AUGUST 19, 2012 : TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 119

Reading 1 Prv 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
"Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Reading 2 Eph 5:15-20

Brothers and sisters:
Watch carefully how you live,
not as foolish persons but as wise,
making the most of the opportunity,
because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not continue in ignorance,
but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.
And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery,
but be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,
giving thanks always and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Gospel Jn 6:51-58

Jesus 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."

www.usccb.org

"This is the bread that came down from heaven."

Scripture Study

August 19, 2012 Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

This week we celebrate the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time. The readings continue their reflection on the Holy Eucharist that began three Sundays ago. The first reading is taken from a description of a feast prepared and given by Wisdom, who is frequently personified in the scriptures as a woman. She calls on all those who pass by to partake of her feast so they may "live and advance in the way of understanding." The second reading calls us to live as wise persons rather than foolish ones. It reminds us that living wisely means living in the Spirit of Christ. The Gospel reading continues with the theme of last week. Emphasis is now placed on the reality of the Eucharist as real food and drink. We need the life-giving presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist in order to "remain in Him" so that "He will remain in us" and give us life eternal. A question raised in my mind by these readings is: How do I let the Holy Eucharist affect me? How deeply do I let myself enter into the mystery of Christ's presence in the Holy Eucharist and in my life?

NOTES on First Reading:

* Chapter 9 presents the contrasting invitations of Wisdom (9:1-12) and Folly (9:13-18) who have each prepared a table and are seeking to invite guests to come in and partake of their feast.

* Indication of a wealthy household with an interior courtyard. The number, seven, is symbolic of perfection or completion.

* The house symbolizes the school over which Wisdom presides, the banquet, her teaching. The house is also the world with its pillars (Job 26:11) at whose construction Wisdom was present (8:27-30) and within which she delights to live (8:31).

*9:2 In the ancient world wine was always mixed with water before drinking. The wine of that day was much rougher than wine today and mixing water with it took the edge off. Common belief was that only the gods could drink wine straight; a mortal man would be made insane by drinking straight wine unmixed with water.

NOTES on Second Reading:

* 15-20 These verses are largely an admonition to be filled with the Spirit of God and then to walk in that Spirit by practices that are associated with the Spirit-filled life. The wording is similar to Col 4:5; Rom 12:2; Col 1:9; Proverbs 23:31; Col 3:16-17 .

NOTES on Gospel:

* 6:51a This verse completes the passage by picking up the sequence in v 35: I Am saying; Condition:"anyone comes...";"anyone eats..."; salvation: "not hunger...","live forever". Verse 51a makes it clear that what is implied by not hungering and not thirsting is eternal life.

* 6:51b-59 This portion of this long discourse is properly Eucharistic. Up to this point the symbolism has been: bread of life = Christ which God gives = reveals to us. Now it becomes: Christ who gives: this bread = His flesh = Himself.

* From verse 51b on, the discourse takes on a much stronger Eucharistic tone rather than referring simply to Jesus as the revealer of the Father as it does up to 51b. John refers to the "flesh" of Jesus rather than the "body" of Christ which is the Eucharistic word used by Paul and the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). John�s use of the word, "flesh" harkens back to John 1:14 where John first brings together the concepts of the Word and flesh. Although John�s reference to the "flesh" of Christ is probably closer to the original Semitic expression used by Jesus, in the early church both terms were used interchangeably in a Eucharistic sense. Use of "flesh" rather than "body" would not have encouraged Jesus� listeners to have a purely symbolic understanding of the language of this section because the Hebrew phrase, "to eat someone�s flesh" is a figure of speech for "to slander" or "backbite" (See Psalm 27:2; the Aramaic text of Dan 3:8). Verses 57b and 58b speak of having life in the future tense but 54a and 56b use the language of realized eschatology (that is: speaking of the future as if it already were accomplished). Verses 56 uses the language of remaining that appears in the farewell discourses (15:4-5; 17:21,23).

