Where Else Can We Go? (Corpus Christi.B)

Archbishop Miller asked us to read his Statement of Apology and Expression of Commitment at Mass today. which I did before the homily. You can read it here.

The statement makes it obvious that we have a lot of work to do as an Archdiocese and as a parish community. We will discern carefully and prayerfully how we at Christ the Redeemer will participate in the process of reconciliation and healing in the weeks and months ahead.

The Archbishop’s words are more than enough for us to think about today, and I really have nothing to add. But that doesn’t mean I have nothing to say on this feast of Corpus Christi, when we ponder one of the central truths of our Catholic faith.

As you can imagine, a number of parishioners  have emailed me to express their sorrow and shock over the news stories of the past week. There were even one or two who had not known anything of the residential schools. Without exception, the emails were sincere and reasonable, not to mention helpful to me in planning the way forward.

But other priests were not so fortunate. Several received emails from people saying they no longer want to be Catholic. A few people asked how they could formally renounce the Faith.

Those emails contrasted greatly with the words of our only First Nations deacon, Deacon Rennie Nahanee. He told the CBC in a calm and gentle way that he was a proud Indigenous person and that his family had experienced the evils of the residential schools, acknowledging his own pain and that of his people.

But then he said that he was part of the Church, making it clear he had no intention of leaving.

I spoke with Deacon Rennie yesterday, but I didn’t dream of asking him what was keeping him in the Church, with all her historic and present failures. I knew there was no one answer, no simple answer.

But today I would like to suggest one of the answers that any of us might give to the question “why be Catholic?” Why not walk away?

That answer is the one today’s feast declares: because I believe that the Church feeds me with the Body and Blood of Christ.

In today’s Gospel St. Matthew recalls the plain words of Jesus at the Last Supper: this is my body; this is my blood. But I wish we could have read from St. John, who records what happened well before the Last Supper, when Jesus first promised the living bread.

When Jesus said “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” he crossed a line that even many of his followers could not accept. From that moment, he was no longer the hero of the five thousand he had fed with the loaves and fish. Many turned away, never to return.

But we all know that some stayed. Some of those who heard Jesus promise that eating his flesh and blood would bring life forever chose to continue on the discipleship path when others abandoned it in disgust.

They, like Deacon Rennie or any of us, must have had various reasons to remain. I would guess that St. John stayed because of his deep intimacy with the Lord.

The Bible only tells us Simon Peter’s reason for sticking around. But it’s a good one that we might consider today: “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Troubled though some of us may be, even ashamed by the things we’re hearing about our Church, where else can we go to receive the bread of eternal life? That alone is reason to remain.