Thursday 23 March 2023

4th Sunday of Lent 19 Mar 2023 Sermon

 

4th Sunday of Lent 19 March 2023 Food for the soul

 

At times certain foods are offered to us with the encouragement that it will be ‘good for you’!

 

The food will go to work inside the body and enable various good effects. We certainly notice when there is a lack of food and how debilitating that can be.

 

After food we feel refreshed and strengthened.

 

A parallel can be made with the mysterious spiritual food we know as the Eucharist, or Body of Christ.

 

This is food of a different order operating on its own principles in the soul rather than the body.

 

In the soul is where we are really defined as people. If we say someone is good or evil it is the soul where this is found.

 

We do not place any spiritual significance on the health of the body. One can have a sick body but still be a good person; or a healthy body and be an evil person.

 

Goodness is what happens when a person is in good relationship with God, drawing from His goodness and at least some of that goodness will take hold in our intellect and will, in what we think, what we want, the sort of objects we pursue.

 

The most potent way we can draw goodness from God is through receiving His Body in the Eucharist.

 

When we receive Holy Communion we are receiving God's holiness entering our souls and taking effect.

 

Provided we are in a state of grace and have at least a partial faith this holiness will make some difference for good in the one receiving.

 

Because it is a different kind of food from ordinary food it depends on these invisible qualities like faith, hope, charity as to how much difference it will make.

 

If I am really desiring to share in the goodness of God that will enable the Eucharist to have more effect.

 

If I am indifferent to the process or not really believing it to be anything special then the Eucharist will have little effect, and may even be a sin of sacrilege.

 

In the miracle of the loaves there was an abundance of food left over; a reminder of God's abundant nature. He can give enough and more.

 

We can be inspired by this and approach Him confidently in prayer.

 

There is no limit then to how ‘good’ we can be, because we are drawing on an infinite source.

 

It really depends on us to seek more, and then more again.

 

This is not being greedy as we might think. God wants us to be ‘greedy’ in this case because it will cure us of the other sort of greed, for the things of the world, and any other disordered passion.

 

The miracle of the loaves is a clear foreshadowing of the Eucharist. God satisfied a lesser hunger to prepare for a greater.

 

People say they can do all that without the eucharist, but the same people would not say they can live without food.

 

They will say that they have received Communion but it has not made any difference. That would be because they did not receive it with sufficient expectation, or some other blockage. It would make a difference if they persevered in humble expectation.

 

God will deal with each person according to each one’s need. They are all receiving the same food, but God may give more or ask more from one person than another.

 

If we are ever cut off from receiving the Eucharist we can call upon spiritual capital we have built up. We should always regard the Eucharist as essential, however, and not something we can take or leave.



 

 

 

 

 

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