The mystery of
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the real presence of Jesus
in the Holy Eucharist, this is what it's all about. Jesus paid a debt he didn't owe, because we owed a debt we couldn't pay. And in recounting how it was that their
hearts had been burning within them as he opened the scriptures, they then conclude, that our eyes
were opened in the breaking of the bread. That once our eyes are opened, the eyes
of faith, to the real presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread then we shouldn't need his physical presence
because faith really matures when we grasp the real presence of Jesus
in the breaking of the bread. Thank you very much, and good morning. It's wonderful to be with you. For me it's a special treat to be back in
my hometown of Pittsburgh where I grew up. And I'm always reminded of an
experience that I had several years ago. Sometimes you have an experience, that you don't appreciate
until later on when you reflect on it. Then you realize
it's practically life-defining. Well, that's what happened to me one day
when I got a call from a friend of mine that a mutual friend was in Mercy Hospital
with only a day or two left. And so I dropped everything and just
rushed to Pittsburgh from Steubenville, Ohio to see Father Ronald Lawler, a wonderful Capuchin priest
and a dear friend. I knew he was in Mercy Hospital
and I knew Mercy was downtown, but I grew up Protestant, so I knew right where
Presbyterian Hospital was, but not where the Daughters of Mercy
had tucked away their fine institution. And so when I got downtown,
I got real close, and I knew that, but I couldn't find it. So after driving around the block
two or three times I finally did something that many men seem to have trouble doing. I pulled over, rolled down the window,
and I asked for directions. Well, I clearly asked the wrong fellow
because he started chuckling. And I'm like, what's so funny? He said, "You're practically there." I said, "I realize that but I can't just find it. He said, "Well, look,
just turn down Pride and you'll find Mercy." And he walked away. And I'm thinking that's
the last time I ask for directions. Until I looked straight ahead
and the street sign read Pride Avenue. And so when I turned down Pride, I found Mercy Hospital staring me in the face. I couldn't wait to tell Father Ronald. He chuckled, too. He said, "That's the story of my life." I had to agree it's become
the story of my life, too, turning down pride in order to find mercy. It's also a reminder to me of my
favorite story in sacred scripture. If you have a Bible turn with me
to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 24. If you didn't bring a Bible just look on with the Protestant friends
you invited to come along with you. But I think we all know this story pretty well, so it doesn't matter if you have
a Bible to follow along with or not. Because it's the story
of Cleopas and his companion, who are walking on the road
that leads from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It's about ten miles long. It would have been quite a journey. At the beginning of the journey
as you recall, an apparent stranger meets up with them. Or at least they mistook him
for a stranger because, the reader knows it's the resurrected Lord,
but Cleopas and his companion for whatever reason
they don't recognize him. And so he asked them
what they're talking about. And they turn to him and say,
are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things
that have happened in these days? What things? He asks. Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people and how our chief priest and rulers delivered him up to be
condemned to death, crucifying him. But we had hoped that
he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this it is now
the third day since this happened. Moreover some women
of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning. They didn't find his body. They came back saying that
they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. And they go on, and on, and on,
and he just let them. I mean at any point he could have said,
"Time out, take a closer look, it's me." But he doesn't. And you've got to wonder why. And then when they're finally finished
you'd kind of expect him to say, "Buck up, it's not as bad as you think." And offer them some
words of hope, comfort, consolation. But instead, when they're done he turns to them, and it almost
sounds like he turns on them. He says to them, in verse 25,
"Oh, foolish men and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that
the Christ should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all
of the prophets, he interpreted them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. Mile after mile, for hours and hours the single greatest Bible study
in all of history. and there was no recording equipment. What a shame. But we know what happens next because
they arrived at the Village of Emmaus, he looked to be going on. And so they persuaded him
