During Lent, we reflect on our personal need for transformation through Jesus. But during Easter, our gaze widens. We look at our life as a community and ask: how are we living the mission the Risen Lord has given us?

That is the question of our faith which lies behind the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish, and it is so central that it is the only miracle of Jesus that appears in all four gospels.

 The Greek word for “fish” is ichthys (ἰχθύς). Early Christians used this word as an acronym for: Iēsous (Jesus),

CHristos (Christ),

THeou (of God),

Yios (Son),

Sōtēr (Savior)

— which means Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. During the persecutions, the symbol of the fish, ichthys, became a secret code that identified Christian households. If you saw that carved outside a home, you immediate knew that was a Christian family and it was safe to gather there, break bread, and encounter Jesus.

Once persecutions ended and they started to build churches, the first forms of Christian art where paintings and mosaics of two fish with a basket of bread in the middle.

From the very beginning, Christians saw themselves as people who encountered the resurrected Jesus in the Eucharist. The gospels are filled with this identity. For example, Luke 24: the disciples on their way to Emmaus don’t recognize Jesus until the breaking of the bread. The gospel of John today with the miracle of the abundance of fish and the instruction to the disciples to tend and feed is meant to explain how the power of Jesus is present in the eucharist and is to be extended into the world in every generation. Identity is closely linked to mission.

All this is important for us especially at this moment that we have begun the process of Partners in the Gospel. We have been tasked the challenge of renewal and have been given the mission to do so by working with Holy Spirit Kent to become one canonical parish. A quick update on where we are at with the Partners process: last month I finished putting together the Parish Family Advisory Council, which is composed of parishioners from both St. John and Holy Spirit. I’ll introduce them to you soon. They, along with the Parish Family Staff Leadership Team will work together to begin our next rounds of listening sessions which will help us restructure to become one parish.  

As we prepare for that, I ask that we do so with THE question in mind: how can we more effectively offer the power of Jesus in the Eucharist, to others? 

Like the first Christians, that begins with us being grounded and centered in our identity as the people of God united and transformed by the Eucharist. That leads me to this question: if someone came into this church for the first time, would they be able to immediately see the Eucharistic identity? 

I am not so sure. They will be able to recognize the Christian identity for sure. In my 10 months with you I’ve gotten to hear the beautiful story of how this community came to its genesis, the thoughtfulness behind the culture of stewardship, the design of these buildings and the commitment to service. However, in just ten months, five different first-time visitors have asked me after Mass:

“You’re a Catholic priest, right? This is a Catholic church? I did just attend a

Catholic Mass, right?”

The first time I heard it I thought it was an off comment, but hearing it four more times says something and I cannot ignore it, and so I bring it to your attention to begin pondering for our conversations when it is time for our listening sessions. 

I think we are missing the ichthys, the visual identity that makes it clear to anyone that this is indeed a Eucharist-centered capital-C Catholic Church. I have suggestions. Every pastor brings their own gifts to a community. One thing I bring to the table is my theological understanding and appreciation for symbolism and art, which includes the beauty of sacred spaces. 

When I arrived at Holy Spirit, I noticed they had the the beauty of the sacred space, my predecessor did a good job on that, but they lacked in the action of the members to be more involved. I have been challenging them to let the beauty of the space reflect in the beauty of their service and get them more involved in being church, not just attending Church. 

Here, I notice the opposite. My predecessors have done a great job in fostering the beauty of the involved community, in being Church, but as to our space, it lacks imagination, and I say that with love. Now I understand why the building looks the way it does, it served a specific multi-purpose function, but I suggest we take visual identity into consideration because visual identity is just as important as lived identity. 

One thing to consider, for example, that gives people an immediate visual identifier of a Eucharistic centered people is the placement of the tabernacle. 

In the1960s after the second Vatican council, the tabernacle had become for some people a symbol of the past. It was seen as a place where the Eucharist had to be kept out of reach of all you sinners and only the priest with their holy anointed hands could touch it (that’s bad theology by the way). The council was moved by the Spirit to refocus the attention of the Church to worship and encounter the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist on the altar. The documents of the council refer to the Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith from which transformative power flows to the world and today, once Mass begins all the attention is given to the altar. 

