From our shepherd

The National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis this past summer was a moving experience. It was a wonderful expression of faith and love especially directed to the mystery of Christ present with us in the sacrament.

I think it is appropriate that the Sunday readings following the Congress were from the Gospel of John, Chapter 6. In this chapter, John speaks of the mystery of the flesh that Jesus gives for the life of the world, and that we must eat and drink what he sets before us.

Chapter 6 opens up for us this great mystery. It is like the cloud that Moses and the people of Israel passed through. You have to go into the cloud to begin to understand and to appreciate the gift that we have received. And Chapter 6 is a guide for us to enter into this mystery. 

A mystery is many things, but principally it is something that you can't capture just by thinking. You have to go into it. Maybe we don't realize it sometimes, when we come to Mass, sometimes we have a million things on our mind, that we are entering into the cloud of the mystery of God in this place. 

I want to focus on a couple of things that will help us understand, to appreciate, and to love more. To love more is always a grace from God. It is not something you can manufacture.  We can't fake that. We must ask for it.

First, I want to note that the first reading (Proverbs 9:1-6) on the 20th Sunday of Ordinary time is somewhat parallel to the Gospel (John 6:51-58). In the Book of Proverbs is this beautiful passage about the wisdom of God having prepared a banquet. It helps us understand that this banquet is something God has been preparing for us from the very beginning. First we set the table.

The Book of Proverbs, part of the wisdom books of the Old Testament, is speaking about the steps in history by which God prepares to share a banquet with his people. It is a prophetic reading. It is announcing something that is happening and that will happen: that God establishes a banquet for his people. And this is something essential; it is something that we have to appreciate. It is not just an afterthought on God's part that we happen to get together on Sunday, and that we are all in the same place. Es un convivir. It is a “living together” the mystery of God’s life shared with us, and to be grateful for it. 

To announce the kingdom is to announce the banquet. It is hard to announce a banquet if everybody would prefer to eat alone. El cristiano quiere compartir y convivir. That is why it is important as families or as friends to eat together, because it is an essentially human way of sharing life.

When Jesus says in the Gospel, in this dialogue when he announces this mystery, that “I am the bread of life who comes down from heaven, and you must eat this bread,” the people ask him, “How can this be that you give us your flesh to eat?” They thought, “This man is crazy.”

But we should notice when Jesus hears this, this general question, the murmuring of the crowd, he does not apologize or say he was not speaking literally and that it was a metaphor. He does not say that. Which is why it's so hard for them to understand.

They gave him an opening to explain. But instead, he said, “If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you will not have life in you.” He doesn't go into an interpretation of what he meant to say. He says basically, “I said what I said, and you will not have life unless you eat.” This is the banquet that the Lord prepares. 

What is this thing he gives us? His flesh and his blood. I give my life for the life of the world. Es la entrega del Señor. He gives himself over. And when we approach the mystery of this, it is not that we fully understand. It is, rather, an experience of responding to his invitation: Come and eat, and then you will know. You have to go into the cloud. You cannot really inspect it from the outside.

What life? We could ask that question, “Lord, what kind of a life do you want to give us by eating and drinking this mystery that you give us?” “I give you my life: In the cross, in the gift of myself, in the pouring out of myself on the cross, I give you, my life.”

“I want you to eat that so you can have life in you.” That is what he is saying.

What life? I return to what is said earlier. La vida de un cristiano es un convivir. It is to live with him.

He is the Son of God made flesh, and by taking this flesh, we receive the life of God. That's the life by which he rose. His flesh has the life of God in it. He rises by this. He wants us to have it so that we in our flesh can have the life of God in us and rise with him.

That is what it means. You won't have life unless you have Christ inside of you. Not out there, somewhere, but here, within. Es un banquete; es un convivir. We have to be with him. 

God from the beginning has a purpose in what he does. We don't really capture it until we see it fulfilled.

What the Lord says in the Gospel of John, “When you eat my flesh and drink, then you will remain in me and I will remain in you.” Este es el convivir. This is the living with him. The Word became flesh, and now he is in us.

A Christian cannot live the faith alone. We share it with one another because the Lord offers this to the world. What do we say? The words of institution, “This is given up for you.” In Spanish, it's a plural “you” – “Ustedes.”

This is the root and the heart of the communion of the Church. It is communion in him because we are in this together.

It is rather a bumpy road because we do not always like each other. Sometimes we argue. And it is a dangerous thing if we let the argument make us forget what holds us together. If any argument in the Church makes us forget that we are together in the blood he has shed for us, we have forgotten the most important thing. This is the life he gives us. And what holds us together is this life he shares with us. This will hold us together.

That is why the Communion of the Church is tied to the Eucharist, to the mystery of the gifts given. It helps us to persevere because God is still preparing the banquet.

Remember, he continues to prepare the banquet, the heavenly banquet, where every nation, every race, every tongue is gathered around the sacrifice of the lamb. That is the eternal banquet described in the Book of Revelation.

What God wants is for all of his children to gather together around the love of his Son, the love that is shown to us by the life he pours out for the life of the world, the life which we eat and we drink when we come to the Mass.

Lord, why do you do this? Because God knows no other thing except to pour himself out to us. The question for us is, “Will we receive him? Will we live the banquet?” Because it is the receiving that saves us.

Amen.