Bulletin August 26, 2012 21^st Sun Ordinary Time B

Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69
This is the fourth segment on John’s Bread of Life Discourse found in the 6^th chapter of his gospel.
Many people heard this discourse of Jesus and no doubt the Pharisees, as always in the forefront trying to catch Jesus in His words so they could put the label of blasphemy on Him. By this time in this discourse they must have felt they had enough evidence and felt that Jesus was possessed. So now John talks about some others in the audience, specifically Jesus’ followers, His disciples who had listened and followed Him. Many of them said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it.” They had listened to what Jesus taught, believed in much, but had doubts, and still were deciding whether to stay with Jesus and believe that He was from God or the Messiah or a prophet or one who would free them from the Roman tyranny. This did it; they would leave. Jesus responded, “Does this shock you?” He’s putting the questions directly to them: ‘Have you been listening to Me? Are you willing to learn or do you have preconceived notions about God and what the Messiah will be? So what would you do “ if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?”
They had only been used to animal sacrifices to God; they hoped God accepted these offerings. Now Jesus is telling them He is God and the sacrifice God demanded was His life to redeem and save all humankind. Then He said that some do not believe and He knew who would betray Him. “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by My Father.” John then says that many left Him.
How could they have believed? They never knew of anyone rising from the dead…they never imagined that God would ever come Himself to inaugurate the final phase of God’s kingdom. Should they have? Should I believe? I have to put myself in this scene in the roused audience of lovers, haters and uncertain ones. But what have they seen Jesus do; what have I seen Jesus do? Do they discount His words and accept His miracles? Is that what I do? Do I accept miracles or try as some scripture scholars say that they never happened they are just there in symbolic language in the gospels? Am I qualifying the words of Scripture and the words of Jesus to be those I like and fit in with my comfortable life zone? Am I like them and judge because I know that I am right? Should they have believed? Yes!
What does this all mean? What did Jesus do: He demanded an answer right then and there: are you going to leave me or stay with me? He does not allow wishy-washy…decide! That’s what He told the twelve apostles: “Do you want to leave?” Peter was the only one who answered, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that You are the Holy One of God.” I look directly at what Peter said, he didn’t say, ‘I understand what You mean’ but that’ Your words are words of life, whether we understand them or not.’ So I have to decide each day whether to listen to the corruptness of the devil and all his lies, or to ask for the grace to trust in Jesus, to have faith that God’s gift of faith will always keep growing me closer to Him?

‘John, a Devotional Commentary’ has a wonderful meditation: “Jesus had just delivered a central teaching to the people concerning the gift of His body and blood as a source of life to all Christians. The reality of this truth must be as much a part of our spiritual lives as food and drink are to our physical lives. Yet, even Jesus’ own disciples found the teaching hard to understand, and even harder to accept.

John tells us that some of those who listened to Jesus turned away at this point and followed Him no longer. As a consequence, they received nothing more from Him. However, those whose minds were open to God were able to receive the promise of eternal life, even though their understanding of His words remained incomplete. This contrast between those who left and those who remained illustrates an important spiritual truth. A mind dominated by the flesh insists upon understanding before it will believe. However, the spiritual mind will believe even before it has full understanding.

If we try to grasp the truths of God’s kingdom with our human minds alone, we will conclude that the gospel is foolishness. In order to understand what pleases God, we must call upon His Holy Spirit for enlightenment—in prayer, in scripture, and by seeking His will throughout the day.” So I reflect on:

• I have to decide each day: am I totally for God or against Him?
  
• Do I realize that the path to be for Him is the total path of love, all the time and not when it’s convenient or when I want to?
  
• Do I understand the words from Revelation 3:15, ‘I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” My decision is that imperative…and must be lived.
  

Sacred Space 2012 says: “Love welcomes us to the companionship of Jesus. In the enjoyment and the challenge of such love, would we want to go elsewhere? Some did, and the evidence is that their departure from Jesus did not bring happiness.

What Jesus offers reaches deep into all our human desires, joys, tears, laughter, and love.”

Bulletin August 19, 2012 20^th Sun in Ordinary Time B
Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58
This is the third installment of the Bread of Life Discourse from St. John’s Gospel.
Msgr. Romano Guardini in his monumental work, ‘The Lord’ says, “Jesus has already proclaimed that He is the bread of life; that ‘eating’ of the bread was faith now He intensifies sharply the challenging literalness of the symbol. Instead of, ‘I am the living bread’ He says, ‘and the bread that I will give is My flesh for the life of the world.’” Now the Jewish people were use to sacrifices and sacrificial feasts. What Jesus is saying just doesn’t fit in with their culture. Jesus doesn’t back down; He doesn’t tell a story or parable to make it more palatable but He is even blunter and insistent, “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.”
And Jesus continues and intensifies this: “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.” Jesus is stating irrevocably that whoever accepts this teaching lives this teaching, participates in the Eucharist wins eternal life. But the ones who rejects this nourishment will have no life in them. The Eucharist is now the link between God and each person; between the ‘remoteness’ of God to the here and now of each person’s existence. God does care; God more than cares. God gives Himself to me and each person who comes forward in faith Himself. This is wonderful…this is so special…this is so amazing that God cares this much about me and each person. Do I hear what this is all about?
The people who listened to Jesus were horrified. I’m sure that the Pharisees had already left and now deepened their plans to have their hated enemy, Jesus, be put away. Now they had all they needed to have Him killed. I’m sure the people who had followed Jesus clung to His words but they never expected words like this: His flesh being real food and His blood being real drink.
So what is the bottom line question that I feel is a must for me and every person of faith to reflect on? What made Jesus decide to give His presence to human beings in a meal, a meal in which people would ‘eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood?” (Jn 6:53).

