The Assumption of Our Lady 2021

 

The Assumption of Our Lady                                                       (Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6,10; 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1: 39-56)  

    

Let us hear first of all the official teaching, the dogmatic teaching of the Church, about Our Lady’s Assumption which we joyfully celebrate today.  The dogma proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1950 is quoted in our modern Catholic Catechism and reads as follows:

The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.

The Catechism goes on to explain:

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.

That means that Mary’s Assumption is a share in Jesus’ Resurrection; it was not, of course, achieved by her own power, nor was it due to her own singular merits: it was a gift, a unique share in the power of Jesus’ resurrection, given her thanks to the merits of Jesus Who -- though human in body and soul -- was divine in His Person; the very Son-of-God-made-flesh, He alone could win victory over sin and death for the whole of humankind.  Having won that victory using the flesh and blood He received from Mary, the Assumption is Mary’s special sharing with Him because, being the mother of Jesus, she was and is uniquely special to Him.

Her Assumption is most significant for us, because Mary, though most truly the mother of God, remained also just one of us.  Human in body, soul, and personality, Mary was, nevertheless, chosen to become the mother of Jesus -- the Son of God made flesh -- and to be ultimately endowed with a unique participation in His Resurrection, which is her own Assumption.  She always remained not only our full sister, but also became our true glory, Mary of Nazareth; and, therefore, her Assumption is a sign of hope for all of us: a sign that we too – in our measure -- might aspire, by the Spirit of glory, to share with her in Our Lord Jesus’ Resurrection.

Jesus, wanted very much to underline that oneness between us and Mary, His Mother, as we can learn from His somewhat startling response to her on a very public occasion:

His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him.  A crowd seated around told Him, "Your mother and Your brothers are outside asking for You."  But He answered them, saying, "Who are My mother and My brothers?"  And looking around at those seated in a circle about Him, He said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:31-35)

Evidently, He willed to make it clear for subsequent generations that Mary was no goddess, nor was she ever to be regarded as anything other than one of us.  Nevertheless, as St. John tells us, Jesus -- with what were almost His very last words as He hung, dying, on the Cross -- chose to give the utmost emphasis to the bond of reverence and love that should exist between Mary and all who are His disciples:

Standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.  When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son!"  Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" (John 19:25-27)

Therefore, when Mary, the mother of Jesus, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory, it was not simply for Mary herself: for she is not only our sister whom we might hope to follow; she is also our mother too; and thus, we can be absolutely sure that she will be a most powerful help to us who have been handed over, so to speak, into her maternal care.  In that way we are encouraged to have most firm confidence that if we are faithful disciples of Jesus to the end, we can and will follow Our Lord heavenward and eventually share in His glory, as she, our sister and our mother, has already done.

The dogma of the Assumption was, as I said, promulgated in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.  It was nothing new; it had been loved, meditated and celebrated in the Church from the earliest times.  It was at the beginning of the 5^thC. that the “birthday” of Mary began to be celebrated, and what had been the anniversary, so to speak, of her death -- the Dormition, or sleeping, of Mary – became rather the celebration of her “birthday”, meaning her birth into heaven, her Assumption.  There are apocryphal stories written early in the history of the Church telling of the death of Mary, how her body was buried under the tree of life, and how she was translated into heaven.  Some scholars think these stories arose after the feast started to be celebrated; others, however, think the first of the apocryphal tales go back to the earliest times, and that there was probably an immemorial veneration of the tomb of Mary in Jerusalem by early Jewish converts to Christianity.

Such stories, however, although picturesque and sometimes instructive or even moving, are not the basis of our present faith: that rests on the perennial devotion and worship of the Church under the guidance of the Spirit and the teaching of the Scriptures.

Whenever the body of a disciple of Jesus and child of the Church is brought into church the night before burial we read the Gospel passage which goes:

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:1-2)

There, at the Last Supper, Jesus was speaking to His sorrowing disciples to comfort them in their distress at the thought of His imminent Passion and Death.  Think how Jesus must have willed above all to comfort His Mother in her distress; surely, first and foremost, He would want and most certainly will to prepare a place for her!

And where would that place be?  The disciples were distressed that Jesus was going to be taken from them, and so Jesus promised:

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to Myself; so that where I am, you also may be. (John 14:3)

Who more than Mary longed to be where Jesus was?  For her agonizing perseverance beside the Cross on which hung her beloved Son, was not other than the most worthy crown of her life-long love, humbly self-effacing service, and supreme devotion, to Him Who was her God-given Joy and Delight.    

