Opening Prayer
Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, you have given your Church the mission to proclaim the gospel to all nations. May our efforts to fulfill this mission be led by the Holy Spirit so that we might be a leaven of New Life, salt of the earth, a light for the world, worthy missionaries and faithful to you. Make us living witnesses to the faith. Inspire us to speak the truth with love. Permit us to be united but not closed, humble but not fearful, simple but not naïve, thoughtful but not overbearing, contemporary but not superficial, respectful of others but boldly Your disciples. May we bring into the world the hope of God. We ask this through Christ the Lord who rose from the dead and lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. Year of Faith Prayer, Catholic Diocese of Auckland, New Zealand
A New Way of Being Together
I suggest this new Procedure for being here, for listening and sharing during this year’s Explorations Sessions: Not so much for me to be directing the sessions and you listening and sharing, but for you to first listen and while listening also be open to letting something arising inside of you come to the surface and then ponder it, especially asking yourself, “What is this that is happening inside of me and what is it revealing about my inner thoughts and feelings? Call to mind that the God who made you, made you to be able to have that very feeling (and everything else about you, and made you to have to eat and expel from your body some of what you eat). Why? Did it have to be just that way? Why? Face this God who is love and ask God: Why this? Why . . . ? Be still and let yourself rest in the presence of the God who is – not the God you have concocted God to be. Put yourself in God’s presence.
When there for a while, in the stillness that will happen once you stop managing the moment, listen, If something new wells up inside of you, ask yourself, “Is it for me alone or for me to share with others, or for both?” (If you think it is for others or both, please take time to ponder and apply it to yourself before sharing it with others. Also listen to what is shared by others and ask yourself if something similar may be arising in you and has not yet been able to come to the surface. God’s saving graces quite frequently comes to us through others, but, as Flannery O’Connor often reminds us, those graces are often refused, even by us. I think that each of us will benefit more by approaching these reflection and sharing sessions in this way – a way of inviting God to take over and form us as we listen, grow and share.)
Sister Loretta
Cardinal Tagle Homily Closing Mass of the National Eucharistic Congress 2024
July 21, 2024
Homily Transcript with Sister Loretta's Points to Ponder
Note: To aid in reflection and comprehension, underlined text, text in [ ] and bold italics has been added.
My dear brothers and sisters. We thank our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the God who is love, for gathering us as a family of faith as this closing Mass of the National Eucharistic Congress. I bring to you the fatherly, the paternal, blessings of His Holiness Pope Francis. The Holy Father prays, as we all do, that the Congress may bear fruit, much fruit, for the renewal of the Church and of society in the United States of America.
Before coming here, I asked the Holy Father if he had a message for you. He said, “Conversion to the Eucharist. Conversion to the Eucharist.” Then he turned to me and said, “Behave well.”
Since the Eucharistic Congress will be followed by a sending of Eucharistic missionaries, I would like to offer some points for reflection on the connection, the link, between Eucharistic conversion and missionary conversion.
The first point. The theme of our National Eucharistic Congress is taken from the 6th chapter of the Gospel of Saint John, “In the fullness of time, the Father sent his eternal word who became flesh through the Holy Spirit. He was present among us human beings as one like us, in the flesh except in sin. The Son sent by the Father came as a life-giving gift, a gift in the human flesh of Jesus. “My flesh for the life of the world.”
PONDER AND SHARE: “The Father sent the Son to us as a life-giving gift.” Think for a moment about how grateful you are for that gift from God to you and to everyone here with you right now and to everyone everywhere. What does it mean for a gift to be life-giving to someone: you or another? Thank God for this life-giving gift. Do you get a sense of how this makes of all of us one community, one flesh of one body? Whose body? A body of a Trinitarian God. When and how often do you, and should you, express this to God, to yourself and to others? What helps you to call this to mind during the day? Let’s pause, try to stop thinking and do this now: Think about how grateful you are for that gift from God the Father of his Son to us as a “life-giving gift.”
Jesus himself declares. We should note that Jesus’ description of this being sent by the Father is always connected to the gift of His flesh for others: Being sent and being a gift. [We are being sent and being gift.] In the Gospel of John, chapter 6:38, Jesus says, “For I came down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of the one who sent me.” Jesus has a profound consciousness of having been sent, on being on a mission. He also says in John 6:32, ”My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” But what is this bread? He says in verse 35, “I am the bread of life.” Jesus is sent to be given by the Father to others, sent to be a gift. He is not sent just to wander around and to enjoy himself. He is sent to be given. The missioner is a gift. Mission is not just about work, but also about the gift of oneself. Jesus fulfills his mission by giving himself, his flesh, his presence to others as the Father wills it. The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a gift and the fulfillment of His mission. This is my body for you, my blood for you. Always for you, for all, never for me. For you, for all. In Jesus, mission and gift-of-self meet. The Eucharist is a privileged moment to experience Jesus’ mission as a gift of himself.