Now it’s good to look at our ancestors in faith to understand even more of the depth of the Eucharist. The Jewish people had traditions from centuries past about the meaning of a community meal. As Msgr. Eugene Lauer explains, “There was nothing more unifying to ancient Jews than sharing a meal with friends. To them it was the epitome of hospitality and good will. It was perhaps the most perfect sign of accepting others into one’s own household.

When families would eat together, they did much more than simply ingest food in one another’s presence. They shared family stories, moving experiences, their hopes and dreams. Children would learn the family tradition and their religious heritage from the dramatic conversations over a third and fourth cup of wine.”
We see this when Abraham invited the three strangers to eat and later realizes they are from God. The father of the prodigal son kills a fatted calf and prepares a banquet to celebrate the return of a wayward son. Jesus used often the metaphor of a wedding banquet to illustrate the unity will exist in the final reign of God and the great Passover meal.
And Jesus is telling us that He is the meal itself. He really wasn’t making it harder to those people who listened to Him or make it harder for me and everyone. He promised to give us His body and Blood at a banquet. What does this mean? God wants to enter into that kind of happy, serious, intimate sharing with myself and each person. He wants to show us Himself in an intimate way, the most intimate way. Do I want to say YES to this invitation and its promise of eternal life or do I want to say NO because Jesus didn’t know what He was saying or He really didn’t mean it or whatever. It comes down to me and each person to decide to be one with God or to go our own way and find God. It’s this serious and important. What am I going to decide? So I reflect on:

• Can I appreciate the shocking impact of Jesus’ words on those listening?
  
• Do these words have any impact on me or have they become too familiar to shock?
  
• We don’t live our lives in theology and theories. We live our lives in our families. This is where we find meaning; this is where our purpose becomes clear. Jesus is inviting me into His family of love now and forever. Can I do it on my own? Do I reject His nourishment which is Himself?
  

• As Pope Benedict writes, ‘We have to rediscover God, not just any God, but the God that has a human face, because when we see Jesus Christ, we see God.”
  

Bulletin Aug 12, 2012 19^th Sunday Ordinary Time B

1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30 – 5:2; John 6:451-51
This is the second of four installments on John’s ‘Bread of Life Discourse’ and Jesus is testing my faith, that of every Christian and that of every person He created.
The crowd has been listening intently to Him but apparently do not understand but they are trying and asking for more clarification. And Jesus tells them, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…” Now this really disturbs them because what Jesus is saying is unheard of; it is blasphemous. Are they open to listen? No! Do they have their own set ideas of what the Messiah will be, and what God is like? Yes! But if they want to understand they really have to come to Jesus and listen. The prophets told them that the Lord, the Messiah will teach all. Now the moment in history has come for them, God will teach all who are ready to learn and anyone who is willing to understand will understand. It all depends on them being open to the heart of God. But they came with their own preconceptions of what God is like and what the Messiah will be like. So they mumbled and complained and said that this person obviously is crazy and doesn’t know what He is saying.
How often I look at myself and unknowingly try to qualify God or to put God into a mold that goes along with my way of thinking. It’s always easy to do this because it is ‘convenient’; I don’t have to reflect on anything, I know what it is all about, I have the answers. Well, who exactly do I think that I am? Am I a special messenger from God, it seems like I have all the answers that God has, so I must be one of the ‘chosen ones’. This is another way the devil takes me away from growth in the Lord. I am not in charge, the Lord is; am I giving myself over to the Lord? How much of ‘me’ am I holding back?
And Jesus said, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.” This passage brings me to the heart of the ‘problem’ these people and all face, really it’s everyone’s fear: death. This is the hidden, not talked about part of everyone’s life: I will die. What will it be like? Will I suffer? What about the love ones I leave behind? Can God really be a good God if He takes me away from those I love? Fr. Anthony Kadavil from ‘Teaching & Preaching Resources’ writes: “From the first time we realize that we will not be around forever --- that our time on this earth is limited --- our fear of the harsh reality of death starts shaping who we are: the decisions we make, the anxieties we harbor, the hesitation with which we face risks, the way we often try to get all we can in the years we have --- all a product of the apprehension we have when we acknowledge that our days are numbered.”
But Jesus is saying “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.” Isn’t this what it’s all about? Jesus is giving me and everyone HOPE. Hope that He always tells the truth; Hope that He is totally in love with me every moment; Hope that He came to die and rise on behalf of the whole world so that me and each person can have eternal life with Him. So I don’t worry about life; I look at how I am living. To believe means that I trust everything that Jesus said that God does and that I’m living accordingly and He will raise me and all up who are working toward this end. This means that I’m living more, loving more and being more the person of God. And God feeds me and each person this ‘bread of life’. This isn’t ordinary bread because Jesus said it is Himself. Do I allow God to feed me with Himself, with ‘Bread for the Journey?’
Fr. Kadavil continues, “And so as we strive to put aside our fears and thereby live our lives hoping and trusting that God will raise us up on the last day, let’s not forget to allow Him to do that very same thing for us each and every day --- lifting us up from whatever is weighing us down, holding us back, breaking our hearts, or dampening our spirits. God gave Himself for the life of the world --- the life each of us is immersed in at this very moment. May we always have the wisdom to allow God to satisfy our needs by feeding us in a way that only He can. And may we rise up to new life in Him, bringing that same care, concern, and love to those around us.”