Again, Jesus prayed most solemnly at the Last Supper:

Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)

Now, who could conceivably long to see the glory of her Son more than His Mother?  Who, more than Mary, could conceivably deserve to see the glory of her Son?

However, every such situation and relationship is included in, and embraced by, those other words of Jesus:

If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour. (John 12:26)

Mary’s whole life with her Son was, indeed, a life of total and whole-hearted love and service, given directly and personally to Jesus from the moment of His conception, and yet, that is not the sum total of Mary’s commitment to and sharing with Jesus throughout their lives on earth, for, just as St. Peter, writing to the early Christians threatened with persecution by the Roman State, said:

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you (1 Pet 4:14);

so too we are told of Mary that she was blessed with the Spirit of glory and of God resting on her from the beginning of her motherhood.  That is, she was blessed with the ability, and called to embrace the opportunity, to share with her Son in His sufferings; and this was made abundantly clear to her in the Temple at Jerusalem when, we are told -- together with St. Joseph -- she was presenting her Son to the Lord, a Temple priest -- Simeon by name -- came towards them and:

Blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:34-35)

Yes, Mary followed her Son, unswervingly, to the end, even to the foot of the Cross.

The fact is that Jesus, in all that He did, carried with Him, and worked in and through, the flesh and blood that Mary had uniquely given Him.  She was so intimately one with Him in all that He did in and through His sacred humanity, and that is why she alone has been so uniquely honoured by the Father that she is now where Jesus is, in heaven!  Jesus, bearing Mary’s flesh, had died, was buried, and rose again.  Therefore, Mary too, in her flesh died and was buried; and then -- knowing no corruption just as she had known no sin – she was also, thanks to her Son’s Personal holiness and divine majesty, raised to share with Him in His heavenly glory.

Honoured by the Father and the Spirit of glory at the beginning her Son’s earthly  ministry with a promised share in His sufferings; and after a whole lifetime of total love, dedication, and unremitting service which found its culmination in the agony of Her beloved Son’s crucifixion and her own subsequent -- despite St. John’s reverential love and care -- enduring earthly sense of loss and dereliction; it was indeed only right and fitting that Mary should also be sublimely honoured with that totally unique share in her Son’s Resurrection and eternal glory which we call her Assumption.

People of God, let us, therefore, rejoice on the occasion of this solemn feast, and repeat with heartfelt joy the words of Mary herself:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; for He has looked with favour on the lowliness of His servant.  From this day forward all generations will call me blessed: for the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. (Luke 1:46-49)

Having praised God in the first outpouring of her soul’s gratitude, Mary then spoke words for the comfort of her children, words which should give us both confidence and courage as we strive to serve and follow Jesus our Lord and Saviour:

He has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation.

The Assumption of Mary is still for us, in this the third millennium, a source of inspiration and of hope: for the arm of the Lord is not shortened, His mercy and love are eternal.  What was given to Mary was indeed given to her uniquely, but not exclusively; it was intended also for us, ‘those who fear Him from generation to generation’.  Let us, therefore, as her children, treasure and take to heart the words Elizabeth used to characterize our mother:

Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfilment of those things which were told her from the Lord.                                                                 

                                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19th Sunday Year B 2021

Nineteenth Sunday, Year (B)

(1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30 – 5:2; John 6:41-51)

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Obviously, it must not have been easy to hear a man say:

            I am the bread that came down from heaven;

today, we would think such a man mad and laugh him out of court!

And so, the first thing to notice about today’s Gospel reading is that the Jews did not do any such thing.  No!  They had had experience of Jesus: having frequently heard Him speak, closely observed His personal bearing, and at least heard reports of certain miraculous ‘works of His hands’.  Consequently, they were not drawn to laughter when He made a claim even so extraordinary as:

            I am the Bread that came down from Heaven.

The truth was that they felt a certain anxiety in His presence, and becoming irritated with themselves and each other for no apparently good reason they started complaining and grumbling among themselves, voicing His words and their own apprehension:  ‘Come down from heaven, indeed’!

Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?  Do we not know his father and mother?  Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’

Why did they not just laugh?   What a testimony it was to Jesus that they didn’t!

