20 SUNDAY – Aug 19 - Homilies
'Anyone who eats this bread will live forever.' These words of Jesus from today's gospel set the tone of our celebration today. We who share this meal share in the life of Jesus. And as he says: 'As I draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me.'
This is not some magic formula, rather it is the mystery that our sharing here is not simply joining us to one another in the way that every common meal unites those who participate in it, but that in our sharing here we are caught up into the life of God. We are caught up into the life of the Father, who has sent his Son among us as our source of life and wisdom, and who has sent his Spirit into our hearts.
Sean Goan
Let us understand
We begin here, where we left off last week, with further misunderstanding of Jesus by the crowds. Clearly Jesus is not speaking of cannibalism and so he takes the image further by talking of his flesh and blood. Partaking in his flesh and blood means believing in him and in his life-giving death. Through their faith they are in communion with him and that communion is expressed through the Eucharist. The believer comes to live in him and draws life from him just as Jesus himself drew life from the Father. Everything here must be viewed from the perspective of Jesus' death on the cross. Through the Eucharist we come to live by the same self sacrificing love that brought Jesus to Calvary. It is striking that in John's account of the last supper there is no reference to Eucharist but rather a depiction of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. John shows us the Eucharist in action and this is a reminder that the union with Jesus offered through Holy Communion cannot be thought of in some purely personal, devotional way. Jesus gives himself to us so that we can give ourselves to others.
Reflection
Even though the first reading today may be two and an half thousand years old, the call to seek wisdom and reject foolishness has a very contemporary ring to it. Human nature does not change but we are slow to learn from experience. Today, life itself on this wonderful planet is threatened by our folly and a refusal to recognize that our actions have consequences. Instead of feasting ourselves at the sustainable banquet at Wisdom's house, we prefer to go blindly on gorging ourselves and ignoring the fact that God has called us to a responsible stewardship of his creation. Our celebration of the Eucharist should be a weekly reminder to us that we are all called to a life-giving relationship with God, with one another and with the planet we share.
Textual comments
This
is the fourth passage from John 6 that the Church invites us to meditate on at
this time of the year, and the third in which Jesus gives the people a teaching
based on their experience of the miraculous feeding.
Some
themes are repeated in all these passages, and yet each passage has its own
dominant theme running through it. In the two previous passages Jesus presented
himself to the people as "bread come down from heaven". In this one,
he pushes the metaphor further: he gives them his flesh to eat and his blood to
drink.
You may find the metaphor strange, but you should try to enter into it, so that it becomes part of your prayer. Remember that in Bible meditation it is not sufficient to get the meaning of a passage; you must get into the words themselves and grow to love them so that you feel moved to repeat them many times.
The metaphor has its origins in "flesh and blood", the biblical expression that means the reality of a human being, with a special stress on his or her weakness or limitations. For example, when in Matthew 16 Peter made his act of faith, it did not come from "flesh and blood", but as a gift from God. So, too, St Paul warned the Ephesians that their struggle was not merely against "flesh and blood", but against heavenly forces.
When Jesus says that he gives his flesh to eat and his blood to drink, he is saying three things. The first is that he gives himself totally to others; every part of his being is at their service. It is the same as saying "This is my body given for you."
Secondly, he is inviting people to deep union with himself, to "have his spirit coursing through their souls so that they can know the passion of his love for every one", as we sing in the hymn "To be the Body of the Lord."
Thirdly, he wants them to unite their weakness and their sufferings with his so that they can experience his strength and his courage. As he would say to them at the Last Supper, "In the world you will have trouble, but be brave, I have conquered the world." When we eat his flesh and drink his blood, our own flesh and blood are ennobled. St Paul says it in 2 Corinthians: 'We carry with us in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus too may always be seen in our body."
The passage is therefore a meditation on Jesus as teacher, leader and guide. In all three roles he does not stand outside of people, he wants to share their lives and to have them share his.
Now this tells us something about God. Whereas we tend to imagine God in heaven looking down on us but not getting involved in the movement of our history, Jesus shows God entering into flesh and blood with us.
But
the passage also tells us about human relationships. In your meditation
remember with gratitude people who have been Jesus for you - a parent, a
spiritual guide, a friend, a national leader. Naturally you will feel the
passage calling you to grow in your own relationships.
