All of you who were alive on 9/11 probably remember where you were when you heard the news. I was in Mrs. Montanero’s French class at Bexley High School. I want to tell you the story of 24-year-old Welles Crowther, who was working for the investment firm Sandler O’Neill on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center when it was slammed into by United Airlines Flight 175 on that fateful day. Crowther was not one to be phased by emergencies, though. His dad, Jeff, was a volunteer firefighter, so Welles had grown up around firefighters and their trucks and became a volunteer firefighter himself at age 18.
One morning, as a child, Welles was getting ready for church when his dad presented him with two bandannas–”one to show and one to blow”–he put the white one in his pocket and the red one he carried to blow his nose. The red bandanna became his trademark. He brought it with him in his suit coat to work everyday at the Trade Center. He probably had it on his desk or in his pocket on 9/11. After the plane hit, Welles left a voicemail for Alison, his mom, then went to work helping people. In the aftermath of 9/11, multiple survivors from the south tower commented on how they had been helped by a mysterious man in a red bandanna.
When she read a news article detailing the heroics of the mysterious man in a red bandanna, Alion knew that it was their Welles that had helped direct people to a safe emergency stairwell which got them out of the building alive. One of the survivors told a story of Welles helping to carry an injured woman down the stairs on his back. Another group spoke of how he led them down as far as the sixty-first floor, then pulled his red bandanna up over his face and told them he had to go back up. Alison and Jeff Crowther contacted the survivors quoted in the news story, and after showing them pictures of Welles, confirmed that it was him that personally enabled at least 18 people to escape the towers alive. His body was later found with the remains of several New York Firefighters in the wreckage of the building.
Try to put yourselves into the shoes of those people who were saved by Welles on 9/11. I can only imagine the overwhelming gratitude they must feel for him giving his life for them. I can imagine them never looking at a red bandanna in the same way. Maybe even some of them bought a red bandanna to put on display in their homes. There is such power in a token of self-sacrificial love. Jeff, Welles’ father, passed away in 2019. At his funeral, a red bandanna was stitched into the fabric inside his casket. At a memorial, one of the people Welles directed out of the tower that day said, “Without him, I wouldn’t be here.”
Isn’t that the reason we are all here to celebrate the Eucharist on this feast of Corpus Christi? Without Him, we wouldn’t be here! When Jesus celebrated the Last Supper, He knew the offering of His perfect life that He would give on the Cross the very next day. This offering was the perfect self-offering, the offering of a Messiah who wanted to vicariously offer Himself so that His love could pay the price for each of our sins. Jesus saw the incredible darkness of sin and death and its sway over humanity, and He stepped into the breach for us to rob death of its power and save each of us from the destruction that sin wreaks in our hearts and our lives. He stands before you and me and says that in the eyes of the Father, you and I are worth everything. Jesus died to save each of us and draw us to the unending joy of Heaven. As we heard in the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews: “For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.”
So this feast reminds us why we gather each Sunday and at every Mass to receive the Eucharist, a term which derives from the Greek word for thanksgiving: eucharistein. At every Mass, we offer Thanksgiving, and not just any Thanksgiving, but the one that Jesus Himself commanded us to offer. The Thanksgiving of the Eucharist is that offering made in union with Jesus’ perfect self-giving. Jesus didn’t just give us a token in memory of His self-giving for each of us on the Cross. He gave us a meal which would draw us into that very act of self-giving, and connect us to the One who gave Himself for us. Jesus’ gift to us in the Eucharist is Himself. In the Eucharist, we are drawn to the One who has made an eternal covenant between us and the Father through His heroic self-sacrifice.
Looking at the ceremony described in the first reading from the Book of Exodus, we see that Moses enacted a covenant between God and the Hebrew people by sprinkling them with blood. This blood symbolized the new family bond between God and His people. That is what covenants are meant for–an exchange of persons leading to family. So in the new and eternal covenant of the Eucharist, we are given the ultimate family bond with our Heavenly Father, one not enacted with animals’ blood, but with the blood of God the Son who became man and died for us. His Blood is that of the new and eternal covenant, shed for many. And He gives us that Blood to consume, so that we become one with Him, with the Father and with the Holy Spirit!
This is the Body and Blood that we celebrate on this great Feast: the Body and Blood which are that of the risen and victorious Jesus, the One whom death can’t hold and at Whose name all of Hell shudders. Hidden under the appearance of bread and wine is our Savior and Friend, fully and really present to us. We celebrate today the amazing fact that we get to share in the fullness of Him who gave Himself for each of us and for every person who has lived or will live. He has called us to the Feast where we feed on Him in order to share in His risen life. When He spoke the words over the bread and wine almost two thousand years ago at that Passover meal we call the Last Supper, He knew what He was giving to the Church–that way in which we would always stay connected to Him as a Bride is to her Bridegroom. He was giving us the wedding feast where Life Himself is joined to those He has destined to share His life forever.
Brothers and sisters, let’s never take for granted the preciousness of this sacrificial meal we are privileged to participate in as Catholic Christians. Nothing is greater in the Church than this Sacrament. The Eucharist is the Source which feeds all of the activity of the Church, because in the Eucharist we encounter Jesus Himself–Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. He is the one who makes us new and gives us the life of the Spirit. He wants always to nourish and refresh us with the Food that is Himself. The Eucharist is also our Summit. When we come to Mass, we encounter the One who is the Goal of everything we do. Whether we work, rest, celebrate, mourn, rejoice, laugh, or play, at every moment Jesus invites us to have our hearts set on Him. Our lives are called to be Eucharistic because we are a people fed and nourished by the One who is our Source and Summit.
As we walk in procession behind our Eucharistic Lord tonight, let’s take to heart what this means. We are called to always keep the Lord before us. Those 9/11 survivors have a red bandanna to remind them of Crowther’s self-giving for them. We have a living memorial of our Savior’s self-gift, where we meet the One who has given everything for us! Let’s never miss an opportunity to join Him in the Eucharist. Let’s allow His amazing self-giving love to flow through us as we receive Him. Let’s allow Jesus in the Eucharist to be the hinge of our entire lives. Jesus wants to meet us in the Eucharist to brighten all that is dark in us so that others might see His light and be drawn to Him. So let’s live and walk in the strength of our Eucharistic King, so that more and more others can come to experience for themselves the awesome power of His Real Presence here, and have their lives changed by Him.
+ Father, thank you for letting us encounter your Son in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus, open the eyes of our hearts to recognize the gift we have in your Real Presence in the Eucharist. Holy Spirit, as we receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, help us to surrender to His Presence and self-gift and offer our lives back to Him in response to His love. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Eucharistic Lord. Amen. +