It seems that only the hypocritically self-righteous chief priests, scribes and elders would ever be able to laugh at Him, but their laughter was always intentional: being meant to protect and serve their ever-increasing fear for their own security with regard to the Roman occupying authorities and the subservient esteem of their own people. 

As regards the ordinary people, indifference to anything that was not directly pertinent to their own worldly concerns was their greatest fault, because it made them so very malleable, so very ‘mob-able’, for those hypocritical decriers and increasingly deadly enemies of Jesus.

There were some others, however, less public figures indeed, but familiar with and closely observant of those murmuring Jewish leaders, who made known their own reasons for believing most seriously that Jesus was not One to be laughed at: He was One Whom they -- as both widely experienced and secretly observant, individuals -- found to be far different from any other man they had ever come across: for them, there was a mysterious Personal 'righteousness’ which signaled Jesus out as rather awesome or very dangerous.  Such, indeed, were the feelings of the wife of Pilate who warned her husband:

            Have nothing to do with that righteous Man;

and of the centurion who, having watched Jesus’ suffering and death, spontaneously acknowledged his own sinfulness in the face of such righteousness saying:

            This Man was innocent beyond doubt!

It was this Personal ‘something’ about Jesus – not just the fact that He had only recently miraculously fed a very large crowd from a boy’s picnic lunch of a few loves and fish – that was secretly troubling the Jews speaking with Him in our Gospel reading; it was a suspicion, indeed, even a certain heartfelt disquiet, that somehow, something, was being asked of them that they were not able or ready -- each of them for personal reasons -- to answer, and so being disturbed in their own hearts, they complained, murmured, and argued among themselves, until Jesus found it necessary to say:

Stop murmuring among yourselves, no one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draw him.

Instead of complaints to bolster a prejudiced opinion, there had to be a desire to know God’s truth and a willingness to recognize that such spiritual truth about Jesus, His work and His teaching, might stretch or even transcend the limits of their earthly wits  and appreciation.  The truth about Jesus could only be received, ultimately, as a gift – the Gift -- from the Father.

And it was in order to afford them a motive  that might induce them to welcome and embrace such a gift that Jesus added words of power:

            And I will raise him up on the last day.

The prophet Jeremiah had foretold that, in the days of the coming Messiah, all men would be taught by God; and here Jesus – having quoted the prophet -- added what were His very own mysterious and provocative words:

            Everyone who listens to My Father and learns from Him comes to Me.

And that, dear People of God, is the precise point for our own entry into the drama of today’s Gospel reading!

The Jews seeking Jesus were ‘murmuring’ among themselves about His words, (others translate ‘murmuring’, as ‘complaining’, ‘grumbling’), and Jesus said, quite bluntly, ‘Stop that.  Try to listen to your God and My Father and learn from Him.’

Notice those words very, very carefully, People of God; Jesus advised that, for life’s important decisions, we try to listen to God and learn from Him, not that we argue with ourselves or others.  Salvation is absolutely personal and relational; involving a truly humble awareness of God’s presence in our life and our need of Him for fulfilment.

Note that Jesus did not even say, ‘Discuss it with the Father’, or, ‘Pray to the Father’, because such prayer can, with many people, so easily become a matter of ‘discussing’ or ‘praying’ with themselves firmly seated in the driving seat.  Therefore, Jesus concentrated attention on one word, listen to their God and His Father: that is, that they should calm their heart by humble acceptance of its need before Him, and still their fevered imaginations and thoughts by unconditional trust in Him.  He advised them, and advises us, to patiently wait upon the Father’s mercy and hope for His blessing; having only our gratitude and praise to offer for His goodness.

And now we come to a great truth about the world we live in, People of God:  

I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died.   I am the living bread that came down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.

The Father was already teaching and preparing the Jews as they were being led from slavery in Egypt.  He was preparing them for Jesus’ coming, by teaching them to look for life in food from heaven.  They accepted that all food came ‘from heaven’ in so far as it was ultimately given them by God; but all such food originated from, and sustained life on, earth.  They had to become able to understand the need for living bread originating from heaven, which alone could give them heavenly, eternal life.

For over more than a thousand years God had been guiding Israel towards the possibility of their being able to understand and appreciate something of truly living Bread coming from Heaven; and such, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, is His guiding Providence for us today!

