Thursday, May 15, 2025

 

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter

(Acts 8:26-40; John 6:44-51)

Sometimes individuals excuse themselves from following Christ saying they have not been given faith.  Even though they accept all that Jesus teaches about morals, they halt their allegiance where he speaks of resurrection from the dead and eternal life.  Today’s gospel encourages them to drop rational arguments and go with Jesus.

The "Jews" (what the evangelist John calls the Pharisees and Sadducees) express their difficulties with Jesus's discourse. They don't understand how he came down from heaven if he has parents like everyone else. Unfortunately, they have turned their mindsagainst Jesus.  His words seem like boasting to them. They need to listen more closely not only to Jesus' voice but also to the yearnings of their own hearts for eternal life.

We should not kid ourselves thinking that we could not have joined “the Jews” in their opposition to Jesus.  Many of us are easily convinced when talk turns into action against individuals.  If it is the case, we can thank God for making our faith-journey easy.  We also want to take time to tell others what and why we believe.

Thursday, May 8, 2025

 

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

(Acts 8:26-40; John 6:44-51)

New Testament Greek has different words for the verb to eat.  To simply consume something, the Greek word is phago.  But in today’s gospel the evangelist uses trogo for eating which is more like chewing or gnawing.  What the evangelist John implies by trogo is that Jesus is offering himself not just to be consumed, but to be savored.

Jesus is in a contentious dialogue with his fellow Jews.  He tells them that he is the image of God sent into the world.  As God gave physical life to all creation, he is giving life everlasting to all who believe in him.  Belief, he says, is like savoring good food.  It is not just paying lip service but meditating on and doing what he says.

Some of Jesus’ teachings are difficult to practice.  Caring for an aged relative can be physically and emotionally trying.  We do so because Jesus told his disciples that as he washed their feet, they must wash the feet of one another.  Such service done out of love renders us not only saintly but also heirs of everlasting life.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

(Acts 8:26-40; John 6:44-51)

It is said that bread is the staff of life.  Supplying most of the calories in a western person’s diet, bread was once the staple of half the world.  Today a range of foods provides the calories for subsistence.  More peculiar is the fact that many people have recently been diagnosed with an intolerance of gluten, a composite of wheat proteins.  They cannot digest most bread well and should not eat any product containing more than a trace of gluten.  How does this development affect today’s gospel claim that Jesus is “the bread of life”?

Just as the life that Jesus offers is greater than physical life, the bread he gives is more than regular bread.  It is his “Eucharistic” bread which provides the superior life.  Eucharistic bread enables a life of gratitude.  It recognizes God as its source, its sustenance, and its end.  Assured of such a benefactor, the person who consumes Eucharistic bread should give thanks always.

We have daily access to Eucharistic bread at mass.  It transforms us inwardly to become more grateful for everything.  Consuming Eucharistic bread, we lovingly recognize those who help us.  We can even accept the difficulties that burden our lives with a sense of appreciation.  Shouldered without rancor, they make us stronger and wiser.  Becoming more Eucharistic, which means becoming more like Jesus himself, should bring us to mass more often.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

(Acts 8:26-40; John 6:44-51)

At a meeting a priest once shocked his colleagues by declaring that he had murdered a fellow priest.  Of course, his words were given immediate attention.  He said that he had repeatedly covered for the dead priest when he was drinking all night so that he could not say morning mass.  When the priest died of alcoholic-related complications, the enabler-priest felt responsible.  In today’s gospel Jesus shocks the Jews with similarly descriptive language.

Jesus has already said that he is the bread of life.  He meant that the teaching he received from the Father and passes on to the people must be believed if they are to have the fullness of life.  Now he takes the analogy a step farther.  He says that the bread which he gives is his “Flesh.”  He uses such strong language because his message departs from the world’s in dramatic ways.  Where the world exhorts people to maximize pleasure, Jesus teaches self-sacrifice as the way to eternal life.  He will indicate that his Flesh is incorporated in the Eucharistic bread which is to be actually eaten.  But he does not mean that one can profit from tasting it without believing in him.

We too should be shocked out of complacency with Jesus’ words.  We have been accustomed to think of success as becoming rich and to envy those who attract attention by their beauty.  Taking to heart Jesus’ words, we will reconsider these values.  We will come to emulate the humble who care for others while praising God.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

(Acts 8:26-40; John 6:44-51)

“I shall not live until I have seen God, and when I have seen him, I shall never die.”  The seventeenth century mystic John Donne wrote these words to profess not only his belief in the resurrection of the dead but also his wariness about earthly life.  Here, he goes on to say, we see but appearances; in seeing God we will know all things as they truly are.  In today’s gospel Jesus draws a similar distinction between the manna which the ancestors of the Jews ate in the desert and the true bread of life.

The Jews seek sustenance.  They tire from getting up every day to perform back-breaking work just to put bread on the table.  They remember the story of the Israelites being fed with manna and see in Jesus a comparable source of food.  Of course, Jesus knows that they chiefly desire to satisfy their hunger so he challenges them to see all food as only a sign of what gives eternal sustenance.  You have to eat my Flesh, he says, to really have your eternal needs met.  He means that they have to believe in him – to accept that he has come from God and to love each other.

We come to receive the Eucharist.  When it is offered to us, we say, “Amen,” I believe.  We must understand that we are committing ourselves to him.  We believe that he is God and that heeding his command to love – not just in words but with deeds – will lead us beyond our wants into eternal life.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

(Acts 8:26-40; John 6:44-51)

Food writer Michael Pollan criticizes the agricultural-industrial complex for polluting the American diet with corn-based products. He readily rolls out statistics to show that corn has long outdistanced wheat as America’s dietary mainstay. Pollan’s analysis raises the question whether Jesus, if he were to preach today, would say, “I am the bread of life.”

Do not doubt that he would. Whatever the universality of corn, well-made bread is still nutritious and delectable. Jesus further challenges contemporary assumptions like “the more, the better” and “what is convenient is also preferable.” He makes himself bread to be eaten in the Eucharist, but this food differs from what we put on the dinner table both in kind and quality. The Eucharist does not nourish us because it is bread for the body but because it is life for the soul. Its primarily spiritual substance lifts our minds and hearts to the divine love which they impart. Similarly, the word of God -- the Scriptures --provides rich spiritual nourishment.

Because they become the most life-giving of all food, quality bread and wine should be obtained for the Eucharist. As important, the Scriptures used in liturgies should be read from an attractive volume. For a while parishes used to make their own bread for the altar, but that practice seems to have proven impractical in the long run. Nevertheless, hosts of an appreciable size with the appearance, texture of well-made bread should be purchased whenever possible for their sign value. Likewise, a hearty, mellow wine should be obtained for consecration. Finally, reading the Scriptures from an I-Phone or missalette, although they still give life, does not indicate their preeminence in the order of knowledge and wisdom.