1.Proverbs
9:1-6
|
2.Ephesians
5:15-20
|
3.John
6:51-58
|
“Invited to dine with
Jesus”
According to some
African customs, we found out that when we have moved into a new house, often
we have little celebration to which we invite our friends. Once the house is to
our satisfaction we open it to others and provide food and refreshments. Some
call it a house warmer. It is as if the house needs a good presence of others
to be properly launched. In today’s first reading something similar is
happening we have this woman by the name of wisdom. She builds herself a house,
clearly a very elegant home with no less than seven pillars. She throws a feast
of find wine and good meat and sends out her servants into the streets to
gather people to her table. In that reading the building of a house, the making
of a feast, the invitation to come and eat and drink, is an imaginative way of
speaking about God as the wise host who invites
all of humanity to learn from his wisdom. It is interesting that God is
portrayed as a woman in this reading, woman-wisdom.
That image of
Woman-wisdom who says, ‘Come and eat of my bread, drink the wine I have
prepared’ finds an echo in the figure of Jesus in the gospel who declares, ‘I
am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread
will live forever.’ Like woman wisdom Jesus invites us to come and eat of his
bread, but unlike Woman-wisdom he declares himself to be that bread. We are to
eat of him, to drink of him. More specifically he calls on us to eat his flesh
and to drink his blood. We come to the Eucharist to draw life from the risen
Lord to draw God’s life from him, God’s love. We are then sent from the Eucharist
to be channels of that life, of that love, for each other. We come to the
Eucharist hungering and thirsting for life, for authentic life, the life of
God, the love of God, and we are sent out from the Eucharist as life givers as
agents of God’s life and love within our homes, our society, our world.
Bread comes from a
process of that starts with seed of wheat mixed with water. These are brought
together as dough and, after several stages of development they end up as unity
which we call bread. Wine begins as a cluster of grapes which when they are
processed, they end up as what we call wine. A group of people gather together
for prayer, each of them unique. After a process which is the work of the Holy
Spirit, they become unity, which we call church, or the body of Christ. In
communion, the (community) Body of Christ is being nourished by the (sacramental)
body of Christ.
The Jews were
surprised by these words of Jesus. They said: “ How can this man give us his
flesh to eat? (v52). It is because to partake of the blood of animals is a
scandal to them. This can be found in the book of Leviticus that says: “ And if
anyone, whether of the of the house of Israel or of the aliens residing among
them partakes of any blood, I will set myself against that one who partake of
blood and will cut him off from among his people,” ( Lev 17:10). And here Jesus
is offering himself to them as food. Jesus is not speaking symbolically but literally. That is why in
the early church, Christians were being accused of being cannibals because they
ate the flesh and drank the blood of Jesus during their community gathering. In
the language of others such people who tend to eat other’s flesh they are
called witch or vampire.
The question for
meditation today is that “are we worthy to receive him”? In various Christian communities
there are some people who stressed so much their unworthiness to receive Jesus
during communion because they are sinners or they did not yet go to confession.
What is more shocking now is that how casually people receive communion. Some
in the course of mass talk and forget about what is going on, some couples live
together without the blessing of the sacrament of marriage but have no scruples
about receiving communion. Can we seek the intimacy with the Lord during the
Eucharist and exclude him in our day-to-day conversation? Can we have close
relationship with Jesus during the Eucharist and exclude him from our married
life?
The Canon law of the
church has instructed us that we should have a Eucharistic fast one hour before
receiving the Holy Communion. This is not legalistic but rather we are made
aware to receive communion with reverence, to prepare us mentally, to make us
aware of the greatness of the event, to make us to have the right attitude and
to have a loving disposition of a heart.
Liturgical gestures are
important during Eucharistic celebration. We are all invited to participate
actively in the singing and praying, we dress properly, we genuflect or bow
before the Blessed Sacrament upon entering the Church; we do not talk to our
seatmates, we control our children and we feel responsible for the orderliness
and cleanness of the church. It is because the one with us if from heaven.
0 Response to "HOMILY FOR THE 20th SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME YEAR B"
Chapisha Maoni