2016/10/02 — 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year C

Some reflections on last Sunday's readings at Mass.

The first reading — Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4 — has two parts. In the first the prophet notes the evil around him and complains that God does not intervene to stop it. This can certainly resonate with us today, as violence is still widespread. God's response, in the second part is to assure us that there will a fulfillment of the vision of peace. We need faith. But what of all those who suffer before the fulfillment? There is no perfect answer. In the Book of Job we are reminded that our understanding  is so limited that we shouldn't complain over the small amount of reality that we can see. Instead, as we hear in today's reading, we must rely on our faith which tells us God makes all things right, even though we don't see how.

The responsorial psalm — Ps 95: 1-2, 6-9 — calls us to praise God, not to resist him

In the second reading — 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14 — Paul reminds Timothy that we can all expect hardship. But we,like Habakkuk, must not be discouraged. We should have faith and be witnesses to the Gospel. We have the grace necessary to follow his example.

The gospel — Luke 17:5-10 — begins with an encouragement to faith, in line with the first reading. It isn't to be taken literally. Faith isn't about useless shows of power. It's about relying on God for ultimate salvation, as we're told in the earlier readings. It's about realizing that reality extends beyond the way we experience things in our present life into the transcendent eternity of a loving God who will eradicate evil beyond the limits time imposes on our vision. Meanwhile, as the remainder of the reading reminds us, faith is also what drives us to give our lives over to God in love. In this way, life is not a matter of simply obeying a list of rules. Doing that is not enough for us. Life becomes a matter of being motivated by love in all we do. We may not be perfect in this regard, so we need to grow in grace — grace we can receive by consuming the Body and Blood of Jesus, as promised in John 6:53-57.

2015/08/23 — 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Israelites have heard of the deeds of the Lord in freeing their ancestors from Egypt and seen how he brought them into the land of Canaan. The people following Jesus have heard the Bread of Life Discourse. Now it is decision time for both. There is also a decision time for a man and a woman who love each other.


Joshua 24:1-28 recounts Joshuas final action as Moses' successor before his death. Verses 1-2a, 15-17, and 18b give us the core of it. Joshua recounts the deeds of the Lord in verses 2b-13, and then tells the people that they must choose between the Lord and the gods of Egypt or other nations. There can always be a temptation to look for salvation from someone or something other than God. It is to forestall this possibility that Joshua insists on a promise of fidelity to the Lord.

As the history of Israel unfolds in the books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, we see that people were not always faithful — some began to worship pagan deities. But at this point, the commitment to God is clear.


Once more, as it has been through the Sundays devoted to the Bread of Life Discourse, the responsorial psalm is verses from Psalm 34, with verse 9a as the people's response. We get, once more, the opening verses, 2-3, praising the Lord. These are followed by vv. 16-21, which tell of the Lord's care for the just. We can think of how Israel was brought out of Egypt and into the Promised Land as an example of how the Lord cares for his people.


In the gospel reading — John 6:60-69 — we come to the end of chapter 6. Jesus has identified himself as the living bread that came down from heaven and proclaimed that to have eternal life one must eat his flesh and drink his blood, which give that life to the world. As on earlier Sundays, people object, but Jesus reaffirms his teaching. Faith is a gift. Those to whom it is offered would do well to accept it.

As for the Israelites of Joshua's time, Jesus' disciples are at a moment of decision. Some of them turn away and stop following him because they cannot accept his teaching. Perhaps they never were given the gift of faith or, far worse, they had it but have now rejected it. Peter, as spokesman for the Twelve answers Jesus' poignant question, "Do you also want to leave?" He does so with the affirmation that there is no one else who can give what Jesus gives. "You have the words of eternal life." We may not fully understand Jesus' teachings. We may find them hard to accept. We may find ourselves failing to live up to what he calls us to. But still we recognize that  he is the Holy One of God and we believe in him as the giver of eternal life.


In Ephesians 5:21-32, Paul describes marriage as being an image of the relationship between God and his people, between Christ and the Church. Nowadays people find the word "subordinate" offensive in this context, but implies a heavy responsibility for the husband, and it does not exclude mutual decision making. It certainly does not justify any sort of abusive or domineering attitude or action, since that would be inconsistent with the self-sacrificing love that husbands are called to.

Husbands and wives are in a covenant relationship like that between God and his people (which is why the prophets spoke of idolatry as a form of adultery — e.g., Jeremiah 3:9; Ezekiel 23:37), like that between Christ and the Church. The exchange of wedding vows is, for the husband and wife, as solemn a commitment as that to which Joshua summoned the Israelite. It is a promise not to g to another, that this spouse will help bring one to eternal life. And as with the covenants with God, it is a commitment which has consequences for the living of daily life in fidelity to the covenant partner.