to stay with them, at least for a meal. And then they gather at a table, and that's where something happens. And actually four things happen. Because we read what he does at the table. He takes, he blesses, he breaks,
and he gives them this bread. We also recall exactly what happened. Suddenly their eyes are opened, and just as suddenly, he disappears. And they finally
turn to each other and admit "Did not our heart burn within us as we walked with him,
as he opened up the scriptures. And so they got up from the table and they walked
all the way back to Jerusalem. They found the disciples
and they reported their experience." And in recounting how it was that their
hearts had been burning within them as he opened the scriptures they then conclude that, "our eyes
were opened in the breaking of the bread." Now, we might think it was a flashback. He takes, blesses, breaks and gives. It's the same sequence of verbs
in Luke 24 that you find two chapters earlier in Luke 22 in the Upper Room on Holy Thursday,
when he institutes the Eucharist. But they weren't numbered among the 12,
so this wasn't a deja vu or a flashback. This was a Eureka moment,
a supernatural grace when suddenly through the breaking of the bread
their eyes are opened. And we all know I think that
the phrase the breaking of the bread goes on to become something
of an idiomatic expression in the first century from what we Catholics
describe in the 21st century as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
the Divine Liturgy, whatever phrase we employ in Acts 2:42, and again in Acts 20, verses 6 and 7,
and in First Corinthians as well. Again and again we hear the
breaking of the bread referring to what? The Holy Eucharist. And so as we think about this long journey
with an apparent stranger who's opening up the scriptures causing them you might call it
spiritual heartburn, if you will, but never once illuminating his own identity
until that moment when they see him
in the breaking of the bread. And just as suddenly he disappears. What I want to explain is going
to lead us to the conclusion that once our eyes are opened,
the eyes of faith, to the real presence of Jesus
in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread then we shouldn't need
his physical presence. We shouldn't need the visible sign
of his own resurrected body. If anything, our Lord knew
that if he had remained it might have become
an impediment to faith maturing because faith really matures when we grasp the real presence of Jesus
in the breaking of the bread. But whenever I read this story I'm always
reminded of my own life experience and how it goes all the way back
to high school here in town, when I had a grace
of the young adult conversion. I was on a retreat
after being in trouble with the law. And I won't go into the details
of my juvenile delinquency, for the memory of my mother. But suffice to say that I found the Lord
that weekend, or he found me. And it was a really
simple message of the Gospel. Jesus paid a debt he didn't owe
because we owed a debt we couldn't pay. And, boy, at that point in my life,
I owed a lot of people a lot of debts. To think that Jesus did that for me, made it easy for me to make
a decision by the end of that retreat if the Son of God gave his life for me, then this sinner ought to return the favor,
and so I gave my life to him. Well, within a matter of weeks all of my
buddies figured out something happened. I was no longer being invited to parties. I had to find new friends. And, in fact,
by God's grace, they found me. I got invited not to a party on the weekend, but to a Bible study
in the middle of the week. And so I went to my first Bible study. I think everybody could hear the spine cracking
as I opened up the Bible for the first time. And so I was wondering
what we would be studying. And so the teacher announced
to this small group in a living room. "We're going to begin
in the Book of Revelation." And I'm thinking
that's the back of the book. I knew at least that much. And so that night I sat back
and listened to some really scary stuff all about the second coming,
all about the antichrist, all about Armageddon
and this horrible battle. And the rapture where, if you were
fortunate enough to be faithful, you would be taken to the clouds before the great and terrible
tribulation would come. And after an hour I'm like, wow, okay. And so the next week I was back,
and for several more weeks we were going through
the Book of Revelation hearing all about the antichrist, the second coming,
the rapture and so on. And by the end of the school year, summer came, but not our Lord. In fact, that summer
I actually got to be a starting pitcher so I kind of
put the second coming out of mind. Until the fall semester
when I was invited by the same group to another Bible study
with a different teacher. And so we went and, once again, he was beginning in the back of the Bible
with the Book of Revelation. And we were hearing
all of the same scary stuff again. And after two or three weeks I said, "You know what, I'm just going to read this
for myself beginning in the beginning, the Book of Genesis." And so for the rest
