(the following is a homily given on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, and the patronal feast day of the parish of St. Thomas More, June, 22nd, 2014 )
It was a long walk, I'm sure.
A walk he had seen a hundred times, but never thought he'd have to take himself.
As he reached the place, his personal Golgotha, Sir Thomas looked at the crowd, hoping
– and yet not hoping –
that he would see his family; his children; his wife.
This was not a sight he wished for them to see, and yet he longed to see their faces one more time.
What had he done to deserve this?
It was really a rhetorical question – he knew the answer – but it still amazed him.
His love for his country and his Church had come into deep conflict, and it seemed to the world that he had chosen the wrong side.
And yet he knew the path he must follow, a path of faithfulness laid out by His Master and Lord.
But what is faithfulness?
Should it be defined as this world would use it?
A desire to be successful in proclaiming our personal beliefs?
Or maybe commitment to something as long as we receive some benefit?
If will turn to page 1105 in your hymnal (WORSHIP, GIA), I think you may see that the readings for today seem to be pointing in a different direction.
In the first reading (Deuteronomy 8) we hear Moses tell the Israelites to
“Remember how … the LORD… directed [them]”; and to “not forget the LORD [their] God… who brought [them] out… of slavery”
But what is interesting about this mandate is why the Israelites are to remember:
it is because of their affliction.
God directed them “through a desert” to “test their intentions to keep [His] commandments.”
He allowed for there to be afflictions on the way to the Promised Land, to give them His strength and to show them His ability to guide them through the most difficult of situations.
St. Paul, in our second reading, shows us again the continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament;
the Old Law fulfilled in the New Law through our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ.
Make no mistake: this participation is not merely sitting in the pews and listening to a homily; it is not simply receiving communion on Sunday and trying to be a decent person the rest of the week
– it is an affliction –
it is a sharing in the passion and death of the Lord Jesus until he comes again;
it is a martyrdom – a witness – to our weakness and to God’s almighty power over time and space,
bringing the sacrifice of Calvary to us in this and every moment;
at this altar; in this tabernacle and in all the tabernacles of the world!
St. Paul is telling us that our blessing, if we are to be blessed by it, must also be embraced as our affliction – our cross.
As the sequence we heard moments ago expresses:
"Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling, manna to the fathers sent."
For Sir Thomas, these words of His Church gave him strength.
They gave him the confidence he needed to walk his "Way of Suffering" and so offer his life for the sake of the Gospel.
His last words: “I die the King's good servant, but God's first,” have echoed on to this day, and stand as witness to the power of faithfulness.
He knew that to be a disciple of His Master and LORD meant that he would be called in some way to participate in Christ’s suffering.
Called to a service that would require his all; willingly bearing his sentence of death, as if bearing the yoke given him at his baptism.
A yoke that was made easy by the one who bore the load with him
– and does with us –
along the journey to salvation.
St. Thomas was secure in the hope that he would live forever in the loving embrace of His God because he had found solace in the bread of life and the cup of salvation offered to him by his Church
-- the Eucharistic feast and sacrifice that he defended against secular powers of his day.
This feast took on an even greater significance for him, because through his witness, his martyrdom, he united his afflictions to those of Christ.
He was granted peace within the borders of his soul by not only being filled with the finest wheat,
the very bread of heaven,
but by becoming it -- by personifying Christ in his example of selflessness and holiness.
I leave you with words attributed to our patron saint; words that remind us of our own call to selflessness and holiness:
"We may not look at our pleasures to go to heaven in featherbeds; it is not the way, for our Lord Himself went there with great pain, and by many tribulations, which was the path wherein He walked ..., and the servant may not look to be in better case than his Master" – and his LORD.
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