Joshua summoned the people to an assembly in which they would reaffirm their commitment to the Lord. We, too are called to the Church's weekly assembly (Hebrews 10:25), where we explicitly reaffirm our faith by reciting the creed, and we sacramentally reaffirm it by participating in the sacrifice of the New Covenant — by consuming the Bread of Life, the Body and Blood of Christ which give eternal life and sustain us on our pilgrimage to the promised land of heaven.

2015/08/16 — 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We continue with the Bread of Life Discourse. Jesus responds to questioning by adding to what he had said, and we get another Old Testament type of the Eucharist. We are told to live wisely.


Proverbs 9:1-6 depicts Wisdom as a woman — the house with seven columns suggests that she is a queen. She prepares a banquet and issues an invitation to all, like the king who gives a wedding banquet for his son in Jesus' parable. Today's liturgy takes Wisdom's banquet as a type, a figure, of the Eucharist. To turn to Wisdom's banquet is to leave folly in favor of life (Jesus promises eternal life) and understanding.


The responsorial psalm is six of the eight verses we used last Sunday — Ps 34:2-7 — with the response from verse 8, placing our meditation on God's goodness in the context of tasting.


The second reading — Ephesians 5:15-20 — also urges us to live wisely, with understanding, not foolishly. Wisdom's banquet includes wine, but we are not to get drunk and become debauched. We should be under the influence of the Spirit and praise God— as we just did in the Psalm.


Our gospel reading — John 6:51-58 — begins with the last verse of last Sunday's gospel. Once more, the people argue. Certainly, it must have been puzzling for them to hear Jesus speak of his own flesh as the bread that gives everlasting life to those who eat it. We know how he can do it, in the light of the Last Supper, where he made the bread his body and the wine his blood. So we eat his flesh and drink his blood sacramentally.

Drinking Jesus' blood is an element that he adds in his response to the latest questioning. Jesus doesn't back down but builds on what he has said previously, insisting that his flesh is real food and his blood real drink, and that eating and drinking them confer resurrection and eternal life. In the original Greek of the gospel Jesus changes the verb he uses for eating his flesh. Through verse 53 ("Unless you eat…"), the verb is "phagein," which is eating in general. But beginning in verse 54 ("Whoever eats my flesh…"), the verb is "trogein," which means sinking one's teeth into something. Jesus' body, broken in the crucifixion, is to be eaten like the paschal lamb of the Exodus. His blood is the true blood of the lamb, which saved the Israelites from the destroying angel. (Exodus 12:21-23) It is the true blood of the covenant between God and his people. (Exodus 24:3-8)

"You are what you eat" was a slogan in the 60's and 70's. When we eat Jesus he remains in us and we in him, so that we share in his eternal life, just as he shares in the Father's life. There is an intimacy, or communion, between us and him like the communion of the persons of the Trinity.


My apology for being later than usual with this: I'm still catching up from my retreat. I hope you will find it useful.

2015/08/09 — 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday we continue to unfold the Bread of Life Discourse and consider what it means for us to live as members of God's chosen people, God's holy people.


The first reading — 1 Kings 19:4-8 — presents an incident with Elijah. The background is that King Ahab of Israel had married a pagan princess, Jezebel, and had turned to worshipping her gods. Elijah had defeated and killed the prophets of Baal in a public contest. (1 Kings 18:1-40) Jezebel was enraged and threatened to have Elijah killed. So Elijah fled for his life.

Elijah, in effect, attempts to resign from his vocation as prophet, but God refuses the resignation. Instead he miraculously provides food which enables Elijah to reach Mount Horeb (another name for Mount Sinai), where he would have a vision of God, as Moses had. This transformed his flight into a pilgrimage. There are other resonances with the story of the Israelites in the desert. There is the miraculous food, the manna provided to the Israelites. Elijah's 40 day walk to Horeb recalls the Israelites' 40 years in the desert and Moses' 40 days on Mount Horeb receiving the law. (Exodus 24:18 - 34:28 It also parallels Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness prior to the beginning of his public ministry.


The responsorial psalm — Ps 34:29 — invites us to "taste" the goodness of the Lord, who sends his angel and protects us as he protected and fed Elijah.


Today's gospel — John 6:41-51 — flows from last Sunday's, in which Jesus promises the people the true bread from heaven; but it takes it one step further. Jesus now identifies himself with the bread from heaven — more specifically, his flesh is the bread from heaven, and he will give it for the life of the world.

Jesus fulfills the prophecy (Isaiah 54:13, cf. Jeremiah 31:34) that the people will be taught by God: he is, in fact, God teaching them. The faith which is necessary to receive the eternal life conferred by the bread from heaven is itself a gift from the Father — one he will give to all who will accept it, since he wants all to be saved. All who have that faith, which is adherence to Jesus, already have eternal life.


In the second reading — Ephesians 4:30 - 5:2 — Paul spells out an aspect of the meaning of our having been brought into God's people. We have received the Holy Spirit, who now dwells in us. He is grieved by unloving attitudes, words, and deeds. (Note that here Paul does not speak of sins of sex and violence, which he writes against elsewhere. here is more to Christian life than avoiding those sins.) Kindness, compassion, and forgiveness make us imitators of the self-giving Christ. Our goodness rests, most fundamentally on our being children of God, rather on simply following some system of ethics. Bt if we are God's children, we live as such. So we do need to have our consciences formed according to the truth that sets us free.


