August 15, 2021
First Reading (Proverbs 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 (Psalm 34: 2-3, 10-15):
Refrain: Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
1) 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. (Refrain)
2) 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. (Refrain)
3) 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. (Refrain)
Second Reading (Ephesians 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.
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."
Copyright 1970, 1986, 1992, 1998, 2001 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. Washington D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
The English translation of some Psalm responses, some Alleluia and Gospel verses and the Lenten Gospel Acclamations, some Summaries, and the Titles and Conclusion of the Readings, from the Lectionary for Mass copyright 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc., Washington D.C. All rights reserved.
The poetic English translation of the sequences of the Roman Missal are taken from the Roman Missal approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States, copyright 1964 by the National Catholic Welfare Conference, Inc. All rights reserved.
Used with permission of ICEL.]
Days of the Lord, Volume 5, pp. 181-188. The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN., 1993.
The Cultural World of Jesus, by John J. Pilch, pp. 124-126. The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN. 1996.
The Word Encountered, by John F. Kavanaugh, pp. 94-96. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY 1996.
Catechism: #1324-1327. United States Catholic Conference, Washington, D.C.: 1994.
In the book The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser, Father Rolheiser focuses on the word that was written in the original Greek for body in the New Testament. In Greek there are two words for body (the whole human person) - sarx and soma. Soma refers to the human person insofar as the person is good or neutral. Sarx refers to the human person insofar as there is something unfavorable about him or her.
We as a people, get sick, sin and die. Sarx is the word that was used in the orginal Greek version of the New Testament. Father Rolheiser writes "by using sarx, Jesus is referring to his body precisely insofar as it is not simply his sinless, glorified body in heaven, nor simply a communion wafer but rather what we are being asked to eat is that other part of his body, the community, the flawed boy of believers here on earth. The flawed body of believers that we define as the Body of Christ." Father Rolheiser continues "part of very essence of Christianity is to be together in a concrete community with all the real human faults that are there and the tensions that this will bring us".
In order to have a better understanding of today's gospel, we need to put John's gospel in its historical perspective. It is believed that John's gospel was the last gospel to be written, somewhere around the year 100 at the very end of John's life. It is also believed to be the gospel which contains the most inspiration by the Spirit. It is not used in the liturgical cycles for Sunday readings because it is so different from the other three, which are called the "synoptic" gospels and basically have the same point of view. This is the year of the gospel according to Mark, but in switching to the sixth chapter of John for these few weeks, I believe the liturgists are reinforcing the importance of this chapter in John's gospel.
There was a survey done among Catholics which indicated that over 50 percent did not believe in transubstantiation, that is, the changing of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood. This is a difficult passage of scripture to understand, just as the disciples state in the next verse of John's gospel: "This is hard to accept". While this is an article of faith and not of fact, and therefore cannot be verified by our senses, there are some facts which might help us to more readily believe this truth of our faith.
In researching some sources for this homily, I went to one of my favorites, a commentary by a Presbyterian minister named William Barclay. He points out that, at our Lord's time in history, when pagans sacrificed an animal to their gods, with a small "g", they did not burn the entire animal. A portion was given to the priests, and another part was kept by the worshiper to make a feast for himself and his friends within the temple precincts. At that feast the god himself was held to be a guest. Once the flesh was offered to the god, they believed that the god had entered into it; and therefore, when the worshiper ate of it, he was literally eating the god. When the guests rose from the table, they went out feeling that they were indeed "god-filled". (1)
In addition to these pagan beliefs, there were also what were called the Mystery Religions. All of these religions were essentially passion plays, or stories, about a god who had lived and suffered terribly, and who had died and rose again. New believers were carefully prepared to watch the play, and as they did, they became one with the god. They shared the sorrows and the griefs, the death and the resurrection. They and the god became one forever, and they believed that they were then safe in life and in death.
Thus, these ancient people knew all about the striving, the longing, the dreaming for identity with their god and for the bliss of taking him into themselves. Phrases like eating Christ's body and drinking his blood would not come as a shock to them. They would know something of that ineffable experience of union, closer than any earthly union, of which these words speak. If this was true for them in worshiping a god of their own making, how much more should it be for us in worshiping the God who made us? (1) St. Irenaeus, one of the fathers of the Church, puts it this way: "In the same way that the bread which comes from the earth is no longer ordinary bread but Eucharist, made up of two substances, one earthly and the other heavenly, so our bodies, which participate in the Eucharist are no longer corruptible, since they have the hope of the resurrection."
As I mentioned earlier, John's gospel was the last one written and he had been reflecting on what Jesus had said for almost seventy years. So in his gospel, he is not so much providing us with an account of the actual words of Jesus, but rather, through the inspiration of the Spirit, revealing the inner significance of his words. So, from John's perspective, what does our Lord mean when he tells us to eat his body and drink his blood? His body is his complete humanity. Jesus was the mind of God become a person. This means that in Jesus we see God taking human life upon himself, facing our human situation, struggling with our human problems, battling with our human temptations and working out our human relationships. So it is as if Jesus says to us: "Feed your heart, feed your mind and feed your soul on the thought that when you are discouraged and in despair, when you are beaten to your knees and disgusted with life and living, remember that I took that life of yours and these struggles of yours upon myself." This is the body of which he speaks.
