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Readings: Today’s
first reading is like an announcement of what Jesus, wisdom
of the Father, will say in the gospel we read this Sunday.
Jesus, Wisdom Incarnate, has prepared a banquet for
us; he has mixed the wine, set the eucharistic table and
sent his evangelizers all over to invite people to his Eucharist.
And he keeps telling us, “come and eat my bread.”
The bread and wine that wisdom offer are the bread
and wine that Jesus Christ offers us, Eternal Wisdom, His
Body and Blood. It
is easy to discover the image of Christ in these few lines. Wisdom is the image and symbol of the
Son of God. In
St. Matthew’s gospel (22:4) similar words of Jesus are found:
“come, my banquet is ready.” This banquet is for all, for the learned
and the ignorant, the prudent and the unwise. It is what Saint Bernardo will say: “if
you are unwise, come to the one who is the Source of all
Wisdom, and He will give you the wisdom you need.” For some
it seemed that life hadn’t taught us anything, as if we
were not able to learn lessons from our bitter experiences.
“Inexperience” is not being able to extract profitable
lessons from our bitter experiences. Today’s reading invites us to set inexperience
aside and acquire “wisdom”, the virtue by which we choose
the better of two options to benefit our lives. Inexperience here is understood to mean
not knowing how to govern and direct one’s own life. In
today’s second reading we will find a phrase that is very
similar to the one we have just analyzed in the book of
Proverbs, when the letter to the Ephesians invites us not
to be foolish but wise.
This text makes three recommendations: the first
comes in a two-fold call to sharpen one’s mind in order
to properly guide one’s own life in this special time in
which we are living and that, because we can be in it, it
is up to us to make the best of it.
What should really concern Christians is to know
at every moment, and in the midst of the reigning evil,
what God truly wants from him or her.
The second recommendation is concrete: do not become
drunk. It reflects the calls of the wise to be
careful with wine, but it could also be a reference to the
pagan cults to Dionysus, where wine was the means of linking
oneself more closely to the divinity.
And finally, the recommendation is to praise, that
believers should always direct themselves to God the Father
in the name of the Son and through the urging of the Holy
Spirit, with gratitude for all his gifts. The
third statement that today’s gospel provides in this discourse
of chapter six is that this bread, seen concretely, is the
very flesh of Jesus (v.51).
Here the issue of the Eucharist or thanksgiving,
mentioned for the first time in verses 11-23, comes to the
forefront. In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus speaks
of his “body” (not flesh) and “blood”.
The use of “flesh” by John emphasizes the humanity
of Jesus as a means for our sustenance (cf.1:14).
The tension mounts in the face of history being saved
by the poverty of Jesus and the subsequent rejection of
historic poverty as a saving reality proposed by the Jewish
leaders. The
objection is not so much a rejection of the cannibalism
of “eating his flesh”, but due to the enormous difficulty
accepting a poor history with God inside it. But therein lies the success of Christianity,
the force capable of giving a different turn to human destiny.
The solemn declaration of v. 53 assures that “eating
the flesh”, that is, accepting the concrete history of the
historic Jesus, and “drinking the blood”, or appreciating
the blood shed by Jesus for the good of humanity, is the
path to full life. This profound and desirable identification
with Jesus’ history is what gives life to the person.
Moreover, the story is seen as the sole path to achieving
salvation, no matter how weak and “spilled” it may be.
The story carries inside it the seeds of resurrection.
This is where Christian life gets the strength of
meaning that allows it to stand firm and not give in to
the limitations of history, which seem to say that this
life really has no meaning or worth. To confess faith in the messianity
of the historic Jesus is fundamentally, to believe deeply
in what is possible for humanity.
Such an impoverished history becomes the means of
connection with the Jesus that saves it.
This spirituality destroys the idea that salvation
will only be achieved through the path of glory and power,
and introduces the possibility of full achievement through
the sacrifice of one’s life. With
a noticeable change in speaking style, this last part of
the discourse on the bread refers to the reception of the
Eucharist, the banquet of life. In all traditional civilizations,
food has a religious character.
