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Throughout our reading of St. John’s Gospel over the last three weeks – Jesus has said over and over again: I am the bread of life. . .
So what does Jesus mean when he says he is bread - and what does he mean when he says he is life? For those of you here last week, I took on the second question: what does Jesus mean when he says he is life — and promised you I would tackle the first question: what does Jesus mean when he says he is bread – today. So thanks for coming back. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we read that on the night Jesus was betrayed, he desired to eat his last meal with his Apostles: it was the feast of Passover – and so it was a Passover meal which they shared. Now – there are specific foods to be used at a Passover Meal. . . There would have been parsley - symbolic of spring, when Passover occurs — which is dipped in salt water in remembrance of the tears shed by the Jews during their time of slavery in Egypt. There are bitter herbs to remind those at the meal that the Egyptians embittered the lives of the Jews. There is a hard-boiled egg - a reminder of the grief experienced by the Jews in Egypt – their rebirth as they passed through the waters of the Red Sea – and the new life God was offering them in the promised land. Much like the Easter eggs we use and little bunnies – to remind us of new life. . . There is what is called Horoseth - a mixture of chopped apples, cinnamon, nuts and wine – a reminder of the mortar used by the slave laborers in Egypt to build buildings. And there is wine, and lamb, and bread – and a few other things. The point I wish to make is that there are several foods at a Passover meal – and yet when Jesus chose something to represent himself, and the sign of the new covenant God was making with his people – Jesus did not pick up an egg, or a sprig of parsley, or a scoop of horoseth, or even a leg of lamb – he picked up bread, broke it and said: take this, all of you and eat of it - for this IS my body which will be given up for you. SO WHY BREAD: and not an egg or a bitter herb or a leg of lamb?? I think it is because the range in the taste of vegetables and meat or any other food – varies from culture to culture and from age to age. But there is one constant food item throughout time and across cultures – a “universal food” if you will – and that is bread. Bread has been part of human history for more than 30,000 years according to some scholars – beginning in Africa and the Middle East, bread has been on a journey all throughout the world. Bread has been an indispensable key to human survival - and without bread, ordered societies would not exist. Jesus knew the importance of bread for sustaining life – and of its universal nature – and so it was bread that he took, blessed, broke, and shared as the symbol of his life. For Jesus, himself, would be blessed, broken, and shared – for all people and for all times. As Catholics, we believe in what is called the REAL PRESENCE of Christ in the Eucharist – that is we take Jesus at his word when he says quite clearly in the Gospels – this IS my body, this IS my blood – and that once the words of consecration – the calling down the Holy Spirit upon our gifts of Bread and Wine, changing them into the very Body and Blood of Christ – Christ’s presence is there – and stays there – Which is the historical origins of Tabernacles – where consecrated hosts, the very presence of Christ — are kept for the use of taking them to the sick — –and is the historical origin of Adoration – because once Christ is in the host – he always remains in the host – and so we adore him on bended knee when we enter and leave a Church – and come to pray in his presence whether the host is in the Tabernacle or put into a Monstrance on the Altar. Now you have heard me say this before - but I don’t hesitate to say it again: WE BECOME WHAT WE EAT AND DRINK! So by receiving the Eucharist here – eating Christ’s body and drinking his blood – we become more like Christ - -so that when we leave here to go back out into the world – we become the real presence of Christ to others. And something we really need to work on - is recognizing the real presence of Christ in those around us – especially those Jesus mingled with: the poor, widows, orphans, the foreigner (which in Jesus days were the Samaritans - despised by the Jews but befriended by Jesus) – the broken, the downtrodden, the suffering and the sick – to name a few. 11:00 am ONLY: And so I say to you Jonathan – who will be receiving the very Body and Blood of Christ this morning for the first time – And to our second graders who will begin their preparation for their 1st Communions later this year – And to all of us – SO: This is important stuff we do here in this place – week after week. Where else can we go to get the nourishment we need to become more like Christ? And let’s keep this thought of Pope Francis in mind: The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect – but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. May we find nourishment at this table – today – and come here often to receive the medicine we need because we are weak – but can be made strong through the GRACE of God.
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It’s probably all of Jesus’ talk about Bread on the weekends when we are reading from St. John’s Bread of Life discourse – that dislodged this childhood memory.