With respect to his blood, we must remember that in Jewish thought, the blood represents life itself, for without blood, we are dead, and blood belonged to God. That is why to this day a true Jewish believer will not eat any meat which has not been completely drained of any blood, hence the meaning of kosher. Remember when Judas repented of his betrayal, he came back to the chief priests and flung the thirty pieces of silver at their feet. They could not put it back in the treasury because it was "blood" money, that is, money used to purchase someone's life. Now Jesus was telling the Jews to do the exact opposite of their previous beliefs: to drink of his blood, or they would have no life.
Now when Jesus said that we must drink his blood, he meant that we must take his life into the very core of our hearts. What does he mean by this? Like any life experience, whether a trip to a part of the world we have never seen before, or a book which we have not read, something must be internalized before we can experience its wonder and excitement. Otherwise, it is merely a name, a place or a book on a shelf without any meaning to us. For me, I remember vividly a trip my family and I took to Long Beach, California. Now it is no longer merely a place on a map, but a vibrant memory. I remember passages from some of the books that I have read as if I had just read them yesterday and not many years ago. I'm sure that all of you must have similar experiences and memories in your own lives.
So it is with Christ. He is merely a name in a book unless we feed on his life and let him into our hearts. By eating his flesh and blood, we feed our hearts and minds and souls on his humanity, and we revitalize our lives with his life until, like the pagans, we are filled with the life of him who is God.
Another important point here is that this passage from the Gospel of John occurs after our Lord has fed the multitude with the five loaves and the two fishes. If you recall the words from this gospel which John uses to describe what's happening, you would see that they sound very much like those of the Last Supper: "Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to the people." Well, these words may sound like those of the Last Supper because for John, this passage IS his institution of the Eucharist. You see, in John's gospel, THERE IS NO LAST SUPPER INSTITUTION NARRATIVE. Therefore, there can be no misunderstanding that the words "Do this in remembrance of me" are to be merely a commemoration of an event. FOR JOHN, THERE IS NO INSTITUTION AT A MEAL TO REMEMBER, only the command: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life within you". Possibly because of some early controversy in the church about transubstantiation, John does not include an institution narrative in his gospel. For whatever reason, and I cannot say this often enough, John is explicitly clear in this passage about what every Christian must do to attain eternal life.
In summary then, John is telling us that in eating Christ's Body, we are taking on all of his humanity and his divinity, just as took on all of our human condition. In drinking his Blood, we are taking his life into our very beings and motivating our lives in him.
I pray that all of us truly take these truths to heart each and every time we partake of this wonderful sacrament and never cease to marvel that "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that those who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life".
1. The Gospel of John, copyright 1975 by William Barclay. St. Andrew's Press, Edinburgh, Scotland.
(Copyright 2015 by the Spirit through Deacon Sil Galvan, with a little help from the friends noted above. Permission is freely granted for use, in whole or in part, in oral presentations. For permission to use in writing, please contact the human intermediary at deaconsil@comcast.net.)
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Penitential Rite:
Lord Jesus, you have given us your own Body to eat in the Eucharist. Lord, have mercy.
Christ Jesus, you have given us your Blood to drink to save us from our sins. Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you have promised us that those who eat your Body and drink your Blood shall have eternal life. Lord, have mercy.
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Celebrant: Gathered together as a faith community sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ with our brothers and sisters throughout the world, we bring our prayers and petitions to the Father.
Deacon/Lector: Our response is "Lord, feed us with your bread of life."
That all Christian believers may one day be joined together at the one table of the Lord, we pray to the Lord.
That the sick, the terminally ill and those who are grieving the loss of a loved one will find strength in the Eucharist, we pray to the Lord.
That our celebration of Word and sacrament may encourage us to value our lives and our gifts, and to use them to help others in need, we pray to the Lord.
That as we eat and drink the Body and Blood of the Lord, we may grow in true Eucharistic devotion, we pray to the Lord.
That as we approach the end of the summer season we may all find time for rest and relaxation , we pray to the Lord.
That our music ministry may be filled with the Holy Spirit and help us to praise God through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, we pray to the Lord.
For all of the intentions which we hold in our hearts and which we now recall in silence. (Pause) For all of these intentions, we pray to the Lord.
Celebrant: O loving Father, you so generously provide for our physical and spiritual needs through the fruits of the earth and the offering of your Son. We pray that our service to you and to one another may one day bring us to the eternal banquet you have prepared for us from the beginning of time. And we lift these, our petitions, to you in the name of Christ, your Son and our Lord. Amen.