There is a spiritual purpose “attached to”, “involved in” our earthly existence and life’s experiences!   They are all, under God’s Providence, able to guide us -- if welcomed  prayerfully and humbly -- to an initial appreciation of the ultimate realities of heaven.   That is what can make our present every-day life and living, such a wonderful experience:  that is how we, with St. Paul, can manage to see behind the veil so lightly covering the beauty of God!

            Everyone who listens to My Father and learns from Him comes to Me.

Listening to God means not just listening with our ears, it involves the desire of our heart, it concerns the ‘background’ attention of our mind ever hovering around God, and our willingness and ability to drop earthly concerns when Jesus passes nearby:

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.   On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”  And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”  Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So, they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, He is calling you.”  He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.  Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man replied to Him, “Master, I want to see.”  Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Him on the way.   (Mark 10:46-52)

Bartimaeus there gave a most beautiful master-class in the Christian art of listening, for and to God!

Such listening can make life and our daily living it out a truly wonderful experience, offering personal pointers to heavenly realities; and when we learn to so look at, question and taste, the joys and sorrows, bitter and sweet things of life, then everything becomes able to beckon us ever on and ever more engagingly.

Jesus has yet one more piece of life-enhancing advice for us though:

Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the Bread that I will give is My Flesh for the life of the world.

Whoever eats this bread which is My Flesh … once again we have one supremely important word which is, this time, ‘eats’.

And notice, once again, that Jesus does not say ‘receives’, but ‘eats’.  We have not only to open our mouths or put forward our hands to receive such food, but we have to positively ‘eat’ it, as some might rightly say we have to ‘chew’ it.  The essential point of our ‘eating’ is that we each of us recognize the food as essential to, necessary for, my very life.   Moreover, it is not to be anonymously received, but eaten with heart-felt joy and gratitude for the One Who so generously gives it.  And according to the book of Proverbs, having been generously given such food, we should give a thought to our returning like for like, in other words we should be stirred to want to give ourselves in return to the Lord Who gives us all.

My dear People of God, living such a life, full of intriguing invitations and loving calls, receiving such daily Personal Food, we are most certainly not alone on our journey through life, but are developing, as the years pass by, an ever-greater companionship and intimacy with One Who is of Himself, and wills to become for us personally, the Love, Truth, and Life of our life.  May we participate in this Holy Mass and hopefully receive Holy Communion with such faith and love as to experience that intimacy and companionship as never before.   Amen.         

 

 

 

 

 

 

18th Sunday Year B 2021

 

 18^th. Sunday, Year (B)

(Exodus 16:2-4, 11-15; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35)

 

 

     

Do not work for food which perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.  For on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.

Here we learn that it is with a view to Jesus, the Son of God made man, that God the Father offers us an eternal destiny and a heavenly home.  His only-begotten Son – knowing and loving His Father -- deigned to become one of us, sinlessly sharing our earthly experience by living humbly among us and, finally, by dying for us on the cruel, cruel, Cross. Therefore, God the Father wills that we – members of the Body of the Risen and glorious Christ -- be offered a share in His Resurrection.

It was ever so; for it was because the Son of Man, Jesus the Messiah, was to be born of the Israelite people -- children of Abraham. Isaac, and Jacob -- that God, long before, decided to lead those Israelites, under the guidance of Moses, out of slavery in Egypt to freedom in their own, God-given, land.

Now, those Israelites chosen to be rescued from slavery in Egypt, did not fully understand what God was offering them.  Their sufferings under the Egyptians had made them long for freedom, and their experience of God through His servant Moses gave them hope that freedom could be theirs.  But they had to learn that true freedom for human beings made in the image and likeness of God could not come cheap: it necessarily involved freedom of both body and soul, freedom from human coercion and freedom from slavery to sin. And so, when the going got hard in the desert, those Israelites began to hanker after the fleeting moments of pleasure that had come their way in bodily slavery; those moments when, for a very short period each day, they had been able to rest from forced labour and allow themselves to sink into the pleasure of eating the measure of Egyptian food rationed them, before falling asleep through exhaustion.  Thinking that their present journey through the desert was costing them more than they had anticipated, they thus began to lose hold of their erstwhile, God-given, desire for freedom, and began to fantasize over those occasional bits of food allowed them in Egypt:  wouldn’t it be wonderful to taste the like again!  Of course, indulged imaginations of that sort shared with relatives and friends in private conversations soon led to public grumbling and ultimately to confrontation with Moses and Aaron, the spokesmen and servants of the God they as yet so little understood:

The Israelites said, “Would that we had died at the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!”

