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Sunday 2
(A): “This is the Lamb of God”: the Eucharist, creation and sin
It makes no sense to say, as John the Baptist said, that
someone born after him existed before him. The person who would say that is either mad or would mean something that goes beyond
the realm of logic. So, either John the Baptist was crazy or he was speaking on a level which surpasses normal thinking. That
level beyond the realm of logic is the horizon of faith. It is a horizon opened up for man by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Faith does not limit logic: rather, it opens it up to the way of thinking proper to God, himself the source of all reason
and logic. It is those who would have us depend only on what human reason can understand who are limiting the horizons of
humanity. From the perspective of faith, then, John pointed to Jesus as the one who “ranks ahead of me because he existed
before me.” What is John doing here? He is professing his faith in the divinity of Jesus. For only the divine can exist
before being conceived in the womb. All other human persons are created by the divine at the moment of conception. What is
more, in pointing out that this man Jesus is the one who existed before him, John is also professing his faith in the incarnation.
That divine person who existed before me is here, now, in the flesh: he is Jesus of Nazareth. The Baptist goes further still.
He does not just affirm that Jesus is God made man, he also explains why Jesus has come; he predicts the future of Jesus.
He says: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” In other words, the mission of Jesus
is to remove from the world the cause of all evil, pain, suffering and death. This divine person made flesh is here as the
Savior of the world.
These words of the Baptist are familiar to us, because
the priest repeats them during every Mass: “This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” The
priest says them when showing the broken, consecrated host to the congregation. To the human mind, they still do not make
sense. If it was bad enough for the Baptist to point to Jesus in his earthly flesh as “the Lamb of God”, it is
even more difficult for the mind to accept these words when referred to what looks like a piece of bread. Of course, they
are not words which appeal to human logic or to what the eyes of the body perceive. They appeal to the God-given horizon of
faith: you believe that Jesus is truly and substantially present under the appearances
of bread and wine because Jesus himself said so. No microscope need intervene, but only faith in the Son of God. The Baptist
saw the earthly body of Jesus and by faith believed in his divinity and the mission of salvation he was yet to accomplish.
What we see in faith is the sacramental body of Jesus in which we believe dwells
his humanity and divinity, not now with the mission of salvation yet to be accomplished, but actually completed. What we see,
then, is greater than that which the Baptist saw. The Baptist saw the divinity of Jesus hidden in his humanity which was yet
to be glorified. We see the divinity and glorified humanity of Jesus hidden in the sacrament of bread and wine.
We ought to ponder the magnitude of what we see and receive
in the host, the Holy Eucharist. Taking John the Baptist’s words about how Jesus existed before him, we can try and
excite or stretch our minds and imaginations to realize who and what it is that we receive in the Eucharist. Experts calculate
that the earth has existed for some 4.5 billion years and the universe for some 13.7 billion years. Some estimate that there
are as many as 100 trillion cells in the human body. We believe that Jesus created both the universe and the earth in it;
he also created each one of us. Have you ever considered that in receiving the Eucharist, you receive One who knows every
detail of everything that has existed for 13.7 billion years? That He is “older” than 13.7 billion years? Of course,
Jesus is divine, so who is counting? In the face of eternity, 13.7 billion years is as nothing. When we receive the Eucharist,
we receive something greater than the universe itself, we receive something greater than time itself, we receive something
greater than all of history and all of geography. We receive something greater than death, greater than ourselves. The humility
of God is unfathomable when we consider that, out of love for every last cell of dust that we are, he makes himself accessible
through the appearances of a small piece of bread. When we think of the majesty and power of the universe, the galactic systems,
the stars, the incalculable distances, even reason would tell us that the One who made all this can surely make himself truly
and substantially present however and whenever he desires. And from the mouth of the Creator himself, we believe that that
however and whenever is the Eucharist. Receiving the Eucharist catapults us to dimensions of life and existence greater than
the universe. In the eyes of God, the universe itself is worth nothing in comparison with one human soul, especially if it
loves him. If it is true to say that we dwell in the universe, it is truer still to say that the universe dwells in us, because
it was created for us so that in it we would find its Creator. The Church teaches that the human being is the only creature
in the universe that God created for its own sake; everything else was created for us. The free, loving response of the human
heart to God gives him more joy and more glory than 13.7 billion years of stellar activity. The universe is ours in the Eucharist!
Through the Eucharist we become divine!
