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THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST AT THE SOURCE & SUMMIT OF OUR FAITH
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19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings:
1 Kings 19:4-8
Ephesians 4:30-5:2
John 6:41-51
From the Epistle:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
From the Gospel:
...Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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.
From the 2nd Vatican Council:
This Sacred Council wishes to turn its attention firstly to the Catholic faithful. Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism(124) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.
They are fully incorporated in the society of the Church who, possessing the Spirit of Christ accept her entire system and all the means of salvation given to her, and are united with her as part of her visible bodily structure and through her with Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops. The bonds which bind men to the Church in a visible way are profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion. He is not saved, however, who, though part of the body of the Church, does not persevere in charity. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but, as it were, only in a "bodily" manner and not "in his heart."(12*) All the Church's children should remember that their exalted status is to be attributed not to their own merits but to the special grace of Christ. If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged.
Lumen Gentium 14
The unity of all divided humanity is the will of God. For this reason he sent his Son, so that by dying and rising for us he might bestow on us the Spirit of love. On the eve of his sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus himself prayed to the Father for his disciples and for all those who believe in him, that they might be one, a living communion. This is the basis not only of the duty, but also of the responsibility before God and his plan, which falls to those who through Baptism become members of the Body of Christ, a Body in which the fullness of reconciliation and communion must be made present. How is it possible to remain divided, if we have been "buried" through Baptism in the Lord's death, in the very act by which God, through the death of his Son, has broken down the walls of division? Division "openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the Good News to every creature".
John Paul II, Ut Unim Sint , On the Church’s Commitment to Ecumenism
From the Homily:
Paul tells the Gentile Christians at Ephesus not to “grieve the Holy Spirit.” Literally he means “Don’t make the Holy Spirit sad.” What Saddens the Spirit? Our anger and infighting, and fury and malice, all which grievously wound the body of Christ. In turn, Paul tells them to live kindness, compassion and forgiveness in imitation of the forgiveness Christ has given them. The implication is that these things will gladden the heart of God. As he does in so many other places in the New Testament, Paul reminds the Ephesians to imitate the Love of God, that is the love that caused Jesus to offer himself as a sacrifice. This Sacrificial Love (agape) becomes a defining characteristic of the Mission of Christ and his Church.
In the Gospel, Jesus is also calling his audience beyond all that keeps them from experiencing the sacrificial love of God. He tells them to stop murmuring and pretending that they know his origins. He has already told them that he is the bread that come down from heaven. They think this is not possible—they know his family and his hometown; how can he say that he is from heaven? Jesus reminds the crowd in Capernaum what he has already said many times in his ministry. He has come to help them to believe in the Love of God. He and his Father know their desires and what will truly satisfy those desires. He tells them that their religious beliefs at that moment are keeping them from experiencing the eternal happiness God wishes them to experience. He is the bread of eternal life, and believing in him (consuming the bread of life) makes it possible for them to live eternally. His final proclamation from this week’s Gospel will cause great consternation to this crowd (more on that next week): The bread that I will give is my FLESH for the life of the world. The Johannine Jesus uses the same word that John used in his prologue to tell us of the initial sacrifice of Christ: the pre-existent, eternal Word of God, who was present at the creation and foundation of all things, who was with God, who is God, that Word became FLESH and pitched his tent among us. The first sacrifice was Jesus’ leaving heaven to make our salvation possible. In Chapter 6, John uses that word “flesh” again, to speak of the coming sacrifice of the Messiah. Our life as Church and the life-giving Sacraments find their nexus in these two reference to the Sacrifice of Christ (one in Paul and the other in John).
Reflection Questions:
1. The section of St. Paul that we read this weekend begins with the admonition not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Have you ever thought of your actions as saddening or gladdening God? What particular actions of your have saddened or gladdened God? What actions of the Church have saddened or gladdened God?
2. We are called by St. Paul to be imitators of the Love (agape) of God. This supposes that we are able to experience and know that love. How do you experience the Love of God? How do you imitate it?
3. Jesus’ response to the murmuring of his Jewish listeners illustrate the difference between “knowing about Jesus” and “knowing Jesus.” Knowing about Jesus (his family, hometown, etc.) will not lead to the kind of believing that leads to eternal life. That requires knowing Jesus and entering into relationship with him. Do you Know Jesus?
4. “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world…” was quite a provocative statement? What emotions does it provoke in you?
Further Reading:
St . Paul gives us more complete picture of what it means to live the sacrificial love of Christ (agape) in his First Letter to the Corinthians (13:1-13). St. John uses the word agape to talk about the Love of God throughout his Gospel (e.g. 3:16), but also treats of it systematically in his 1st Letter (1 John 4:7-21).
