The Eucharist, Heart Of The Church: Part Four

03-07-2016 FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME YEAR C
SCRIPTURAL READING:
Is. 66:10-14c.
Ps 66:1-3a.4-5.6-7a.16.20. (R. 1).
Gal. 6:14-18; Accl; Col. 3:15a. 16a.
Gospel Luke 10:1-12.17-20.

Preamble:
Dear friends please repeat these words after me;
Stay with me Lord Jesus as I give you my mind; help me understand your word.
Stay with me Lord Jesus as I give you my ears; help me hear your voice.
Stay with me Lord Jesus as I give you my heart; help me welcome you.
Holy Spirit, rekindle in me the fire of your love. Amen.

THE EUCHARIST THE HEART OF THE CHURCH: PART FOUR.
THEME: THE LORD’S PRESENCE IS ALWAYS CLOSE TO US-PART ONE.
The scriptural passage that emphasises our mission statement for the year 2016 taken from John 6:51- “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live,” speaks elaborately to us of the closeness of God to us and of his living presence amongst us. It is a statement that tells us of God’s free choice to be one with us by giving us his body and body so as to express more clearly that we are dependent on him for our daily sustenance, life and communion with him at the same time he is the cause of our joy, identity and mission as Christians. This statement contained in John 6:51 forms part of the body of verses taken from John 6:48-59.

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his sermon for Corpus Christi describes this joy using the fifth book of Moses in order to express Israel’s joy over its election, over the mystery of the covenant. The saying goes: “what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? (Deut. 4:7).” This statement in Thomas’ words has acquired its true meaning only in the church, in God’s new people.

For if, in Israel, God had humbled himself in his speaking to Moses, and had thus drawn near to his people, now he himself has taken flesh, has become a man among men, and has remained, so far remained that he places himself, in the mystery of transubstantiated bread, in our hands and in our hearts. This joy at the way that a “people of God” has truly come into being, with the understanding that God is so near and could be no closer, was the origin in the 13th century of the feast of corpus Christi, as one great hymn of thanksgiving that such a thing could be.

But then there is a twist and a turn within the context of this discourse. We notice that the cause for rejoicing is also at the same time a stumbling block, a crisis point and this is not limited to our generation but generations before us.

As we read the gospel of John 6, we notice how at the very first advance notice concerning the Eucharist, the people that is the crowd that benefitted from the miracle of five loaves and two fish, murmured and revolted  against it. Such attitude goes to say that we do not want God as near as that; we do not want him so small, humbling himself; we want him to be great and far away. But then this is the crisis point where we do not want to take God as he has presented himself but how we have painted him to be-a God so far, fierce, mean, strikes at the slightest instance of sin and kills the sinner, a sharp-sharp God.

We are not satisfied with a God who takes his time to provide for us with what we truly need in life at the right time, a God who is slow to anger, gracious and merciful. This poses great difficulty in believing in him yet we come to church, pray and offer our gifts to him.  

But then beloved in Christ, the mission statement for the year 2016 has been so well thought out in order to help us learn anew the ‘’Yes of faith’’, to receive anew its joy and thus learn anew once more to pray and to know the Eucharist itself and the God who offers it to us. To help us achieve this, we shall however address three questions which the Holy father Pope benedict XVI highlights as questions that are opposed to the belief in the real presence of the Lord.

The first question is; does the Bible actually say anything like that? Does it present us with this, or is it just the position of the Catholic Church?

The second question is: is it truly possible for a body to share itself out into all places and all times? Does this not simply contradict the limitations that are of the essence of a body?

The third question is: Hasn’t modern science, with everything it says about “substance” and material being, so obviously rendered meaningless the dogmas of the church that relate to this that in the world of science we just finally have to throw them on the scrap heap, since we are unable to reconcile them with contemporary thought?

To really understand the meaning of the words of Jesus, let us pay key attention to the insight the Emeritus Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI offers us. The first questions-Does the Bible say anything like that or is it the thought of the church?

During the 16th century, the dispute was about one word ‘is’ found within the sentence-‘This is my Body’, ‘This is my Blood.’ Does this ‘is’ really signify the full force of bodily presence? Or does it not merely indicate an image, so that it should be understood: “This stands for my Body and my Blood?” In the meantime scholars have disputed about this word until they were weary of it and have realized that an argument about a single word, removed from its context, can only lead up a blind alley.

