Come to the Feast!

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 16, 2015

We are the people of the Lord, the flock that is led by his hand: come, let us adore him, alleluia.

First reading                                    Proverbs 9:1-6

Wisdom has built herself a house,

  she has erected her seven pillars,

she has slaughtered her beasts, prepared her wine,

  she has laid her table.

She has despatched her maidservants

  and proclaimed from the city’s heights:

‘Who is ignorant? Let him step this way.’

  To the fool she says,

‘Come and eat my bread,

  drink the wine I have prepared!

Leave your folly and you will live,

  walk in the ways of perception.’

Psalm                                              Psalm 33:2-3,10-15

Second reading                              Ephesians 5:15-20

Be very careful about the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like senseless people. This may be a wicked age, but you redeem it. And do not be thoughtless but recognise what is the will of the Lord. Do not drug yourselves with wine, this is simply dissipation; be filled with the Spirit. Sing the words and tunes of the psalms and hymns when you are together, and go on singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts, so that always and everywhere you are giving thanks to God who is our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Gospel                                               John 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jews:

‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.

Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;

and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,

for the life of the world.’

Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied:

‘I tell you most solemnly,

if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you will not have life in you.

Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood

has eternal life,

and I shall raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is real food

and my blood is real drink.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood

lives in me

and I live in him.

As I, who am sent by the living Father,

myself draw life from the Father,

so whoever eats me will draw life from me.

This is the bread come down from heaven;

not like the bread our ancestors ate:

they are dead,

but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’

Reflection

By Rose Markell

This Sunday's Gospel is the fourth of five special readings from John Chapter 6. This reading is a clear, blunt teaching of Jesus about the bread from heaven, and this bread is His very Flesh and Blood. To have a spiritual life, one must eat Jesus' flesh and drink His blood.

Many of us misunderstand the language of Jesus, as He declares that His flesh is food and His blood is drink.  The phrase "flesh and blood" is rich in meaning. On a literal level, it is a common way of characterizing a human being.  When applied to Jesus, it is a proclamation of faith in the incarnation: he is indeed "flesh and blood".

On another level, it calls to mind the sacrificial victim that is first slaughtered (flesh and blood) and then shared at a cultic meal (food and drink).  Jesus is "flesh and blood" in this way as well, first as a sacrificial victim on the cross and then as Eucharistic food and drink.

And the Christological interpretation of the manna has taken on a new meaning.  The flesh and blood of Jesus have become the source of life for those who partake it. So in other words, eternal life comes from feeding on Jesus, not simply from believing in Him as was stated in the two previous Sundays.  As Jesus goes a step farther in His teaching on eternal life.  He implies that it is not something that believers merely hope to enjoy in the future.  Instead, those who share in the Eucharistic feast already possess eternal life. And what the future holds for them is the fullness of life that will be enjoyed after the general resurrection on the last day.

Prayer

Dear Lord, You shed Your light of truth within our hearts and minds. You bring understanding where there are lots of confusions. You bring certainty where there is doubt.  And You fill our hearts with hope where there was once despair.  And we thank You for the ability to perceive Your light and to walk in the freedom of truth.  Please help us not only to embrace You as the true bread and blood of life and as the light of our lives, but also to proclaim You, Lord as the real Light of the World! Lord, we know we don't need a new light; we need to begin to act on the fact of the Light is already with us, around us and in us in the presence of Jesus Christ.Thank You, Lord.  Amen.