer in our palm with all the smart phones with internet access. Machines and technology offer programmed results. Most of those answers are temporary ones. Eucharist is not giving us instant answer, temporary solutions and ready-made results. The readings invite us to seek, to approach and into communion with the Eucharistic Lord as the only great source of life and strength. We have three personalities in the first reading today; they are: King Ahab, his wife Jezebel and the Prophet Elijah. Queen Jezebel was a staunch supporter of the pagan cult, thereby influencing her husband Ahab to make the whole Northern Kingdom of Israel become devotees of Baal and false gods. This plan was to eradicate the followers of Yahweh and Yahwistic religion. So she appointed the importing of 450 false prophets. We read from the previous chapter, that Elijah proves the power of Yahweh, as his offering is accepted, and all the false prophets were subject to them. So Jezebel, with furious anger, ordered to kill Prophet Elijah. It is here where the readings of today begin. Elijah was alarmed and ran from the Northern Kingdom of Israel towards the Southern Kingdom of Judah. He got struck at Beershaba at the border of Judah; the Judean King’s wife Athaliah, was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. We can imagine how miserable Elijah must have felt running from the Mount Carmel of success toward this desert of depression! He wanted an immediate solution from God. He expected an instant response from the people of Israel to return back to Yahweh, since His sacrifices were accepted and the false prophets were dead. He became upset, sad, scared, angry and depressed. He felt strongly it was not worth living, as his wish and expectations were not happening. He expected Yahweh as an ever ready solution. Here, in this struggle of cursing his birth, call and life, he sought death with complete depression and helplessness. We see how the angel offered bread and water for the remaining 40 days of journey to Mount Horeb. In this journeying, he discovers that Yahweh is not a ready-made solution, yet rather a great source of strength and sustenance. We have been hearing the words of John for the last two weeks regarding meal, bread and eating as signs of. We saw the feeding of 5000 on the previous Sunday, and last week again pursuing Jesus for food like their ancestors provided by Moses, according to them. Today’s words again prove that people looked for answers, solutions and results for their livelihood. They could not understand and accept His statement of, “I am the bread of life and living bread come down from heaven” because they saw Jesus as an earthly person and son of Carpenter Joseph and Mary. They could not understand to the words, “I will give my flesh for the life of the world”. They were used to the Jewish practice of sacrificing animal for sins and thanksgiving. A ritual thanksgiving sacrifice involves the blood being poured out and the flesh eaten by people. However, Jesus pre-determines His real sacrifice of life-giving and Last Supper, Himself being the divine covenantal fulfillment of Thanksgiving Sacrifice. John wrote this in 70 AD, at a time when there was no Jerusalem temple, yet animal’s flesh was still eaten with mere ritual, and without a sacrificial and thanks-giving attitude of expression. So John called the early Jewish Christian community to the Lord’s Supper, to come to the Eucharistic gathering of the community, to receive Living sustenance and source of Jesus’ Body. Alexandrina was a normal girl of 14, who lived in an Italian village. In 1904, she and her sister, Deolinda, were at home alone when three men knocked at the door, one of whom had previously tried to molest Alexandrina. When they broke into the house. Alexandrina, wanting to preserve her chastity, jumped from an upstairs window. The men fled but Alexandrina’s spine was irreparably injured. Six years later she had to remain in bed for the rest of her life. The slightest movement caused her intense pain. She began to grow closer and closer to the Lord and realized that she was suffering in a special way for the salvation of souls. She received Holy Communion every day and her thoughts frequently turned to Jesus in the tabernacle. She went into her first ecstasy in 1931 when she heard Jesus say to her, “Love, suffer and make reparation.” She saw her vocation to be that of a victim soul, to make reparation for all of us. In 1936 Our Lord asked her to spread the message of Fatima and to urge the Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart, and she offered herself as a victim soul for this. From October 1938 Alexandrina began to suffer the passion of Jesus every Friday. She suffered the passion of Jesus 180 times during her life. Until 1942 she was suffering in silence without fame but after a report appeared in a newspaper from then on she was besieged by pilgrims asking for prayer. During Holy Week the same year, 1942, Jesus said to her, “You will not take food again on earth. Your food will be my Flesh; your drink will be my Divine Blood …” So on Good Friday 1942, she began an absolute fast which lasted for more than thirteen years until her death. The only nourishment which her pain-filled body received was Jesus in Holy Communion every morning. News of her fast spread and the crowds became even bigger. Some people had doubts and suspicions about her fast, so they accused her, her sister, and mother of fraud. Therefore she agreed to medical observation. The doctor asked her, “Why do you not eat?” She replied, “I do not eat because I cannot. I feel full. I do not need it. However, I have a longing for food.” It was decided that she should be admitted to a nearby hospital for a thirty day observation of her fast. While she was in the hospital some people tried to persuade her to take food. The doctor in charge of the examination was nasty to her and at the end of the thirty days said the nurses watching her must have been deceived and decided she was to remain there for a further ten days. They even showed her tasty food to entice her to eat. When the test was finally over the doctor said to her he would visit her at home not as a doctor-spy but as a friend who esteems her. Part of the medical report reads as follows: “Her abstinence from solids and liquids was absolute during all that time. We testify also that she retained her weight, and her temperature, breathing, blood pressure, pulse and blood were normal while her mental faculties were constant and lucid and she had not, during these forty days, any natural necessities…The laws of physiology and biochemistry cannot account for the survival of this sick woman…” While medical science could not explain, the explanation was simple. Jesus had said to Alexandrina, “You are living by the Eucharist alone because I want to prove to the world the power of the Eucharist and the power of my life in souls.”She died on October 13th 1955, having received nourishment only from Holy Communion for more than thirteen years. Some of the pilgrimages to Fatima visit her town Balasar and you can visit her house, see her room and visit the local Church where she is buried to the left of the altar. I was reminded of miraculous life of Alexandrina, who is now Blessed, i.e. on the way to being declared a saint, by the words of Jesus in our Gospel today, “I am the bread of life.He who comes to me will never be hungry;He who believes in me will never thirst.” (John 6:35) To the world it is irrational and stupid to think that bread changes to become the Body of Jesus. It is equally irrational and stupid to think that a human can survive for thirteen years only being nourished by Holy Communion. But one is not more irrational than the other. Alexandrina is a sign given to the world by Jesus to remind us of his presence in the Eucharist. I recommend that you read the life of Alexandrina because I think you would benefit a lot from it. In 1996 our Holy Father Pope John Paul II declared Alexandrina Venerable, and on April 25th 2005 he declared her Blessed.Concluding with some of the words of Jesus to Alexandrina, “You are living by the Eucharist alone because I want to prove to the world the power of the Eucharist and the power of my life in souls.” How do I approach Eucharist as a Catholic, as a community and as a friend of Jesus? 
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