of my high school years, I just began a systematic reading program of going through the scriptures,
the Old and the New. I was on my third
round trip through the Bible when I was getting ready to graduate. And so for me going off to college, it was an easy thing for me
to decide to study theology. And I added Philosophy, and then a third major, Economics,
since my dad was paying tuition and he didn't want
an unemployed philosopher as a son. But I remember having a dream come true,
a prayer was answered because I got to study Greek. And after going into an accelerated program
I began to read the New Testament in the original Greek,
and that was exciting. And so for the final semester
we had a project. We didn't know what it was, so we went into the accelerated program
final semester. And I was thinking, "Okay, we're going
to have a major translation project." And so I went there the first day of class thinking three or four
of my classmates would be there. I was the only one. They all bailed. And so the teacher says we're going
to translate the Book of Revelation. And I'm thinking 22 chapters? And I'm thinking maybe I should bail, too. And so she said, "You know,
it was supposed to be a bigger class." I said, "Perhaps we could take smaller book like Philippians, you know, five chapters." She said, "No, we're going
to tackle the Apocalypse." And so systematically we began
working through the Book of Revelation, or rather I did. It's some of the hardest Greek
you will find in antiquity. It took me an entire semester
to get through 22 chapters. But by the time I was done,
I was startled to find out that the word rapture
doesn't occur a single time, nor does the term antichrist, nor does the phrase second coming. In fact, the Battle of Armageddon
is mentioned, but only once near the end. So by the time I was wrapping up
my study of the Apocalypse I was wondering why
we were wasting all of that time back in high school
worrying about all kinds of things that aren't even mentioned in the book. I'll be honest,
I didn't know what the book was about. But finally I figured out
what it wasn't about. And it didn't worry me too much because
I was in love and we were engaged. And after graduation we got married. In marrying Kimberly, I married
the most beautiful gal on campus. And she's turned out to be
a much better bride than I thought. We went off to seminary as soon
as we got back from the honeymoon where I had another prayer answered.
Another dream came true. Because in the three years
of my graduate studies in seminary I finally got to study Hebrew which had not been
offered at the collegiate level. And in studying Hebrew
under a brilliant professor who made this old language come alive, I began to be able to read the Old Testament
in the original languages as well. Well, just to kind of
make a long story short as I was wrapping up my third and final year, my final semester, I was excited by the process
of being interviewed at a Presbyterian church in Northern Virginia. They wanted me to come down
to be their pastor. And so I went down, and I gave them
a kind of job talk, a trial, a sermon, and they liked it,
and so they made me the offer. And I thought about it. And then I realized in my conversations
with all of these parishioners that they were highly educated. And not just in other fields, but in scripture. They knew my favorite
preachers and teachers. I couldn't just recycle material. And so in agreeing to the job I realized I'd have to go back and spend these last
two or three months of my final semester burrowing in the stacks of the library
to find material to preach from. Because they made it clear that
the sermon each Sunday should not be over in less than a half hour,
preferably 40 or 45 minutes. I can't imagine what would happen
to my pastor if he tried that on Sunday. He would be run out of town. But for us we only celebrated the Eucharist
or what we called the Lord's Supper, four times a year. So it was a very sermon-centered service
and a very pastor-centered church, and I had to really -- I had to prepare. And so in those last two or three months
of my final semester, getting ready to graduate
at the top of my class with straight A's, I went back into the library stacks
to find new material. But instead I found old material,
very old, the ancient fathers of the early Church. I found a series of volumes entitled The Sunday Sermons
of the Early Church fathers. And as soon as I began reading,
I knew I'd struck gold. I was reading Ambrose
and Augustine and St. John Chrysostom. We had heard about all of these people. I knew the names, but we'd actually
never read these primary sources. And I was already involved
in a kind of research into the Passover and into Christ's death which had
exposed me to the connection between the Old and the New Testaments. But I mean these early Church fathers
made the Bible come alive in a way that I've never heard before. And at first I wasn't sure
what's so different about their sermons than my favorite preacher