The people wanted food, proper food, here and now! Future freedom now seemed of very little importance in comparison.  Above all, freedom from sin ... what did that really mean?   Satisfaction, though short lived, was felt immediately; when would thoughts of human dignity ever bring anything other than thoughts??

The people were, however, being led by their God Who knew their true need and that   their present desire for freedom and food were idle imaginations never going to be given them by the Egyptians: as far as they were concerned, whatever pittance might again become Israel’s lot in Egypt it would involve yet more abject slavery.  As far as God was concerned, on the other hand, though they would have to learn what ‘true freedom’ meant, and what Food would bring them true fulfilment, all that was within their competence, and involved nothing other than their dutiful obedience to His commands now and in the land He would give them as their own.

Nevertheless, for the present they needed further time and experience in order to gradually appreciate the issues involved, and so God, backing up Moses and Aaron, nipped the people’s grumbling in the bud by immediately sending them  a large flock of quail that covered the camp, and then later by depositing on the ground overnight fine flakes of what looked like hoar-frost for them to collect as bread.

We can imagine with what eager abandonment those ex-slaves devoured the cooked quail after weeks of difficult desert travelling:

But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was aroused against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague. (Numbers 11:33)

The Lord God – with Jesus in view -- was preparing them for an eternal and glorious destiny, and they, by wallowing so wholeheartedly in a pottage of quail, were disposing themselves to go back to slavery … following the example of Esau who had despised his birthright for pleasurable food:

Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, and Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way.  Thus, Esau despised his birthright.    (Genesis 25:33-34)

And like Esau, who begged with tears that his birthright might be restored but to no avail, they too were punished severely for choosing to doubt the goodness of their Maker and despise their own dignity:

            The LORD struck the people with a very great plague.

People of God, there are many in our society today who imitate those Israelites of old: for example, some prefer to be permanently out of work, living idly, on hand-outs from the state, or from minor criminality; others are content to drink their time and money away, or waste their lives just seeking kicks from alcohol, sex, and drugs abuse.  This state of things is most displeasing to God, because such people and others like them are degrading themselves.  Friends and people around them can see that the pleasures they imagine themselves to be enjoying are affording them no true joy at all, but most assuredly robbing them of any prospects for future happiness or well-being.  And such is their pitiable state that there are some who feel moved to devote themselves to all kinds of social work to help such people in their need and out of their distress.  And such helpers not only see, but they themselves can suffer from, such experiences of worldly distress and the human tragedy of those so-called ‘drop outs’.

You, dear People of God, should therefore be able to imagine something of the compassion of Jesus when He came to rescue the whole of mankind who, despising that likeness to God which was their birthright, had degraded themselves by becoming slaves to the Devil and to sin, and were now incapable of fulfilling their human potential as children of God called to a heavenly destiny and eternal blessedness.  As you heard in the Gospel reading, Jesus said to the Jews, the people closest to God in the world of those days:

Do not work for food which perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.  For on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.

Just as a human being cannot find happiness living like an animal for the satisfactions of food and debauchery, likewise, one called to become a child of God cannot find authentic happiness and fulfilment by pursuing a merely human idea of life: our make-up and our calling demand that the life we live be both human and divine in the likeness of Jesus Who, though God, became one of us, in order that we, though fallen human beings, might, through Him, learn to live a life of righteousness before God and good-will with men in the power of the His gift: the Holy Spirit.

The great modern tragedy is that our Western societies have the power, the technology, and now the most abject will, to offer endless opportunities for people to enjoy the things of this world.  After having imperfectly learned over centuries something of God, and having gradually built up a measure of social coherence by the help of His Spirit among them, many are now despising their heritage of a heavenly calling, as did Esau and Israel of old: the imperfectly appreciated and understood promises and teachings of God seem  old hat in comparison with the new and immediately available pleasures of sinful modern life, with the result that many former Christians now prefer to grab for themselves what seems to be so readily available and at so little apparent cost, rather than to rely on the goodness of One Whom they cannot see, and Who, at the cost of their obedience to Him, seems to offer nothing better than promises of things to come.

However, we must not forget what history has to teach us, for we have heard what happened to Israel in the desert.  The People of Israel in the desert wanted quail; reminiscent of the delights of Egypt, they wanted food for present pleasure whereas God was offering them food for the long journey and hard battle that lay ahead of them, food that would keep them fit for, and see them through, the trials of the desert struggle.

