Daily Retreat 08/23/09
2009 Aug 23 SUN:TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Jos 24: 1-2a. 15-17. 18b/ Ps 33(34): 2-3. 16-23 (9a)/ Eph 5: 21-32/ Jn 6: 60-69
From today’s readings: “Decide today whom you will serve..... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!... Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.... For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the Church, because we are members of His Body.... Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!”
The Last Piece
At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take and eat - this is My Body!” And similarly, taking up a chalice of wine, Jesus instructed, “Take and drink - this is My Blood!” And He commanded His disciples to “Do this in memory of Me!”
At the Last Supper then, what exactly did Jesus give His disciples - His Body and His Blood, or just a morsel of bread and a sip of wine, perhaps flavored a bit with the significance of the moment? In other words, did the Son of God mean what He said, and say what He meant, or was He just using a tasteless figure of speech?
Well, from the moment that the first Eucharistic aroma started drifting into human consciousness, there were those who objected that the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist was just too much to swallow. So the Gospel recounts quite frankly that some (many, in fact!) of His disciples lost their appetite that day for the Bread of Life. They would walk no longer with Jesus as His companions, (and that word “companion” remember, means “those who share bread together”). Our Lord had spoken plainly, and they had understood Him clearly. He made no effort to call them back. They could not appreciate His promise, they would not imbibe His words of life, so He had to let them go. Though it grieved our Lord to see so many turn their backs on Him, Jesus still refused to water down the substance of His teaching. He could afford to lose followers, but He Himself could not stomach diluted Truth, and He Himself never stooped to serving half-baked verities to His disciples.
Yet since the sixteenth century, that’s exactly what some who reject the original teaching of Christ and His Church have done, by mixing up a baker’s dozen or more of stale recipes for what they imagine Jesus really meant at the Last Supper. But the common ingredients of all of those novelties boils down to putting these words on lying lips of our Lord, “This is NOT My body, this is NOT My blood - it’s just a symbol, a souvenir, a simple ritual.”
Yet the words faithfully recorded in Scripture are “This is My Body, This is My Blood! My Flesh is real food, and My Blood is real drink!” For nearly 2000 years, the Catholic Church has unswervingly maintained that the divine words of Christ were surely efficacious, for reality always necessarily conforms to His divine commands. Thus, in spite of the manifest impossibility, when He unequivocally ordered, “Lazarus, come forth!” a dead man was instantaneously changed into a living man, in order for reality to comply with the word of the Lord. So, there can be no doubts about what happened when the truth-trumpeting mouth of the Lord declared, “This is My Body.... This is My Blood!” At that instant, reality again obeyed the command of divinity, and so, despite the apparent impossibility, the lowly bread miraculously became the Body of Christ, and the common wine was likewise transubstantiated into the Blood of Christ, and the miracle is renewed daily in fulfillment of the divine command to “Do this in memory of Me!”
Just one year before the marvelously acquiescent reality of the Last Supper, Jesus taught His disciples thoroughly so that they wouldn’t miss the miracle - in Chapter Six of the Gospel of St. John, the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus unambiguously insisted, “I am the Bread of Life.... The Bread that I will give is My Flesh for the life of the world.... He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has life eternal.... My Flesh is real food, and My Blood is real drink.” Sure enough, these are hard sayings, but every faithful disciple is conformed, as is reality itself, in order to accept the word of the Lord and His Bread of Life, the full and balanced diet of His divinely Real presence, which Peter and every other faithful disciple holds to, for : “Master, to whom else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that You are the Holy One of God!”
Jos 24: 1-2a. 15-17. 18b/ Ps 33(34): 2-3. 16-23 (9a)/ Eph 5: 21-32/ Jn 6: 60-69
From today’s readings: “Decide today whom you will serve..... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!... Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.... For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the Church, because we are members of His Body.... Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!”
The Last Piece
At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take and eat - this is My Body!” And similarly, taking up a chalice of wine, Jesus instructed, “Take and drink - this is My Blood!” And He commanded His disciples to “Do this in memory of Me!”
At the Last Supper then, what exactly did Jesus give His disciples - His Body and His Blood, or just a morsel of bread and a sip of wine, perhaps flavored a bit with the significance of the moment? In other words, did the Son of God mean what He said, and say what He meant, or was He just using a tasteless figure of speech?
Well, from the moment that the first Eucharistic aroma started drifting into human consciousness, there were those who objected that the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist was just too much to swallow. So the Gospel recounts quite frankly that some (many, in fact!) of His disciples lost their appetite that day for the Bread of Life. They would walk no longer with Jesus as His companions, (and that word “companion” remember, means “those who share bread together”). Our Lord had spoken plainly, and they had understood Him clearly. He made no effort to call them back. They could not appreciate His promise, they would not imbibe His words of life, so He had to let them go. Though it grieved our Lord to see so many turn their backs on Him, Jesus still refused to water down the substance of His teaching. He could afford to lose followers, but He Himself could not stomach diluted Truth, and He Himself never stooped to serving half-baked verities to His disciples.
Yet since the sixteenth century, that’s exactly what some who reject the original teaching of Christ and His Church have done, by mixing up a baker’s dozen or more of stale recipes for what they imagine Jesus really meant at the Last Supper. But the common ingredients of all of those novelties boils down to putting these words on lying lips of our Lord, “This is NOT My body, this is NOT My blood - it’s just a symbol, a souvenir, a simple ritual.”
Yet the words faithfully recorded in Scripture are “This is My Body, This is My Blood! My Flesh is real food, and My Blood is real drink!” For nearly 2000 years, the Catholic Church has unswervingly maintained that the divine words of Christ were surely efficacious, for reality always necessarily conforms to His divine commands. Thus, in spite of the manifest impossibility, when He unequivocally ordered, “Lazarus, come forth!” a dead man was instantaneously changed into a living man, in order for reality to comply with the word of the Lord. So, there can be no doubts about what happened when the truth-trumpeting mouth of the Lord declared, “This is My Body.... This is My Blood!” At that instant, reality again obeyed the command of divinity, and so, despite the apparent impossibility, the lowly bread miraculously became the Body of Christ, and the common wine was likewise transubstantiated into the Blood of Christ, and the miracle is renewed daily in fulfillment of the divine command to “Do this in memory of Me!”
Just one year before the marvelously acquiescent reality of the Last Supper, Jesus taught His disciples thoroughly so that they wouldn’t miss the miracle - in Chapter Six of the Gospel of St. John, the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus unambiguously insisted, “I am the Bread of Life.... The Bread that I will give is My Flesh for the life of the world.... He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has life eternal.... My Flesh is real food, and My Blood is real drink.” Sure enough, these are hard sayings, but every faithful disciple is conformed, as is reality itself, in order to accept the word of the Lord and His Bread of Life, the full and balanced diet of His divinely Real presence, which Peter and every other faithful disciple holds to, for : “Master, to whom else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that You are the Holy One of God!”
posted by FrPitstick | 8/20/2009
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