For just as in music a note derives its significance from the interrelating whole, and can only be understood within the whole, so also we can only understand the words in a sentence by the meaning of the whole within which they have their place. We must ask about the whole context. If we do that, the Bible gives a perfectly clear answer.

Let us notice the explicit words of Jesus as contained in John’s gospel: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…my flesh is food indeed” John 6:53, 55. When the murmuring of the Jews arose, the controversy could easily have been quieted by the assurance: friends, do not be disturbed; this was only a figurative speech; the flesh only signifies food, it isn’t actually that!-But there is nothing of that in the Gospel.

Jesus renounces any such toning down; he just says with renewed emphasis that this bread has to be literally, physically eaten. He says that faith in the God who became man is believing in a God with a body and that this faith is real and fulfilled; it brings full union only if it is itself corporeal (having material or physical form or substance), if it is a sacramental event in which the corporeal Lord seizes hold of our bodily existence.

To have a full grasp of this union, St. Paul compares what happens in Holy Communion with the physical union between man and woman. To help us understand the Eucharist, he refers us to the words in the creation story: “The Two [=man and wife] shall become one” (Gen. 2:24). And he adds: “He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit [that is, shares a single new existence in the Holy Spirit] with him” (1 Cor. 6:17).

When we hear this, we at once have some notion of how the presence of Jesus Christ is to be understood. It is not something at rest but is a power that catches us up and works to draw us within itself. St. Augustine had a profound grasp of this in his teaching on communion. Before his conversion, when he was struggling with the incarnational aspect of Christian belief, which he found impossible to approach from the point of view of platonic idealism, he had a sort of vision, in which he heard a voice saying to him: “I am the bread of the strong, eat me! But you will not transform me and make me part of you; rather, I will transform you and make you part of me.”

In the normal process of eating, the human is the stronger being. He takes things in, and they are assimilated into him, so that they become part of his own substance. They are transformed within him and go to build up his bodily life. But in the mutual relation with Christ it is the other way around; he is the heart, the truly existent being. When we truly communicate, this means that we are taken out of ourselves, that we are assimilated into him, that we become one with him and, through him, with the fellowship of our brethren.

From this point we see ourselves receive a new mission to be sent out as the seventy whom the lord appointed. The disciple cannot proclaim Christ if he does not know Christ or is one with him or have been transformed by the lord.

The number seventy is disputed, for some very good manuscripts say seventy-two were appointed. No matter which number is adopted, the number is held to be symbolic just as the appointment of twelve apostles is said to be symbolic.

The twelve apostles are said to symbolize (1.) The Twelve Patriarchs. (2.) The Twelve tribes of Israel and (3.) The Twelve leaders of the tribes.

The seventy are said to symbolize 1.) The nations of the world Gen. 10 where seventy names are listed; seventy-two in the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament). The point in the symbolism is that the gospel is to go into all the world. (2.) The seventy elders who saw the glory of God (Ex. 24:1, 9). (3.) The seventy elders of Israel (Num. 11:16f). (4.) The seventy palm trees at Elim (Ex. 15:27). (Note there were also twelve wells of water at Elim said to represent the twelve apostles.) (5.) The great Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews, which had seventy members.

The task of the 70 disciples was to pray why? They were to pray for more labourers since the labourers in the vineyard were few. This was a spiritual and an urgent need of which only a disciple who is close to the lord will understand this need and earnestly pray about labourers in the vineyard of the Lord. It is the Lord who can send the labourer and prayer is the method God will use to send them forth.

Unless we are one with the lord, we will not understand his mission and purpose for us in his vineyard. The only means to communion with the lord is prayer and prayer preserves us from harm, helps us cultivate the right attitude in times of persecution and above all increase our trust in the Lord. When one is close to the lord he will be at peace and his message will be peaceful wherever he goes.

The world is in need of peace and only the disciple who is truly close to the lord can offer that peace as he communicates the gospel. Peace of mind is the fruit of a life in the spirit and it is an inner condition, and it is independent of external conditions and circumstances it is a gift of the lord.

Beloved in Christ, peace of mind, which is inner peace, offers countless benefits:

1. Better concentration ability,

2. Efficiency in handling your daily affairs of life,

3. More patience, tolerance and tact,

4. Freedom from stress, anxieties and worries,

5. A Sense of inner happiness and bliss,

6. Falling asleep easily and sleeping soundly.

Beloved in Christ, when we come close to the lord such peace becomes our lot. We pray this day that the peace of the Lord may remain with us always as we create time to communion with him always. Amen.