PONDER AND SHARE: ______________
Knowing what I asked you to ponder and share in the first PONDER AND SHARE section, what do you think I might ask you to ponder here?
[All of our attempted actions, be they housework, on-the-job tasks, praying, Mass, etc. are opportunities for “being sent” but they are nowhere near as effective as they would have been, were we aware that they are arising from our being alive right here, at this very moment, not for what we are able to do, but to be a gift (of ourselves) to everyone, gifts sent by a Trinitarian God with the outpouring of Trinitarian love. Are you as aware of that at each moment as you should be?]
PONDER AND SHARE: Do you think Cardinal’s insight, that “a lack or a weakening of missionary zeal, may be partly due to a weakening in the appreciation of gifts and giftedness” is reasonable? Explain that in your own words, perhaps with an example. Do you agree with the Cardinal’s insight?
Dear friends. It occurred to me that where there is a lack or a weakening of missionary zeal, maybe it is partly due to a weakening in the appreciation of gifts and giftedness.
Do we still look at ourselves, at persons, at objects of our word, at society, at the events of daily life and that creation within the horizon of gift or is this horizon disappearing? If our horizon is only that of achievement, success and profit there is no room to see and receive gratuitous gifts. There is no place for gratitude and self-giving. There will only be a relentless search for self-affirmation that eventually becomes oppressive and tiring, leading to more self-absorption or individualism. And when pessimism takes over, we see only darkness, failures, problems, things to complain about. ———. We do not see gifts in persons and events, and those who do not see gifts in themselves and in others will not give gifts. They will not go on a mission.
PONDER AND SHARE: So the first step toward turning around declining missionary zeal is _______________.
[Disciplining ourselves to see everyone and everything as a gift. What could help us to see everyone and everything as a gift?]
In fact, I heard that some people prefer to relate with so-called friends – or dates -generated by artificial intelligence because they do not see gifts in real flesh and blood persons. Husbands and wives who are here, May I know who are married here? Husbands and wives? Wow. Husbands and wives, what do you see in each other? A gift or a problem? The answer is not clear. Then, no wonder there is no mission between husband and wife if they don’t see them as the gifts they are. Oh, and children. Are there children here? Yeah, I think all of us are children. Children, what do you see in your parents? A gift or an ATM card. Parents, parents, what do you see in your children? A gift or a burden? Priests and deacons, what do you see in your bishops? Oh, I’m sorry. Religious men and women, what do you see in your religious superiors? Bishops, what do you see in your priests and deacons? Oh, they say problem? Gifts, gifts, gifts. Friends, what do you see in the poor person? In the homeless person. In the sick person. What do you see in the person – in someone who differs from you? Like Jesus, let us give. Let us give a gift of presence to each other.
Go to church. Go to Mass with the gift of your flesh, your singing voice, your sweat, your tears, your smiles. Jesus gives his flesh. Why can we not give him in the community the gift of our fleshly presence?
PONDER AND SHARE: _______________.
[What do I need to increase my way of being at Mass so that I and we are giving to God and each other “the gift of my fleshly presence? Share my own Mass preparation.]
My second point. Is Jesus a gift or a problem? A gift. A gift.
Well, Jesus told his listeners in the Gospel of John chapter 6, that to receive him, to accept him, means first to believe in him and secondly, to eat his flesh and drink his blood. The disciples who were initially eager to listen to him started doubting. They said, “This saying is hard. It’s hard. It’s difficult. Who can accept it?” They also question whether Jesus had been sent by God, since they knew him as the son of Joseph and Mary. As a result of this, many of his disciples left him, meaning, and I quote, “They returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” They returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. [To whom do you think Cardinal Tagle is addressing these words? Of whom is he speaking: those who are not coming to Mass, those in the audience, and/or us?] They returned to a way of life without Jesus. They chose his absence rather than his presence in their lives. Instead of accompanying him. They walked alone. Their rejection of the gift of Jesus’ Word, body and blood meant they would not walk with him. And neither could he send them on mission.
PONDER AND SHARE: _______________.
[Ponder: What are the times, places and events in which I “choose Jesus’ absence”?
When you think of one of these times, places and events in which I “choose Jesus’ absence”: if it doesn’t trigger something inside of you, think harder. In someone who knows she is a sinner, there should be triggers. If you notice something being triggered, try to say what happened and what made it happen. For instance, if I think of a person and it raises a bit of disgust inside of me and I ask myself why my body/mind made that happen, I may find that it is my wishing that person was not the way the person is. That insight may lead me to recognize that God is fine with the person being where he is now, just as fine as God is with me being where I am now, and the changeable thing is my lack of accompanying Jesus and allowing the Spirit’s graces to flow between me and this person. None of us is the best we can be right now. We can and should be open to shedding who we are now.]
I invite you, my dear your brothers and sisters to pause and ask rather painful questions about this mysterious rejection of Jesus by his disciples. By his disciples. Is it possible that we, his disciples contribute also to the departure of others from Jesus?