St. Bernard says, "I love because I love, I love in order to love;" and St. Augustine teaches that receiving the Body of Christ — the bread from heaven which gives life to the world — makes us the Body of Christ. This is what we do every Sunday at Mass.

Last week I suggested the hymn "Bread of Heaven" as a meditation on the gospel and first reading. This week, the hymn "Panis Angelicus (Bread of Angels)," with a text by St. Thomas Aquinas, can serve. Here's a video with Luciano Pavarotti. The opening words are taken from last Sunday's psalm, whichsays, "Man ate the bread of angels," and the first two lines paraphrase the line. The word "figures" sees the manna, which the psalm refers to as a "type," a prefiguring, of the sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood, which Jesus calls the true bread from heaven. The stanza ends in an expression of awe at this sacrament.

2015/08/02 — 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

First reading: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15  The Lord had heard the cries of the Israelites as they suffered slavery in Egypt and had afflicted Egypt with the ten plagues so that the Egyptians let them go. He had brought them through the Red Sea. Almost immediately they began grumbling. They wanted food. Of course they needed food, but it was of a type and delivered in a way that made it clear that the Lord was providing for them on their journey to the promised land. It was a miraculous bread from heaven, manna, which sustained them for forty years while the Lord led them by a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night until they crossed the River Jordan and entered the Promised Land. Something similar happened with water. The Lord told Moses to strike a rock with his staff, and water flowed out.


Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54 invites us to reflect on the mighty deeds of the Lord in bringing Isreal from Egypt to the Promised Land.


Gospel: John 6:24-35  This reading takes us to the beginning of what is called the "Bread of Life Discourse," in which Jesus presents himself as the true bread from heaven.

After the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, the disciples had gotten into a boat to go to Capernaum, but Jesus stayed behind. During the night, Jesus, Jesus came to them, walking on the water. The first question from the crowd is natural enough in this context: they knew that Jesus hadn't left with the disciples, yet there he was. But Jesus doesn't answer it. Instead, he directs them from their concern for physical food to a food that will give eternal life.

Several times in the gospels people ask Jesus what they must do to be saved or what is the greatest commandment. The response of the people to Jesus' mention of eternal life is similar. They ask what they need to do. Jesus does not give them a list of commandments, works to perform: the "work" that is needed is faith in him as the one God has sent. The people's demand for a sign may seem strange, considering that he has just fed them with the loaves and fishes, even more so when they allude to a miraculous feeding as the sort of sign they want. But Jesus had previously presented himself as a teacher and had performed signs which related to current life. Now he was claiming to be the channel of eternal life. This new, higher level, claim may justify a request for another sign.

The people seem to attribute the manna to Moses, but Jesus reminds them that it was God, not Moses. who gave the manna. God also gives the bread from heaven which confers and sustains eternal life. When the people ask for this bread, Jesus says that he himself is the bread "which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." What this means will be explained as the discourse continues.


Second reading: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24  In the past couple of weeks, Paul had rejoiced over God's calling of the Gentiles into unity in the Church. Although it is a gift of God, not something we must earn, our response to God's call has consequences for our lives. We must live as God's children, not like the pagans. (Verses 18 and 19, omitted from today's reading, give a further description of how the pagans live.) We are to live righteous lives in the truth of Jesus, not corrupted by worldly desires and deceitful ideas.


The first reading, the psalm, and the gospel, along with the whole history of the wanderings of the Israelites from the Exodus until they crossed the Jordan into the  promised land, are the background of the hymn "Bread of Heaven."  Here's a video. There are lots of others available, including some from rugby matches, royal weddings and funerals.

The hymn's text compares our present life to the sojourn of the Israelites in the desert. We need to be guided through our life by the Lord. We need the bread from heaven to sustain us. And whe we approach death and "tread the verge of Jordan," we ask God to give us the assurances of faith and bring us through death to the promised land of heaven.

This is not a new idea on the part of the writer of the hymn. It has been a constant part of tradition from earliest times. Jesus himself, by calling himself the bread from heaven, has made the comparison. Baptism is our entry into the Christian pilgrimage, as crossing the Red Sea set the Israelites on their journey.

But if we are the new Israelites, fed by the true bread from heaven, we are subject to temptations comparable to theirs, temptations Paul cautions us against. We can long for the pleasures of the "Egypt" we have left behind: our secularized culture. The culture's materialism is manifested in consumerism and greed, in unrestrained lust, and in refusal to admit of any standards of morality one does not choose for oneself. We must remain appreciative of and grateful for all God gives us — above all salvation, but whatever earthly good we can enjoy as well. The bread from heaven strengthens us to live holy lives.