Authentic Holiness

August 31, 2003 Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is our holiness skin deep or heart deep? This is the question that the readings of the day place before us.

The first reading from Deuteronomy (4:1-2,6-8) reminds readers that the rules by which they are to live are God-given. Careful observance of these laws leads to life and the joy of knowing the nearness of God. To bring the Deuteronomist’s exhortation to fulfilment, Jesus insists that mere external observance of the law or lip-service is insufficient. Authentic commitment and moral code will then be translated into positive practical action.

In today’s second reading James (1:17-18,21-22,27) describes good Christian moral living as an outgrowth of the word of God rooted within the believer. Act on this word, urges the ancient writer; don’t just listen to it, live it. Had the Pharisees and others of Jesus’ contemporaries been of similar mind (Gospel: Mk 7:1-8,14-15,21-23), they would have understood that the moral demands of the law and the authentic purity the law was intended to bring about could not be achieved by mere external actions. Washing one’s hands as the Pharisees did, is a sanitary act, at best. However, the cleansing of the heart by faith, prayer and interior conversion of mind and will can effect a spiritual purification.

To achieve this purification and to maintain it is a lifelong process. To aid our understanding of this process, social psychologist Kohlberg has identified 6 stages that lead to moral maturity. Good is done or evil is avoided: (i) in order to seek reward or avoid punishment, (ii) as a result of self centred use or abuse of other people, (iii) as a result of peer pressure, (iv) as a result of adhering to law, (v) due to a humane sense of equity, (vi) as a result of personal convictions. The process of moving from step one, where behaviours are dictated by reward mentality, to stage six where a healthy conviction and a holy conscience guide one’s words and works, is not always a smooth one. Along the way many can be deterred by peer pressure or by settling for mere external conformity. Therefore it is providential that our path toward authentic holiness and moral maturity is repeatedly illumined by God’s word.

To Whom Shall We Go?

August 24, 2003 Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

This is the final Sunday of our five week reflection on the Gospel of John and his Eucharistic teaching. The gospel today (Jn 6:53,60-69) brings us to Jesus’ challenge to the disciples: "Do you also want to leave?" This is of course a challenge of faith, a challenge that comes to every generation, including our own.

The challenge of faith today, when it comes to the Eucharist, is whether Catholics are willing to accept the fullness of the church's traditional faith. Some people seem almost in panic mode because they think that many Catholics do not believe that the bread and wine are truly transformed and that we really receive Christ’s body and blood in communion.

In reaffirming this belief, however, it is also important to realize that some people reject it because they have been given an excessively literal interpretation of this doctrine. It is truly Christ’s body, for example, but it is not a dripping hunk of flesh (despite some medieval reports of Eucharistic miracles that might suggest such an image). It is Christ’s body because it is his way of being present to us bodily, but it is a different kind of body than the ones we currently inhabit. This is a mystery we cannot fully explain or describe.

Moreover, the challenge to faith today also includes the deeper meaning of the Eucharist. The mystery encompasses Christ's presence in the assembled body of believers as well as his presence in the bread and wine. Those who affirm that the bread and wine are transformed but refuse to recognize their communion with all those who share in this meal are just as deficient in their faith as those who doubt the true nature of the body and blood. In some parishes, the whole assembly stands throughout the reception of communion, expressing their unity by common posture. Does our communion celebration reflect both dimensions of Christ's presence – in the species and in the assembly? How we celebrate shapes what we believe.

Sharing In The Divine Life

August 17, 2003 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Invitations are delightful little bits of correspondence for they offer a warm welcome and a promise of food and fellowship. Today’s liturgy is structured upon two such welcoming invitations, that of Wisdom personified in the first reading from Proverbs (9:1-6) ("come and eat of my food and drink of my wine…") and that of Wisdom incarnate in the gospel (Jn 6:51-58) ("feed on my flesh and drink of my blood"). Both invitations appeal to the simple, i.e., to those who are humble enough to accept the food offered by God.

