SPEAKER_00: There was a time in the Catholic Church when many faithful Catholics received Holy Communion only a few times a year.
SPEAKER_00: They went to Mass, they believed in the real presence, they adored the Eucharist, but many approached the altar very rarely.
SPEAKER_00: Then came a pope who wanted to bring Catholics back to the table.
SPEAKER_00: Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Pius X, and if you ever watched a seven-year-old walk down the aisle dressed for first communion, you have seen part of his legacy.
SPEAKER_00: Pius X was born Giuseppe Sarto in eighteen thirty five in a small village in northern Italy.
SPEAKER_00: His family was not wealthy, his father worked as a local government employee, and his mother was a seamstress.
SPEAKER_00: Giuseppe became a priest, then a bishop, then the patriarch of Venice, and in 1903, somewhat reluctantly he was elected pope.
SPEAKER_00: He took the name Pius X, and he chose as the guiding principle of his pontificate words from Saint Paul to restore all things in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That tells you almost everything about him.
SPEAKER_00: He believed the church is renewed when people are brought back to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the great ways he did that was through the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: Pius Attent strongly encouraged frequent, even daily reception of Holy Communion for properly disposed Catholics, and he encouraged children to receive their first Holy Communion once they had reached the age of reason, rather than waiting until adolescence as had become the custom.
SPEAKER_00: But why?
SPEAKER_00: Why was this important?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because he understood something simple and profound.
SPEAKER_00: We do not receive Jesus because we have finally become strong enough.
SPEAKER_00: We receive Jesus because we need him, he's food for the journey.
SPEAKER_00: And that makes today's first reading almost perfect for his feast day.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel is taken into a valley, and everywhere he looks there are bones, not bodies, bones.
SPEAKER_00: And Scripture makes a point of telling us how dry they were.
SPEAKER_00: There's no pulse, no movement, no possibility of these people repairing themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Then God asks Ezekiel, Son of Man, can these bones come to life?
SPEAKER_00: What would you say?
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel gives the only answer he can Lord God, you alone know that.
SPEAKER_00: And then something extraordinary happens.
SPEAKER_00: God speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Bone joins bone, signs appear, flesh covers them, and something is still missing.
SPEAKER_00: They have bodies, but they do not have life.
SPEAKER_00: So God says, From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into the slain that they may come to life, and they stand, a vast army.
SPEAKER_00: Then God tells Ezekiel what the vision means.
SPEAKER_00: Israel has been saying, Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost.
SPEAKER_00: And God responds, I will put my spirit in you that you may live.
SPEAKER_00: That's the promise.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there are people listening today who understand those dry bones.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes faith becomes dry, prayer becomes dry, a marriage becomes dry, a vocation becomes dry, hope becomes dry.
SPEAKER_00: You still show up, you still function, you do what you need to do, but from the outside everything may look fine.
SPEAKER_00: Inside, something has lost its life.
SPEAKER_00: And our temptation is to think I need to try harder, or I need to fix myself, or I need to get everything together.
SPEAKER_00: But the bones in Ezekiel's valley cannot resurrect themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They need God to breathe life into them.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Pius Attent understood that.
SPEAKER_00: The church does not renew herself simply by better organization, better programs, or better strategies.
SPEAKER_00: We need Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We need grace, we need the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: We need God to breathe his life into us again.
SPEAKER_00: And then if we turn to the gospel, it tells us what a person who is truly alive looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is asked, Which commandment is the law in the law the greatest?
SPEAKER_00: He answers, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, and then you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: To receive the life of God so deeply that it begins to become love in us.
SPEAKER_00: Love of God, love of neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: This is why the Eucharist mattered so much to Pius Attenth.
SPEAKER_00: Holy communion is not simply a private moment between Jesus and me.
SPEAKER_00: We receive the body of Christ so that we can become more fully the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We receive love so that we can learn to love.
SPEAKER_00: We receive the living Christ so that the dry places within us can come alive again.
SPEAKER_00: So perhaps today is a good day to ask, where are the dry bones in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Where have I begun to say, even quietly, my hope is lost?
SPEAKER_00: Bring that place to Christ, especially bring it to the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Pius Attenth spent his pontificate trying to bring people closer to the altar because he knew what happens there.
SPEAKER_00: The hungry are fed, the weak are strengthened, sinners receive mercy, and dry bones begin to live again.
SPEAKER_00: God says to Israel, I will put my spirit in you that you may live.
SPEAKER_00: That promise has not expired.
SPEAKER_00: That promise is alive today.
SPEAKER_00: So if something inside you feels dry today, do not declare it dead.
SPEAKER_00: God is not finished.
SPEAKER_00: Let him breathe into you again, and then get up.
SPEAKER_00: Love God, love your neighbor, and live with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.