and the homilies that he would deliver. And then I realized as St. Augustine put it, they would always show how the
New Testament is concealed in the Old, and the Old is revealed
and fulfilled in the New. And so they would never just take their
favorite passages from the New Testament and preach on those. They would always draw
from both the Old and the New. And what they were doing for me
was something quite unexpected. Because they were taking familiar stories from the Gospels that I thought
I knew like the back of my hand from all of the graduate courses
that I'd taken on the Gospels. But St. Ambrose especially
along with Augustine, were just experts at making
these familiar stories take on new life. For example, we all know that
God sent a savior to save his people and his name was Jesus. And as soon as the savior is born
the savior needed to be saved because of the empirical decree
of this tyrant named Herod who targeted not only baby Jesus, but all of the Hebrew male children
there in Bethlehem. But what Ambrose
opened my eyes to is that, it had happened before. Long ago in the Old Testament
God had sent a savior to save his people and his name was Moses. And as soon as Moses was born,
baby Moses was targeted by the imperial decree
of a tyrant named Pharaoh. And not only Moses but
all of the Hebrew male children as well. So what did God do? Well, in the New Testament
we know what he did. He worked through a man named Joseph
who is described as upright and has dreams and so he could
take the holy family to safety. Where?
To Egypt of all places. You go back to the Old Testament
and St. Augustine shows that there was a man named Joseph who is also the son of Jacob who
is described as upright who has dreams, and so he delivered the holy family
of Israel to Egypt for safety, of all places. And I knew both stories. I had never seen
the convergences or the parallels. But at the right time, of course, God sent the holy family to Egypt. But when Herod dies
the holy family came out of Egypt. Jesus passes through the water, and he's led by the Spirit
out into the desert where he proceeded
to fast for 40 days and nights. Of course, we all know that. But what I had never noticed before was
that when Moses is empowered by the Spirit to lead Israel out of Egypt
they pass through the water as well, and they're led by the Spirit
out to the desert where Moses fasted
for 40 days and 40 nights. At the end of which time,
he receives the law of the covenant. And he gives it to Israel
there at Mount Sinai. Well, after 40 days of fasting,
Jesus is tested. He's undergoing the temptations. And all three times he passed the test. And I knew why because
all three times he quoted the Bible, but Ambrose points out, is that all three times he passes the test
he's quoting the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 6 through 8. Which just so happens to be precisely
where Moses had corrected these foolish Israelites for failing their
exams because of their disobedience. They had failed these tests
because man doesn't live by bread alone, not even the miraculous manna
that God provided. You live by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God. You shall not put
the Lord your God to the test especially if he is
in the process of testing you. And you shall worship
the Lord and him alone, not that golden calf you made
while I was on top of Sinai. Jesus seemed to know exactly
where to go, and what to quote. And I had never noticed that
the early Church fathers were tracking Jesus' actions and words
better than my favorite profs. They were experts in the Old,
they were specialists in the New, but the early Church fathers were
preaching Sunday after Sunday in ways that build bridges
between the Old and the New. And I had a notebook
and I was keeping track. I had filled eight or ten pages of notes
still a month or two before my graduation, before my ordination,
before I began preaching every Sunday. And I'm thinking to myself,
there's gold in them 'thar' hills. I'm going to keep digging. I'm going to keep drawing out
more of these treasures. And, sure enough, they would take
more of the familiar stories. And so Jesus has come out of Egypt,
he is now through the water, he's fasted. And he is described as a new Moses. But what did Moses do
after the 40 days of fasting? He gave them the law of the covenant
there on Mount Sinai. What's the very next thing Jesus does? He gave his followers
the Sermon on the Mount. There's a new mountain
because there's a new Moses, there's a new law
because there's a new covenant. But as he begins the sermon he says, I haven't come to abolish the law
and the prophets, but rather to fulfill. And so this pattern of the Old and the New, promises in the Old
that are fulfilled in the New. This is what was making
my heart burn within me. And so what does Moses do
after he gave to Israel the law? He realized the law wasn't enough and so
he chose from the 12 tribes 12 princes, to assist him
in governing the people of God. What does Jesus do as soon as
the Sermon on the Mount is done? He chose from the many followers,
12 disciples. What a coincidence.