Why do some people leave Jesus when he is giving the most precious gift of eternal life? Why do some baptized turn away from the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist? Does our biblical, catechetical and liturgical formation allow the gift of Jesus’ person to shine forward clearly. Does our Eucharistic celebration manifest Jesus’s presence or does it obscure the presence of Jesus? Do Mass goers manifest the presence of Christ through their witness of life, charity and mission? Do our parish communities provide an experience of Jesus’ closeness and caring? [And, if we think not, are we correct and, whichever our response, how can we bring this to where it could and should be?] Are our families still the primary teachers and transmitters of the faith? Do the youth feel listened to and heard about their search for Jesus? What cultural mindsets challenge the faith in Jesus’ word and gift of self?
Now I shift my line of questioning.
Maybe there are people who desire to be present with the Lord but they hesitate to come, like the poor, the homeless, the migrants, the refugees, the Indigenous people, the hearing impaired, the elderly and many other hidden people who might feel they do not belong. But let us not lose heart. Jesus will not get tired of coming to us with the gift of himself, even when he is wounded.
This leads me to the third and final point. You can be happy.
After the departure of some disciples, Jesus asked the 12 apostles, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him. “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the only one of God.”
Jesus is asking each one of us, “Do you also want to leave me like the others?”
[Ponder and Share: What are the issues, teaching of the Church, etc. that make you want to leave Jesus or the Church? What could or should be done about this?] I hope we can answer like Peter, “We will stay with you, Lord. We refuse to live far from your presence.”
OK, I’m not finished. Those who choose to stay with Jesus will be sent by Jesus. The gift of His presence and love for us will be our gift to people. We should not keep Jesus to ourselves. That is not discipleship. That is selfishness. The gift we have received, we should give as a gift. Have you experienced the tenderness of Jesus towards his tired disciples offering them time to rest and to eat as recounted in the Gospel today? Go and share Jesus’s tender love to the weary, the hungry, and the suffering. Have you experienced Jesus’ compassion and guidance when you were like sheep without a shepherd? Go and share Jesus’ shepherds caress to the lost, confused and weak. Have you experienced Jesus’ wounded heart uniting those who are separated from each other, as Saint Paul states in his letter to the Ephesians? Go and share Jesus’ gift of reconciliation and peace to those who are divided.
In his letter to me, Pope Francis expressed the hope, and I quote, “That the participants of the Congress, fully aware of the universal gifts they receive from heavenly food, may impart them to others.” End of quote. “Fully aware of the gifts they have received from that heavenly food, may they impart them to others.”
So a Eucharistic people is a missionary and evangelizing people.
Now I’m really closing this now.
Let me close by sharing an experience. When I was a parish priest, I noticed a woman, a woman who was extraordinarily devoted to the church. On Sundays she arrived early, early in the morning to help in all the Masses and other activities and went home only when the church had been cleaned up and the doors closed. One day I thanked her for her dedication, and I also thanked her family – for allowing her to serve. Her answer surprised me. She said, “Father, do not worry about my family. I stay here in church and attend all Masses because I do not want to see my husband and children. I wish every day were a Sunday so I could avoid my family.
Dear friends, when the priest or deacon says, “The Mass is ended. Go in the peace of Christ.” Please, GO. Go-o-o-o! Do not spend the whole day drinking coffee with Monsignor or with Father. Go, go, go. And what you have heard, touched and tasted, you must share with others. We have received the gift of Jesus. Let us go to proclaim Jesus zealously and joyfully for the life of the world.
It is one thing to listen to Cardinal Tagle’s or any other preacher’s homily. It is another slowly to ponder it and let the message reach deep into what is hidden from your usual busy, distracted way of living in the present.
Here is a takeaway and an easy but essential To Do List:
Takeaway: List Cardinal Tagle’s three points and what did you learned from his homily. What do youbelieve you need to commit to do as a result of hearing his homily?
One suggestion: Perhaps put you regular Daily/Weekly/Monthly Schedules down on paper or in a digial document, then add some reasonable prayer times to is and decide how you are going to use those prayer times. Use the Prayer Tip 1-5 links in this webpage’s header.
HORARIUM (Daily Schedule)
Create your own daily schedule – what you usually do each day – then add some prayer-times, for instance, soon-after-arising, midday, before-dinner and at bedtime. Add time for spiritual reading. (Set start times for each Schedule’s items. Monks responded to a toll of a bell as a call to begin most of their daily routines – sort of like setting some daily alarms on your cellphone as calls to remember that God is here and you have agreed to spend this time “in” God’s presence rather than your usual total preoccupation with other things and unintentionally ignoring God who has been with you all along the day.)
Sample Daily Schedule:
Morning Prayer
Morning Routine Breakfast, etc.
Work/Play/Community
Noon Mass or personal time being centered in God
Work/Play/Community
Pre-Dinner Spiritual Reading; Vespers
Dinner
Evening Routine TV; conversations with family and friends.
Night Prayer (personal); Review of the Day