21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, B August 22, 2021
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve.” For five weeks we’ve journeyed through John chapter 6. We’ve reflected on hunger and weakness and fasting. We’ve considered the limitations of this world and that we need to work at having faith to live from an eternal perspective. We’ve challenged the temptation of focusing too much on what we can get instead of what we can give. We’ve rejoiced at the promises of the Eucharist, especially how they’re fulfilled in Mary’s Assumption as a sign of what’s to come for us. Now it culminates in a simple question: Are you in or out?
If you paid any attention to Catholic news sources over the summer, you probably heard the term “Eucharistic Coherence.” The US Bishops are writing a letter to guide Catholics on this topic. What is Eucharistic Coherence and what does it have to do with us?
“Coherence” is when something makes sense. It’s when an idea or action lines up and fits logically with the overall picture. When we’re talking about people, it usually means a persons’ ideas, beliefs, and actions line up with the whole picture. A coherent life means a person has integrity.
Eucharistic Coherence is about how a person treats the Eucharist in their life. Do their beliefs and actions cohere… do they line up with what the Church teaches about the Eucharist, about Jesus overall? Receiving communion, contrary to the belief of many, is not a private action. Like Baptism and Confirmation, it is a public declaration of faith, of accepting all the Church teaches. It is a resolution to at least try to act in communion with the Jesus, including with his body the Church.
Communion is the whole reason Jesus came in the first place. St. Paul tells us that the union of man and woman as one flesh is a sign of the even deeper union God wants with us. But, as we see especially in John 6 and at the crucifixion, Jesus doesn’t seem especially worried about driving people away with hard teachings. The disciples say, “this saying is hard, who can accept it?” In response, Jesus only doubles down, promising to also rise from the dead and ascend into heaven.
And then it happens: “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” Jesus’ stubbornness costs him. How can he expect people to be in communion with him if he drives them away with hard teachings? Because communion with Jesus is communion with the truth. If they deny Jesus’ teaching, they simply aren’t in communion with him regardless of appearances. And Judas is proof of that.
The Gospel tells us that “Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.” Like Judas. He’s one of the twelve, but he doesn’t believe. He acts as if he’s in union with Jesus, but he isn’t. Later on, when he does receive the Eucharist, he gets possessed by Satan. So, what do you think is better? To admit you don’t believe and walk away or to lie about believing and stay close so that the devil gets to claim you?
The conversation about Eucharistic Coherence usually boils down to “who gets to receive communion and who doesn’t?” Pope Francis rightly teaches us that “The Eucharist is medicine for sinners, not a reward for saints.” But if someone doesn’t even admit they have sinned, what good will it do? Medicine only helps if you use it correctly. Drinking eye drops doesn’t cure an eye infection and receiving communion without repentance doesn’t forgive or heal anything. That’s why we insist on confession first for the big sins.
Someone might argue, “well, Jesus gave communion to Judas.” Judas’ denial wasn’t public yet. The Church can only deny communion in cases of public rejection. If someone thinks we should never refuse, then what about giving communion to Satanists for a black Mass? Or when a witch asks for a host to use in her rituals? Those are extreme examples, but to knowingly use the Eucharist as part of a lie is still sacrilege. Besides, Judas got possessed for receiving like he did.
Jesus gave his Apostles his own authority to govern the Church and the sacraments. He also inspired Paul to write in scripture that we should not receive communion in a state of serious sin. It isn’t some arbitrary man-made rule, it is God’s own truth.
That’s what coherence boils down to. Do we side with God’s truth or don’t we? Jesus is the Truth. To receive communion effectively we have to receive the truth. When someone publicly contradicts the truth, does not repent of that, and then asks to be in “communion” with that same truth, it is a lie. Like Jesus with the pharisees, the Church can and should stand against public hypocrisy, calling them to conversion first.
It has nothing to do with politics. Communion should be denied to those who publicly contradict any major doctrine of the Church, regardless of their profession: the dignity and rights of workers, the truth about marriage, the goodness of creation, the right to life, and so on. Not because it affects policy, but because it affects their salvation and the public witness of the faith. But that is the responsibility of pastors and bishop. What of the laity?
The Catholic Church is here to give you the truth in love. If you do not want the truth, then you will be offended. Even if you do want the truth, you will still be offended sometimes. But the truth doesn’t change: salvation only comes through Jesus Christ; not the imaginary Christ we want, but the one that really exists as the way, the truth, and the life.
Now, that doesn’t mean we have to understand the truth right away or that we even have to like the truth. It only means we have to accept it. For example, perhaps you’re puzzled by that second reading about wives and husbands. It is the truth – though it is easily misunderstood. The Apostles did not understand the Eucharist in John 6, but they knew better than to walk away. Eventually, they and we come to understand a little better, but it begins by staying in that tension. When we face a difficult teaching – with contraception or divorce or some aspect of catholic social doctrine or whatever – we basically have four choices:
One is indifference. We can shrug noncommittally, carrying on like it doesn’t matter. But if the truth doesn’t matter, it also can’t save us.
Another is to walk away like the disciples in this gospel. They at least are honest. Some of them probably come back after Jesus rises from the dead because their honesty keeps them open.
We can lie like Judas who rejects the truth but pretends to be in communion with it. This only gives the devil a claim on us. Even though we are not usually possessed directly like Judas, this nonetheless keeps us under Satan’s authority.
Or we can be like the Apostles. We can respond with a faith that doesn’t understand yet, but is willing to trust until it does. Peter says, “We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” If Jesus is who he says he is, then there’s only one coherent response to a tough truth that we don’t like or understand. To say, “to whom shall we go? You” – and only you – “have the words of eternal life.”