Finally, a good meditation on this passage will help you to appreciate the Eucharist. It will show you why Jesus chose to be present in the Church under the form of bread and wine.
It is not possible to meditate on a passage such as this one all together: take one section at a time and enter into it, letting it speak to your experience. I suggest dividing the passage as follows:
- Verses 51 and 52: the people are questioning the very possibility of someone giving himself totally, as Jesus claims to do. Their response is cynical, but is it not typical of the way many would respond today?
Finally, a good meditation on this passage will help you to appreciate the Eucharist. It will show you why Jesus chose to be present in the Church under the form of bread and wine.
It is not possible to meditate on a passage such as this one all together: take one section at a time and enter into it, letting it speak to your experience. I suggest dividing the passage as follows:
- Verses 51 and 52: the people are questioning the very possibility of someone giving himself totally, as Jesus claims to do. Their response is cynical, but is it not typical of the way many would respond today?
- Verse 52 invites us to think of people who have no life in them, and to go to the root cause - they have never experienced, or perhaps have never let themselves experience, the kind of selfless love that Jesus gives.
- Verse 54 introduces the theme we have met several times in the chapter; deep relationship with God in Jesus lifts us up beyond the limitations of time and history.
- In verse 55 we remember that there is false food and drink and to recognise them we can look at what relationship with Jesus does to us.
-
Verse 56 teaches us the effect of love, the love of Jesus, as well as of all
those who love selflessly.
- In verse 57 we see another effect of selfless love. Here, as frequently in St John's gospel, Jesus' relationship with his followers is similar to his relationship with his Father - "as the Father has sent me so I am sending you"; "as the Father loves me so I have loved you."
- In verse 58 we see again the theme of the newness of Jesus' teaching.
- In verse 57 we see another effect of selfless love. Here, as frequently in St John's gospel, Jesus' relationship with his followers is similar to his relationship with his Father - "as the Father has sent me so I am sending you"; "as the Father loves me so I have loved you."
- In verse 58 we see again the theme of the newness of Jesus' teaching.
Homily Notes
1.
When I wander around a supermarket I can buy any food I fancy, from anywhere in the world, at any time in the year. While it might be hard to buy a Christmas Cake in July, virtually anything else I fancy — and can afford — is available all the time. I can choose a menu every day based on what I want, what I like, or what the latest television cooking sensation decrees is what stylish people eat. It could be a wintry day in January, yet I might want a salad and can find all that I need to make it: seasons no longer count, and I might have exotic flavours — all fresh — from three continents. We are less than a generation from when we marvelled that one could get'new' potatoes all year round, yet in this world of maximum consumer choice we simply cannot grasp the full significance of Jesus describing himself as the bread of life.
When I wander around a supermarket I can buy any food I fancy, from anywhere in the world, at any time in the year. While it might be hard to buy a Christmas Cake in July, virtually anything else I fancy — and can afford — is available all the time. I can choose a menu every day based on what I want, what I like, or what the latest television cooking sensation decrees is what stylish people eat. It could be a wintry day in January, yet I might want a salad and can find all that I need to make it: seasons no longer count, and I might have exotic flavours — all fresh — from three continents. We are less than a generation from when we marvelled that one could get'new' potatoes all year round, yet in this world of maximum consumer choice we simply cannot grasp the full significance of Jesus describing himself as the bread of life.
2.
For most of human history — and history begins with the settled agricultural life of Mesopotamia — the key to life is a ready access to storable carbohydrates: grain which can be turned into bread weeks, months or even years after the harvest. The regularity of the grain harvest was at core of settled, urban life; and it was at the centre of religion in that temples were, inter alia, at the centre of urban life in that they were grain stores. So running right through the history of civilisation and / or religion is the issue of having enough grain and avoiding being without it. Grain meant bread, bread meant life; its absence meant famine and death. It is in this context we have to hear the old adage: 'Bread is the staff of life.'
For most of human history — and history begins with the settled agricultural life of Mesopotamia — the key to life is a ready access to storable carbohydrates: grain which can be turned into bread weeks, months or even years after the harvest. The regularity of the grain harvest was at core of settled, urban life; and it was at the centre of religion in that temples were, inter alia, at the centre of urban life in that they were grain stores. So running right through the history of civilisation and / or religion is the issue of having enough grain and avoiding being without it. Grain meant bread, bread meant life; its absence meant famine and death. It is in this context we have to hear the old adage: 'Bread is the staff of life.'
