A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 39)
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – August 20, 2006
“Come, Eat and Drink!”
BIBLE READINGS
Prv 9:1-6 // Eph 5:15-20 // Jn 6:51-58
N.B. This new series of BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY presents a biblico-liturgical study of the First Reading of each Sunday Mass to serve as background for a better understanding of the Gospel proclaimed in the liturgy. For a biblico-liturgical study of the Gospel for each Sunday, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US.
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
At the end of one Sunday Mass three months ago, our energetic pastor Fr. Charles made an appeal to the assembly concerning a very important Church ministry – the ministry of the sacristan. Our parish of the Immaculate Conception in Monrovia lacks sacristans - personnel who will take care of preparing the bread and wine, the vessels and vestments, the liturgical books, sound system and other things needed for the celebration of the Mass. The pastor’s urgent appeal was for us – PDDM Sisters - a summons to greater service. After consulting the community and making the proper adjustment in our schedule for community prayer, Sr. Mary Martha and I volunteered to serve as sacristans for the 5:30 P.M. Saturday evening Mass. We consider it a privilege and a joy to be summoned to this beautiful ministry. Every time we prepare the ciborium of hosts and the flagon of wine for Mass, we feel as noble and “important” as Lady Wisdom (cf. Prv 9:1-6) spreading the table for a great meal, which is a figure of the great messianic banquet in heaven. We know that the bread and wine that we lay out for the presentation of gifts will be transformed at the Eucharistic table, by the miracle of transubstantiation, through the power of the Holy Spirit, into the sacramental body and blood of Jesus Christ.
One afternoon while Sr. Mary Martha and I were serving in the sacristy, three young dark-haired beauties came to talk to the priest who would preside at Mass. They were visiting Monrovia and came by chance to the Immaculate Conception church. Since they did not want to miss Sunday worship while far from home, they decided to stay and participate in the Eucharist with our parish community. They explained to the kind-hearted priest that they belong to the Coptic Rite and asked permission to receive communion. Fr. Cassidy regarded them serenely and gently asked, “What is your belief in the Eucharist?” The spokesperson answered spontaneously and decisively, “The body and blood of Christ!” The holy priest Fr. Cassidy smiled and, with a twinkle in his eyes, remarked glancing in our direction, “Oh, yes! You may receive communion. And not only that – you will also be able enter the convent.” At the end of the Mass, Fr. Cassidy introduced them to the assembly who welcomed them warmly with a round of applause.
The Gospel reading of this Sunday (Jn 6:51-58) underlines the meaning and the necessity of eating the body of Christ and drinking his blood. Jesus’ emphasis on eating his flesh and drinking his blood was utterly perplexing to the Jewish audience of his time and may have provoked disgust and revulsion. The mention of “flesh eating” could have conjured up images of cannibalism and the references to “blood drinking” stirred up a sickening sense of abomination among the Jews, who were prohibited from drinking the life-blood of animals. The confusion and misunderstanding generated by Jesus’ various assertions (e.g. “The bread that I will give is my flesh”, “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink”, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life”, etc) led understandably to their violent objection, extreme suspicion and sheer unbelief. Moreover, Jesus did not give a direct answer to the Jews’ insidious question raised in mockery, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat”, but simply laid out non-negotiable revelations and affirmations.
The liturgical scholar, Adrian Nocent explains: “St. John does not put on Jesus’ lips the sacramental explanation of the gift of his flesh, the explanation we find Jesus giving at the Last Supper and Paul repeating in the First Letter to the Corinthians: This is my body, which is given for you. Had Christ done so his hearers would not have understood him. While Jesus does not explain how he will be able to give his flesh to eat, he does explain clearly what the significance is of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. The effect of such actions will be union with Christ, analogous to that which exists between Jesus and his Father. Jesus will dwell in them, so much so that he who eats the flesh of Jesus will live because of him. In this passage we can, once again, easily see the allusion to the violent death of Jesus. The union with Jesus, by reason of which he lives in us and give us life, leads finally to our resurrection on the last day … The dwelling of Jesus in us and of us in him is eternal life.”
Jesus’ clear and blunt words in today’s Gospel passage about his flesh being true food and his blood being true drink refer to the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Harold Buetow comments: “Jesus’ Real Presence in the Eucharist has always been a difficulty. It is contrary to our senses, to our science, and to our experience. Our senses indicate that what looks like bread is bread, and what looks like wine is wine. Our science discovers the texture, shape and composition of material things. There is no way that we can look at a Host under a microscope and find a tiny Jesus. Our experience shows us that we know readily by what we sense: There is nothing in the mind, which was not somehow first in the senses. Nevertheless, appearances are one thing, reality another. Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist – and that not with a presence that is physical, or moral, or spiritual, but sacramental. The reality of the bread has truly become the reality of Jesus’ glorified body; the reality of the wine has become the reality of Jesus’ blood. Since Jesus cannot be divided, wherever his body is there also are his soul, divinity, and blood; wherever his blood is, there also are his soul, divinity, and body. As he proceeded, Jesus made his teaching constantly stronger: If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. And further along, My flesh is real food, and my blood real drink. Jesus was giving us a share in the life that the Father shares with the Son – a true communion with the real person of the risen Lord. The people of the early Church understood this. The Eucharist made a difference in their lives: It made possible for them to bear each day.”
