TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
16 AUGUST 2015
At the end
of our first year of Theology in 1971, one of my classmates talked about a
Festival in Stratford, Ontario, which offered quality Shakespearean plays. Since none of us owned cars capable of traveling
that distance, one of the guys borrowed his father’s big Lincoln, and six of us
made the trip for the first time. We
stayed in a cheap hotel for the first two years, until we found the Deer Park
Lodge on the shores of Lake Huron. For
the past 42 years, everyone knows us there as “the American Priests” for a week
in early August. Over time, other
priests joined our group, bringing its membership to 15.
Last week, the remaining six of us made
our annual trek to the Deer Park Lodge in Bayfield. We traveled to Stratford (45 minutes to the
east) for two plays on Wednesday and Thursday and enjoyed two dramas on
stage: THE TAMING OF THE SHREW and THE
DIARY OF ANNE FRANK. However, the real
drama continued to unfold offstage in our cabins. We remembered the three members who have
died. We called our two professors who
cannot join us because of their health.
And we talked about others who have lost interest or left the active
ministry. Because we are from different
Dioceses, we brought each other up to date on current affairs in our
lives. We did most of our talking over
the meals we shared. Over the years, we
have learned how to cook. In sharing
quality food (and pretty cheap wine), we laughed about the hamburger helper we
used to make in the early days. Within
the context of shared meals, we became more grateful for all the gifts which
God has given us over the years, and for all the ways in which God continues to
bless us.
The Book of Proverbs personifies
God’s wisdom as Lady Wisdom. Lady Wisdom
has built a house large enough for everyone, and she feeds all who accept her
invitation with the best foods and the finest wines. But she makes it very clear that only those
humble and open enough to God’s Wisdom will be fed. Over the years, my classmates and I have
learned that lesson the hard way. We
have been humbled by our sins and failures.
We have become more grateful to the ways in which God’s grace has worked
in our lives. Years of experience have
taught us that we need God’s Wisdom in our lives and in our ministries, because
God’s wisdom always exceeds any ways in which we might have thought ourselves
to be wise.
Jesus makes it clear that he is the
Word made Flesh who is dwelling among us.
Moses may have been the mediator for God feeding the Israelites in the
desert with manna. Jesus is much more
than a mediator. He is that bread come
down from heaven who feeds us with his own flesh and blood – with his very
self. Over the centuries, the Catholic
Church has never backed down from the reality of the promise of Jesus in the
Eucharist. We may never understand how
he can feed us with his real presence.
We may never comprehend how eating his flesh and drinking his blood will
give us eternal life. But he invites us
to trust his promise. Using the words of
Saint Paul, we have to be careful about how we live, how we keep our baptismal
promises. Eating and drinking from the
trough of possessions, experiences, titles, or any other passing reality will
not bring eternal life. Only living the
life of Jesus Christ can draw what we are doing at this Mass into life that
will never end.
When we prayed the psalm today, we
stated that we have tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord. Adam and Eve tasted (experienced) the fruit
of the forbidden tree. Having tasted
(experienced) their own arrogance, pride, and disobedience; they have seen the
results of their choice. Our Lord
invites us to taste his real presence in the Eucharist, and to see the eternal
life he promises, when we approach with humility and openness.
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