3.
This dependence on bread was not some obscure item of economic knowledge: everyone understood it and felt it. The fear of having no bread caused riots, made kings look foolish, made clergy look ineffective, and obtaining grain stood behind a whole range of exertions. One has only to think of the riots over food at the time of the French Revolution or the fear of famine that stalked Irish memories after the famine of 1847. Food and survival are linked in a way we cannot, thankfully, understand.
This dependence on bread was not some obscure item of economic knowledge: everyone understood it and felt it. The fear of having no bread caused riots, made kings look foolish, made clergy look ineffective, and obtaining grain stood behind a whole range of exertions. One has only to think of the riots over food at the time of the French Revolution or the fear of famine that stalked Irish memories after the famine of 1847. Food and survival are linked in a way we cannot, thankfully, understand.
Larry
Gillick, S.J.(Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality)
Attitudes
are formed by how important personal questions are answered.
Last
week’s “Pondering” centered on how our actions reflect our attitudes. Now, just
how are those attitudes formed? The mind is processing at every moment all
kinds of stimuli, many of which do not touch our consciousness. There would be
just too many. For example, your left big toe is constantly firing data, but
until you stub it in the dark you are not aware of what it is constantly
saying.
Activities
form asking, or questions, “What is that noise?” Askings promote answers. Our
minds are answering at all times what the askings provoke. Even now your mind
might be asking, “What is he saying?” Good question! Over time how we
experience “noises” and how we listen to our answers which these “noises” make,
will result in our personal attitude. We could have a suspicious or timorous
way of responding to “noises”. Things happened to such persons which “things”
(actions) forced questions to be asked such as “Is this good for me or
dangerous?” Little by little patterns of answering form what we can call
“attitude”. What Jesus did in His life was to do and say “things” which invited
His listeners and watchers to ask and answer, as we are seeing these
August-weekends in John’s Gospel. All who heard and watched did not arrive at
the same answers. We are still watching and listening, asking and answering.
Wisdom
is personified in our First Reading for today’s liturgy. Wisdom has set a table
and invites the “simple” and those lacking “understanding” to “turn in here”.
The “wine” and “food” are the wise sayings, the spirit of the relationship with
God which will result in deeper understanding and liveliness.
The
“food”and the “wine” are meant to resist the normal manners by which the
foolish feed themselves. The verses immediately following our reading nourish
the invited guests to the “table of Wisdom” so are urged not to mock those who
mock us. Rather rebuke the wise and they will grow wiser. These sayings are
meant for those who find the natural inclinations flowing from vengeance,
greed, and other base energies, unsatisfying. The “table” is set for those who
want to eat more of the goodness of life. They reverse the reader and turn her
or his mind towards heartful rather than headful luncheons.
The
Second Reading continues this theme in two long sentences. There is a wisdom
found in Jesus which, if digested, will produce a resistance to the “wine” of
selfishness and its effects in foolish living. Rather, the “cup” which Jesus
offers renders a peaceful interior which brings life to the full.
In
today’s Gospel, we hear the continuation of John’s account of Jesus’ trying to
explain to his Jewish kinsmen that he is more than they know. He is more than
the bread which fed their ancestors in the desert. He continues to make “I am”
statements about his true identity and his listeners continue their struggling
with this new concept.
Jesus,
who set the table with six loaves and two fish in order to feed thousands, now
sets the table of faith containing a new wine. He invites the “simple” to turn
in and eat. He is inviting those who lack understanding to slide their knees
under his board and drink more deeply. “Where our feeble senses fail” to
convince our hungry minds, Jesus invites us to not be impatient and judge the
meal by the first course or even the table setting.
Jesus’
listeners see his flesh and know there is real blood keeping the flesh alive.
This is the first course; it is what they see. Jesus is inviting them to wait
for the next servings, but they keep clinging to their plates and demanding
second helpings, more of the same, keeping everything on the sense level.
The
Jews here are hungry for wisdom; they are people of good hearts and minds. They
resist their being fooled. They continue to shake their heads as Jesus
continues nodding his, insisting that he can give them eternal life through
their taking him interiorly, as one does when eating. As long as they argue and
grumble, their mouths are filled with that which they are serving; they demand
immediate proof and understanding.
