Homily for 11th Sunday of the Year 2010

Jesus said, "No one can come to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). This is fundamental to our prayer to Christ. Prayer is intensely personal. Yet our Catholic spirituality is very communal. More so than in some religions, our personal prayer always draws us back together. To this Table. Not for us a spirituality without the Church. Jesus' presence in the Eucharist has long been a focus of Catholic personal prayer and devotional life. The tabernacle enshrines this spirituality clearly. It gives a visible centre for our personal prayer.

We cannot pray long before the Eucharist before we find that we are drawn into love of our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ and especially those in need. As St John says in his first letter, how can we say we love God and hate our brothers and sisters (cf 1 John 4:20).

Last Sunday's feast of the Body and Blood of Christ celebrates in particular the abiding presence of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine. It is a presence that remains as long as the elements are eatable food. As long as the external sign remains so does our risen and crucified Lord. It is no wonder then that the worship of the sacrament has such an importance for Catholics. Prayer before the Sacrament is the most intimate way of praying for Catholics. Adoration before the sacrament puts us at the feet of Jesus just like the woman in the Gospel today.

And because the reserved Sacrament is food it is an abiding reminder of where it comes from, that is, from this altar, this table of the Lord's Supper to which we are summoned each week. It is an abiding reminder that it is to this table that we must return in communion with all God's people.

After all it was for this reason that the Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle in the first place. So that communion could be given to the sick and to the dying as viaticum, food for the journey. The sick and dying are very much part of the Body of Christ even though separated from the gathering by their condition. Their suffering is part of the suffering of Christ. They are included in the action of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Later, by extension, the reserved Sacrament in the Tabernacle became the focus of Catholic devotion to Christ.

The Pharisee in the Gospel reading today invited Jesus to a meal but he was very lacking in the kind of hospitality that was customary at the time. The unnamed woman came to the gathering uninvited but showed a deeply personal hospitality to Jesus as she fell on her knees before him. Her actions, Jesus tells us, were her loving response to the forgiveness she received from God. Jesus simply proclaimed that fact: her sins are forgiven.

Unnamed, she probably stands for all of us in Luke's mind, unlike the three named women at the conclusion of the reading. All of us are sinners and are the undeserving recipients of God's grace of forgiveness. All of us, like David in the first reading, can only say, "I have sinned against the Lord." For this of us are gathered here to offer thanksgiving. The Eucharist is a lesson to us also that God's initiative is always first. God loves us before we ask him. We do not earn that love by any effort of our own. St Paul is at pains to say this in the second reading today. God does not love us because we are good. We are good because God loves us. The Eucharistic presence of Jesus is the guarantee of that truth.

Our prayer before the Eucharistic presence of Jesus can take many forms. From the very personal silent prayer in the chapel to the more formal devotions of the Church. I have spoken about this way of praying today as we continue in the spirit of the Archdiocesan Pray 2010 program next month.

Fr Graham