Easter faith-Eucharist-St. Catherine of Sienna

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 03 – Year II

Our Deepest Yearning:

Memorial of St. Catherine of Sienna

(Acts 8:1-8; Ps 66; Jn 6:35-40)

****************************************

Karl Rahner famously stated: “In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we finally learn that here in this life all symphonies must remain unfinished.” That raises the question, “What is your unfinished symphony? What is your deepest yearning?”

The readings today provide both an answer, and how to fulfill that yearning: we are yearning for nothing less than eternal life, and we share in that life by doing the will of the Father – believing in Jesus as the Bread of Life and living in the hope of resurrection.

Ron Rolheiser OMI adds this insight into our longing, based on our human nature, to that quote from Rahner: The word sex has a Latin root, the verb secare. In Latin, secare means “to cut off,” “to sever,” “to amputate,” “to disconnect from the whole.” To be sexed, therefore, literally means to be cut off from, to be severed from, to be amputated from the whole. We wake up in the world, and in every cell of our being we ache, consciously and unconsciously, sensing that we are incomplete . . . aching at every level for a wholeness that, at some dark level, we know we have been separated from.

Ever since Monday, the gospel began with the words, “After Jesus fed the crowds…” There is here a hint that the crowds were longing for something more, but unfortunately, they were stuck in thinking something physical (baked bread, possessions, pleasure, power, material things) could satisfy them.

Jesus tries to correct that misguided notion and lead them into a new awareness of their own reality, their own longing. As humans, we are an unfinished symphony, and only seeing God, our creator, face to face will ever satisfy that deepest yearning of our hearts. Even St. Augustine took years of wandering in a wasteland of a prodigal lifestyle, having a mistress, begetting a child, and experimenting with different philosophies before he could articulate his well-known phrase: “Our hearts are restless, O God, until they rest in thee.”

Jesus is very straightforward and firm in his teaching. He uses the same “Ego Eimi” that God the Father used with Moses to identify God’s self – “I Am.” Jesus proclaims clearly in a similar way, “I am the Bread of Life” who alone can satisfy that deepest thirst and hunger of the human soul.

That thirst is actually for the very life of God – an intimate relationship with God, an experience of being totally loved and accepted as one is, a sense of one’s own infinite value and worth apart from anything one might have done, that all will be well in the end. We yearn for a sense of fully belonging, of a life filled with meaning and purpose, lived with serenity and characterized by an irrepressible joy.

Our task is to put our total faith and trust in Jesus as the Son of God, Messiah, Savior, Word made Flesh, Risen Lord and Bread of Life. It is to come to him for forgiveness of all our sins, and healing of all shortcomings. It is to follow him through the pattern of living to the full he gave us – his passion, death and resurrection.

That is the will of the Father, and the result will be experiencing the very life Jesus shares with the Father through their Spirit poured into hearts, here and now – in short, living within the reign of God.

It is this life that animated the early followers of Jesus, the early church, and propelled them out, even when persecuted, to spread the good news that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior of the world. How ironic that the despised Samaritans were quick to believe the message of Philip and experience the healing and joy of this new reality, when the Jewish leaders who were prepared over the centuries for this, rejected it and missed out on this whole new way of life.

St. Catherine of Siena, whom we honor today, was someone who truly lived these readings, who balanced prayer and action, contemplation and ministry in her life. One of four women doctors of the Church, she was born in Sienna, Italy in 1347, the youngest of 25 children. She vowed her virginity to God at the age of seven after a vision of Christ in glory. She then joined Dominican Third Order in 1365 and spent those first years in seclusion, fasting and praying. In 1368 after receiving a vision of Christ accepting her as his bride, she felt called to carry this love to others, and so became more active, caring for the poor, tending to the sick, and corresponding with people from all walks of life, including princes and popes. In the process she became renowned as a peacemaker.

Catherine was also a great mystic. Particularly famous are her visions of her exchanging hearts with Christ, and of the Virgin presenting her the Baby Jesus who gives her a ring. She expounded her doctrine in three works: the “Treatise on Divine Providence”, her “Letters” and a collection of “Prayers”. She died in Rome in 1380, was canonized in 1461, became patron of Italy in 1939, and was declared a doctor of the Church in 1970. She is co-patron of Europe with St. Bridget of Sweden and St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. What an example she is for us.

The Eucharist is an act of deep faith in Jesus as the Bread of Life and touches upon a completed symphony of life. We are nourished by the Word God, forgiven and healed by the body and blood of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit and thus given a share in eternal life.

May our celebration empower us to go out like Philip, to announce to the world this Good News of this whole new way of life, eternal life, that is offered to us as a gift of faith.