Catechism Links[1]
CCC 1333-1336: Eucharistic signs of bread and wine
CCC 1691-1696: Life in Christ
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| "The Gathering of the Manna” by Guido Reni, 1614-15 |
Commentary:
Reading 1: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Commentary on Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
Having successfully escaped from Egypt and Pharaoh’s army, the Israelites now find themselves in difficult surroundings with little food. God's initial anger at the ungrateful people is turned to mercy. In response to their plight, God feeds them through the auspices of Moses, by providing manna to sustain them. This “bread from heaven” is seen as a gift from God; the manna is said to come down from the sky.(see also Psalm 78:25; Wisdom 16:20). This manna is later compared by Christ to the Eucharist he offers (see John 6: 31ff). This selection is a contraction of a longer dialogue between God, Moses, and the Hebrews being led out of Egypt. Even after the miracle of manna, they are still not satisfied and in later verses they complain about manna as well, asking for meat to eat. Once again, God's initial indignation at the greed of the people gives way to compassion and he sends quail for them to eat. (See also Numbers 11:1-35.)
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
R. (24b) The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Commentary on Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
Psalm 78 is a historical recital recounting the encounter of the Israelites with God, their rejection of his gifts, and the punishments for these rejections. In this selection the psalmist recalls the journey in the wilderness, and the people's anger at God for leading them on without food. God answered their plea with manna (Exodus 16:1ff).
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Reading II: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Commentary on Eph 4:17, 20-24
St. Paul begins this passage of his letter to the Ephesians by describing the hope in the resurrection brought to them in Christ. This hope was absent in those who lived out of intellect (see also Wisdom 3:2-5). He goes on to point out that those who were “taught in him, as truth is in Jesus” (that is, those who received authentic teaching about Christ) live in the spirit as opposed to the flesh. He enjoins them to renew that spirit, to “put on the new self.”
"The sacred text emphasizes two basic points--one's duty to put off one's 'old nature' (the 'old man') and, in parallel with that, the urgent need to put on the 'new nature' (the 'new man'). These two expressions refer directly to the symbolism of Christian Baptism, which effects the transition from the life of sin to the life of grace, thanks to the merits of Christ (cf. Romans 6:3-11)." [5]
CCC: Eph 4:23 1695; Eph 4:24 1473, 2475, 2504
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Gospel: John 6:24-35
Commentary on Jn 6:24-35
This dialogue with the people begins St. John’s great discourse on the bread of life. In this selection Jesus begins by telling the crowd, which had just been witness to the feeding of the multitude with the barley loaves, that they should focus on spiritual food rather than filling their stomachs. His reference here is that through their belief in him as the Son of God, they are doing God’s will.
The people misunderstand and think Jesus is asking for faith in order to perform a sign (see also Mark 8:11, Matthew 16:1, and Luke 11:16). The Jews in dialogue with Jesus refer to the favor shown by God, as in the desert following the exodus, God showered manna upon the people. They quote Nehemiah 9:15, again seeking physical bread when Jesus is offering the spiritual. In this selection St. John provides the most solemn of statements by Jesus which are unambiguous statements about his real presence in the Eucharist: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” In this offer, Jesus provides sustenance for the spirit while physical bread only supports the mortal body.
CCC: Jn 6 1338; Jn 6:26-58 2835; Jn 6:27 698, 728, 1296; Jn 6:32 1094; Jn 6:33 423
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Homily:
For the past thirty years or so I have been involved in teaching the parents who have requested the Sacrament of Baptism for their children. Given my long history of doing this, I’m sure many of you were already aware of this; in fact I have recently been instructing children whose parents I also instructed (now I’m feeling old). Over the years I have learned the truth about teaching that says “teaching well, the teacher also learns from their students.” That axiom was recently driven home as Deacon Warren and I spoke with a small group of parents in our baptismal preparation class.
Because of the cosmopolitan flavor of Ann Arbor, we frequently get couples with widely differing faith backgrounds. In a class not too long ago there were two couples in which the husbands were of Protestant faith backgrounds (one was Methodist the other Evangelical). Part of our discussion within the class was:when the faith experiences of the parents differ, they need to agree on how elements of living the Christian life are taught in the home (domestic church).
