My Sunday Daily Blessings, August 19, 2012

My Sunday Daily Blessings Be still, quiet your heart and mind, the Lord is here loving you, talking to you................. Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Roman Rite Calendar)

*First Reading: Prov 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: Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

 

 

   "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord."

  

 

*Second Reading: Eph 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.

 

*Gospel Reading: Jn 6:51-58

 

 

 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."

 

**Reflections:

 

Why did Jesus offer himself as “food and drink” (John 6:53)?  The Jews were scandalized and the disciples were divided when Jesus said "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." What a hard saying, unless you understand who Jesus is and why he calls himself the bread of life. The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves (John 6:1-15), when Jesus said the blessing, broke and distributed the loaves through his disciples to feed the  multitude, prefigured the superabundance of the unique bread of the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper. The Gospel of John has no account of the Last Supper meal (just the foot washing ceremony and Jesus' farewell discourse).  Instead, John quotes extensively from Jesus' teaching on the bread of life. In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to their Creator. Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine, who was both priest and king (Genesis 14:18), prefigured the offering made by Jesus, our high priest and king. The remembrance of the manna in the wilderness recalled to Israel that it lives by the bread of the Word of God (Deuteronomy 8:3).When at the Last Supper Jesus described his blood “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28), he was explaining his coming crucifixion as a sacrifice for sins. His death on the cross fulfilled the sacrifice of the paschal lamb.  That is why John the Baptist called him the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Jesus  made himself an offering and sacrifice, a gift that was truly pleasing to the Father. He “offered himself without blemish to God” (Hebrews 9:14) and “gave himself as a sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had announced at Capernaum – giving his disciples his body and his blood.  Jesus’ passing over to his Father by his death and resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Last Supper and celebrated in the eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the church in the glory of God’s kingdom. When the Lord Jesus commands his disciples to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he invites us to take his life into the very center of our being. That life which he offers is the very life of God himself. Do you hunger for the bread of life?

**Prayer:

 

"Lord Jesus, you nourish and sustain us with your very own presence and life. You are the bread of life – the bread that sustains us now and that produces everlasting life in us. May I always hunger for you and be satisfied in you alone." Amen.   

 

Sources:

 

 

 

*Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

 
**Don Schwager

Author and Writer

Sword of the Spirit and

The Word Among Us