______________________________________________
In today’s Gospel of John, the people of God are asking for a sign from that Jesus is all he says he is. They want proof.
Don’t
we all want proof of God’s existence at times in our lives?
In
today’s first reading from Exodus, the people of God want a sign, too.
They’re
grumbling in the desert, thinking, “Hey, we were much more comfortable in
captivity in Egypt.”
Then a miracle happens in the desert and they have their fill of manna from heaven.
Sometimes
we can be more comfortable trapped in our own sinfulness and grumble, “Where is
God in our lives?”
In
last week’s Gospel of John, we got the most wondrous sign of all that
Christ is what he says he is when he took a boy’s five barley loaves and
two fishes and fed a multitude of people.
It
was a miracle sign that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father. And He was
offering more than mere material food, but spiritual food that lasts forever as
he reminds followers this week.
That
word “consubstantial” caused quite a stir in 2011 when the New Roman Missal was
introduced, but the meaning of this big word from the Nicene Creed is
quite accurate.
Consubstantial simply means: “of the same substance or essence.”
Jesus is trying to get this concept into
the heads of the people He encounters today.
They want material proof that he’s the
Son of living God. They want more miracles.
He’s trying to tell them that everything
he is and everything he is doing is a reflection of the one who sent him.
This Gospel passage for the next few
week in John’s Gospel is called the “Bread of Life Discourse.”
Wait, aren’t we in the Year of Mark
with our Gospel readings?
We are. But the Church wants us to take a
break from Mark and reflect on Jesus as the Bread of Life from John’s Gospel
for the next few weeks.
Remember, when the Church gets serious, it
breaks out the Gospel of John.
One
of the keys to understanding this weekend’s readings is this passage from
John’s Gospel spoken by the people of God:
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
The Bread
of Life in our faith is the Eucharist. And everything in flows from it.
As Jesus reminds us, "Amen, Amen, I say to you... Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life."
“Faith is entering into a relationship with
God. Faith is becoming aware of the gift of our existence as a gift from God;
nothing we've ever earned. God has loved us into being and sustains us in
being, and we need to recognize that, and then to develop a relationship with
this living God.”
It
starts when we eat the Bread of Life and become filled with ALL we need to do
the will of God. This helps us to turn away from things that
separate us from him: sin.
St. Paul
reminds the baptized in Christ what we must do in today’s reading from
Ephesians:
“You should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness."
St. Paul is urging us to undergo a revolution
within ourselves by putting on this new self. These are strong
words.
In many ways, he’s calling for “something
that would almost turn us inside-out, upside-down, just change everything in
our lives, a revolution, so that we really live in God and renew ourselves from
inside, according to God's ways.”
In
the Gospel, Jesus is telling us clearly how to do this: by partaking
in the Bread of Life found in the Eucharist.
This spiritual nourishment is designed to turn us from old sinful ways and renew us in the joy and hope of Christ. This Bread of Life sustains us and helps us to better hear the voice of God whispering in our prayer life, guiding us as we do the will of the Father.
As
many of you know, we just concluded the Year of the Eucharist in our
Archdiocese, as called by Archbishop Etienne. As he said in his pastoral letter:
the “goal is for all Catholics to enter into the mystery we celebrate in order
to appreciate it more fully, and we hope that the faithful may also recognize
the implications of the sending rite at the end of Mass as a commissioning to
live this Eucharistic life in the world, to carry out the mission of Jesus in
our day-to-day life.”
The
Archbishop calls the Eucharist a source of unity to Christ, in Christ and with
each other.
Perhaps
this is why he voted recently to reject the U.S. Bishops Communion proposal,
not wanting the Eucharist to become a politicized weapon.
I’d like to share a final thought for reflection from popular Catholic writer Henri Nouwen.
It’s
entitled Becoming the Living Christ:
“Whenever we come together around the table, take bread, bless it, break it, and give it to one another saying: ‘The Body of Christ,’ we know that Jesus is among us. He is among us NOT as a vague memory of a person who lived long ago but as a real, life-giving presence that transforms us. By eating the Body of Christ, we become the living Christ and we are enabled to discover our own chosenness and blessedness, acknowledge our brokenness, and trust that all we live we live for others. Thus we, like Jesus himself, become food for the world.”
