Living Fully, Not Just Existing

    

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

18 August 2024

 

First Reading: Prv 9:1-6

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

Second Reading: Eph 5:15-20

Gospel: Jn 6:51-58

 

Reflection

By: Theresa B. Manio

The past weeks were a roller coaster ride for me. All emotions were up and shifted momentarily in just a flicker. I was surprised, excited, and extremely scared, but I could not stop the thrill of the ride. I had to endure until it stopped, and I literally felt the rise of acid inside my gut. Just like any other circumstance in life, it stopped and passed. In God’s grace, I thrived again. 

Last weekend, my husband and I attended the Life in the Spirit Seminar of Bukas Loob sa Diyos Community, and in that seminar, I realized a thought that deeply hurt me, nobody stopped and intentionally  asked me, how I was? Nobody asked me, “kumusta ka?”, someone who would take the time to really listen. I know everyone is busy. I also know that because I was still in the situation, if someone asks, I couldn’t also elaborate my thoughts so I would simply say, “Okay lang”. I was fighting the meltdown upon having this thought. In silence and darkness, all they asked us was to surrender to the Holy Spirit, to talk to Jesus, to be with His presence.

Most often the conversations we have been having  were about the circumstances of life. We might be thriving and busy, competently making our work done, meeting deadlines and expectations, fulfilling obligations, loving and caring for the people around us, to simply say we have been doing life and not necessarily having a life within us. Last weekend made me realize that I have been doing life lately and not having a life, and Jesus was concerned about this, is there a life within me? Is there a life within you? This question pushes us to discover the hunger within us and the life Jesus wants to feed us. All the Gospels these past few weeks, have been all about this. 

Two weeks ago Jesus challenged us to consider the bread we eat. Is it a perishable one or does it sustain us? Last week, Jesus declared himself to be the bread of life. Today, he says, “Eat me. Drink me.” This is the only way to have life within us. Any other diet leaves us empty and hollow, hungry for life. When we depend on people, even on our loved ones to fill in the hunger we have, most of the time we will just be disappointed and later we might be toxic to them too. 

Jesus is talking about the life that is beyond words and yet we know it when we taste it or when we experience it. We get a taste of it when we love so deeply and profoundly that everything about us passes away and somehow we are more alive than ever before.  In this moment we are in the flow, the wonder, and the unity of life, and it tastes good.

Jesus is our healer and our health. He is our life and the means to the life for which we most deeply hunger. We don’t work for the life we want. We eat the life we want. Wherever human hunger and the flesh and blood of Christ meet, there is life. We consume his life that he might consume and change ours. We eat and digest his life, his love, his mercy, his forgiveness, his way of being and seeing, his compassion, his presence, and his relationship with the Father. Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, remains in me and I in him. Let us work on having a life and not just living it.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the gift of Your Son, Jesus, who offers Himself as the Bread of Life. May we embrace this sacred gift with reverence and faith, finding in Him the sustenance for our souls and the strength for our journey. Help us to live in unity with Christ, ever mindful of His presence and love within us. Guide us to cherish this holy communion and to share its grace with others, so that through our lives, Your love and truth may be made known. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.