18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

August 4, 2002

Nine miners in Pennsylvania went into the mines two hundred and forty

feet below the surface and were trapped. For three days people of every possible service worked to rescue them. After three days to the cheers of a most grateful nation nation, the nine miners were brought up from the earth one by one.

The nine survivors were asked how they tried to persevere in that horrible situation. They said that they tied themselves together so that no one would get lost. They became attentive to the person who was having the most difficult time at any moment. They prayed together.

This is the Eucharist. This is the Mass. We are individually trapped in our busy lives. Problems and worries can trap us. Being overwhelmed by everything that is happening can trap us.

We are called to come to the Eucharist to be fed with special food. The Last Supper is made present. Jesus offers us his body and blood. In his body and blood we have made present his death and resurrection. The love of Christ, St. Paul tells us in the second reading, binds us together so that we can help one another to avoid anything that can separate us from him. We are called in the Eucharist to help one another deeply understand that "Nothing can separate us from the Love of Christ".

Is the Eucharist just to get us to survive? No. Then, why the Eucharist every Sunday? The answer to that question is found in the other very special event that took place this week. Pope John Paul made to indigenous Indians saints: Juan Diego of Mexico and Peter de San Jose de Betencur.

We come to the Eucharist to be rescued from our traps, to experience the love of Christ as he feeds us with his own body and blood and his own community so that we can go out and become saints.

Yes, the fact that we are baptized makes us know that we have the call within to be saints. We need saints in every age, neighborhood, family, school, parish, city, and town to bring people out of their traps and have them experience the love of Christ from which nothing can separate us.