“The Eucharist is the food that makes us hungry,” says Joe Laramie, S.J., so when he preaches, he hopes to stir his congregation “to deeper hunger for the Lord, to grow in deeper devotion to him.”
Joe, the National Director of the Pope’s Prayer Network and a preacher for the National Eucharistic Revival, preaches for the Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B.
After the homily, Joe joins host Ricardo da Silva, S.J. to discuss how the National Eucharistic Revival is trying to stir greater hunger for the Eucharist among U.S. Catholics. He shares ideas on preaching the mystery of the Eucharist in an accessible way and tells Ricardo about how his previous experience as a high school teacher has informed his preaching.
Readings for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Reading 1: Ez 2:2-5
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4
Reading 2: 2 Cor 12:7-10
Gospel: Mk 6:1-6
You can find the full text of today’s readings here.
Transcript of homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, by Joe Laramie, S.J.
In a previous Jesuit assignment, I taught at an all-boys Jesuit high school, and I taught public speaking to the boys. Often enough, we would start the class with tongue twisters, and I thought, you know, Sunday morning, maybe this will help us get into the spirit of the liturgy by doing a couple little tongue twisters to warm up.
So, the first one is “Unique New York.” “Unique New York.” O.K., say it with me three times. Ready? Unique New York. Unique New York. Unique New York.
Okay, another one, “red lorry, yellow lorry.” Okay. In England, instead of a pickup truck, they talk about a lorry. Okay, so we’ll say it three times. Ready? Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry. Okay.
Now, a Catholic tongue twister. Ready? I’ll say it. “The body of Christ gives the body of Christ to the body of Christ to make the body of Christ more like the body of Christ.” Let me repeat that. The body of Christ gives the body of Christ to the body of Christ to make the body of Christ more like the body of Christ.
Okay, let’s break it down. Ready? Jesus, the body of Christ, gives us the Eucharist, the body of Christ, to make us, the body of Christ, the church, more like the body of Christ, who is Jesus. This is the gift of the Eucharist. Jesus desires to draw us into communion with himself, giving us his body and blood at every Mass, and he sanctifies us and makes us more like him, but also makes us more fully ourselves.
We can think of so many great saints, and in fact, their personalities come out more fully as they are drawn more and more into the life of Christ and the Eucharist. So there’s old saints, young saints, rich saints, poor saints—this sounds like a Dr. Seuss story—well-educated saints who write books, give speeches; very humble saints who maybe focus on a life of prayer or serving those most in need.
God’s humility coming to us in the Eucharist, meeting us where we are—God who is mighty, God who creates the heavens and the earth, God who is not afraid to become humble, to meet us in our daily lives.
I’m Joe Laramie. I’m a Jesuit. I’m also a Eucharistic preacher for this great Eucharistic revival. I’m sure many of you have been involved in that; maybe some of you are maybe not so familiar, and in fact, we’re coming up on really the high point of this whole celebration. There’ll be a week-long Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis that starts next week, and that’ll be several days of preaching, prayers, Eucharistic adoration, outdoor Mass, ways to draw us deeper into this great gift. And maybe some folks are, again, already involved in this, others are maybe even a little curious, like, wait, what is this thing? Or why are we doing this?
Well, I think bishops and pastors looking around, will say, “Gosh, you know what? This is the right time for Eucharistic Revival and for Eucharistic Congress.” This Covid pandemic feels like it’s in the rear view mirror, right? I mean, that was four years ago that we were in those first scary days, weeks and months of the pandemic back in 2020. Schools shut down, parishes closed for a period of time. And gosh, as I travel around, lots of pastors will tell me, “You know what? I’ve got fewer sheep in the pews now than I had before this whole pandemic.” Maybe some Catholics got outta the habit of going to Mass, or for other reasons have separated themselves from the life of the church.
Now, maybe some of you are looking at me right now thinking, gosh, Father, this sounds great, but also, you know what, Father? We’re the ones who are here. W e showed up on a Sunday morning. We know this is important. Amen. Amen. Thank you for your faith. Thank you for being here and for all of us, we can hear this invitation from the Lord always to go deeper, right? To strengthen our relationship with Christ, to hear his invitation to that closer communion with him. In the Gospels, we see Jesus preaching, teaching, and what kind of response does he get? Well, some of the crowds say, “You know what? Hey, we know your mom. Uh, we know where you’re from. You’re just a carpenter.” Right? We might even imagine those hands of Jesus, perhaps marked by callouses, maybe even scars from his work with his foster father, Joseph, in the carpentry shop, probably marked by a deep tan from being outside. Well, they look at him and say, “Gosh, you’re just a normal guy. How do you get all this wisdom, knowledge? We thought God was gonna come to us in powerful ways, through might, through glory, through miracles.” And in fact, they kind of brush Jesus aside. They sort of put him off, right?