* The suggestion (Bultmann) that verses 51b-59 were added during the final editing of the Gospel of John does not need to imply that they represent a "correction" to the Gospel to make it acceptable to the emerging sacramental theology of the developing orthodoxy. The language, "I will raise him up on the last day", which appears to reflect later editing appears again in v 54. It has been suggested that this material may have originated in a Johannine last supper tradition that was recast to fit into the preceding discourse.

* 6:52 This verse begins a detailed exposition on the verb,"to eat" in such a way that the symbolic meaning of " eating and drinking" established in the first part of the discourse can now be applied to the "bread" of the eucharistic celebration. We must appreciate this process in order to appreciate that it was the literal understanding of the words that led to the quarrel among the Jews.

* 6:53 Verses 53-56 These verses expand the original statement of V 51b about Jesus' flesh with the expression "flesh and blood". Each verse follows the pattern of referring to eating the flesh and then drinking the blood. The assertion that they are real food and drink refers back to v 35. The other verses follow the claim that it is necessary to "eat his flesh and drink his blood" with a reference to salvation: (a)" have life in you" (v53); (b) "have eternal life"[and " I will raise him up on the last day"] (v54); (c) "remain in me and I in him" (v56).

* The strong negative warning here in v 53 and the immanence of the formula "remain in me" in v 56 and in 15:4-5 may indicate a warning directed toward a later crisis in the community. John 15 speaks of the need for the disciples to remain attached to Jesus, the vine (also a eucharistic symbol; see Mark 14:25). This crisis could be a result of persecution or it could be the split indicated in the letters of John.

* The parallel sayings about flesh and blood appear to represent the eucharistic formula used in the Johannine community. Unlike the formulas in the Synoptic Gospels and Paul, the body of Christ is referred to with the word, "saryx", "flesh", not "soma", "body". " Flesh" also appears in the formulas of Ignatius of Antioch. The Johannine formula probably also included a "for, on behalf of" clause, which may be represented in the "for the life of the world" of 6:51.

* 6:54 The verb, "to eat" has changed in this verse. Up to here Jesus used the common verb for eating (phago, to eat). In this verse he uses the very graphic word (trogo, to gnaw, crunch) for chewing or gnawing to emphasize the reality of the "eating".

* 6:57 The unusual expression "the living Father" may have been formed on analogy with "the living bread" of 6:51. The Father is seen as the Source of all life.

The Father sent the Son to give life (3:16-17) and the life which the Son has is the Father's own life given to the Son (5:26). Here the type of relationship between the Father and Son is extended to the believer who partakes of the Eucharist. This verse also uses a pattern of relationships between Father-Son and believer that belongs in the context of the farewell discourses (14:20-21; 17:21).

Immanence formulas, developed on the basis of Johannine Christology, express the relationship between the believer and Jesus established in the Eucharist.

* 6:58 The words, "the one who eats the bread will live forever" conclude the discourse and bind it to the larger context by drawing a sharp contrast between the community that possesses the "bread from heaven" and its Jewish opponents, whose ancestors had only manna and died (6:49-50).

www.st-raymond-dublin.org

Meditation: "He who eats this bread will live forever"