Not hardly. I mean, he says, "You'll sit on 12 thrones
and judge the 12 tribes of Israel." This was no accident or a coincidence. And as you continue reading Moses realizes
that even with the help of 12 princes this unruly crowd is too much. And so on another occasion he chose
70 elders, anointed them with his Spirit, to assist him and the 12 princes
in leading the people of God. Like our Lord who looked out one day
and said, "The harvest is plentiful
but the labors are too few." So what did he do that day? From the many followers
he appointed 70 more or 72, and then anointed them with his spirit
just like Moses had done. You know it reminds me of what
Mark Twain once famously said. "History does not repeat itself,
but it sure does rhyme." It was like divine poetry. When you read how
the New is concealed in the Old and the Old is revealed
and fulfilled in the New, you realize there's an artistry,
there's a beauty, a subtlety, a kind of poetry, when it comes
to how much God loves us. And so as you continue reading
the early Church fathers as I was doing, their ordinary Sunday sermons
were filled with all of these nuggets. And so I graduated. We packed up a U-Haul.
We moved to northern Virginia. I unpacked on Saturday night,
I mounted the pulpit on Sunday morning. And for about 40 minutes or so
I shared all of these connections, all of the parallels, all of the convergences between the Old and the New
between Jesus and Moses. And after the service was done, I was shaking the hands
of all of my parishioners in the back. They were like, wow,
we've never heard this before. They thought it was new. I didn't tell them it was ancient. Behind the pulpit
there were a lot of quotation marks, but I wasn't yet ready
to tell them my sources because I was still trying
to keep ahead of the game. And so week after week
I am drawing more and more out of these early patristic sermons. And so with the help of the 12
and the 70, Moses still grew weary. So on one occasion he went up the mountain
to spend a day alone with God in prayer. He chose from the 12
the three he was closest to. Aaron, Nadab and Abihu
not only accompanied Moses, but when he returns they see that
his face is glowing with divine glory. They ask him to put on a veil because
it was so hard to look upon his face. Well, what does that remind us of? The Mount of Transfiguration where
Jesus spends an entire day in prayer. But from the 12 he chose
the three who were closest, Peter, James and John who accompany him up the mountain
and witness this spectacular transfiguration where his face is glowing
brighter than the sun. When suddenly, who should appear? Moses and Elijah. As Ambrose pointed out
in one of his sermons, you hear this conversation between
Jesus and the law and the prophets. Moses gave the law. Elijah was the greatest of the prophets, and they also happen
to be the only two men to have ever fasted for 40 days and nights
and survived to tell about it. And so what were they talking about
there on top of the mountain? Well, we read in Chapter 9 of Luke,
that the topic of conversation was Jesus' departure
which was soon to take place. And so from the fathers I discover
what I should have known but didn't, that the Greek word for departure
is exodos. And so here is Jesus talking to Moses. I mean Mr. Exodus himself,
but not the Old but the New Exodus. And so this must have
gotten Moses wondering. You know, the exodus
didn't just happen out of thin air. We prepared for it through a series of signs like turning water into blood,
in Exodus 7. And not just the water of the Nile
but even the water in the stone jars. Jesus could have checked that off
his list because what was his first sign? Turning water into wine. The water in the stone jars,
the same phrase that you find in Exodus 7. If Moses said, "Well, I turned it into blood."
