Word to the Wise
Sunday, August 12, 2018 - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[1 Kgs 19:4-8; Eph 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51]Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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." [John]
The "discourse" that follows Jesus' sign of multiplying the loaves and fishes reflects the debate going on in the synagogues at the time the evangelist composed the gospel. Those who believed in Jesus were preaching about him as "the bread of life." The discourse calls our attention to two important things that we experience when we attend the celebration of the Eucharist in our own day. It is not my intention to read this back into the text, but to reflect on our own experience in the light of it.
The first part of the discourse focuses on Jesus as the "bread of life" and that faith in him means already that one is experiencing eternal life. Scripture scholars call this "realized eschatology." It means that life in Christ is not something that starts after the event of human death but begins with faith. Jesus presents himself as a new "manna" that has come down from heaven to give life to the world. Faith in him is the equivalent to eating that manna. We heard this in the gospel passage last Sunday. However, today, the discourse, in the last sentence shifts the focus toward the physical Eucharist in which Jesus speaks of us eating his flesh and drinking his blood. To many in the synagogues of the time, this sounded like cannibalism, and some abandoned Jesus because of it.
Each Sunday, the celebration of the Eucharist involves TWO essential components: the Word of God and the physical Bread of Life in the form of bread and wine transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has left both of these to us. We Catholics have tended since the Middle Ages to focus on the physical Eucharist. The Word of God got short shrift and was poorly preached. With a renewed awareness from the Second Vatican Council of the importance of the scriptures in our worship and equally the importance of good preaching, the Church realizes that the People of God are fed not only in the consecrated host and wine, but also by the Word proclaimed and preached. This is the bread of life too! I see the importance of this in those who come up in the line at communion time with their arms crossed over their chest. The only way they have received the bread of life that day is from the Word of God, proclaimed and preached!
We still have a ways to go in improving the quality of pulpit preaching and in the quality of lectoring, but at least we can try to be aware that the Lord feeds us in more than one way. The great Southern Catholic writer, Flannery O'Connor, wrote in her spiritual diary, "God is feeding me. What I'm praying for is an appetite." The Word of God is not an "hors d'oeuvre" but is the Bread of LIfe. Improving the appetite means improving how we deliver that Bread of Life. AMEN
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