With
Jesus, everything is an invitation to “come and see.” The murmurers have
followed Jesus across the lake after seeing the miraculous distribution. He is
urging them into the sacred desert of belief where their ancestors grew deeper
in their trust of the One God. They keep tripping over their “feeble senses”
and their limited abilities to eat.
Lord, we remember with gratitude the day when we realized for the first time
that following Jesus meant eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
Up to then it was a matter of believing abstract truths -
that Jesus was truly God and truly man,
that there are three persons in God and seven sacraments.
That kind of faith was not a source of life for us.
Then one day we knew that we had to lay down our lives
- caring for a wayward child,
- working for reconciliation in the workplace and being attacked
by both workers and employers;
- forgiving someone who had hurt us deeply.
At that moment we knew that Jesus on the cross was present within us,
and the strange thing was that we felt an inner strength and freedom,
and we were certain that no matter how low we fell he would raise us up.
Lord, self-centredness has become like a first principle of living today.
People will argue with one another that it is not even possible
for us to give our flesh to be eaten,
and yet there can be no life in the world without selfless giving,
not in nature, not in families, not in any society.
Lord, we pray for those who are mourning for a loved one.
Remind them that Jesus gave them his flesh to eat and his blood to drink
and he will raise them up on the last day.
"I should like to set down here my own belief. In so far as I am willing to be made an instrument of God's peace, in that far have I already entered into eternal life." Alan Paton
Lord, we thank you for those who eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus
and therefore already have eternal life.
"We need the eyes of deep faith to see Christ in the broken bodies and dirty clothes under which the most beautiful one among the sons of men hides." Mother Teresa
Lord, help us to receive Jesus
when he comes to us in flesh and blood.
Lord, you give us food and drink so that we might live more freely and creatively.
Yet we nourish ourselves with many things that are not life-giving at all,
but rather clutter up our lives and keep us in bondage.
We pray that your Christ may be Jesus today,
giving the world real food and drink.
Lord, we thank you for the people who have touched our lives;
when we read the story of Jesus we see them living in him,
and when we remember their stories, we see Jesus living in them.
Truly they have eaten his flesh and drunk his blood.
Lord, we talk too much when we pray. Teach us to remain silent,
so that we become conscious of Jesus present within us
and the life he draws from you may well up in us too.
Lord, we think today of those who see their spouses destroying themselves
with bitterness, envy or false pride.
With anguish in their hearts, they say to them, as Jesus said to his followers,
"Unless you allow yourself to receive selfless love,
you will not have life within you."
Lord, we pray for the people of South Africa, Ireland, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia.
For generations their ancestors ate the bread of suspicion, fear and hatred, and they are dead.
We thank you that you are raising up new leaders in those countries,
and they, like Jesus, are offering their people a different kind of nourishment,
based on reconciliation and sharing, bread come down from heaven,
so that they can eat it and live.
*************************************
ILLUSTRATIONS:
1)
Your words and your life:
Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick, then at the height of his influence as minister of the Riverside Church, New York City, was making a tour of Palestine and other countries of the Near and Middle East. He was invited to give an address at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where the student body comprised citizens of many countries and representatives from sixteen different religions. What could one say that would be relevant or of interest to so mixed and varied a group? This is how Fosdick began: "I do not ask anyone here to change his religion; but I do ask all of you to face up to this question: What is your religion doing to your character?"
This
was a call to consider one of the great issues of human belief: religion and
life, Christianity and character, word and spirit. Emerson once said,
"What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear a word you say." Jesus'
discourse in this whole sixth chapter of the Gospel of John had two foci -
spirit and life. "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and
life." By this he meant that those who appropriated his spirit, i.e., fed
upon him as the bread of life, would find, thereby, a fulfillment and
satisfaction no other means could give.
The
traditions of the world of his time, of course, had a different emphasis...
_______________________
Maybe
it's the sweet smell of caramel apples.
Maybe
it's the pungent punch of garlic and onion.
Maybe
it's moldy and murky smell of a basement.
Maybe
it's the seaweedy smell of the beach.
