topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (B)
Corpus Christi
14 June 09
 


 

Quite likely, most of us have never heard of “Minuteman Parking,” a firm that has been providing full service parking solutions on the West Coast since the firm was founded in 1995.

Because its employees are the first and last impression any guest will have of a client’s company, the mission of Minuteman Parking is to provide superior hospitality.  Every employee must be personally committed to provide superior hospitality and to deliver spirited service to every guest.

To this end, every employee must follow at all times what Chris Fox, the firm’s President and Owner, calls the “10 Commitments of Excellence”:

 1.  enthusiasm is the fuel of great service;

 2.  honesty and integrity: each individual is responsible for his/her own actions;

 3.  every guest is greeted with a warm welcome and a fond farewell;

 4.  teamwork builds trust, support and forms us into a cohesive unit;

 5.  workplace knowledge of your job and area enhances the guest experience;

 6.  a positive attitude reflects well on you, your department, and the establishment;

 7.  common courtesy is expected everywhere, in the hospitality business it is essential;

 8.  respect of our guests, yourself, and your teammates reflects in our job performance;

 9.  professional behavior ensures your guests that they are in good hands; and,

10. exceeding a guest’s expectations is our main goal.
 

If you havent heard of Minuteman Parking or Chris Fox, I’m sure you don’t know that Chris Fox has been eating Wheaties—“The Breakfast of Champions”—and collecting Wheaties boxes for more than 20 years.  In his office, Fox has on display more than 300 Wheaties boxes.  Why?  Fox wants Minuteman Parking to be a champion in its environment and, in his estimation, no human being has ever been placed on a Wheaties box for coming in second place.  The only persons or teams earning the honor to be placed on a Wheaties box are champions.

There is no room for second place at Minuteman Parking, Fox notes.  The guy who comes in second doesn’t get the contract or keep the customer.  As an entrepreneur, Fox is passionate about his collection and what it represents because, for him, Wheaties is one of those old American brands that are synonymous with success.  That is the name of the game: to be a champion.

To achieve this outcome, Fox tells his employees they must make four personal commitments: 1) to excellence; 2) to others; 3) to self; and, 4) to one’s integrity.  To have a successful relationship or career—“to be a champion”—one must make and keep these personal commitments.  To this end, Fox suggests that his employees examine their lives and ask themselves: “What would qualify me for placement on a Wheaties box?”

If you discover that you don’t qualify, Fox says, now is the time to change.

How are people to change in the manner Chris Fox is talking about?

The Wheaties’ “Breakfast of Champions” homepage offers a “recipe” to consider.  The subtitle on the homepage states: “Fuel, win, repeat…”

First: fuel.  One needs to imbibe or eat the right fuel so that person will possess the energy required to make the change.  Second: win.  One needs to direct that energy toward the goal so that person will experience success.  To win, Wheaties champions have coaches who assist a wanna be experience the success required to be a champion.”  Third: repeat.  The process doesn’t end with one or two successes but begins anew.  A successful person needs to fuel up again and again and again to direct that energy toward the ultimate goal, so that by doing this time after time after time, the change as well as success become habitual.

For Chris Fox, this is what makes a champion, whether as an athlete, a valet, a concierge, or bell staff.  But, for Chris Fox, the most important of all is to be a “champion” human being.

As Catholics, our goal is to become spiritual champions, what’s called a “saint.”  To “do this,” we must make three personal commitments: 1) to love God and neighbor as we love ourselves; 2) to become perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect; and, 3) to fulfill our personal vocations. To be a spiritual champion—to be a saint—we must make and keep these three commitments.

That is our mission.  In this regard, we might examine our lives and ask: “What would qualify me for sainthood?”  If we discover that we don’t qualify, now is the time to change.

To assist us to change, we have a “Breakfast of Champions.”  But, we must “fuel, win, repeat…” if we are to “run the good race” and “fight the good fight” to their completion, as St. Paul reminds us.  That “Breakfast of Champions” is the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  It is his true body and the true blood, not some mere symbol or sign, which brings us into Holy Communion with God.  This great gift gives us the power to bring to fulfillment those three spiritual commitments.

First, fuel.  We need to partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ so that we will possess the energy we need to change.  That is why we gather here―to receive the fuel we need if we are to love God and neighbor as we love ourselves, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to fulfill our personal vocations.  Just as a car can’t run without fuel, so our souls can’t run without the fuel they need.

Second, win.  We need to allow the body and blood of Jesus Christ to direct that energy toward our goal so that we will experience success and allow success to build upon success.  A “win” doesn’t come about by wishing.  Nothing breeds success like success.  Like Wheaties champions, we also have coaches to assist us in winning.  Those coaches?  The wisdom contained in Scripture and Church teaching which possess everything we need to know if we are to win.

Third, repeat.  The process begins all over again: we need to fuel up again and again and again to direct the power given to us in the body and blood of Jesus toward the goal, so that by “doing this” time after time after time, the change as well as the wins become habitual.  “Practice makes perfect,” we are told.  How true that is!  But, we practice not simply to become better and better at what we do.  No, practice strengthens and perfects us in virtue so that we will accrue more and more wins as the body and blood of Jesus Christ change us.

This is what makes a spiritual champion—a saint—no matter what our status in life may be: young or old; rich or poor; beautiful or not so beautiful; tall or short; thin or fat; educated or uneducated; fully abled or partially abled; married or single.  It matters not.