John the Baptist also says that the One he points out
will “take away the sin of the world.” We must apply these words directly to the Eucharist, because the Eucharist
is the Savior. The Eucharist, therefore, takes away the sin of the world. This does not mean, however, that the Eucharist
serves as a kind of spiritual bath into which we can dip our sinful hearts and find automatic holiness. The Eucharist is not
a “thing”, it is a person, the person of the Savior. Like any person, he is not to be abused or taken for granted.
So what is the position of the sinner before the Eucharist? Should no-one receive the Eucharist because, as we all know, we
are all sinners? First, let us ask: What is sin? Sin, too, is not a “thing”, but a weak or broken relationship
between persons, the person of Christ and the person of the sinner. Sin is a refusal to love as much as one should, or a refusal
to love at all. The refusal to love as much as one should, and thus cause a weak relationship with Christ, is what we call
venial sin. Venial just means that it does not break the relationship, but since it has weakened it, then it requires pardon
(“venia” in Latin). The refusal to love at all actually breaks the relationship with Christ. The relationship
has died; this is what we call mortal sin (“mors” means death in Latin). The Church has always taught that those
who come to Mass in a condition of venial sin should make a good act of contrition and come to communion so that the weakness
they have occasioned can be strengthened and the relationship with Christ renewed. But those who are in a state of mortal
sin should not come to communion: it would be contradictory to do so since the relationship has been broken. Such people must
ordinarily receive sacramental confession before coming to communion. Confession and communion complement one another. Confession
re-establishes the relationship with Christ which then makes communion meaningful for the repentant sinner. Not all sin is
mortal, but all sin needs forgiveness. Mortal sin can only be forgiven sacramentally in confession; venial sin can be forgiven
either in confession or in communion, provided one’s spiritual attitude is contrite and resolute.
The Eucharist should not be treated as spiritual candy;
no-one should presume to come to communion without examining their conscience first and honestly admitting their sins. The
Eucharist is surely the sign of Christ’s love, but it is only to be given to those who are trying to love him in return
even although the relationship is weak. If you approach the Eucharist with arrogance, as if it were some kind of right, no
matter what you are doing in your life, then you receive it unworthily and at your own risk. St. Paul says of those who receive this
immeasurable gift unworthily that they are receiving their own condemnation because their lives contradict the very meaning
of the Eucharist which is communion in love and obedience to the truth of Christ in his Church.
The Church wants everyone who is Catholic to receive the
Eucharist frequently, but everyone has a responsibility to do so with a conscience which is upright and good, not in their
own eyes only, but according to the teaching of the Church. Good conscience is difficult to affirm if one deliberately ignores
or rejects the teaching of Christ’s Church. That is why people should also educate themselves and their children on
the true meaning of sin and conscience, the types of sin and the different categories of sin. Not to do so is itself a sin
of omission. The greatness of the Eucharist should naturally inspire us to want to know what gets in the way of our receiving
it. The Lamb of God comes to take away the sin of the world: we need to know what it is that he has come to take away if we
are to receive him with honesty and sincerity of heart. Christ certainly loves the sinner and calls the sinner - but to repentance!
His love for us must not be misconstrued as a wholesale approval of our profanity! How can we cling to the sin he has come
to remove and still expect his love, mercy and Eucharist? We need to “get
real” in our relationship with Christ.
I appeal to you who are parents or have the custody of
the young not to neglect or gloss over correcting them lovingly but firmly. A child will love you all the more if he sees
your love preserving him or purifying him from what is wrong and harmful. God has given you authority to give life and truth
and security of mind to your little ones. True love will not indulge their every whim; they must endure limitations if they
are to grow up as healthy and responsible people, and you must endure their tears and complaints without giving in. When you
deprive them of something harmful, lavish them with your attention, your time and focus them on what is truly good. Don’t
let your own thirst for their affection fool you into failing to discipline them in the ways of Christ’s truth and love.
If you discipline them properly in this life they will bless you in eternal life.
How pleasing it is to the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world when before him he sees individuals and families who perceive not only the greatness of his creation, but
also the extremity of the love he showed us when, on the night he was betrayed, he handed himself over to humanity in the
form of bread and wine! Corpus Christi. Amen.
Msgr.
Peter Magee
Sunday, January 16th, 2005: St. Andrew Apostle, Silver Spring, 5.00 pm vigil & 11.30 am
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