(Homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B)
Once again
we meditate and grapple with the theme of food, as orchestrated in the first
reading and the Gospel with the images of bread, wine and table. And of all the
images, Bread is the most recurrent. Bread indeed is very important in some
cultures, but beyond that, Bread stands for what feeds us and what quenches our
physiological need of hunger. But the Bread that Jesus identified with his
flesh, does much more than the satisfaction of physiological need; it is a
guarantee for eternal life. Jesus’
self-giving to mankind in the form of bread reaches its apex on the Cross, for
on the Cross, he becomes real bread broken for the life of mankind. The dying
man becomes the bread that gives eternal life. What a paradox! Jesus in the
Eucharist satisfies our physical and spiritual longings, what we need, is just
to present ourselves before him with faith and trust in his Eucharistic
presence. With Jesus’ bread-flesh gift
to us, we see and experience love outstretched in an unconditional manner. His is not an empty love; the Eucharist and
the Cross stand as a proof. The second reading above all, spells out for us
the right attitude of living as recipients of God’s love, especially in the
Eucharist.
The passage
of today’s Gospel (Jn. 6:51-58)
finally launches us into the Eucharistic part of Jesus’ discourse on bread.
Therein, we move from bread as such, to the flesh and blood of the Son of man.
Today we move from the consideration of Jesus as the bread of life to the
contemplation of his real sacramental presence in the Eucharist. We are at the
last stage of the long discourse of Jesus on the “Bread of life”, which we have
been meditating on for few Sundays now.
“The bread that
I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn.6:51). With these words Jesus concluded the Gospel passage of
last Sunday, and the passage of this Sunday once again re-introduces this
sentence in order to render the discourse of Jesus and the reactions of his
listeners clearer. This affirmation threw his listeners of balance, and they
began to question: “How can he give us his flesh to eat” (v.52). Jesus did not
respond to this question at the moment. Rather he will respond to their
question of how, later, precisely in the context of Holy Thursday, at the
Last Supper: “Jesus took bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it
and gave it to the disciples. Take it and eat, he said, this is my body. Then
he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he handed it to them saying, Drink
from this all of you, for this is my blood” (Mt. 26:26-28a). This
indeed, is the way that Jesus intended to give us his flesh to eat, under the
sign and appearance of bread and wine. Thus, he transformed bread and wine into
the Sacrament of his real presence. But interestingly, Jesus does not
anticipate this concrete explanation in the discourse. Instead, for the mean
time Jesus preferred to make them understand that he was not speaking in a
symbolic language: “my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink”. Their
negative attitude and reaction did not stop him; instead he came up with what could be termed a catechesis on the Eucharist.
And here we want to make a number of considerations emanating from the passage:
●In his words: “My flesh is true food, my blood is
true drink” (v.55). Interestingly,
in Hebrew language ‘flesh and blood’ indicates
man, person in his entirety, and thus the full humanity of Jesus.
Therefore, in the Eucharist Jesus gives himself in toto, even though, in a mysterious way, but he gives himself in
the fullness of his humanity and divinity. He gives himself so that “eating and
drinking”; we will be nourished of Him.
●Furthermore, Jesus indicated the effects or
implications that being nourished by him produce in a Soul. The Eucharist realizes a communion of life,
a vital and profound union with the Lord already here on earth, for “anyone
who eats this bread will live for ever” (v.58b),
and again “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in
that person” (v.56). Be that as it
may, in, with and through the Eucharist,
the faithful experience a reciprocal compenetration of being with Christ.
Through the Eucharist, the faithful enters into the Trinitarian life and Christ
in turn lives in him. Again, the Eucharistic communion gives the faithful the strength
to overcome death, thus it procures eternal life: “who eats my flesh and drink
my blood has eternal life” (v.54), here Jesus does not use the
verb in future tense, rather in the present form, who eats my flesh and drinks
my blood has eternal life, not will have eternal life. Behold, eternal life here is not merely a life after death, but a life
in which time and eternity coincide, heaven and earth embrace, God and man are
united in a reconciled love.
●The Eucharistic
communion is a guarantee for the resurrection of the body, for in the words
of Jesus “Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and
I shall raise that person up on the last day” (v.54). This is Jesus’ divine assurance to those who receive him. This is what the Eucharist does at the individual
and personal level. It creates a union of love between Christ and the person
that receives Him, here and here after.
Besides, at
the community level (that is as a Church and Christian community), here we
cannot but remember the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: “And as there is
one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all
share in the one loaf” (1Cor. 10:17).
Truly the Eucharist realizes the communion of faith and of love amongst the
disciples. The Eucharist makes the
Church, the assembly of God’s people gathers around the Eucharistic table.