Whatever
the odor, it is officious - meaning, it is "large and in charge." It
teleports you back to a particular place and a particular time. Each of us has
memory smells. Our sense of smell is the physical sense most associated with
memory. Smells, more than sounds, more than sights, more than touches,
transport our minds and bodies back in time to an imprinted memory. Garlic
brings you back to your grandmother's kitchen. A wet woolen smell brings you
back to the locker room-or to the terror of the day you fell in a frozen pond
and almost drowned. Rising yeast smells like every Sunday dinner. Gasoline
chokes you with memories of a car crash. Nothing evokes strong emotions, strong
memories, strong longings, like the sense of smell. It is a powerful
communicator to our inner being.
In
the days of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, burnt offerings were the norm -
small birds, little lambs, calves, great grains - all were sacrificed and
burned. Burnt sacrifice was offered to appease God's righteous anger over the
sins and transgressions the people of Israel had committed...
3)
Life-giving bread in heaven’s buffet:
This 85-year- old couple, having been married almost 60 years, had died
in a car crash. They had been in
good
health for the last ten years, mainly due to their interest in healthful food and exercise.
When they reached the Pearly Gates, St. Peter took
them to their mansion, which was
decked out with a beautiful
kitchen, a master bath suite and a
Jacuzzi. As they "ooohed and aaahed,” the old man asked
Peter how much all this was going to cost. "It's
free," Peter replied, "this is Heaven." Next they went to see
the championship golf course that their heavenly home backed
up to. St. Peter
told them they would have golfing privileges every day. The old
man asked, "What are the
greens fees?"
Peter's
reply, "This is heaven; you play
for free." Next they went to the clubhouse and saw a
lavish buffet laid out for them. "How much does
it cost to eat?" asked the
old man. "Don't
you understand yet?
This is heaven!
It's free!" Peter replied. "Well, where are the
low fat and low
cholesterol foods?" the
old man asked timidly.
Peter smiled and said, "That's the best part...you can eat as much as
you like
of whatever you like and
you never get fat and you
never get sick. This is Heaven."
The old man looked angrily at his wife and said, "You and your oat brans and whole wheat! I could have been here ten years ago!”
4) Cannibalism in the Andes:
In October, 1972, a plane carrying an Uruguayan rugby team and their families and supporters to an exhibition game in Chile crashed in the Andes.
Nando Parrado, one of the survivors, tells the story of their 72
day
struggle against freezing weather and
dangerous avalanches in the book Miracle in the Andes.
The author's mother and
sister were among those killed
in the crash. High in the Andes, with a
fractured skull, eating the raw flesh of
his deceased teammates and friends, Parrado
calmly pondered the cruelties of fate,
the power
of the
natural world
and the possibility of
his continued existence: "I would
live from moment to moment and
from breath to breath, until I had
used up
all
the life I had," he
wrote.
The survivors had nothing to eat except the flesh of their
dead teammates. After two
months, Nando, an ordinary young man
with no disposition for leadership or heroism, led an
expedition of three
of the survivors up the treacherous slopes
of a
snow- capped mountain and across forty-five miles of frozen wilderness in an attempt to find help.
The party was
finally rescued by helicopter crews.
It was
difficult for them to decide
that eating human flesh
was all right, even in those extreme circumstances! Hence, it is not surprising that Jesus’
listeners protested against his invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood as described in today’s gospel.
5) Touching the body of Christ!
Mother Teresa of Calcutta had a rule that when a newcomer arrived to join her Order, the Missionaries of Charity, the very next day the newcomer had to go to the Home of the Dying. One day a girl came
from outside India to join the Order.
Mother Teresa said
to her: "You saw with what love and care the priest touched Jesus in
the Host during
Mass. Now
go to the Home for the Dying and do the same, because it is the same
Jesus you
will
find there in the broken bodies
of our poor." Three hours later the newcomer came back and, with a big smile, said to her, "Mother, I have been touching the body
of Christ for three
hours." "How? What did
you do?" Mother Teresa asked her. "When I arrived there," she replied, "they brought in a man
who had fallen into a drain, and
been
there for some time. He was
covered with dirt and had several wounds. I washed
him
and cleaned
his wounds. As I did so I knew
I was touching the body
of Christ." To be able to make
this kind
of connection we need
the help of the Lord himself. It is above
all in the Eucharist that he gives us this help.