Well, Jesus is a humble carpenter who comes to us in the Eucharist. Maybe for us too, even for us who are practicing Catholics, in a way that we can just fall into a habit, okay, a good habit of coming to Mass, but also we can maybe take some of things for granted, right? Oh, yeah. That’s just what we do. That’s how we start our Sunday. And I think this revival is calling us to have our eyes opened once again, to have our hearts opened with wonder, with awe, with gratitude to this powerful God who comes to us in these humble ways. Coming to us, yes, as food on this altar with our ordinary eyes, we can look and say, gosh, this sure just looks like normal wine and a little bit of bread, and yet, with the eyes of faith, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, who at every Mass transforms this bread and wine into truly the body and blood of Christ. In fact, Jesus desiring to transform our hearts bit by bit at every Mass, shaping them, forming them through the Eucharist, to be more like his sacred heart, filled with love, compassion, desire to heal those relationships in our own lives. Jesus sort of was sometimes ignored for his humility. Well, maybe folks can fall into that trap these days, huh?
There’s a line from Saint Ignatius that I think of in his great writings, the spiritual exercises. He has a line that we should pray to know Christ more, love him more, and serve him more, okay? To know him more, love him more, and serve him more. There’s even that little line from the song in Godspell. Remember that one? “Know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly, day by day.” There’s tambourines clapping, you know, it’s a ‘70s musical. That’s kinda how this goes, right? Well, we can pray for that grace in this eucharistic revival to know Jesus more in the Eucharist, to love him more in the Eucharist, and Lord, to serve you more that our hearts might be stirred to generosity, to service to you in the church, to those most in need.
The body of Christ coming to us in an encounter, this encounter with the Lord, Jesus wanting to draw us deeper into relationship. As I travel around, giving talks, visiting parishes in all kinds of different settings, I’ve celebrated Mass in nursing homes for older folks who’ve been living their faith for 80 years, 90 years. My little niece just celebrated her first communion, my little niece Gianna. My gosh, what a great day, right? Celebration, anticipation. She’s been preparing, learning about this in school, making time for prayer, okay. My sister, leading her, certainly—to be renewed in that first love for the Lord, that first time receiving him. I’ve brought Communion to people in hospitals, in homeless shelters, you know, maybe, and sometimes it’s there, right? For folks who are most in need, they’re hurt, they’re alone, maybe they’re suffering from an illness, even a mental illness. In a sense, their humility allows them to meet the humble God who comes to us in the Eucharist, to know him more, to love him more, to serve him more.
Even as we look ahead a little bit, we’re about nine days away from this Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. Maybe some of you are going. In Catholic life, there’s also a tradition of having nine days of prayer leading up to something really important. So I’ll encourage you to maybe do a little nine-day novena leading up to this Eucharistic Congress, and I’ll encourage you to do something every day to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist. Now, we’re off to a good start now, right? We’re at Mass. We’re preparing to receive him in the Eucharist at this very Mass.
Well, what about tomorrow? Well, this parish and many parishes have a morning Mass—might be an opportunity if you’re able to come to a Mass during the week. Now, other folks might say, “Gosh, father, I could do that, but maybe I could pop into the church on my way home from work, just for a few minutes in quiet prayer before the Eucharist.” Gosh, beautiful. Amen. What a great thing to do. For other folks, maybe you want to pray a little bit of Scripture, maybe look at the Gospels where Jesus celebrates that first Mass with his disciples. Maybe you wanna pray part of a rosary or even listen to a podcast. Read a little something on the Eucharist over these nine days—maybe pick a little something different each day, even.
Dear friends, this gift of the Eucharist, the humble God meeting us. He who comes as a carpenter. He who comes to feed us with his body and blood.
Dear friends, let’s open our hearts to receive him at this Mass—at every Mass—as if it were our first Mass. Let’s pray for a deeper encounter with him during this Eucharistic revival.