I think our Lord would have said, "Keep your eyes on that wine,
I'm not through with it." By the time it's done it will be the blood
of the New Covenant, the new Passover. But Moses could have also pointed out
that it healed miraculously, like the leper. Jesus could have
checked that off his list as well. Well, I provided -- you know the manna and the water
is to feed the 12 tribes of Israel. Our Lord could have pointed out how
he had taken five loaves and two fish and fed the 5,000 and filled 12 baskets
symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel. On and on the list kept growing,
more and more parallels. Sunday after Sunday
I kept sharing all of these things. And like me they knew both sets of stories, they just never saw the connections. And the more I was helping them make
connections between the Old and the New the more both the Old and the New
were coming alive for them, but also for me. So I'm still trying
to stay ahead of the game. And so this is where my study of Jesus
as the new Moses bringing a new law, the New Covenant, the Passover was looming larger and larger. And so I began to realize that this
is really where it all comes to a head. The culminating point
of how the Old is fulfilled by the New. Well, the culminating point for Moses
at the exodus was the Passover. And so the new Moses, a new exodus
will bring about a new Passover. And so I began to discover the Eucharist, what we call the Lord's Supper. And how in the early Church
they celebrated it not just once a year like Passover, but every week, not four times a year. And so I began to propose to my church that we ought to celebrate it
more frequently as well. So on a trial basis we began to make
each service less sermon-centered and make the Eucharist
the culminating point. Now, I began to realize
in reading the early Church fathers that I didn't have what
Augustine described as this special gift of holy orders
through apostolic succession. So I began to wonder
if I wasn't really playing church, you know,
pretending to confect the Eucharist when I didn't really have
what you find in the Bible or what you find in the fathers. So in less than two years
I had tendered my resignation. And that's when I went in search of a church
that would fit this job description that I kept finding in the Bible, but only when you read the Old and the New
in this sense of harmony or typology, which is how
the Catechism describes this pattern of the New concealed in the Old
and the Old revealed in the New to quote from St. Augustine. After resigning from my pastor
we moved back to the college town where we had first met and fell in love. At this point Kimberly and I had
our first born son named Michael. And so while she was tending our
baby boy, I was also studying at night. I was working at the college
as the assistant to the president, but at night I was doing
more and more research reading now the early Church fathers, but reading now
for the first time Catholic writers, names that I should have known,
but I never read. I mean names like Garrigou-Lagrange,
von Balthasar, de Lubac, Congar. These modern Catholic theologians
were able to make the Bible come alive like the early Church fathers. I remember reading late at night again and again for weeks. Finally I came out one night
to kind of share my findings with my devout
Evangelical Protestant wife who loved my preaching, who knew I was stealing from the fathers, but that's where it stopped. And so I came out and I began to read
not from the early Church fathers, but from a Catholic writer
named Louis Bouyer. And when she heard it she was amazed. She's like,
"That sounds like you're preaching. I miss your sermons. And it sounds like the fathers." And I say, "Well, it's Louis Bouyer. He's showing how the Bible
is liturgical and the liturgy is Biblical. And I'm wondering if we
shouldn't be looking into a church that's more liturgical like the Episcopalians." And her eyes got wide as saucers.
And she said, "Episcopalian? Need I remind you I was
born and raised a Presbyterian. My dad's a Presbyterian minister,
my uncle is, too, my brothers are, you're still a Presbyterian." I've never seen her burst into tears. She's like, "I don't want to be Episcopalian." I'm like, "Okay, fine, we won't be, okay?" And so I went back into my study, and I heard her say,
"Please don't do that again." "All right." And so I didn't
for about three months. And about three months later
I remember this, because I was reading through
the Documents of Vatican II for the first time in my life, realizing that I had struck gold again. And so I was working through the
Constitution on the Church <i>Lumen Gentium,</i> and when I came out I'm like,
"You've got to hear this." And I began reading it. And she got excited.
She says, "That's beautiful. What is that?" I said, "You guess." "I thought we weren't
going to do this anymore." "Come on, you've got your Master's
in Theology like me, girl, come on." And she said, "I have no idea
but I'm sure you'll tell me." And I said, "This is the teaching
of the Catholic Church in the Second Vatican Council." I said, "I'm wondering
if God isn't asking me to be open to the possibility
of becoming a Catholic." And her eyes got wide as saucers. And she said,
"Couldn't we be Episcopalians?" And I knew we were going into
uncharted waters shall we say.
