THE BOTTOM LINE

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Today is a day for prayer, not for long sermons.  It is a time for us to commune with God, not to listen to someone telling us about him.  So I’ll keep my remarks brief for once.   There is so much to say about this great feast of Corpus Christi, the importance of the Blessed Sacrament that dwells amongst us in his Real Presence on our altar, the impact it has on our lives, and the responsibilities we have to correspond with all the graces it brings us.  So much to say, but not much time to say it.  And perhaps that is a good thing, because it forces us to focus.  We don’t have time to tell the whole story of our Redemption, nor, hopefully, do I need to.  After all, whenever we say the Rosary, we repeat in our minds each of the events of that entire Redemption story—every bead that passes through our fingers reminds us in detail how God came to dwell amongst his people, and how he died to save us, and how he rose from death to break open the shuttered gates of heaven for us, his children.

That Rosary we love so much is itself a summary of the story of Redemption.  But today I want to sum up that summary.  I want us to distill the events of that story into one simple idea.  One concept.  One thought that if we stay focused on it will be enough for us to remain always close to God in this world and assured of remaining close to him in the next. It is the reason why we were created, why we exist, and live and breathe, why we act.  It’s the first cause of everything we do, and it’s the final goal of everything we do.  In modern diction, we call it the “bottom line.”

I can give it a name, and in a moment I will.  But before we name this bottom line, I’d like to give you an image of what it is.  What does it look like, this greatest thing in our lives, this cause, reason, and goal of everything that truly matters?  It is an image of something small, round and white.  Something that looks like and tastes like bread.  And yet we kneel before it and we worship it because our holy Faith tells us that it is not bread, but the great and everlasting, almighty and Most High God that made us.  If we can reduce all the great and important truths that God has revealed into a single image, everything we hold dear, we find it all contained in the Sacred Host, the Most Blessed Sacrament.

I said I would give this image a name.  We know what it is of course, but words like “host” and “blessed sacrament” do not convey what it does.  Human vocabulary is completely inadequate, and can’t possibly convey the full meaning of all that tiny host is for us.  But if I had to come up with just one word to name this bottom line of all that we believe, hope for, and love, the best I can come up with is “Union”.

Union with God.  Better yet, Communion with God.  It was Our Lord’s gift to us on the night he was betrayed, when he took the bread into his sacred and venerable hands and uttered those words “This is my Body” to the hushed disciples.  The Body that was to be so cruelly slaughtered the next day because of our sins, that Body was to be the greatest gift that God could give to man.  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  And no greater love has there ever been than that which the Lord our God demonstrated by his sufferings and death, by laying down his life for us, his friends.  Why did he do it?  So that we could have communion with him, both in this life through the Most Blessed Sacrament, and for all eternity in heaven.

No greater gift could he ever give us than to invite us filthy creatures to participate in the same union with God that he himself shared as part of the Blessed Trinity.  The union of this Trinity in heaven that had existed from all eternity was now to be ours.  The eternity that had been between the three persons of God alone, was now to be an eternity of God with man.  Don’t ask me why.  “O Lord, we are not worthy.”  But this is God’s wish, and it is his command, and how blessed and happy are we who are called to this union.  This union with God will be our heaven, and to prepare us for that everlasting bliss, that union is ours now on earth, God’ gift to man.  It is this small, round, white Host that we will have the privilege of receiving this morning in Holy Communion, that we will adore and worship and bless and glorify today.  It is my Lord, my God,  my all.