TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
19 AUGUST 2018
As
we continue to reflect on the Bread of Life discourse from the Gospel of Saint
John, we must remember that Jesus has fed the crowd of five thousand people
with five barley loaves and two fish at the time of the Passover. Those who hear this discourse for the first
time understood the importance of the paschal lamb. In their Passover rituals, the people would
slaughter the lamb and smear its blood on their doorposts, as their ancestors
had done in Egypt to allow the angel of death to pass over their homes. As they ate the paschal lamb, they would
share four cups of wine blessing (praising) God for their journey from slavery
to freedom. They would speak of the
Covenant which God had made with their ancestors at Mount Sinai. In speaking of the manna that fed their
ancestors in the desert, they would tell of the ways in which God continues to
be faithful to that Covenant.
Jesus makes
it clear that he is the new paschal lamb.
He will be sacrificed on the cross.
Blood and water will flow from his side as he dies on that cross, signifying
the water of baptism and the Eucharist in the new Covenant. He insists that he is the living bread come
down from heaven. Even though he was
present at the creation of the world, he had taken on human flesh in the
Incarnation and dwells among us. Through
the elements of bread and wine in the Eucharist, his Incarnation is made
present in a real way. He promises that
those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will live forever. In our journey through the desert of life,
eating his flesh and drinking his blood will bring us into an intimate
relationship with him that cannot be destroyed by death.
The crowd
is horrified. Because they understand
blood as a sign of life, they would never consider drinking any blood. They think that Jesus is inviting them to be
cannibals, eating the flesh of human beings.
They do not understand that the man speaking this message is the only
begotten Son of God. The Incarnation
makes no sense to them, because Jesus is too ordinary for them. They can only ask, “How can this man give us
his flesh to eat?”
Saint John
records these words for those who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God
after the Paschal Mystery has been completed.
He invites the readers of this Gospel to reflect on what happened to
Jesus Christ. After washing the feet of
his disciples at the Last Supper, he had been betrayed and subjected to a fake
trial. He had calmly accepted the verdict
of Pontius Pilate and had been executed like a common criminal and buried in a
tomb. He had been raised from the dead
and given the Holy Spirit to his disciples.
He had been taken up to heaven, where he intercedes for us at the right
hand of the Father. His Incarnation
continues to be present every time the Christian Community gathers to celebrate
the Eucharist.
That is
exactly why we gather here every Sunday.
We hear about the Lord’s continuing presence in our lives in the Liturgy
of the Word. Trusting in that presence, Saint
Paul reminds us to live our Baptismal promises.
He tells us to make the most of the opportunity. In other words, he tells us that we can
redeem the times by our witness to the Gospel.
Then, we take bread and wine, bless God the Father for the Sacrifice of
Jesus made present as we remember, break the consecrated bread, and give it.
Even though
we stand on the shoulders of countless theologians who have developed the
theology of the Eucharist over the centuries, we might ask the same
question: “How can this man give us his flesh
to eat?” We can never fully understand
that Mystery. That is why the Lord
invites us to renew our faith today in his real presence. He invites us to eat his flesh and drink his
blood under the elements of bread and wine.
He invites us to trust that we who eat his flesh and drink his blood are
members of his Body, and that death cannot destroy that reality.
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