The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s Sunday homily, November 3 at St. Augustine Cathedral
My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,
Because they were in great hast, having been summoned to go forth into freedom, to escape the clutches of Pharaoh, to walk through the waters of the Red Sea, the ancient Israelites did not have time to prepare their bread. And so they ran with unleavened dough, a sign of a new life given them, promised them in the covenant.
And so the Passover meal is born. A meal our Jewish brothers and sisters have celebrated for countless generations, a sign of their own liberation and blessing from the Father. The Lord Jesus took that meal, as you and I know, and allowed it to become a means of a far greater liberation, not just a liberation from the tyranny of this world, but from the clutches of the evil one himself. For it became the sacrament of our salvation and freedom from the chains of sin and death itself.
You and I entering into the mystery of our redemption in his one unrepeatable, perfect sacrifice on the cross. And each time we gather to celebrate this great sacrifice, we received unleavened bread that is the sacrament of our salvation and hope.
St Augustine, who is the patron of this parish and this great church, says, “We receive this sacrament not solely as the invitation to our own redemption, but to strengthen the bond that we form because”, he said, “We receive the body of Christ to become the body of Christ.” Which means, my friends, that we are all in our different vocations, lives, and states. We form one living body that brings the life and message of Christ out into the world.
But allow me to suggest this morning as we gather to celebrate the guild, the creation of the Guild of the most Blessed Sacrament, that this bread is leavened unlike this great sacrament, which is not. And what are we leavened with? Ourselves as temples of the Holy Ghost, the Holy spirit, the power and grace of God’s own life.
For you see, my friends, you and I have been given the grace so that we might animate, move, stir this body to greater Holiness, to greater service, to greater dedication, to greater witness of this offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. Each of us in a different way, each of us with our own gifts and talents, each of us with our own prayer life and our own struggles and challenges, all of us called to be leavened so that this bread, this living body of Christ, may continue to grow and multiply until it includes the whole world.
And those of you, my friends, who are becoming members of the Guild of the Most blessed Sacrament, you are being called to be the heralds of this great mystery. You are to be leaven within leaven, not by you perhaps may preach or teach, but by the integrity of your life, so that people may see in you a joyful, faithful, dedicated, generous, a kind and forgiving woman or man who proclaims that the Eucharist is alive in your heart and in it, the presence of Christ. And by that attractive witness, invite guide others to seek what you kneel before as often as you can in adoration.
For you see, my friends, the world is blind to this, and much of the church is asleep before this great sacrament. And it is time to arouse the giant to new life. To energize God’s people, to proclaim this offer that is given to everyone who comes to faith in Him. And so for those of you joining the guild, I am deeply grateful and delighted to initiate you. I hope and pray that there will be many more following in your footsteps so that the body of Christ may be leavened and energized and the world come to see that there is one road to salvation, one road to joy and hope, one road to everlasting glory, and it begins here.