Why did Jesus offer himself as “food and drink” (John 6:53)?  The Jews were scandalized and the disciples were divided when Jesus said "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." What a hard saying, unless you understand who Jesus is and why he calls himself the bread of life. The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves (John 6:1-15), when Jesus said the blessing, broke and distributed the loaves through his disciples to feed the  multitude, prefigured the superabundance of the unique bread of the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper. The Gospel of John has no account of the Last Supper meal (just the foot washing ceremony and Jesus' farewell discourse).  Instead, John quotes extensively from Jesus' teaching on the bread of life.
In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to their Creator. Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine, who was both priest and king (Genesis 14:18), prefigured the offering made by Jesus, our high priest and king. The remembrance of the manna in the wilderness recalled to Israel that it lives by the bread of the Word of God (Deuteronomy 8:3).When at the Last Supper Jesus described his blood “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28), he was explaining his coming crucifixion as a sacrifice for sins. His death on the cross fulfilled the sacrifice of the paschal lamb.  That is why John the Baptist called him the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Jesus  made himself an offering and sacrifice, a gift that was truly pleasing to the Father. He “offered himself without blemish to God” (Hebrews 9:14) and “gave himself as a sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).
Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had announced at Capernaum – giving his disciples his body and his blood.  Jesus’ passing over to his Father by his death and resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Last Supper and celebrated in the eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the church in the glory of God’s kingdom. When the Lord Jesus commands his disciples to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he invites us to take his life into the very center of our being. That life which he offers is the very life of God himself. Do you hunger for the bread of life?
"Lord Jesus, you nourish and sustain us with your very own presence and life. You are the bread of life – the bread that sustains us now and that produces everlasting life in us. May I always hunger for you and be satisfied in you alone."

www.dailyscripture.net

A New Life

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

John 6:51-58 Jesus 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: I believe in you, my God. You called me into existence from nothingness and carefully watch over me. You have even numbered the hairs of my head. I trust in your infinite goodness, and I abandon into your loving hands my fears, my hopes, my needs, my desires, everything. I love you, Lord, and I wish to love you with all my mind, heart, soul and strength. Petition: Grant, Lord, that I may grow in faith in the Eucharist. 1. A New Life: It is always good to reflect on the basic and most fundamental truths of our faith. We can get so used to them that we lose the sense of marvel before them. God became man that we might participate in the very life of God. We, who thanks to our first parents’ sin were born with a life that was doomed, have by God’s mercy received the gift of a new life, a life that will never end. We received this new life at baptism, when we were incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ and became children of God. We participate in the divine life of the Holy Trinity through the Son of God who became man for our sakes. What an extraordinary gift we have received! All of us need to reflect on it in God’s presence, so we may grow in appreciation and love for God whose mercy toward us is boundless. 2. New Life – New Food: We have received life, the very life of God. We have this new life in Christ. It comes entirely from him – not from the world, not from men, and not from angels. Christ became man that we might have this new life. But, as is always the way of human beings, we are weak and we need food so as to live. No earthly food can sustain this new life. So, Christ has given himself to be our “true food.” In the Eucharist he has become our food and our drink. A new food for a new life is what we receive. We should marvel at this food which we receive for our nourishment. Let us stop and wonder in silent adoration before the generosity of the Son of God. 3. The Food of Promise: The Eucharist is an extraordinary gift. We cannot fathom its infinite riches, as it is the Son of God himself. The bread is no longer bread, and the wine is no longer wine. We are in the presence of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. He came that we might have life and have it to the full. He came and gave us himself to sustain us on our journey. The food he gives – himself – is also the food of promise, for whoever eats his sacred Body and drinks his precious Blood will have eternal life and will be raised up on the last day. All other food is rendered useless at death. The Eucharist brings about the triumph over death; it is a new food for a new life – Eternal Life. Conversation with Christ: Lord, to whom shall we go? You are the Bread of Life! There is not enough time to spend in thanksgiving for the greatness of the Eucharist. Here I am; I come to love you as best I can. I trust that through your Mother Mary’s help I will be able to love you. Resolution: I will invite my family to make a Eucharistic visit or to make a spiritual communion.

www.regnumchristi.com

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
In our prayer, we may sometimes use the reflections of the day and sometimes go to the readings. For example, today we may use the antiphon for the psalm: ‘Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.’ Or we may go to the gospel: we have words of Jesus from the well-known chapter about the Eucharist in which Jesus makes promises about the life he offers.