In Jesus’ time the Jews also wanted food for present pleasure and fulfilment:

            You seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the     loaves and were filled.

They and their contemporaries wanted what was tangible: a Messiah who would be their miraculous and victorious leader against the Romans and indeed against the nations.   However, what Jesus offered, then as now, was His heavenly teaching and His Eucharistic Flesh and Blood -- prefigured by the desert manna -- as Bread from Heaven and as Food for a long and supremely important journey: the only ‘proper’ Food for those called to follow Him on pilgrimage to His and their heavenly Father’s home:

            I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Saint Paul faithfully echoes the call of Jesus writing to the Ephesians, as you heard in the second reading:

If indeed you have heard Jesus and have been taught by Him, put off your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

And now, dear People of God, each one of us has to make a definitive choice in his or her life; it was indeed ever so, as Moses warned the slaves escaping from Egypt (Deuteronomy 30:19-20):

 I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore He would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Our wondrous blessing is that One greater than Moses speaks to us today, People of God. Let us learn from the Scriptures to hear His message with our ears, understand and love His teaching with our mind and heart thanks to His Spirit of holiness and truth being offered us, and respond to His call by following His teaching handed down to us from His Apostles by Mother Church with sincerity and perseverance of heart.

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

17th Sunday Year B 2021

 

                 Seventeenth Sunday, Year B.

(2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 4:1-6; Gospel of St. John 6:1-15)

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, notice first of all those words spoken by the people who witnessed and benefitted from Our Lord’s miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fish:

            This really is the Prophet Who is to come into the world.

How right were those words!

As you well know, that great miracle foreshadowed the Holy Eucharist, the Bread of Eternal Life, which Jesus was to give at the Last Supper.  You will also remember, I am sure, the story of those two disciples walking together to Emmaus and sorrowing over Our Lord’s recent crucifixion, who were overtaken and joined by the Risen Lord Himself; and how, despite conversation on their way together, it was only at the evening meal -- which they had charitably invited Him to share with them – that they eventually realized just Who their guest was as they saw Him bless and break the bread.

In both those cases, the miraculous feeding of the five thousand and the Emmaus incident, Jesus was recognized for Who He most truly was, Prophet and Saviour, in a Eucharistic context.  It is the same today, People of God; only in our Eucharist – only through participation in Holy Mass, only through our sacramental reception of the Body and Blood of Christ -- can we come to a full recognition of the truth about Our Blessed Lord.

This is confirmed for us by St. John who assures us that no one knows the depths of a man save the spirit within that man, and here in the Eucharist -- as we receive and consume the Sacred Host -- Christ bestows on us His own most Holy Spirit, to the fullest extent of our individual capacity and longing to receive Him: the Spirit of Wisdom and Power to lead and guide us, as children of Mother Church and members of the Body of Christ, through the trials of this life into all truth about Jesus and all love for Him and His Father.

This Eucharistic receiving-in-order-to-learn is a pattern that permeates the whole of Christian life:

first of all, for the consecration of both bread and wine in our Eucharist

            Blessed are You, Lord God, for we have received …

then, in the case of the great Apostle of the Gentiles

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night He was handed over, took bread,  (1 Corinthians 11:23)

and then in the lives of each and every disciple of Jesus our Lord (Revelation 3:20),

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with Me.

Dear People of God that attitude of receiving, of asking and listening, in order to receive and learn, should permeate the lives of each and every one of us, because our Christian life is a vocational search for knowledge of God’s truth and a right understanding of His love, and for the grace to respond as true children of God, in Jesus, the sublimely obedient Son and lover of us all.

And yet, as you heard, Our Blessed Lord can only say ‘if’:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him sharing the bread of life and word of God, with the wine of wisdom, understanding, and power.

Today there are many, many people, scholars and authorities, writing and/or speaking much about Jesus or about what is good, better, and best for mankind and modern society, without any obedient acknowledgement of God, with no faith in Jesus, and who are strongly opposed to the very notion of any humble submission to His most Holy Spirit.   Consequently, all their conclusions concerning mankind’s intractable social problems and moral dilemmas are, at the best, but the result of human mental endeavour, directed by an individual ego: they are ‘excogitations’, mostly sparked off by, and developed along lines determined by, scholarly controversy. The result is not something gratefully received, lovingly heard, observed, admired, and treasured, but the product, so-to-speak, of a mental vine-press, where the grapes used are the fruit of scholars ‘up to the minute’ studies, bolstered by personal items contributing little more than some measure of ‘spikyness’, helpful to provoke present-day controversy among fellow scholars and to promote immediate sales for all.