6)
Abiding with Christ
Over
the years I have witnessed many scenes of this abiding presence played out in
the lives of persons I have known. None are more powerful, more moving, more
meaningful than the images which walk across my mind of faithful spouses who
care for each other to the very end. Let me draw them for you. There is one
now, walking his wife, a victim of Alzheimer's disease, down the streets in
front of the nursing home. She in a wheelchair, not knowing a thing. He pushing
her faithfully day after day. Their love of more than 60 years abides in his
heart. Here is another: the picture of a woman standing beside the bed of her
husband, holding a hand, offering a calm, reassuring voice to this one who has
only moments before been thrown into convulsions. "I will not leave
you." Finally, here is the unspoken presence of a Loving Friend who calms
my own grieving spirit in the dark hospital room where my father lays dying.
"Those who eat my flesh? abide in me, and I in them (John 6:56, NRSV)."
In
a world of fast food chains in every village, of drive-through windows, of
buffet lines and all-you-can-eat salad bars, we are today offered a different
food, the Bread of Life. It is food for a hungry soul. It is eternal food
which, when you eat it, satisfies the craving of your heart and opens your eyes
to see that all else is imitation and second rate.
Larry M. Goodpaster, Like a Breath of Fresh Air, CSS Publishing Company
___________________________________
7)
O, Lord Give Me a Penny
"Hardly
a penny." God said.
Then
the man asked God , "And what are a thousand centuries to you?" God
answered "Hardly a second!!"
Thinking
he had God backed into a corner, the man then said, "Then if that's the
case, O, Lord give me a penny !!"
"Sure,"
God replied. "In just a minute."
Wisdom
isn't outsmarting God, wisdom is living in and with God. Wisdom is being in
Christ and surrounded by Christ. Wisdom is eating and drinking from the feast
which God has prepared for us.
________________________
8)
Bread Is Not a Mere Commodity
John
Macquarrie, A Guide to the Sacraments, p,156
__________________________
There
is an Irish saying, "the person who speaks the truth should have one foot
in the stirrup." He should be ready to ride off at once. People do not
like the truth, especially when it challenges their attitudes; and the reaction
is often to try to destroy the evidence of the truth or the one who witnesses
to it.
Father Gerry Pierse, The Dangerous Memory of Jesus
_______________________
10) Dining with God
When
Seymour passed away, God greeted him at the Pearly Gates. "Thou be hungry,
Seymour?" said God.
"I
could eat," Seymour replied.
So
God opened a can of tuna and reached for a chunk of rye bread and they shared
it. While eating this humble meal, Seymour glanced down into Hell and saw the
inhabitants devouring huge steaks, lobsters, pheasants, pastries, and fine
wines. Curious, but deeply trusting, Seymour remained quiet.
The
next day God again invited Seymour for another meal. Again, it was tuna and rye
bread. Once again looking down, Seymour could see the denizens of Hell enjoying
caviar, champagne, lamb, truffles, and chocolates. Still Seymour said nothing.
The
following day, mealtime arrived and God opened another can of tuna. Seymour
could contain himself no longer. Meekly, he said: "God, I am grateful to
be in heaven with you as a reward for the pious, obedient life I led. But here
in heaven all I get to eat is tuna and a piece of rye bread and in the Other
Place they eat like emperors and kings! Forgive me, O God, but I just don't
understand."
God
sighed: "Let's be honest, Seymour. For just two people does it pay to
cook?"
Donel
McClellan, The Imaginary God
________________________
Barbara
Brokhoff says in her book, Faith Alive, "The Happy Hour for the Christian
should be the hour of worship on Sunday morning, but how do you honestly feel
when you are awakened by the alarm on the Lord's Day and you realize it is
another "Church Day"? Can you hardly wait for the service time to
roll around or do you roll over in bed, moan and groan and cover your head, and
wish that once, once again maybe once more like last Sunday the one before, you
would, or could sleep in and forget the whole boring, time consuming thing?? Is
the thought of worship agony or ecstasy? I think we are coming to meet God--not
just anybody, but God!! Shouldn't the delightful suspense of worship make our
breath short and our hearts beat faster?"
