”Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him”….Joy is a by-product of a choice….Our world thirsts for this kind of joy…And authentic joy witnessed will be the net that catches many souls

Today at Holy Mass we hear Jesus in the Gospel of St Matthew warn us about what we chose to value….What is important to us speaks by the witness of our life…..“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be”….The soul and the eyes in many ways are connected…..A person with a pure soul is reflected in their eyes…..And such a person, who desires what is truly good, will in turn “feed” their soul…..Jesus also adds something to the Gospel text today which I find interesting…..”If the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be”…This implies that due to the corrupted state of a person’s soul - What is good can become viewed as bad…And what is bad can become good……We see this today in our culture…There are many people who are very sincere when they support….. Same sex marriage….Support abortion rights…..Advocate for divorce…..Use contraception……All these things are contrary to the laws of God…Yet, our society does not even “blink” at them any more…How did that happen?…..Our “eyes” have become “clouded” by the condition of our soul…..Again - The two are related (The eyes & the soul)….How do we remedy this?…..One Sacramental Confession - BOOM!…..You can not “read” your way to purity…Our flesh is far too weak…Only Sacramental Grace can cleanse the soul and when we avail ourselves to that grace….Our eyes suddenly "see"

“Look to him that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame. When the poor one called out, the LORD heard, and from all his distress he saved him”

At the age of twenty-two I made my first adult decision, which was to embrace my Catholic faith…As it turns out over three decades later…It was the best decision of my life!…..There were many reasons behind me making this decision but one of them was witnessing authentic Catholicism lived out in others….I am willing to bet that there are many Baptized Catholics who have never seen with their own two eyes a person who is fully alive…What do I mean by fully alive?…A person who lives by and through Sacramental Grace…..No amount of words can convince the world of the Truth contained in the Catholic Church more than the witness of a person who is authentically Catholic and fully alive!….Such a person stops traffic!…When I witnessed this for myself…Not only were these people full of joy…But there was something about their eyes…Their eyes had a light in them - They almost glowed in a way…This was tangible and frankly when I encountered “these people” I said to myself…Why can’t I have the same thing?…..This is how the Catholic Church needs to evangelize the world - Its the only way!…..There are so many “voices” in our culture, between social media, in our neighborhoods, in our schools and even in our family…But none of those “voices” can eclipse the witness of a holy person - A person full of joy, who has the light of Christ in their eyes…Such a person is a walking “billboard”…These are the people we must become….You can not “fake” this kind of witness and this is the witness the world thirsts for, whether people admit it or not…..Jesus tells us something in Scripture that many people ignore…But in this one statement, if it is embraced makes all the difference and that difference is very tangibly witnessed in people who embrace it……………..“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever”……Such a person who takes this statement to heart has “a light in their eyes”…..This “light” is a foretaste of heaven….Remember, what we are told today in St Matthew’s Gospel at Mass….“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light”….This “light” can not be self-manufactured…And this “light" is very real…….The question is - Are you interested in it?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven”

Today in the Gospel at Mass we are told by Jesus that our eyes “give away” the state of our soul…That our soul and our eyes are in a sense forever linked….Everyone wants to be happy - Right?….But do we know what makes for real, lasting and authentic happiness?…And if we do - Let’s be honest - Are we even interested?….Don’t miss out and Don’t believe the lie…..”Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him”….Joy is a by-product of a choice….Our world thirsts for this kind of joy…And authentic joy witnessed will be the net that catches many souls