Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 30, 2020 - 3rd Week of Easter - Thurs
[Acts 8:26-40 and John 6:44-51]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 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]
APRIL 30 ST. PIUS V - Dominican Pope
The last statement in the gospel scripture for today is an "uh oh!" moment. Jesus moves from presenting faith in him as living bread to faith in him being physically among us in the form of food! The gospel for tomorrow will show this in detail and then show the consequences of the teaching.
The current pandemic has brought us face to face with Chapter 6 of the Gospel According to John. The closing of churches and lack of access to the physical "Bread of Life" and the invoking of "spiritual communion" have had an emotional as well as theological impact! The temptation is to view "spiritual communion" as a kind of "second best" or "Plan B" solution as if faith in Jesus admits of such a thing! We are very much a physical church. The sacraments are based on that trait as "outward signs of an invisible grace." Somehow we can get into the notion that if those outward signs are taken away, so is the grace of God! We forget sometimes that in order to participate in sacramental life, we must first believe in those truths contained in the creed. Baptism does not precede the profession of faith!
Eternal life is faith in Jesus as the one whom God has sent. If that is true, then all things are possible to him, including leaving to us the Bread of Life that we call the Eucharist. The next couple of days will remind us how startling that truth can be! AMEN
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