Jesus offers personal relationship with him and promises everlasting life. In particular he discourses about the Eucharist. Instead of us imagining ourselves at Capernaum where ‘Jesus taught these things’, with hindsight we may imagine the Last Supper scene (Luke 22:19) and then pray whatever comes to us.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY

John Main

PRAYER 

Prayer is the fundamental and grounding experience of everything we are. In other words, prayer is the process wherein we discover both who we are and why we are. In essence, it is the process whereby and wherein we pay attention with total concentration to our our human nature so that, by attending to our own creatureliness, we come to attend to and upon our Creator. St Augustine put this very succinctly and very marvellously in this way: "Man must first be restored to himself, that, making in himself as it were a stepping-stone, he may rise thence and be borne up to God." 

So prayer, meditation is not just a way of "doing" something but it is a way "becoming" someone - becoming yourself: created by God, redeemed by Jesus and a temple of the Holy Spirit.

-          John Main 
  John Main, "Christian Meditation" [Benedictine Priory of Montreal]

www.churchresources.info

MINUTE MEDITATIONS

Healthy Self-Esteem 

If ever a person had reason to get a big head, it was Moses, but he had humility. It is good to acknowledge our talents and abilities. Healthy self-esteem is built on this. Humility does not mean thinking bad things about ourselves or dwelling on our inadequacies.

—      from Fools, Liars, Cheaters, and Other Bible Heroes

August 19
St. John Eudes
(1601-1680)

St.John Eudes.

How little we know where God’s grace will lead. Born on a farm in northern France, John died at 79 in the next “county” or department. In that time he was a religious, a parish missionary, founder of two religious communities and a great promoter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

He joined the religious community of the Oratorians and was ordained a priest at 24. During severe plagues in 1627 and 1631, he volunteered to care for the stricken in his own diocese. Lest he infect his fellow religious, he lived in a huge cask in the middle of a field during the plague.
At age 32, John became a parish missionary. His gifts as preacher and confessor won him great popularity. He preached over 100 parish missions, some lasting from several weeks to several months.
In his concern with the spiritual improvement of the clergy, he realized that the greatest need was for seminaries. He had permission from his general superior, the bishop and even Cardinal Richelieu to begin this work, but the succeeding general superior disapproved. After prayer and counsel, John decided it was best to leave the religious community. The same year he founded a new one, ultimately called the Eudists (Congregation of Jesus and Mary), devoted to the formation of the clergy by conducting diocesan seminaries. The new venture, while approved by individual bishops, met with immediate opposition, especially from Jansenists and some of his former associates. John founded several seminaries in Normandy, but was unable to get approval from Rome (partly, it was said, because he did not use the most tactful approach).
In his parish mission work, John was disturbed by the sad condition of prostitutes who sought to escape their miserable life. Temporary shelters were found but arrangements were not satisfactory. A certain Madeleine Lamy, who had cared for several of the women, one day said to him, “Where are you off to now? To some church, I suppose, where you’ll gaze at the images and think yourself pious. And all the time what is really wanted of you is a decent house for these poor creatures.” The words, and the laughter of those present, struck deeply within him. The result was another new religious community, called the Sisters of Charity of the Refuge.
He is probably best known for the central theme of his writings: Jesus as the source of holiness, Mary as the model of the Christian life. His devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary led Pius XI to declare him the father of the liturgical cult of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Comment:

Holiness is the wholehearted openness to the love of God. It is visibly expressed in many ways, but the variety of expression has one common quality: concern for the needs of others. In John’s case, those who were in need were plague-stricken people, ordinary parishioners, those preparing for the priesthood, prostitutes and all Christians called to imitate the love of Jesus and his mother.

Quote:

“Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desires and his disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly” (St. John Eudes, The Life and Reign of Jesus in Christian Souls).

www.americancatholic.org

LECTIO: 20TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (B)

Lectio:  Sunday, August 19, 2012

Jesus, the bread of life

John 6:51-58

Let us invoke the presence of God

Shaddai, God of the mountain,

You who make of our fragile life

the rock of your dwelling place,

lead our mind

to strike the rock of the desert,

so that water may gush to quench our thirst.

May the poverty of our feelings

cover us as with a mantle in the darkness of the night

and may it open our heart to hear the echo of silence

until the dawn,

wrapping us with the light of the new morning,

may bring us,

with the spent embers of the fire of the shepherds of the Absolute

who have kept vigil for us close to the divine Master,

the flavour of the holy memory.

