Eucharistic Procession, All Edmond - 2026

All Edmond Eucharistic Procession
Sermon at Final Stop inside St. John’s
1 November 2026

This day – the Lord’s Day – is about our Blessed Lord!  This incredible blessing uniting all Catholics from the three parishes in Edmond is about our Blessed Lord!  He is Emmanuel, God-with-us, who has descended from his rightful glory in Heaven to take on our flesh. He is the one who tells us that he will not leave us orphans. That promise remains true most especially in the humble presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. This day also happily coincides with the Solemnity of All the Saints. The Lord who descends to be with us, calls us to aim for higher, to strive for holiness and life in his Kingdom.

The saints are the holy ones from every time and place who have grown in that faith imparted to them in holy baptism. They were so filled with love for the Lord and filled with his life that they carried him into their work, into their relationships and into all of their endeavors, thus sanctifying all things in Christ. Quite literally, we have just carried Christ out into the public square. We carried him into places and before people who were not expecting an encounter with the Lord today, and who may still be trying to understand what just happened. We pray that the Lord’s grace will grow in them and lead them to deeper union with him and with his Catholic Church.

Like the saints experienced, when we take Christ with us into every aspect of our lives we will find a range of reactions from our contemporaries. Not all the reactions will be positive. The last time we did this two years ago there were two comments I want to share with you. One comment was found online days after the procession in a group rant complaining that streets had been blocked off. One man, by his own admission, was particularly upset that he had to park and walk one block to Hideaway where he was trying to pick up a pizza. He described being impeded by a protest march mob blocking access to several businesses. Now, as much as the next guy, I appreciate unfettered access to my thin crust Paradise Pie or the Boz at Hideaway. And thus, I sympathize with the online commentor who, after finally getting his pizza reported: “As I left with my pizza, the mob was listening to some wacko preaching on a loudspeaker in the city park.” I have never been so satisfied to be called a wacko! [By the way, you notice what titles have changed in the last couple of years: Msgr. Novak is now monsignor; I’m still the wacko! I assure you, we are both eminently deserving of our respective titles.] This is one example, albeit comical, that we must be ready to confront when we permit the Lord to be in every aspect of our lives. But there was another comment that was just as unexpected, but so much more revealing in its simplicity. As we entered Stephenson Park two years ago we walked into the midst of numerous families passing a nice Sunday at the park as their kids enjoyed the playground. As the procession entered the park the families around the playground fell silent and a few even drew near to the pavilion to participate in their own way. The sacred vesture of the priests, the canopy and monstrance caught the attention of one small child. One of the priests overheard the child say to his parent: Is that some sort of a king or something? Is that some sort of a king? Out of the mouths of babes! If only he knew! Perhaps our witness that day planted the seed of faith for both commentors. What a range of reactions from our world. One sees a mob, an interruption and an inconvenience. Another, though he does not completely understand it, sees a king and is drawn to come near to be part of this movement of people carrying their King and Lord into the world.

It is our joy to carry the Lord into every aspect of our lives and into our world. In fact, it is our “duty and our salvation” such that we become the saints we are called to be. By carrying the Lord into every aspect of our lives we will help others in the public square find their king, a King who gives Himself as more than a temporary snack, but the Food of eternal life!