On this, the Second Vatican Council maintains that “It is not possible to form
the Christian community without having as root and foundation the celebration
of the Eucharist” (Presbyterorum Ordinis,
n.6).
Having
explored the sublime and extraordinary reality of the Eucharist, it behoves us to re-affirm that
participation in the Eucharist suppose not to be an optional or a sporadic act.
For it is the essential condition of life (fullness
of life and eternal life). And this seems to unite this passage with the
words of the book of Proverbs in the first reading, thus: “Come, eat the bread,
and drink the wine that I have prepared. Leave foolishness behind and you will
live” (Pro. 9:5-6). And again in the
passage of the Gospel, “If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man, and you
do not drink his blood, you will not have life in you”. We are therefore,
invited to participate often at the Eucharistic banquet. However, we have to do so, with faith and trepidation, and in the state
of grace too. Have you ever imagined how contradictory it is to participate
in the Mass, without participating in the Eucharistic communion? Even though we
have to avoid receiving communion for pure superficiality and holier than thou
attitude, however, we need to rediscover its life changing and transforming
effects. Truly, come to think of it,
none of us without the aid of grace is worthy to receive the Eucharistic Jesus,
but to deny oneself of participating in this earthly-eternal banquet
systematically entails losing all the benefits (spiritual and physical) that
emanate from it. However, we have to ensure that we are in the state of
grace through the sacrament of Reconciliation. It really requires the wisdom that comes from God to honour the
invitation to the Eucharistic banquet.
The first
reading from the book of Proverbs (Pro.
9:1-6) is one of the Old Testament passages that speak of wisdom’s heavenly
banquet. Be that as it may, this forms the background of the bread discourse in
St. John’s Gospel (6:35-51b). Thus, the banquet becomes a sapiential
theme. Upon proper meditation, this passage from the Wisdom literature is
best situated into the context of the verses preceding the verses of today’s
gospel passage. However, that notwithstanding, the present passage with the
invitation of wisdom (as opposed to folly) to her prospective participants to a
banquet with the images of bread, wine and table dovetails into the theme of
today’s Gospel, especially with her invitation “Come and eat my bread, drink
the wine which I have drawn” (v.5)
and this invitation resembles Jesus’ imperative call “If you do not eat the
flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (v.53) in his Eucharistic discourse.
For the fruit of Wisdom is life, in its deepest sense (cf. Pro. 3:18).
In the second reading (Eph. 5:15-20), St. Paul indicated in concrete terms the best
disposition of heart towards the Eucharist: First, “Be very careful about the
sort of lives you lead” (v.15a).
This is a call to vigilance in order not to fall into sin, and thus to avoid
the occasions of sin. Second, “like intelligent and not like senseless people” (v.15b), the intelligence that St. Paul
is talking about, is the wisdom that comes from God. As in the Book of Wisdom
“Grant me wisdom, consort of your throne” (9:4).
Third, “you must recognize what is the will of Lord” (v.17), this entails the effort to understand the will of God in
every circumstance and the readiness to do it. Fourth, “sing psalms and hymns
and inspired songs among yourselves, singing and chanting to the Lord in your
hearts” (v.19). Truly, St. Paul captured vividly well what should
be the right attitude and the natural atmosphere of the Eucharistic
celebration, an atmosphere of joy, of feast, of praises and of thanksgiving.
Drawing the
issue further, this passage is the second part of the parenesis (advice or instruction) in the letter to the Ephesians.
Upon proper perusal, we could say that the passage of this epistle reading can
aptly fit in, into the context of the first reading. Here, we lay emphasis on
the contrast between wisdom and folly. Wisdom consists in being careful of the
type of live one leads (v.15a),
while Folly consists of not making the most of the time, (v.16) and of drunkenness (v.18a).
Verse 17 further expressed this disparity between wisdom and folly with the
invitation: “do not be thoughtless but must recognize what is the will of the
Lord”. But the border line between wisdom and folly is drawn in verse 15 thus “So be very careful about
the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like senseless people”.
Above all, give or take, all the roads
of the first and the second readings lead to the Gospel, in the celebration and
contemplation of the Eucharistic Jesus and the proclamation of Him as the
incarnate wisdom. For as we opined last Sunday: “Jesus’ self-giving in the Eucharist is the
continuation of his primordial self-giving at the Incarnation”.
Above all else, brethren, when we receive the Eucharist, we do not receive only an aspect of Jesus, rather we receive Him in entirety (body, soul and divinity), as such we may well boast that the Blood of Jesus is running in our veins. We become live and true Christophers, carriers of Christ, but how often are we conscious of this commingling existence? How often do we revere His presence in us? He lives in me! Christ lives in me!! He lives in you too!!! Lord Jesus, help us to more conscious of your presence in our lives, Amen!
(Fr. Vitus Chigozie,
SC)
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