1. LECTIO

a) The text:

51 I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.' 52 Then the Jews started arguing among themselves, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' 53 Jesus replied to them: In all truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person. 57 As the living Father sent me and I draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will also draw life from me. 58 This is the bread which has come down from heaven; it is not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.

b) A moment of silence:

Let us allow the voice of the Word to resonate within us.

2. MEDITATIO

a) Some questions:

- I am the bread of life… Jesus, flesh and blood, bread and wine. These words work a change on the altar, as Augustine says: «If you take away the words, all you have is bread and wine; add the words and it becomes something else. This something else is the body and blood of Christ. Take the words away, all you have is bread and wine; add the words and they become sacrament». How important is the word of God for me? If the word is pronounced over my flesh can it make me become bread for the world?

b) Let us enter into the text:

v. 51. ”I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world”. John’s Gospel does not recount the institution of the Eucharist, but rather the meaning it assumes in the life of the Christian community. The symbolism of the washing of the feet and the new commandment (Jn 13:1-35) point to the bread broken and the wine poured. The theological content is the same as that in the synoptic Gospels. John’s ritual tradition can, however, be found in the “eucharistic discourse” that follows the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves (Jn 6:26-65). This text brings to light the deep meaning of Christ’s existence given for the world, a gift that is the source of life and that leads to a deep communion in the new commandment of membership. The reference to the ancient miracle of the manna explains the paschal symbolism where the idea of death is taken up and overcome by life: «Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die» (Jn 6:49-50). The bread of heaven (cfr Es 16; Jn 6:31-32) figuratively or in reality is not meant so much for the individual as for the community of believers, even though everyone is called to partake personally of the food given for all. Anyone who eats the living bread will not die: the food of the revelation is the place where life never ends. From the bread, John goes on to use another expression to point to the body: sarx. In the Bible this word denotes a human person in his or her fragile and weak reality before God, and in John it denotes the human reality of the divine Word made man (Jn 1:14a): the bread is identified with the very flesh of Jesus. Here it is not a question of metaphorical bread, that is of the revelation of Christ in the world, but of the eucharistic bread. While revelation, that is the bread of life identified with the person of Jesus (Jn 6:35), is the gift of the Father (the verb to give is used in the present, v. 32), the eucharistic bread, that is the body of Jesus will be offered by him through his death on the cross prefigured in the consecration of the bread and wine at the supper: «and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world» (Jn 6:51).

v. 52. Then the Jews started arguing among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’. Here begins the drama of a way of thinking that stops at the threshold of the visible and material and dares not cross the veil of the mystery. This is the scandal of those who believe without believing… of those who pretend to know but do not know. Flesh to eat: the celebration of the Passover, the perennial rite that will go on from generation to generation, a feast for the Lord and a memorial (cfr Es 12:14), whose meaning is Christ. Jesus’ invitation to do what he has done “in memory” of him, is paralleled in the words of Moses when he prescribes the paschal anamnesis: “This day must be commemorated by you, and you must keep it as a feast ” (Ex 12,14). Now, we know that for the Jews the celebration of the Passover was not just a remembrance of a past event, but also its ritualisation, in the sense that God was ready to offer again to his people the salvation needed in new and different circumstances. Thus the past intruded into the present, leavening by its saving power. In the same way the eucharistic sacrifice “will be able” to give to the centuries “flesh to eat”.

vv. 53. Jesus said: “In all truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”. John, like the synoptic Gospels, uses various expressions when speaking of Christ’s giving of himself in death, not wishing thus to convey a separation of parts, but the totality of the person given: the spiritualised corporeity of the risen Christ, fully permeated by the Holy Spirit in the Paschal event, will become source of life for all believers, especially through the Eucharist, that unites closely each on of them with the glorified Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, and making each one partake of his own divine life. John does not mention bread and wine, but directly what is signified by them: flesh to eat because Christ is presence that nourishes and blood to drink – a sacrilegious act for the Jews – because Christ is the sacrificed lamb. The sacramental liturgical character is here evident: Jesus insists on the reality of the flesh and of the blood referring to his death, because in the act of sacrificing the sacrificial victims the flesh became separated from the blood.

54. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day. The Passover celebrated by Jesus, the Jew, and by the early Christians acquires a new soul: that of the resurrection of Christ, the final exodus of perfect and full freedom (Jn 19: 31-37), which in the Eucharist finds the new memorial, symbol of the Bread of life that sustains during the journey in the desert, sacrifice and presence that sustains the people of God, the Church, that, having crossed the waters of regeneration, will not tire of making memory, as he said, (Lk 22:19; 1Cor 11:24) until the eternal Passover. Attracted and penetrated by the presence of the Word made flesh, Christians will live their Pesach throughout history, the passage from the slavery of sin to the freedom of children of God. In conforming themselves to Christ, they will be able to proclaim the wonderful works of his admirable light, offering the eucharist of his corporeity: living sacrifice, holy and pleasing in a spiritual cult (Rom 12:1) that befits the people of his victory, a chosen race, a royal priesthood (cfr 1Pt 2:9).

vv. 55-56. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person. This promise of the life of Christ influences greatly the life of believers: «Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person» (Jn 6:56). The communion of life that Jesus has with the Father is offered to all who eat the sacrificed body of Christ. This is not to be understood as the magic concession of a sacramental food that automatically confers eternal life to those who eat it. This giving of the flesh and blood needs explanation to make it intelligible and to provide the necessary understanding of God’s action, it needs faith on the part of those who take part in the eucharistic banquet, and it needs first God’s action, that of his Spirit, without which there can be no listening or faith.

v. 57. As the living Father sent me and I draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will also draw life from me. The stress is not placed on the cult as the peak and foundation of love, but on the unity of the body of Christ living and working within the community. There is no liturgy without life. «A Eucharist without fraternal love is equal to self condemnation, because the body of Christ, that is the community, is despised». Indeed, in the eucharistic liturgy the past, present and future of the history of salvation find an efficient symbol for the Christian community, which expresses but never substitutes for the experience of faith that must always be present in history. Through the inseparable Supper and Cross, the people of God have come into the ancient promises, the true land across the sea, across the desert, across the river, a land of the milk and honey, of freedom capable of obedience. All the great ancient plans find in this hour (cfr Jn 17:1) their fulfilment; from the promise made to Abraham (Gn 17:1-8) to the Passover of the Exodus (Ex 12:1-51). This is a decisive moment that gathers the whole past of the people (cfr DV 4) and the first most noble Eucharist ever celebrated of the new covenant is offered to the Father: the fruitful fulfilment of all expectations on the altar of the cross.

v. 58. “This is the bread which has come down from heaven; it is not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever”. When Jesus pronounces the words: «This is my body», and, «This is my blood», he establishes a real and objective relationship between those material elements and the mystery of his death, which finds its crowning glory in the resurrection. These are creative words of a new situation with common elements in human experience, words that will always and truly realise the mysterious presence of the living Christ. The elements chosen were meant to be and are symbol and instrument at the same time. The element of bread, which because of its relationship to life has by itself an eschatological significance (cfr Lk 14:15), is easily seen as an indispensable food and a universal means of sharing. The element of wine, because of its natural symbolism, connotes the fullness of life and the expansion of the joy of a person (cfr Ps 103:15). In the existential Semite view, the effectiveness of the system of signs is taken for granted. It makes distinctions that make it possible to comprehend mysteries by faith where the senses fail. By referring and going back to the desert and the manna, this different “Pasch”, the material object and the sign come together, but concupiscence, which is from the flesh, transforms the sign into matter, while the desire, which is from the spirit, transforms the matter into sign» (P. Beauchamp, L’uno e l’altro testamento, Paideia Ed., Brescia 1985, p. 54). In fact, the manna from heaven comes from God in an invisible form and thus lacks identity. This lack of evidence is seen clearly in the etymology of the word “manna”: «What is it?» (Ex 16:15). This says what it is, a name given to almost nothing, a sign and not a thing, a signed sign. It is proven in the moment it disappears, because one is tempted to remedy that which disappears, to make provision of manna so as not to run short. This is the price of what disappears to the senses. The alternation is the time of the desert. The manna is bread that obeys the laws of him who gives it. The law, that the manna signifies, is to expect everything from him: what is required is belief. Because of its lack of substance, manna creates the desire for more solid support; but in the place called “sepulchres of greed” the thing, deprived of sign, brings death (Nm 11:34). In the desert that which urges people to go ahead with confidence is this seeing the manna either as a sign or as a thing in itself and thus either believe or die.