My brothers and sisters and I of course LOVED the summer. With woods and fields and ponds and haylofts on 86 acres of land – Mom would turn us loose in the morning and did not expect to see much of us throughout the day. So we played games, built forts, swung through trees on vines, made treehouses, fished, and generally had a good time getting down and dirty. My father arrived home from work like clockwork at 5:00 o’clock every evening, and we were expected to be at the dinner table shortly after that – CLEANED UP from our busy days. So, this usually meant a change to cleaner clothes of , certainly a hand and face wash, and hair combed. It was expected of us, and we complied without question. So what does this have to do with Mary – and our celebration of her Assumption today?? You probably know the basic teaching of this feast – that when Mary’s earthly life had ended, she was assumed – taken up to heaven – body and soul. Being sinless from the time of her Conception – the feast we celebrate on December the 8th – her wedding garment - -her soul – was without blemish – her soul was clean – ready to take her place at the heavenly banquet. And so she did. Now - we do not claim for Mary what we do not also claim for ourselves – we, too, are destined for the heavenly banquet – but, unlike Mary, we don’t have a direct route there body and soul. . . Like my brothers and sisters and I playing around on the farm — our wedding garment – given to us at the time of our Baptism – is not spotless – is NOT without blemish – our souls are not clean because they have been infected – and effected by — SIN. So, we need to get cleaned up before we sit down at the banquet table of heaven – and that cleaning up process for us is called - PURGATORY– when we are made aware of all those things we chose to do to separate ourselves from the love of God - and others – and are scrubbed clean by the loving, compassionate, merciful, and forgiving – embrace of God – who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Nobody has returned to tell us what that is like – so I am of the mind and heart that Purgatory is more of a process – rather than a place – because after our death we are freed from the constraints of time and space. . . The Catechism does not specify purgatory as a place – it says: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured their eternal salvation. But after death, they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” At the end of her earthly life - because she was sinless – Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. She was ready to sit at the banquet table of heaven because she was already pure and clean. We do not claim for Mary what we do not also claim for ourselves. Where Mary is – we hope to follow - we just need to clean up a bit. And Mary – humble, trusting, hopeful Mary – will be there waiting for us – waiting to welcome each of us to the table – as only a loving mother can. And so we ask, Mary: Queen of Heaven – to pray for us – NOW, and at the hour of our death. AMEN! Listen up as I am going to make a public confession – something that doesn’t happen very often.
It is something that started a long time ago and I have to admit to this day – I haven’t been able to shake it. It started around our dining room table at home – this proclivity of mine: As a child, no matter how full at dinner I got by eating my mom’s roast and potatoes, or my grandmother’s chicken and dumplings – even if I had already left the table – when the call came for dessert – somehow – I wasn’t quite as stuffed as I thought I was. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Today, no matter how sated my appetite gets – there is always room for cookies, or cake, or pie, or ice cream. My father used to say it was “filling in the cracks.” The prophet Elijah had a similar problem — in the First Book of Kings – we read of a very full and stuffed Elijah. . . He’s been on the run from Queen Jezebel, after tangling with some of her prophets. He’d been trying to do what God was asking of him – but things weren’t really going all that well. And he was full - stuffed - but by all the wrong things: He was full of exhaustion. Full of disappointment. Full of disillusionment. Full of despair. Full of fear and confusion and loneliness. And he had enough – he was at the end of his rope, no longer able to take any more bites of what life was offering. And so he plops down and prays for death. . . Can we relate? Each disappointment, each time of sorrow, each experience of futility, loneliness, or betrayal that we have – seems to squeeze just a little more of life out of us – seems to crowd out the best part of ourselves – taking away our hope and our peace and our joy. We try to keep all the balls of our lives juggled – but sometimes things become too much – and all that seems to remain are the things we never wanted in the first place – and we are full –..... by all the wrong things. . . But just as with Elijah, and just like me with my sweet tooth so, too, with all of us –– we can find that there is always more room. As the story of Elijah recounts, an angel of the Lord wakes Elijah up. And in front him, in the middle of nowhere – he sees some food and water. And he takes and eats, takes and drinks from what the Lord provided. . . A few minutes before – he was done with life. And now he is choosing life by choosing to accept what God is offering. And clearly it just wasn’t his body that was being nourished. His soul and his mind and his whole being was been nourished as well. As full as Elijah was – there was still room for THE most important thing he needed – God’s presence in his life. “I am the bread of life.” Jesus proclaims – in a phrase that confused some, and turned others off – because they did not have the perspective we do – of casting that phrase in terms of the Eucharist we share and consume. Without that perspective – it would be hard FOR US to wrap our minds and hearts around it – which is why in this section of St. John’s Gospel – Jesus says it over and over again: I am the bread of life. . . So what does Jesus mean when he says he is bread – and what does he mean when he says he is life? I will leave the first question until next week as we continue reading from John’s Gospel – and tackle the second today. . . What is this LIFE Jesus wants for us?? It’s a life in which hope takes the place of pessimism. It’s a life where joy takes the place of despair. Where generosity takes the place of selfishness. Compassion takes the place of judgment and condemnation. Kindness takes the place of cruelty and abuse. Forgiveness takes the place of vengeance. In short, it’s a life lived in love, as St. Paul tells us. In other words, it’s the only kind of life God wants for us and is constantly offering us. And it doesn’t matter whether we have had an easy life or a difficult one – whether or not we have escaped major disappointments or have had them come our way at every corner. Those things should not and cannot rob us of our hope and our peace and our joy. They should not and cannot squeeze out the best possibilities within us. And it’s all possible because there is always room for God. And God showers down blessings upon us — abundantly – Remember this whole passage of John, Chapter 5 — began with just two fish and 5 loaves — and there were 12 baskets left over. . . God is a God of abundance – and God is a God of generosity —- and there is always room for God, nobody how filled up we think we are with everything else life can throw at us. |
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