“You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
In 1978, I was a college option Officer Candidate School or OCS appointee, and before I could go to OCS, I had to pass Army Basic Training. My drill sergeant in basic training made me a squad leader. During an inspection one day he found candy wrappers in the laundry room area. We were not allowed to have candy bars during the first four weeks of basic training, so he called his squad leaders including me together and said he would make us do push-ups until our arms didn’t work anymore if he found another candy wrapper.
The drill sergeant had told us we would never be ready for inspections, but we should always be prepared for them. To be prepared, I inspected the common areas of the barracks every afternoon when we came in from training. One day, another soldier found a candy wrapper and brought it to me, so I called my squad together. I was reading them the riot act when the drill Sergeant walked in unexpectedly. There I was, holding the candy wrapper in my hand and yelling at my squad, using words that were not very “deaconly.” My life passed before my eyes as I feared I would be scrubbing latrines or doing push-ups forever. Luckily, he had stood outside long enough to hear what I said to my squad for this infraction, and all he told me was, “Good job, Private Powers – I said if I found candy wrappers in the barracks again, there would be hell to pay, but since you found it first, it means you were prepared. Carry on!”
In this Gospel, Jesus talks to His followers about being prepared to meet Him when they least expect it. When we hear this Gospel passage, most of us tend to think that Jesus means for us to be ready for the end of the world and the final judgment. Or many of us think He means for us to be ready for our particular judgment when we die. We can certainly see how being prepared to meet Jesus in those two instances would easily apply to today’s Gospel message.
But what if Jesus means for us to be prepared to meet Him at other times as well? Most of us think we have all the time in the world before we will die. Other people die, not us, we might say. We put off our preparation to meet Jesus until later. But we meet Jesus in other ways each and every day – not just at the moment of our death or at the final coming of Christ.
How do we meet Jesus daily? Jesus says what we do for the least of our sisters and brothers, we do unto Him. In other words, we meet Jesus in other people. We meet Him in our families, in our work and school relationships, in our Church relationships, and in people we pass by on the street or in a store or in a restaurant, yes, even people we don’t know or even like. Yes, it is hard to see Jesus in some people – we may have to go on a scavenger hunt to find Him. But He is there if we look hard enough.
How do we treat the people we encounter every day? Would we treat them differently if we saw Jesus in them? Would we be kinder to them or more patient with them if we believed that Jesus is really in them?
We also meet Jesus when we come to Mass and when we receive the sacraments. The Catholic Church has always taught that Jesus is really and truly present – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – in the Eucharist we receive at Mass. We have never taught or believed that the Holy Eucharist was just a symbol. A recent Pew survey of people identifying themselves as Catholics were asked what they believed about the Eucharist – if it is the Body and Blood of Jesus or if it is only a symbol. Half of those who identified as Catholics – whether they went to Mass regularly or not – said the Eucharist was only a symbol. Of those who said they went to Mass on a regular basis, 69 percent said they believed Jesus is really present in the Eucharist. That means 31 percent of regular Mass goers wrongly believe the Eucharist is only a symbol.
If you don’t believe or you have doubts, I offer two suggestions. First, get a Bible and read St. John’s Gospel Chapter 6, the Bread of Life Discourse: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will have no life in you.” Then read the words at the Last Supper in any of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark or Luke, and notice that Jesus says “this is my Body and this is my Blood” when referring to the bread and wine He offered, not “this is a symbol of my Body and Blood.”
The apostles and the Fathers of the Church taught the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and the Church has held this truth consistently for 2,000 years.
It is a gift of faith, like we hear in the Book of Hebrews, and I believe that if you can’t recognize Jesus in the Eucharist, you won’t see Him in others.
Knowing that we meet Jesus in the Eucharist, how do we prepare to meet Him? Are we prepared to recognize Him in Holy Communion? Have we confessed our sins and cleared our minds from all distractions? Did I recognize Jesus in my squad members or my drill sergeant? No, I didn’t – but I should have and I do so today.
My dear sisters and brothers, in the words of my drill sergeant, we may never be ready to meet Jesus but we should always be prepared. We can see Jesus in the smile of an infant, in the kiss of a mother, in the kind or consoling words of a coworker or fellow student, in the sign of peace at Mass, or in the look of someone who is lonely or lost. We can see Him in the priest at the altar or in the confessional, and when we receive Him in Communion at Mass. In any and all these ways, we must be prepared to meet Jesus or we risk not recognizing Him at all until Judgment Day, when it just may be too late.
Deacon David Powers serves at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe. This commentary is adapted from a homily he gave at Masses Aug. 10-11 for the 19th Week in Ordinary Time.