So I reflect on:

• Self-righteous people often do not allow God to enter their lives as God wills. Do I?
  
• The catch in all this is that I must permit God to draw me to Himself as God wills and not as I carefully fit God into my life. Do I do this?
  
• If I say to God, ‘Here I am’, God may take me at my word and draw me into something I never dreamed of. Am I afraid of God? How do I go about trusting God at His word?
  

August 5, 2012 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6: 24-35

For the next four weeks the Gospel concentrates on Jesus’ ‘Bread of Life Discourse’; Jesus is telling me and everyone about the Gift of Himself that He gives in the Eucharist. What a special topic and I start with some beginning reflections:

• Am I aware of what I am doing when I come and celebrate the Eucharist?
  
• Do I receive the Eucharist as a habit or am I really aware that God is giving me Himself to give me all the nourishment and love that I need?
  
• And maybe even more basic: do I know what I need?
  
• What is the basis of my spiritual life?
  

This brings me to the most basic and direct and most important question that I have to ask myself: How deeply do I believe that I need God? This certainly seems to be an easy question because I know I need God every moment of every day but do I really believe this completely? Do I go to God only when I need Him and the rest of the time I can handle things, because God is busy? I say, of course not, but do I act this way?

Do I really want to believe that every part of me is important to God and therefore every single thing I do God is present helping me, if I ask? And not only that, do I believe and live the fact that God is continually leading me closer to Himself and Heaven? Do I really believe that God has a place for me in heaven and wants me to be with Him forever?

As one spiritual writer who shared this about today’s reading said, “When things are going great it’s easy to start believing that the good things in our life come from us, from our goodness or wisdom, from our efforts or ambition. We begin to see ourselves as the authors of our lives, the masters of our own destinies. That’s when our egos can begin to take over, inflating our own sense of self-importance. And spiritually, that’s a pretty dangerous place to be. Who needs God? I have me.”

That’s true and when things are going badly that’s when it’s natural for me to turn to God much more. That’s what Moses shares in the first reading; here the people had been liberated after so many years of forced slavery and were now free and their gratitude lasted until the food ran out and they were hungry: their gratitude ended and complaining began. Is there a pattern in this in the way I act at times?

It takes faith for me to realize completely that I need God every moment. It takes real faith for me to realize that God is with me in the good times of my life and the difficult times. It takes real faith for me to realize that God is with me at every moment because that’s the way that God is: He loves me each moment and every moment of every hour and every day and month and year, because that’s what Jesus told us that God does. Now why do I have problems with this? I really don’t but the better question is what prevents me from seeing this love and care of God at every moment because I and each person are that important to Him? And Jesus knew what I need and what everyone needs and that’s Himself.

The people in the Gospel saw the miracle of the loaves and fishes and figured that this was something and they could have an instant God experience anytime so why not make Jesus king. Jesus told them they were searching for the wrong kind of God. He gives each of us food for our journey to Himself.

Msgr. Gene Lauer, a writer, puts it this way, “The ‘food that remains unto eternal life’ the very presence of Jesus himself, does not suddenly turn us into perfect saints, into deliriously joyful religionists who are never depressed. Rather, Jesus comes to us constantly to invite us to partake of the experience of true religion: effort-filled prayer, the tedious struggle to serve humanity, the disciplined commitment to gospel values.

I hope that my Christian brothers and sisters in the ‘born-again’ movement are not offended by this suggestion, but I do hope that they are challenged by it. A clearly-defined singular and instant experience of God is not what Jesus proclaims in this gospel. A life-long pursuit of God and a life-long pursuit of us by God, with occasional high points of spiritual intercourse, is the diet that takes us to eternal life.”

Alice Camille asks that reflective question: “How much do you sustain yourself on holy ways, holy books, holy examples and holy food?”