Barron, Bishop Robert. Eucharist. 2021 Word on Fire, Washington, DC
Moloney, SDB, Francis J. Love in the Gospel of John. 2013 Baker Academic; Ada Michigan
Readings:
1 Kings 19:4-8
Ephesians 4:30-5:2
John 6:41-51
From the Epistle:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
From the Gospel:
...Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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.
From the 2nd Vatican Council:
This Sacred Council wishes to turn its attention firstly to the Catholic faithful. Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism(124) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.
They are fully incorporated in the society of the Church who, possessing the Spirit of Christ accept her entire system and all the means of salvation given to her, and are united with her as part of her visible bodily structure and through her with Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops. The bonds which bind men to the Church in a visible way are profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion. He is not saved, however, who, though part of the body of the Church, does not persevere in charity. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but, as it were, only in a "bodily" manner and not "in his heart."(12*) All the Church's children should remember that their exalted status is to be attributed not to their own merits but to the special grace of Christ. If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged.
Lumen Gentium 14
The unity of all divided humanity is the will of God. For this reason he sent his Son, so that by dying and rising for us he might bestow on us the Spirit of love. On the eve of his sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus himself prayed to the Father for his disciples and for all those who believe in him, that they might be one, a living communion. This is the basis not only of the duty, but also of the responsibility before God and his plan, which falls to those who through Baptism become members of the Body of Christ, a Body in which the fullness of reconciliation and communion must be made present. How is it possible to remain divided, if we have been "buried" through Baptism in the Lord's death, in the very act by which God, through the death of his Son, has broken down the walls of division? Division "openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the Good News to every creature".
John Paul II, Ut Unim Sint , On the Church’s Commitment to Ecumenism
From the Homily:
Paul tells the Gentile Christians at Ephesus not to “grieve the Holy Spirit.” Literally he means “Don’t make the Holy Spirit sad.” What Saddens the Spirit? Our anger and infighting, and fury and malice, all which grievously wound the body of Christ. In turn, Paul tells them to live kindness, compassion and forgiveness in imitation of the forgiveness Christ has given them. The implication is that these things will gladden the heart of God. As he does in so many other places in the New Testament, Paul reminds the Ephesians to imitate the Love of God, that is the love that caused Jesus to offer himself as a sacrifice. This Sacrificial Love (agape) becomes a defining characteristic of the Mission of Christ and his Church.
In the Gospel, Jesus is also calling his audience beyond all that keeps them from experiencing the sacrificial love of God. He tells them to stop murmuring and pretending that they know his origins. He has already told them that he is the bread that come down from heaven. They think this is not possible—they know his family and his hometown; how can he say that he is from heaven? Jesus reminds the crowd in Capernaum what he has already said many times in his ministry. He has come to help them to believe in the Love of God. He and his Father know their desires and what will truly satisfy those desires. He tells them that their religious beliefs at that moment are keeping them from experiencing the eternal happiness God wishes them to experience. He is the bread of eternal life, and believing in him (consuming the bread of life) makes it possible for them to live eternally. His final proclamation from this week’s Gospel will cause great consternation to this crowd (more on that next week): The bread that I will give is my FLESH for the life of the world. The Johannine Jesus uses the same word that John used in his prologue to tell us of the initial sacrifice of Christ: the pre-existent, eternal Word of God, who was present at the creation and foundation of all things, who was with God, who is God, that Word became FLESH and pitched his tent among us. The first sacrifice was Jesus’ leaving heaven to make our salvation possible. In Chapter 6, John uses that word “flesh” again, to speak of the coming sacrifice of the Messiah. Our life as Church and the life-giving Sacraments find their nexus in these two reference to the Sacrifice of Christ (one in Paul and the other in John).
Reflection Questions:
1. The section of St. Paul that we read this weekend begins with the admonition not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Have you ever thought of your actions as saddening or gladdening God? What particular actions of your have saddened or gladdened God? What actions of the Church have saddened or gladdened God?
2. We are called by St. Paul to be imitators of the Love (agape) of God. This supposes that we are able to experience and know that love. How do you experience the Love of God? How do you imitate it?
3. Jesus’ response to the murmuring of his Jewish listeners illustrate the difference between “knowing about Jesus” and “knowing Jesus.” Knowing about Jesus (his family, hometown, etc.) will not lead to the kind of believing that leads to eternal life. That requires knowing Jesus and entering into relationship with him. Do you Know Jesus?
4. “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world…” was quite a provocative statement? What emotions does it provoke in you?
Further Reading:
St . Paul gives us more complete picture of what it means to live the sacrificial love of Christ (agape) in his First Letter to the Corinthians (13:1-13). St. John uses the word agape to talk about the Love of God throughout his Gospel (e.g. 3:16), but also treats of it systematically in his 1st Letter (1 John 4:7-21).
Barron, Bishop Robert. Eucharist. 2021 Word on Fire, Washington, DC
Moloney, SDB, Francis J. Love in the Gospel of John. 2013 Baker Academic; Ada Michigan