This Sunday’s First Reading (Prv 9:1-6) about the splendid banquet that Lady Wisdom prepares for her invited guests has a sacramental implication. The enticing table of rich, luscious fare to which she invites us to eat and drink is a figure of the Eucharist, the table to which the Lord Jesus himself invites us, welcomes us, and gives his very self to us – flesh and blood – as bread and wine. Indeed, at the Eucharistic banquet, the Risen Lord Jesus Christ – the fulfillment of the Old Testament personified Wisdom – offers us not just the wine of wisdom and the bread of the Word – his teaching and revelation, but also his sacrificial flesh and blood, broken and poured out for us in his paschal offering on the Cross.
Lady Wisdom’s invitation, “Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed”, which in its original context was an enticing summons to a deeper knowledge and wisdom based on the fear of the Lord, is used by the Church this Sunday to resound and intensify Christ’s gracious invitation to his disciples to participate in the Eucharistic feast. In the sacrament of the Eucharist, the Risen Lord Jesus himself is the gracious Host inviting us to his sacred meal - to eat his flesh and drink his blood - in order to obtain eternal life. The effect of this Eucharistic meal is symbiosis, an indwelling and an intimate manner of fulfilling God’s promise of “I am with you!”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
“Jesus, the Bread of Life, our Spiritual Nourishment”
By Sr. Mary Anh Theresa Nguyen PDDM
PDDM Community, Monrovia, CA-U.S.A.
In this passage of John’s Gospel, the bread that Jesus was talking about is Christ himself – the “living one”, the “Bread of Life” and the “Bread from heaven”. He himself has not only flesh like us, but he is also the divine one who gives everlasting life. He is the Messiah coming down from heaven to feed and to nourish us. He is the Blessed Eucharist – our only strength and nourishment. However, it takes faith, which is revealed to us by the Almighty Father. Faith is a gift that is given to us by our Father. It is the Word of God himself who is emphasized here. He is made present, Body and Blood, through the power of the Holy Spirit whenever the priest consecrates the bread and wine by saying: “THIS IS MY BODY! THIS IS MY BLOOD!”
I do believe in these powerful Words. I believe in his real presence in the form of bread and wine. Reflecting upon it, I remember the words and testimony of our beloved Cardinal Francis Xavier Thuan Nguyen, whom I consider a saint. He shared his experience with us as a man of faith. In fact, he shared in his book, “Five Loaves and Two Fishes” that he celebrated Masses in prison every day with three drops of wine and one drop of water in the palm of his hand for nine years. He considered those Masses the most beautiful ones of his life and those moments were his immense joy. In the “Road of Hope”, he wrote: “Entrust yourself to one power, the Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of the Lord, which was given that you may live: I came that they may have life abundantly (Jn 10:10). As the Israelites were fed by manna during their journey to the Promised Land, so too you will be nourished by the Eucharist as you travel along the Road of Hope to your heavenly homeland (cf. Jn 6:50).” (n. 983)
For us Catholics, we believe not only in the presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, but also in his Words, the Community (Congregation) and the Priest. May the Lord continue to bless us and may he open our mind and our heart to accept this grace. May we share it with others especially the people who have lost their trust in God.
Here is a prayer I like to recite daily to increase my faith and to deepen my awareness of his real presence. Blessed James Alberione, Founder of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master (PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI) and the Pauline Family composed this prayer, “Act of Faith”. I encourage you to pray it and feel the difference it will bring to your life.
Jesus, eternal Truth, I believe you are really present in the bread and wine.
You are here with your body, blood, soul and divinity.
I hear your invitation: “I am the living bread descended from heaven”,
“take and eat; this is my body”.
I believe, Lord and Master,
but strengthen my weak faith.
Amen.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. Do we ever hunger for the bread of God’s revelation and thirst for the wine of God’s wisdom? Do we give heed to Lady Wisdom’s enticing invitation, “Come, eat of my flesh and drink of the wine I have mixed”? Do we experience the deep satisfaction that results from participation in this rich banquet?
B. Do we believe that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament personified Wisdom? Do we believe that in the Eucharist, he has prepared for us a rich, delicious banquet of the bread of his Word, the wine of his Wisdom, and above all, his sacrificial Body broken for our salvation and his Blood poured out to make of us God’s covenant people? Do we thank the Lord Jesus for his various modes of presence in the Eucharist, i.e. in the sacred species of bread and wine, in the assembly, in the proclamation of the Word, and in the ordained Priest who presides at the liturgical assembly?
C. Do we regard the sacrament of the Eucharist with immense respect, deep faith and great love? Do we offer our “real presence” in the Eucharistic celebration and participate actively, consciously and fruitfully in this sacred act in which Christ is made present to us, Body and Blood, for our salvation and nourishment?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(“Act of Faith” by Blessed James Alberione)
Jesus, eternal Truth, I believe you are really present in the bread and wine.
You are here with your body, blood, soul and divinity.
I hear your invitation:
“I am the living bread descended from heaven”,
“take and eat; this is my body”.
I believe, Lord and Master,
but strengthen my weak faith.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 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.” (Jn 6:54-56)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Let the Eucharistic celebration challenge you to love and embrace the poor and vulnerable, to share your bread with the hungry and your resources with the needy, and to sustain the efforts of those who work towards an authentic global solidarity and promote God’s kingdom of love, justice and peace. Ask Jesus, truly present Body and Blood in the humble signs of bread and wine, never to cease calling priests after his own heart to the work of pastoral charity.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us contemplate more deeply and thank the Lord God for his Real Presence – a presence par excellence - in the gift of his Body and Blood in the Eucharist, make an effort to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. Visit the PDDM WEB site (www.pddm.us) for the EUCHARISTIC ADORATION THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR (Vol. 2, n. 39): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US