Early Christian readers of this text from Proverbs understood Wisdom’s feast to be a type or prefigurement of the great wedding feast that was symbolic of the kingdom of God (Mt 22:1-14; Lk 14:15-24). All are invited to this feast, but faith is a necessary prerequisite for enjoying the bounty of God’s table. Wisdom’s banquet also provides an anticipatory background for understanding the eucharistic feast hosted by Jesus; therein the wine and the bread he offers are the wisdom of his teaching as well as the gift of his very self as real food and real drink. This image of the banquet in both the first reading and the gospel best expresses the communion between host and banqueters. The riches and abundance of the God who invites stands out in a distinct contrast to the spiritual poverty of those who hunger for a share in the divine life. Therefore it is quite appropriate that it was in the context of a banquet that Jesus revealed the mercy and forgiveness of God to sinners (Lk 5:29-32) offered the bread of life to the hungry (gospel for today); and gave his own life of the world (Lk 22:14-20).

Is Jesus’ gift of bread to be appreciated sapientially (as the gift of his wisdom) or sacramentally (as the gift of himself in the Eucharist)? John 6 is interwoven with both sapiential and sacramental motifs. Sometimes, the Bread of Life refers to Jesus’ teaching; other times, the Bread of Life refers to the gift of Jesus’ eucharistic presence, today’s gospel being a pre-eminent example of the latter.

Sharing In Christ’s Sacrifice

August 10, 2003 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s second reading, (Eph. 4:30-5:2) St. Paul speaks of Christ handing himself over for us “as a sacrificial offering to God”. In the gospel (Jn. 6:41-51), Jesus himself says that the bread that he will give is his flesh for the life of the world. Both passages give a solid basis for catechesis today on the Mass as a sharing in the sacrifice of Christ.

This is a difficult topic to explain adequately. Many people tend to think of Christ’s sacrifice primarily in terms of his death on the cross. Thus they think of the Mass as somehow a repetition of Calvary, often falling into the heresy of seeing the Mass as another sacrifice beyond that of Jesus.

We’ve probably all heard sermons or read pious articles in years past urging us to grieve for Christ as he dies on the cross and to offer our sufferings in union with his.

The truth hidden in such an approach is that we are called to share in Christ’s sacrifice. Somehow his sacrifice is an eternal reality in which we can participate. Yet scripture is clear that Christ dies no more, that death has no more power over him.

It seems to me that the core of Christ’s sacrifice was expressed in the garden when he prayed that the Father’s will, not his own, be done.

This is the fundamental decision that unites him to the Father, and this is the dimension of his sacrifice that is eternal. He is is forever in union with the Father’s will, so we say he is “forever victim, forever priest”. It is not that Calvary is repeated, but that his sacrificial act will endure forever.

It is this sacrificial will that we are invited to share in the Eucharist. If we are to mean what we say, then we must align our will with the Father’s, just as Jesus did. We must be willing to accept whatever that commitment brings, just as Jesus was. It may or may not lead to physical death as it did for him, but it will surely require us to love in ways we cannot foresee.

Give Thanks To The Lord
August 3, 2003 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

As we continue to read from the 6th chapter of John’s gospel (Jn 6:24-35), we focus today on the bread from heaven. The first reading (Ex.16:2-4,12-15) recounts the gifts of quail and manna that God sent to the Israelites in the desert. Jesus insists that God’s gift in his time is greater, for he himself is the bread from heaven.

This might be a good Sunday to focus catechesis on the eucharistic prayer. This central prayer of the Mass is fundamentally a prayer of thanksgiving for all the gifts that God has given us, both throughout history and in our own time. The readings provide a solid context of salvation history on which to base catechesis about this prayer.

Pastorally, it is important for members of the assembly to realize that entering into the eucharistic prayer fruitfully requires them to come to Mass with an awareness of the reasons they have to give thanks. Certain items in our parish bulletin might remind you periodically of the value of taking a few minutes during the week to reflect on God’s blessings so that you arrive at church with grateful hearts.

In some parishes, liturgical planners even invite people to recall such reasons for gratitude before the celebration begins. In some parishes, presiders periodically invite such awareness just before beginning the proclamation of the eucharistic prayer.

It is a good habit to make use of the texts of the eucharistic prayer as a basis of our own prayer. It is with that in mind some parishes provide the text of one of the eucharistic prayers as a bulletin insert as an aid to personal prayer at home. This might lead us into deeper prayer when the eucharistic prayer is proclaimed during the Mass.

“Father, you so loved the world that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Saviour… To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners, freedom, and to those in sorrow, joy. Lord, gather all who share this bread and wine into the one body of Christ, a living sacrifice of praise” (Eucharistic Prayer IV).