Download the Order of Service here.
Bishop Andrew’s homily:
It’s wonderful to be here and thank you for your welcome. I’ve heard it said that Scots are good at complaining. I know that’s true of people from Glasgow, but cannot imagine it to be true for people from Dundee.
In fact, the truth is we’re sometimes at our happiest when we’re complaining whether it’s the weather or the government, we sometimes enjoy a good moan.
The crowds in the gospel seem to have a similar tendency complaining last week they grumbled focusing on not having enough to eat this week their grumbling focuses on Jesus himself.
“Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph. We know his father and his mother.”
They claim to know who Jesus is but they’re scandalized by the ordinariness of his appearing. They cannot accept him when he declares that he is the bread of life.
To speak of Jesus as the bread of life is to speak about more than the Eucharist. It is to speak about that which sustains us, enables us and allows us to grow.
Our celebration of the Eucharist invites us live our lives for others, nourishing one another as a community of faith caring for one another.
This Eucharist invites us to be willing to give something away for the good of the other person.
To understand the Eucharist is to understand authentic love which involves sacrifice. Think about the people who have fed and nourished your life. Loving, teaching, encouraging, caring, forgiving, showing mercy and offering a second chance. Christ is present in each of those life-giving encounters and in those encounters we find our heroes for the pattern, their giving on the offering of Christ himself. We grasp the truth of the Eucharist when we understand that the love that we celebrate in this sacrament cannot be kept to ourselves, but demands to be shared, needs to be given away.
I once had someone describe the difference between a celebrity and a hero. A hero I was told does something for other people. A celebrity does something for themselves. I don’t want to be a celebrity bishop. I aspire of course to be heroic in ministry, in caring, in service and love for the good of the Catholic community in the Diocese of Dunkeld because we share a common mission, a mission presented to us in the Eucharist that we celebrate and made present in our shared life. Giving and receiving to the glory of God. Maybe be faithful to God and faithful and caring to one another as we live out that life together.
Photos courtesy of Eddie Mahoney