In the case of our two husbands an issue was raised. They both felt it was unfair that the Church would not allow them to receive communion. They said they felt this was elitist, unwelcoming, and exclusionary. In both cases they were resentful of this practice because they believed their understanding of communion should have allowed them to participate with us.
I am sure our apologia on the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist provided at that time and our explanation of our belief in the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist was incomplete and probably not persuasive. But what that experience taught me was that even as we gather for our solemn feast (Sunday Mass), there are those of us who are unaware of what we believe about the bread and the wine that is our Communion.
To those present who may not be of our faith, I first want to welcome you to our community and tell you that you will always find here people who are overjoyed that you have joined us in worshiping the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus who is the Christ, the long promised Messiah, sent by God to open the doors of heaven which were shut by the original sin of Adam and Eve’s disobedience.
We want you to understand that we would love you to participate with us as fully as possible. In order to do so, however, there are a few things we want you to understand. First and foremost is our belief that the bread and wine we will share later in our Holy Mass is not, in our eyes, simply bread and wine. Being a faith that developed our dogma and beliefs out of the Holy Bible, we believe, as was recently proclaimed in the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus’ words when he said: “I am the bread of life.”
In other places in St. John’s Gospel, in what is known as the Bread of Life discourse, the Lord tells us emphatically that what he leaves us is truly his body and blood. In the other gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this reality is emphasized as the authors recount the Last Supper. Jesus said, after he had prayed over the gifts of bread and wine: “This is my body…” and “This is my blood….”
We believe that we relive that event in the Eucharistic celebration that will follow. The promise he made is fulfilled in our presence with his real presence, the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, in what to our eyes may still be simple wafers and wine. For those of you who may be Christians of other denominations I would pose this question: how would you react if Jesus came and stood before you, not just an apparition, but physically stood before you? Would you not kneel? Would you not be awed and humbled that the Savior of the World should come to you, a sinner?
Understanding what we believe happens here is central to our faith and worship and is important for you to understand. It may even help you avoid accidents. We reserve the bread that has been transubstantiated into the Body of Christ in this large and ornate cupboard we call the tabernacle. We believe that the essence of Jesus is stored here. His real presence makes this a sacred space. You may have noticed that when we come in to the nave (the part of our building where most of us sit) or the sanctuary (this raised area where I now stand) we stop and genuflect. (I’ve known a few friends of other faiths who have almost run into members of our parish because they stopped [unexpectedly] to genuflect and the person behind had to avoid them somewhat acrobatically.)
I was not brought up Catholic. My mother was Methodist and my father was raised Lutheran. I was raised in the Congregationalist and Presbyterian denominations. Because my family was active, I participated in their communion ceremonies and know what we believed about communion. It was a symbolic act, a simple remembrance of the Lord’s Supper. When we were done with the Welch's grape juice and cubes of white bread we used, the leftovers were either dumped in the trash or repurposed (e.g., we kids got a lot of grape juice).
If you come from a faith tradition that shares these or similar beliefs about communion, can you see that what we believe takes place during our Eucharistic celebration is radically different? It is not because we do not love you as fellow Christians that we do not want you sharing our Eucharist. It is because we believe that if you do not understand what you are doing, your spiritual self, the self that St. Paul talks about to the Ephesians, will actually take harm.
It would be like finding a diamond in the rough and thinking it was just a hunk of quartz. The diamonds we share are not quartz.
We are a Eucharistic people, we Catholics. We fervently hope that we become what we eat and believe that what we eat is the real and present body of Christ. As I said at the beginning of my remarks, we welcome all to share in our worship of Jesus and we love all of you, since we are all God’s creatures. We invite you to share our love of God and each other as our Lord taught us. But, if you are not a member of the Catholic Church we ask that you respect our reverence for the communion we share, the Eucharist, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Pax
In other years on August 5th: Optional Memorial for the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major
[1] Catechism links are taken from the Homiletic Directory, published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014.
[2] The picture is "The Gathering of the Manna” by Guido Reni, 1614-15.
[5] Letters of St. Paul , The Navarre Bible, Four Courts Press, 2003, p 397.
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