Barbara
Brokhoff, Faith Alive, quoted by Tim Zingale, Wisdom = Being in Christ
_____________________
I'm
reminded of a true story of a soldier who was severely wounded. When he was out
of surgery, the doctors said that there was a good chance for recovery, except
that the soldier wouldn't eat anything. The nurses and nuns tried everything,
but he refused all food-drinking only water and juice.
One
of his buddies knew why the soldier wouldn't eat-he was homesick. So, his
friend, since the hospital wasn't too far from the soldier's home, offered to
bring the young man's father to visit him. The commanding officer approved and
the friend went to the parents' home. As the father was about to leave for the
hospital, the mother wrapped up a loaf of fresh bread for her son.
Well,
the patient was very happy to see his father but he still wouldn't eat-that is,
until the father said; "Son, this bread was made by your mother,
especially for you". The boy brightened and began to eat.
I
think that you can guess where I'm going with that story. You and I are that
boy. We are the ones who have been wounded in the battle of life. We are the
ones who've been wounded by sin, by trials and pains, by loss and by our
forgetfulness of God.
We
lose our taste for the food that will strengthen our souls. Holy Communion
gives us life, spiritual life, God's life. It gives us spiritual healing and
spiritual strength. There was nothing 'magic' about the mother's bread unless,
that is, one feels that 'love' is magic--which, of course, it is.
Author
unknown
____________________
There's
a beautiful incident recorded by Thomas Pettepiece, a Methodist pastor, who was
a political prisoner, a prisoner of conscience. Pettepiece writes of his first
Easter Sunday spent in prison. He was among 10,000 prisoners. Most of the men
had lost everything: their homes, their jobs, their furniture, their contact
with their families. It was Easter Sunday, and they wanted to celebrate
Communion. But, they had no cup for Communion. They had no wine for Communion.
They didn't even have water for Communion. Nor did they have any bread for the
Sacrament.
So,
they practiced the Communion of Empty Hands. "This meal in which we take
part," Pettepeice said, "reminds us of the imprisonment, the torture,
the death and final victory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The bread is
the body which he gave for humanity. The fact that we have none represents very
well the lack of bread in the hunger of so many millions of human beings. The
wine, which we don't have today, is his blood, and represents our dream of a
united humanity, of a just society, without difference of race or class."
Then
Pettepiece, the pastor, held out his empty hand to the next person on his
right, and passed on the imaginary loaf. Each one took a piece and passed it
on. Then he said, "Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do
this in remembrance of me." And together they ate the imaginary bread,
trying to imagine tasting it.
After
a moment they passed around the non-existent chalice, each imagining he was
drinking from it. "Take, drink, this is the blood of Christ which was shed
for you ... Let us give thanks, sure that Christ is here with us, strengthening
us."
They
gave thanks to God and then stood up and embraced each other. And a while
later, one of the non-Christian prisoners came up to them and said, "You
people have something special, which I would like to have." And the father
of a girl who had died came up to Pettepiece and said, "Pastor, this was a
real experience. I believe that today I discovered what faith is ..."
(from Visions of a World Hungry, quoted in A Guide To Prayer, Rueben P. Job and
Norman Shawchuck, editors, The Upper Room, p. 143).
Alex
Gondola, Jr., Come As You Are, CSS Publishing Company.
________________________
14) Togetherness in
the Eucharist
Let's
say some new friends invite you to their house for a meal. When you are a guest
in their home, they are sharing their intimacy with you. They are sharing with
you some of the privacy of that place where they live every day, eat every day,
love every day, work on their problems, argue from time to time, sleep and
depart for work and pleasure and return for rest, every day.
After
graciously receiving you, they show you around their home in which they take
deep pride. Then you go to the dining room for the meal. You find the table set
with care, the food exceptionally delicious, and the conversation flows easily.
Simply put, it becomes a lovely evening and you leave feeling full in every
way. You enjoy bread from the kitchen, but much more. You enjoy the bread of
being graciously received, the bread of informed and lively conversation, and
the bread of being in beautiful surroundings..
Magnify
that thousands of times and you begin to have a glimmer of what the church
perceives the Holy Eucharist to be. In the Eucharist Jesus and "Bread of
Life" are one. In the Eucharist bread and wine are the elements that
nurture faith in God.