Authentic Christian knowledge on the other hand is precisely the fruit of a gracious gift of God, a fruit to be subsequently matured under the sun of the Spirit’s grace: for, after having been gratefully received, such intellectual and spiritual awareness needs to be humbly appreciated and assessed, rigorously developed, and whatever else is humanly needed for its proper and fullest expression and understanding; but its origin is always a Godly gift, received not excogitated, a gift to be personally accepted with gratitude and faith before being lovingly shared and shaped with others’ help for a deeper understanding and appreciation of Mother Church’s treasury of God’s revelation, and for our own human joy as children of God delighting in the glory of God’s Kingdom taking shape before us and among us, and finding proper expression to the greater glory of God and the beauty of our Christian faith and hope.

That sort of knowledge, dear People of God, is the basis  of our Catholic and Christian Tradition, and that distinctive aspect of being received characterizes all truly great and profitable human knowledge and awareness, a characteristic which is impossible without much previous prayer and listening as well as present thinking, without humble waiting as well as hard work, without aspiring to what is above and beyond self and time as well as trying to appreciate what needs to be done here on earth, in our modern society and the world around us .

Jesus in His Eucharist is the only true source of Life for us, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and that is what the bread and wine used at Holy Mass signify: the nourishment for our earthly life to be gradually transfigured into heavenly and eternal Life by the Spirit being offered us. 

When Jesus was talking to the crowd after this multiplication of the loaves and fish, He urged them:

Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.

The wondrous nature of this ‘bread enduring to eternal life’, was foreshadowed by the fact of Jesus ordering that all scraps be gathered up: none were to be left for the birds of the air and beasts of the field, let alone to just corrupt as did even the miraculous manna of old left unconsumed overnight in the desert.  Moreover, 12 hampers’ full were gathered in total, foreshadowing such food – Jesus’ gift – intended for the feeding not only of the 12 tribes of Israel, but (John 10:16) also of all those:

Other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd,

for eternal life, through faith and obedience to God’s guidance of Law and Love.  Yes indeed, that bread blessed by Jesus was  wonderful both in its immediate significance for those original 5,000 who gratefully rejoiced on receiving it; but far, far more wonderful is the bread consecrated by Jesus, in its future promise for all those who would subsequently look with full faith, confidence and love, towards Jesus to lead them through the desert of this man-made world towards the promised land to come.

Whatever promise life may hold for us who are the People of God, whatever may be the meaning, purpose and goal of our individual lives, for each one of us, the fulfilment of it all and the consummation of all our deepest yearnings or aspirations is to be found in the Eucharist, for here we receive Him Who is Life itself.  In Him alone – and only by receiving His Spirit into our lives -- can we become fully, truly, and ultimately ourselves, the selves we were created and destined to become not only for our personal fulfilment, but for the blessing of our world and the greater manifestation of the glory of God our Father.

The Christ we receive in Holy Communion is the crucified Christ, now glorified and seated at the right hand of His Father in heaven.  He comes to us through the sacrifice of the Mass, and this Eucharistic Jesus we receive is the real Christ glorified in His Self-oblation to His Father for us.  He still bears the traces of His crucifixion, of the wounds in His hands, feet and side; it is part of His glory, He does not seek to obliterate the memory of His great suffering because that suffering was the supreme expression of His sublime love for His Father and the enduring witness to His love for us.

As with all human beings, suffering will inevitably have a significant, perhaps even vital part, to play in our lives, and as disciples of Jesus we aspire to embrace those sufferings by the power of His most Holy Spirit Who wills to transfigure us thereby into a Christ-like expression of love for the Father.

People of God, let us thank God with all our hearts for this supremely holy sacrifice and sacrament of Holy Mass, let us offer ourselves with Jesus and in Him to the Father, and

-- receiving Him in Holy Communion -- let us, in the power and love of His most Holy Spirit, express our willingness, our great desire, to learn from Him, to receive from Him whatever and all that will prepare us so that He might be able to take us by the hand and lead us in all things through life and death for the glory of His Father and the salvation of all those found to be of good will.