Most religions have sacred banquets.
Sharing the same table, eating together, creates
sacred ties associated with the gods among the invitees.
But among the people of Israel the sacred banquet
has a special significance: it is the celebration-remembrance
of an historic event. It renews the alliance by transforming
the wonders carried out by God for his people into a memorial. Every year the paschal banquet recalls
the exodus, as the greatest act of liberation that makes
the hope of salvation a real possibility through remembering
the wonders of another ti The
prophets will help people to realize that “celebrating the
Passover” does not automatically mean physical participation
in the banquet, even when the prescribed rite is carried
out, but rather that a conversion of the heart is necessary,
that is, the renewal of one’s own faithfulness to the alliance
with God. Jesus, sent to establish a new and eternal
alliance, prepares his banquet by announcing a new bread:
“I am the living bread who has come down from heaven. In the face of the astonishment and disbelief
of his audience, he affirms the absolute necessity of “eating”
his body and “drinking” his blood in order to have life: “truly I say to you: if you do not eat…”
In this way, the Eucharist foretold by Jesus in the
discourse on the bread of life, during the last supper and
repeated in the mass through Jesus’ will, becomes a source
of a new way for each Christian community to live with charity,
in collaboration and service; a commitment of hope (bread
of eternal life), of immortality. “Our bodies that have been nourished by
the Eucharist cannot be corrupted because they carry within
them the hope of eternal resurrection” (S.
Irene) From this point of view, death is not eliminated but overcome:
“I will raise you up on the last day”; this phrase from
the gospel is a typical reading in the mass for the departed. Becoming like Christ through faith and
the sacraments requires our participation in the mystery
of his death, which produces the plenitude of life.
The mass is a banquet.
Welcoming, communication and hospitality are better
expressed through a banquet. It is no coincidence that, precisely through
a banquet, Jesus communicated forgiveness to sinners, revealed
to the poor the bread that comes from heaven, has trusted
in his disciples with very human intimacy and gave his own
life. Therefore,
the starting point for a true and tangible interpretation
and celebration of the Eucharist is a reflection on human
food. In contrast to animals, human beings want
to be together and share food.
It’s not merely about the physical act of eating,
but rather about a meeting of persons, almost a rite.
The eucharistic encounter is placed under the sign
of charity or mutual service, a community encounter.
The story of the washing of the feet, which in John’s
gospel is substituted for the story of the institution of
the Eucharist, clearly indicates that there is a close relationship
between the eucharistic food and the spiritual sacrifice
of obedience to Christ until death on the cross for love
of God and human beings.
The first fruit of the Eucharist lies in the establishment
of a community that has come together through the ties of
an authentic and universal fraternity. The
mass is a meeting of brothers and sisters.
The community dimension of the meeting is essential
to the eucharistic theology: it is not enough to be open
to receiving the sacrament; it is necessary to be in a communion
of charity, fraternity and service with our brothers and
sisters. Sitting together at the table is a moment
of friendship and understanding.
The cordiality of the encounter and the sharing is
a mutual expression of harmony and humanity in accord with
the project of God the creator. Nothing better than the eucharistic invitation—table
of the word and the bread of life—could reveal to us this
indulgent love of our God that makes us his children through
Jesus, and calls all of us to live as brothers and sisters,
as an image and prelude to the reign of the heavens.
Naturally, this link of friendship established by
the Eucharist should weave the real cloth of daily existence,
otherwise, participation in the Eucharist would be false
or at least not authentic.
That which is already “carried out” in the rite demands
and awaits carrying out in life. Continuity between rites and life is essential
to the tangible exercise of the law of universal charity,
at all levels of human existence in which this law needs
to become a reality. For
Personal Consideration
For
the prayer of the faithful
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Claretian Communications,
Inc. • 8 Mayumi St. UP Village, Diliman 1101, Quezon City, Philippines
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