When you fall in love with the Eucharist, you fall in love with Jesus Christ

Deacon Kevin Gingras

Jan 18, 2026

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011826.cfm

Isaiah 49:3, 5-6   Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10

1 Corinthians 1:1-3    John 1:29-34

John the Baptist knew Jesus.  They were cousins, so that makes sense.  But John tells us he didn't know Jesus. I think what John was talking about is that he didn't know that Jesus really was the Son of God. Last week, we heard how John baptised Jesus.  The Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus - that is when John knew who Jesus was! Today, we hear that John knew who Jesus was on another level as he proclaims:

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

John used language that Jewish people would understand.  We may not fully grasp the connection today, but it harkens back to the book of Exodus and the Passover.  Exodus 12 describes the rules for the Passover Ritual, the thing the Jews had to do to be saved:

Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month, every family must procure for itself a lamb… Your lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish… They will take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They will consume its meat that same night…

Jews sacrificed lambs, particularly for Passover, by selecting a perfect male lamb, slaughtering it in the Temple courtyard, and having priests collect its blood to sprinkle on the altar while the owner roasted and ate the meat with family. This was a solemn, communal act of remembrance and thanks, marking God's protection in Egypt. 

These words and actions should be at least remotely familiar to all of us!  This is a snippet taken from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the book all priests use at every Mass, the one on the altar, which reads:

The Priest genuflects, takes the host and, holding it slightly raised above the paten or above the chalice, while facing the people, says aloud: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

Blessed are we indeed!  Jesus became the perfect sacrifice, the sinless “Lamb of God,” and his offering was pure and final, until the end of time.  He gave his life willingly, not just for his followers, but also for his enemies and those who persecuted him.  His sacrifice is eternally effective, extending to us today and on into the future.  We experience this sacrifice today, a bit different, a bit cleaner, if you will.  Today we experience this sacrifice in the Eucharist.  Here are some summaries from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Eucharist:

It is a perpetuation of Christ's Sacrifice (CCC 1323, 1351): At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist to "perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again," entrusting it as a memorial to His Church.

It is one single sacrifice (CCC 1367): The Mass makes present the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross; it's the same Christ who offered Himself, but the manner of offering (unbloody) is different from the bloody sacrifice on the cross.

Christ is Present (CCC 1374): Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the priest's words, the bread and wine become the true Body and Blood of Christ, really and substantially present.

Source and Summit (CCC 1324): The Eucharist is the "source and summit of the Christian life," completing Christian initiation and uniting believers more deeply with Christ.

A Sacrament of Love (CCC 1323): It's a "sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet" where Christ is consumed, grace is received, and glory is pledged.

Offered for All (CCC 1369): As a sacrifice, it's offered for all the faithful (living and dead) for the forgiveness of sins and to obtain spiritual benefits.

So what are we supposed to do with all this information?  I suggest this week get to confession if you haven’t been in a while.  Let the Lamb of God take away your sins. Unclog that pipeline of God’s grace into your life.  After that, fall in love with the Eucharist all over again because when you fall in love with the Eucharist, you fall in love with Jesus Christ!

I pray that this week we all come to realize the words of St Thomas Aquinas: 

The Eucharist is the sacrament of love: it signifies love, it produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.

Where and What is my Excessive Treasure

 Deacon Kevin Gingras

Sept 25th, 2025

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092125.cfm

Amos 8:4-7    Psalm 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8

1 Timothy 2:1-8    Luke 16:1-13

This week, as Jesus continues on his journey towards Jerusalem and his ultimate sacrifice, He gives us yet another interesting story.

In today’s parable, the master gets wind of the steward's dishonest practices and calls him out on the carpet; the steward is to be audited.  Even then, they didn’t like audits!  The steward is afraid of losing his situation, so he goes to all the master’s debtors and tells them to write notes that are significantly less than what they used to owe.  This is because the steward has removed HIS portion of the debt, his commission. The master will still get his full cut, so the master commends the dishonest steward.  Now, if the master decides to fire the steward, he has just made some new friends who might be inclined to hire him, and he can keep his life of leisure. Jesus challenges us today to choose our goal in life: God or treasures. Today’s steward liked treasures. The first reading from the prophet Amos also reminds us that wealth was a seductive trap for the people of God throughout salvation history.  Is our wealth a trap for us, too?  What do we do about it?

All the treasures we carry add unnecessary weight to us, to our souls.  We must be good stewards like in today’s Gospel:

No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.

What do we serve?  Our treasure here on earth?  I hope not. A few years ago, my daughter Faith and I were walking down the beach.  She kept picking up what she deemed to be “treasures” and handing them to me.  I considered it all to be debris, but my opinion didn’t matter.  Anyway, I was putting these treasures into my pants pockets.  We were walking around Boardwalk Beach in Sandwich on Cape Cod.  She kept finding more and more “treasures”, rocks, shell parts, and the like.  I kept putting them in my pockets for her.  At first, it was no big deal, but as we rounded the bend, I realized I had to start hiking my pants up after a few steps; these “treasures” were getting heavy and were weighing my pants down!  Our treasures on earth can do this to us; we slowly stockpile them, accumulating more and more.  We just get more and more treasure, so we need more places to store our treasure.  I’ve noticed a huge amount of storage facilities going up all over the place.  Our stuff doesn’t fit in our houses anymore!  Our treasures are weighing us down.

J.R.R. Tolkien, in his book The Hobbit, wrote:

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

 The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the chapter on the Tenth Commandment - Thou shalt not Covet thy Neighbor’s goods with the following:

2551 "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Mt 6:21). 

2552 The tenth commandment forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. 

2553 Envy is sadness at the sight of another's goods and the immoderate desire to have them for oneself. It is a capital sin. (YIKES!)

2554 The baptized person combats envy through goodwill, humility, and abandonment to the providence of God.

2555 Christ's faithful "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal 5:24); they are led by the Spirit and follow his desires.

2556 Detachment from riches is necessary for entering the Kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are the poor in spirit."

This week, I’m giving myself homework.  To thank God for all that I have and make an account of all my treasure! Reminding myself that not all stuff is bad; some stuff is necessary to survive, but where and what is my excessive stuff? What of our treasure is weighing us down and keeping our eyes away from God? Where can we cut back, and where can we give to those who have so much less than we do?

St. Anthony of Padua really cuts to the heart with this quote:

“Earthly riches are like the reed. Its roots are sunk in the swamp, and its exterior is fair to behold, but inside, it is hollow. If a man leans on such a reed, it will snap off and pierce his soul.”