For this week’s homily, please watch the video below.

AMEN

Little words are important. Little words like Yes and No. They’re at the heart of our lives. Yes, No.

Today we are celebrating the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, Corpus Christi. Instead of talking about the Holy Eucharist in theological terms, I would like to reflect on the little words we say as we celebrate this mystery, especially that little word, Yes, which at Mass is the word Amen. Amen is the Hebrew word for yes. 

Did you ever count how many times we say that word, Amen, at Mass? Let me remind you of some of them.  

We began Mass “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” Yes , we say, we’re began something that only be known by faith. In that simple dialogue, we acknowledge this is something we can only do through the grace of faith that the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, gives us, and we pray for that faith. 

Amen not only expresses our faithful assent, but we’re asking for faith. We’re asking for faith through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We’re like the man in the gospel whom Jesus asked, “Do you believe”, who answered “I do believe, but help my unbelief.”

“Amen” ‘’Yes” is what we say to so many of our prayers at Mass. We will end our Creed, our profession of faith, with that word. We will end the prayers we offer for the various intentions with that word, Amen.  We end the Our Father with that word. 

The most important Amen we say at Mass is at the end our Eucharist Prayer, when we hold up the host and the chalice, the Body of Blood of Jesus Christ, and say. “Through him, and with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever. We are saying yes to a prayer of praise that thanks God for the blessings of creation, for the presence of Jesus, God’s Son, for the promise of life he brings us and to all creation. We’ll sing that prayer and that Amen, to signify its importance. 

When you come up for communion (that’s another beautiful word, “communion”) the priest or Eucharistic ministers say simply, “the Body of Christ” and you say “Amen.” We are in communion here. Jesus himself comes to us. We say the Body of Christ because Jesus comes in his body, not only his physical body, but in his body the Church. We’re in communion with one another as we are in communion with him. We’re in communion with the world itself, which he has created and redeemed. 

Amen. A little word that means so much.