In considering this “Breakfast of Spiritual Champions,” let’s not overlook an important theological point.  As Catholics, we believe the bread and the wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ when we gather as a Eucharistic community.  When we “Do this in memory of me,” we understand that Jesus Christ becomes fully and completely present in his body and in his blood.  However, although we may understand that the substances—the bread and wine—are transformed, we will never grasp fully how that takes place.

If we wish to understand better how that transformation—what is called “transubstantiation”—does take place, we need to look beyond the ritual itself—the “Do this in memory of me” part that takes place here in church.  In addition, we have to take a good look at ourselves—“Do this in memory of me”―by evaluating whether we allow our reception of the body and blood of Jesus Christ here in church to transform us into his body and blood, alive and at work in our lives, our marriages, our families, our homes, and everywhere we bring the gospel “to the ends of the world.”

We can make Holy Communion an entirely private matter, where we invite Jesus Christ to enter into our bodies.  But, if it stops there, without effecting the kind of spiritual change that will empower us to become spiritual champions, then we have failed to become what we eat and drink when we partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  We have not participated fully and completely in the Eucharist.

When Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, he spoke to his disciples about how his body would be “given up” and his blood would be “poured out” in anticipation of his death on the Cross on Good Friday, as St. Paul reminded us in today’s epistle.  That fateful day, his body was broken and his blood poured out.  But, today, breaking his body and pouring out his blood requires making and keeping the three commitments required of a spiritual champion: loving God and neighbor as we love ourselves; seeking to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect; and, fulfilling our personal vocations.  While “Do this in memory” does point to the bread and wine that are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, those words also point to each and every one of us as well as the transformation that is the consequence of our participating in a Holy Communion where God transcends space and time to enter into our bodies and make a home in us so that we become the body and blood of Jesus Christ alive and at work, bringing the gospel “to the ends of the earth.”

At Minuteman Parking, every employee must be personally committed to provide superior hospitality and to deliver spirited service to every guest.  That is their corporate mission.  For this purpose, all employees must follow at all times the “10 Commitments of Excellence” and make four personal commitments: to excellence; to others; to self; and, to one’s integrity.  The mission is to come in first place, not second place.

As Catholics, every one of us must be personally committed to witness to the gospel to “the ends of the earth.”  That is our mission.  For this purpose, we have the Ten Commandments—our principles for leading a holy life—and must make three commitments: to love God and neighbor as we love ourselves; to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect; and, to fulfill our personal vocations.  A first-place finish is our goal.

No one becomes a champion nor has anyone become a saint for finishing second; the only people who earn this honor are those who finish first.  In our world today, there is no room for second place among Catholics.  We must be passionate about the body and blood of Jesus Christ because there can be no success without it.  If we come in second, we have failed in our mission.

Wheaties—“The Breakfast of Champions”—inspired Chris Fox to form a company of champions whose excellence in fulfilling their corporate commitments provides a model for others to emulate.  As Catholics, we have a “Breakfast of Champions,” the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the awesome consequences of which bring us into holy communion with God so that we “become what we eatspiritual championsnot on a cereal box but as we join the communion of saints in heaven.

 

 

Now for a brief commercial break:

Did you know?  Some Wheaties trivia...

1926 - the first ever singing radio commercial: using the jingle
     
Have you tried Wheaties? (to the tune of Jazz Baby)

1934 - first athlete depicted on a Wheaties box:
      baseball player Lou Gehrig

1934 - first woman depicted on a Wheaties box:
      aviator Elinor Smith

1935 - first woman athlete depicted on a Wheaties box:
      golfer and athlete Babe Zaharias

1936 - first African American Athlete on a Wheaties box:
      Jesse Owens

1939 - first televised commercial sports broadcast sponsorship:
      the 1939 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

1958 - first athlete depicted on the front of a Wheaties box:
      pole vaulter Bob Richards

1969 - first golfer depicted on the front of a Wheaties box:
      Lee Trevino

1984 - first woman athlete depicted on the front of a Wheaties box:
      gymnast Mary Lou Retton

1986 - first football player depicted on the front of a Wheaties box:
      Walter Payton

1987 - first team depicted on a Wheaties box:
      1987 World Series Champion Minnesota Twins

1991 - first ice hockey team depicted on a Wheaties box:
      1991 Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins

1992 - first non-orange Wheaties box, colored red and black
      in honor of the Chicago Bulls

1997 - first automobile race driver depicted on the front
      of a Wheaties box: Dale Earnhardt

2002 - first university wrestler featured on Wheaties boxes:
      Cael Sanderson

2005 - first women professional sports team to appear
      on Wheaties box: Sacramento Monarchs

2006 - first college football rivalry to appear on Wheaties Box:
      State Farm Lone Star Showdown, the rivalry between
      the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies

 

Michael Jordan holds the record for most depictions on a Wheaties box, a total of 18 times, followed by Tiger Woods at 14 times.

 

 

 

mail2.gif (2917 bytes)      Does today’s homily raise any question(s) that you would like
                   me to respond to? Mail your question(s) by double clicking on
               
    the mailbox. I will respond to your question(s) at my first
                   available opportunity.


   Double click on this button to return to the homily
                                         webpage.