Charles
R. Leary, Mission Ready!, CSS Publishing Company
-------------------
One must not take this passage as a
description of an actual dialogue between Jesus and some of those who followed
him. Rather it doubtless refers to a difficulty in St. John’s community over
the Eucharist and the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, a difficulty which
has plagued the Church through it’s history, mostly because have tried to
reduce mystery to prose, to explain the inexplicable.
The Eucharist demands faith at every time and
place, but less faith in the how then in the fact of the presence of Jesus.
As the first reading suggests faith opens up
the fonts of wisdom and feeds us with it.
Fr. Greeley's Last Book:
Story:
A young college student went to the Newman
chaplain and said, I believe in God and in life after death and in resurrection
and in the church, but I cannot accept that Jesus is really present, body and
blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist.
The priest thought this was like swallowing
the grizzly bear and straining at the gnat.
Resurrection, he said, is a humungous miracle.
Real Presence is kind of ordinary in comparison. I don’t believe I really eat
Jesus, the young man said. It’s just bread that’s all. You don’t eat Jesus, the
priest replied, knowing that he had one of those kids who somehow or the other
had run into an old fashioned teacher, one that still thought it was a
sacrilege for anyone but a priest to touch the sacred host. The poor kid was
really worried about how the doctrine of the real presence exposed Jesus to
desecration if even a tiny piece was somehow lost. The priest went through a
lot of theological explanations which did not satisfy the young man. I just
have to understand how he works it out, the lad pleaded.
Have you figured out how God created the
universe from nothing in the snap of a finger, the priest asked.
Of course not the young man replied. Then his
voice faded off. Oh, I get it, he said softly. I’m not supposed to understand
everything.
He
could have avoided assassination by going fishing in Galilee for the weekend.
He was often seen talking and laughing after His death. He remains forever a
question mark with which people are never quite finished. Non-believers forever
worry lest they might be wrong.
The
Church He founded is discussed daily on the first pages of the major newspapers
of the world.
What
might He have accomplished had He lived to 50?
--------------
17) As a babe, He
terrified a king. As a youngster, He puzzled scholars. As a man, He intimidated
a Roman governor. To borrow from GK Chesterton, He was constantly in hot water.
He did not seem to mind. He felt it would keep Him clean.
He
had no training in psychiatry. Yet, He has cured more minds and spirits than
anyone else in history. Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon established mighty
empires by force. He began His with love and service. Theirs have disappeared.
His remains. Statesmen have legislated on their turn. Artists and philosophers
have reigned for a short period.
Some
have said they were more popular than He. But their names are written in the
sand. His is spoken with frequency by one billion followers.
Each
week millions assemble to salute Him in the Eucharist. He spoke that last night
to a small band of illiterate men as though the memorial ceremony would
continue down through the centuries. History has proved Him correct.
Those
who discover they cannot believe in Him live with sorrow. Those who believe but
lack the courage to resemble Him survive with regret.
He
no longer stands in the dock. He has nothing to prove. He has survived the test
of time. It is we who are on trial in our reaction to Him.
Unlike countless peoples who impacted society by jumping in front of it and going with the flow, He got in front of the parade to take it in the opposite direction.
He
presides over the world like a Colossus. After almost a century in USSR gulags,
He walks openly in Moscow, Kiev, and St Petersburg. No one seems surprised.
No
historian can portray humanity honestly without giving Him, in HG Wells' words,
the foremost place.
Millions
utter His name upon rising. Other millions shout it throughout the day in anger
or pain. For still other millions, it is the last name they whisper before they
die and the first they expect to speak when they awaken in His presence.
Robert
Griffin says He is the hero you could never invent. Angels rush to Him. Devils
flee from Him.
He
not only pushed the envelope. He broke through it.
In
a poor man's apparel, He pursues us always.
To
borrow Tennessee William's language, He is the long delayed but always expected
something we live for.
Ralph
Waldo Emerson said His name is not so much written into the history of the
world as plowed.
Harry
Emerson Fosdick says He changed BC into AD.
Albert
Nolan suggests He has no interest in people theorizing about Him but rather
reproducing Him in their lives.
Time
magazine suggests that in His lifetime, He had no equal. It is the same today.
It is not He who needs us. It is we who need Him.
The
world is full of people like them totally unaware of the incredible Banquet of
Life that God spreads for them each day in the Eucharist.
