June 18: Day by Day with Father Bill
FRIDAY OF THE ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
-from Pope Francis’ homily for the Solemn Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Sunday, June 6, 2021
The second image from the Gospel (of the Last Supper as recorded in Mark 14) is that of the Upper Room. Father Primo Mazzolari said of the person (who offered Jesus and his disciples hospitality): Here is a nameless man, the owner of the house, who lent Jesus his finest room … He gave Jesus the best he had, because everything surrounding the great sacrament should be great: a great room and a great heart, great words and great deeds.” A large room for a tiny piece of Bread. God makes (God’s)self tiny, like a morsel of bread. That is precisely why we need a great heart to recognize, adore and receive him. God’s presence is so humble, hidden and often unseen that, in order to recognize his presence, we need a heart that is ready, alert and welcoming. But if our heart, rather than a large room, is more like a closet where we wistfully keep things from the past, or an attic where we long ago stored our dreams and enthusiasm, or a dreary chamber filled only with us, our problems and our disappointments, then it will be impossible to recognize God’s silent and unassuming presence. We need a large room. We need to enlarge our hearts. We need to break out of our tiny self-enclosed space and enter the large room, the vast expanse of wonder and adoration.