Florida Catholic | Bishop Visits High School

Bishop visits high school to talk about the Eucharist

CARLOS BRICENO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ST. PETERSBURG BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 12.14.07

CLEARWATER | Kids say the darnedest things, as Bishop Robert N. Lynch can certainly attest.

During a recent Mass at Clearwater Central Catholic High School, Bishop Lynch told the story of a fourth-grader at Pope John Paul II Catholic School in Lecanto who answered the following question he posed during a visit there: “Do you believe that the bread and wine becomes Jesus?”

“Oh, yes,” the girl replied.

The bishop said, “Oh, really. Why?”

“Because Jesus said it, and if Jesus couldn’t make it happen, then Jesus wasn’t God,” the girl said.

The bishop told this story during his homily at a Nov. 28 Mass at the high school to an auditorium packed full of students. The school was one of his stops during a diocesewide tour he is making to parishes and schools to talk about his first-ever pastoral letter, “Living Eucharist: Gathered, Nourished, Sent.”

As he pointed out to the high school students, the church’s teaching regarding the Eucharist — that it becomes the body and blood of Jesus during the Mass — may be something that “probably tests your belief,” he said.

But the bishop said he admired the girl’s belief because she was able to reduce great theological teachings over the years into a simple, accessible thought.

Bishop Lynch referred to the Eucharist as “this great gift that Jesus left us, the gift of himself,” and he reminded the teens that “the great challenge” of the Eucharist was to be whom you receive.

Clearwater senior Christine Ochsner said she appreciated how the bishop simplified the concept of the Eucharist. Because she has gone to Catholic schools since kindergarten, she said she was fortunate to be exposed to a religious education for most of her life. There are others, she said, who have not been as “fortunate,” and so she felt his pastoral letter — parts of which she had read the night before — was excellent reading for those who may not have had a good religious education.

“It’s all my religion classes in one little booklet,” said Ochsner. “Every parishioner and every Catholic should reaffirm and refocus (by reading it).”

The anecdote about the girl’s story really hit home to Sarah Higinbotham, a senior.

“I need to take that (what the girl said) to heart,” Higinbotham said, “and explain to other people that it’s Jesus because it’s Jesus, and there is no ifs, ands or buts.”

Jillian Rossi, a freshman, said she remembers that one of her second-grade teachers once told her that the Eucharist was really “a symbol.” In class, she raised her hand and told her teacher what her parents had taught her: that the Eucharist wasn’t a symbol, but that it really was the body and blood of Christ.

“It truly is a miracle,” said Rossi, referring to how, during the consecration, the bread and wine becomes the actual body and blood of Jesus. “That is what Jesus is. That is what God is. That is something we, as humans, can’t understand it until we go to heaven. By faith, we can learn to understand that more.”

The Eucharist has helped Michael Lovera, a junior, deal with illness in his family. Ever since his grandfather came down with Parkinson’s disease in 1999, he said that he is focusing more on the meaning of the Eucharist, and how grateful he is to Jesus for making it available by his sacrifice.

Lovera constantly prays that his grandfather remains healthy, and that the Eucharist gives him strength.

“It helps my faith grow stronger with God,” he said. “When my grandpa does pass, I’ll know that God is right there for me. It’s something that holds us together.”

During his homily, Bishop Lynch also challenged the students to volunteer at Pinellas Hope, a five-month project to help the homeless that is being coordinated by Catholic Charities. Dinners are being served to help those who are living in tents at the Clearwater site, and Pinellas Hope needs people to cook and serve the food.

“It’s my prayer that from this table you can carry Jesus forward by your presence and your help to a far more humble table (at Pinellas Hope),” he said.

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Bishop visits high school to talk about the Eucharist

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