c) Let us meditate:

Jesus fulfils the true Pesach of human history: «Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, having loved those who were his in the world, loved them to the end. While they were at supper…» (Jn 13;,1). To pass over: the new Pasch is precisely this passing over of Christ from this world to the Father through the blood of his sacrifice. The Eucharist is the memorial, bread of the desert and saving presence, covenant of fidelity and communion written in the person of the Word. The history of salvation that for Israel is made up of events, names and places, leads to a reflection of faith over an experience of life that makes the name of Yahweh not just one name among many but the only Name. Everything begins from an encounter, a dialogical event between God and humanity that translates into a covenant of alliance, old and new. The sea of rushes is the last frontier of slavery and beyond it lies the spacious territory of freedom. In this watery sepulchre the old body of Israel is laid to rest and the new and free Israel rises. This is where Israel’s identity is born. Every time that this passage through the waters of birth is evoked more than just as a historical event to be remembered, the eschatological event will arise, capable of a divine fullness that becomes present, sacramental sign of God’s faithful initiative today for the new generations, in expectation of the final liberation that the Lord will provide. It is the gasp of a people that on the eve of the Pesach finds its deep identity individually and as a people, the eve when the son of the living God gives himself wholly in the form of food and drink.

3. ORATIO

Psalm 116

What return can I make to Yahweh

for his generosity to me?

I shall take up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of Yahweh.

I shall fulfil my vows to Yahweh,

witnessed by all his people.

Costly in Yahweh's sight

is the death of his faithful.

I beg you, Yahweh!

I am your servant,

I am your servant

and my mother was your servant;

you have undone my fetters.

I shall offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving

and call on the name of Yahweh.

I shall fulfil my vows to Yahweh,

witnessed by all his people,

in the courts of the house of Yahweh,

in your very heart, Jerusalem.

4. CONTEMPLATIO

When we think of you, Lord, we do not recall events that took place and were fulfilled long ago, but we come into contact with your reality ever present and alive, we see your constant passage among us. You intervene in our life to restore our likeness to you, so that we may not be disfigured by the stones of the law, but may find our fullest expression in your face as Father, revealed in the face of a man, Jesus, the promise of fidelity and love even unto death. It is not necessary at all to go out of ordinary existence so as to meet you because the care you take of your creatures unfolds over our human affairs like a scroll in the proximity of an experience. You, Creator of heaven and earth, indeed do hide in the folds of history and, even though at first obscurely and implicitly, you allow us to meet you in your transcendence, which is never absent from ordinary events. When our reflection on life brings us to an acknowledgement of your liberating presence, this meeting can only be celebrated, sung, expressed by sacred symbols, relived festively in great joy. Thus we do not come to you alone, but as a people of the covenant. The wonder of your presence is always purely gratuitous: in the members of the Church, where two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus (Mt 18:20), in the pages of Sacred Scripture, in evangelical preaching, in the poor and suffering (Mt 25:40), in the sacramental actions of ordained ministers. But it is in the eucharistic sacrifice that your presence becomes real; in the Body and Blood there is the whole of the humanity and divinity of the risen Lord, present substantially.

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