______________________________________________
En el Evangelio de Juan de hoy, el pueblo de Dios está
pidiendo una señal a Jesús de que él es todo lo que dice que es. Quieren
pruebas.
¿No queremos todos a veces pruebas de la existencia de
Dios en nuestras vidas?
En la primera lectura de hoy del Éxodo, el pueblo de Dios
también quiere una señal.
Se quejan en el desierto, pensando: "Oye, estábamos
mucho más cómodos en cautiverio en Egipto".
A veces nos sentimos más cómodos atrapados en nuestra
propia pecaminosidad y nos quejamos, "¿Dónde está Dios en nuestras
vidas?"
Entonces ocurre un milagro en el desierto y se llenan de
maná del cielo.
Las multitudes querían pruebas materiales de que Jesús es
el Hijo de Dios viviente. Esto significa
que querían más milagros.
Jesús está tratando de decirles que todo lo que él es y
todo lo que está haciendo es un reflejo de quien lo envió.
Una de las claves para entender las lecturas de este fin
de semana es este pasaje del Evangelio de Juan hablado por el pueblo de Dios:
"Señor, danos este pan siempre".
El Pan de Vida en nuestra fe es la Eucaristía. Y todo en
fluye de ella.
"La fe es entrar en una relación con Dios. La fe es
tomar conciencia del don de nuestra existencia como un don de Dios; nada de lo
que nos hayamos ganado. Dios nos ha amado en el ser y nos sostiene en el ser, y
tenemos que reconocer eso, y luego desarrollar una relación con ese Dios vivo.
Todo comienza cuando comemos este Pan
de Vida y nos llenamos de todo lo que necesitamos para hacer la voluntad de
Dios. Esto nos ayuda a alejarnos de las
cosas que nos separan de Él: el pecado.
San Pablo recuerda a los bautizados en Cristo lo que
debemos hacer en la lectura de hoy de Efesios:
"Debes dejar de lado el viejo yo de tu antigua forma
de vida, corrompido a través de deseos engañosos, y ha de ser renovado en el
espíritu de sus mentes, y ponerse en el nuevo yo, creado a la manera de Dios en
justicia y santidad".
San
Pablo nos está instando a experimentar una revolución dentro de nosotros mismos
al ponernos ese nuevo yo. Son palabras importantes.
En el Evangelio, Jesús nos está diciendo claramente cómo
hacer esto: participando en el Pan de Vida que viene en la Eucaristía.
Este alimento espiritual está diseñado para apartarnos de
los viejos caminos pecaminosos y renovarnos en el gozo y la esperanza de
Cristo. Este Pan de Vida nos sostiene y nos ayuda a escuchar mejor la voz de
Dios susurrando en nuestra vida de oración, guiándonos como lo hacemos con la
voluntad del Padre.
¿Qué hay entre usted y la Eucaristía? Podemos ayudarle a
superar estos impedimentos. Pregúntenos cómo.
El escritor católico Henri Nouwen dijo esto acerca de
Convertirse en el Cristo Viviente:
"Cada vez que nos reunimos alrededor de la mesa,
tomamos pan, lo bendecimos, lo rompemos y nos lo damos unos a otros diciendo:
'El Cuerpo de Cristo', sabemos que Jesús está entre nosotros. Él está entre
nosotros no como un recuerdo vago de una persona que vivió hace mucho tiempo,
sino como una presencia real, que da vida y que nos transforma. Al comer el
Cuerpo de Cristo, nos convertimos en el Cristo vivo y estamos capacitados para
descubrir nuestra propia elegibilidad y bendición, reconocer nuestro
quebrantamiento y confiar en que todo lo que vivimos lo vivimos para los demás.
Así nosotros, como Jesús mismo, nos convertimos en alimento para el
mundo".
No comments:
Post a Comment