Rev Michael's Sermon – Sunday 16thNovember 2003

What would you do if you won the Lotto? You know - you went home this evening, watched as six small balls fell into a glass tube, checked your numbers, checked them again, and again, heard that there was only one winner and realised that a cheque for 5 million was on its way to Ansdell? Would you believe straight away? What would you do? Would your life be the same again?

We might say that it would. Convince ourselves that we'd be back at work on Monday morning, sit in the same place in the canteen, talk about the same things. But would things be the same? That one moment this evening would change our lives for ever, the way we related to our family, friends, the people we met on the street, in the pub. We would no longer be private people, no matter how hard we tried: we'd be on the front page of the Lytham St. Annes Express, item one on Granada TV.

In all likelihood none of us will go home this evening and win the lotto but we are guaranteed a greater prize as the psalmist informs us: "It is you, O Lord, who are my portion and cup, it is you yourself who are my prize". From this altar we receive a gift which is God himself, Jesus who is the bread come down from heaven, who promises us that if we eat his flesh and drink his blood we will receive the grace of eternal life, a life he has won for us through his glorious passion and resurrection. It is a foretaste and promise of the paschal feast of heaven: Christ's abiding presence and the one single sacrifice offered for sins: Christ who sits at the right hand of God. The gospel tells us that at the end of time we will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of glory. His presence among us now may not be in 'clouds of glory' yet it is no less the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary who becomes present among us, who appears within our midst at each and every celebration of the Mass, foreshadowing of the presence we will be received into in the future at the consummation of time when the angels will gather the chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the earth.

When the lotto began we were all told 'it could be you'…Christ is not telling us 'it could be you' but 'it is you' who will receive this prize. Do we believe this? That tonight we really will receive Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul in and divinity, in the form of bread and wine. The prize of Christ himself, who died in order that we might live. Do we acknowledge this gift and seek to appreciate more the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, to worship and adore the living bread coming down from heaven? Are we not even willing to give up a mere half an hour of our time to worship our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ truly present among us during exposition of the Blessed Sacrament?

Do we allow this gift of Christ himself, to change and shape our lives: the way we live each day as disciples of Christ, the way we work, the way we relate to our families, friends and even those people we find difficult. Is our faith something we live privately, something we are afraid to share with those around us - do people even know that we are men and women of faith.

People would know if we won the Lotto, not because we would tell them, but because our lives would be lived differently. In a few minutes, we are about to receive a bigger prize, would anyone know?

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