The council also helped us understand that the Eucharist holds the fullness of

Christian revelation, the three tangents of our faith:   

1. That God raised Jesus from the dead
2. That God’s power is given in order to transform death into life. 
3. That God with us 

After Vatican II, some churches moved the tabernacle aside—not to deny its importance, but to emphasize the communal action of the liturgy. But that shift sometimes came at the cost of visibility, and with it, the clarity of our Eucharistic identity, so I suggest that in our conversations we consider the visual centrality of the tabernacle.

During Mass, the visual presence of the transformative power of Christ is the altar. It is center. Outside of Mass, the visual presence of the transformative power of Christ is the tabernacle. I shared with you on Holy Thursday how God called the priests to lead the people out of the desert and into the promise land by getting their feet wet as they entered the Jordan, but they carried with them the tabernacle, the visible sign of God’s presence, it was their identity, their source for mission for the challenge before them.

As we move into the 21st century we face a different kind of challenge, a challenge of sharing the gospel with people who have had little contact with the Christian faith. For a few decades now we have faced the challenge of reaching out to people who grew up in the Catholic Church but have become distanced from the church, some for many years and who may have only a vague familiarity with the teachings of the faith. 

You might remember that 2019 Pew Research Center poll that found that only 31% of Catholics clearly understand and believe in any presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. A more recent study of a few years ago found that only 23% of Catholics in the United States feel that regular participation in worship is an essential part of the Christian life. As the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is less understood, the visibility of the Tabernacle and the church is increasingly important. The Tabernacle reminds us that the healing power of Jesus is always there for us, and in a broken world we all need healing. I think that is why over the last years there has been an increase number of people coming into the Church, seeking signs of God’s healing presence.

We see this in the gospel of John today. After the miraculous catch of fish they sit down and eat fish and bread. What follows is the healing of Peter after realizing his brokenness, after his denial of Jesus before the crucifixion. As Peter denied Jesus three times, now Peter is healed as Jesus asks him three times do you love me? Peter feels the mercy of Jesus flowing into him through the Eucharist, he is restored, and only then can he answer the call to follow him without any fear or anxiety. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church assures us that it is in the Eucharist that we find forgiveness and mercy in the presence of Jesus. That’s paragraph 1402 in case you have not gotten that far: 

the body of Christ received in Holy Communion is given up for us and the blood we drink shed for the forgiveness of sins. For this reason, the Eucharist cannot unite us to Christ without at the same time cleansing us from past sins and preserving us from future sin…

What is the normal way that a Catholic Christian receives forgiveness from sin? The Eucharist, by receiving the body and blood of Christ. That makes the tabernacle not just a place of reserve to be set aside until next time, but a visible sign a sign of hope, a guarantee that the healing mercy of God is there for us at any time no matter what, it holds the center of or faith. 

The tabernacle is also a visual reminder of our mission. Peter is not only healed, he is also called by Jesus three times: feed my sheep. Healing and growth in the Christian life depends on actively engaging our part in the mission that Jesus now shares with us. We’re not only healed from sin, we are healed for something, we’re freed for something, and that is our mission. 

The Eucharist unites, heals, transforms, and sends. The Eucharist is the means God chose to be visibly present in the world, making the altar the center during our worship, and the tabernacle the center outside of our worship as it contains the totality of Christ’s transformative power. That’s my pitch to you to consider for the future.

Family, on this third Sunday of Easter as we prepare to enter the next phase of Partners in the Gospel, let us do so centering ourselves fully around the source and summit of our spiritual life, so that for anyone who walks in our doors might not only receive the welcome of the members of Christ’s body, but may without a doubt immediately identify the ichthys (ἰχθύς), a place is centered on Jesus Christ, Son of

God, and Savior—present in the Eucharist, and alive in his people.