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Gospel Reflection 20060820

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
John 6:51-58Jesus said to the crowds: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."
Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, I firmly believe in your Real Presence in the Eucharist. I ask that this meditation be an act of praise and thanksgiving for the great gift you give us of yourself under the species of bread and wine.
Petition: Grant, Lord, that I may grow in faith in the Eucharist.
“Man does not live by bread alone.” It is a common saying, spoken by Jesus in the desert. Unfortunately, so many people live as though “bread” was the only important thing in life. They work long hours to make more money to spend on items of pleasure. Can you imagine what a loving world this would be if they put as much effort into spiritual “bread”?

Soul nourishment is much more critical than body nourishment. After all, we only have to worry about the body during our short time here on earth. Our eternal destination is much more important and much longer. Think about how miserable our body feels if we do not nourish it for awhile. If we ignore issues of health and well-being for the body we can be sure we will have a miserable time in the physical world. If we do not give our soul the sustenance it needs, if we ignore issues of our spiritual well-being, we can be sure we will have a very wretched eternity!

“Man is what he eats.” This old saying means that everything we take into our body becomes an intimate part of the very structure of our life in the basic unit of our physical body – the cell. By taking His flesh and blood into our bodies in the Eucharist, we grow ever closer to Him, allowing his thoughts and desires to become part of us. We do not have to try to satisfy our longing for Christ by kneeling at a distance before his Presence in a locked Tabernacle. We can let Him take up residence in our body, closer to our heart than any being can ever get.

I wonder how many of us are aware of what percentage of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Well, what do you think? 10%. 20%. 50%. Survey after survey has shown us that more than 67% (that’s 2/3 of us folks) don’t believe that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist. That number probably doesn’t represent so much a conscious dissent as it does a profound ignorance on the part of Catholic laity.
To me, this signals an enormous failure in the catechetical programs within our Church. On a more serious note, it’s also a cause for profound sadness, since it means that many Catholics have lost sight of the most central truth of our faith—that Jesus Christ gives Himself to us in Holy Communion. He isn’t satisfied just to send us a message or a reminder about Himself. He actually gives Himself to us in the Eucharist—Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.
Can you believe that?!! What a gift—God literally gives Himself to us—and 67% of us don’t believe it—amazing!

In inviting us to feed on his “flesh” and drink of his “blood,” Jesus calls us to embrace the life of his Father; the life that finds joy in humble service to others, a life that is centered in unconditional, total, and sacrificial love…a life that seeks fulfillment not in the traditional understanding of this world but in the holiness of the next.

In the passage from John's Gospel Jesus speaks about the Eucharist in terms of wisdom. Just as Wisdom is pictured in Proverbs as a person inviting everyone to her table, so Jesus is pictured in Chapter 6 of John's Gospel as inviting His followers to come to Him and acquire wisdom for their journey in life by eating His Body and drinking His Blood. And just as sharing in Wisdom resulted in life in the Old Testament, so the sharing in Christ's Body and Blood results in life for us. But this sharing in Christ's Body and Blood should not be regarded as something which encourages us to be mindless. We should use our sharing in the Eucharist to reflect on our lives and to accept the challenges which Christ gives us to live as the Father wants us to live. Paul's vigorous words are an example of the kind of language which we should use with ourselves: "Be careful about the kind of life you live. Act like intelligent people, not like persons who are senseless". Receiving Holy Communion should be a constant challenge for us to search for Christ and His wisdom in our everyday lives. With such a marvellous source of life available for us, we would be foolish indeed if we did not accept Christ's invitation and always so live as to be able to receive His Body and Blood. This is true wisdom for the journey of life.

posted by Mike Young @ 5:46 AM