I Want to Live Forever.
2014-06-22

U. S. A. | SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

John 6: 51-58

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever."

Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, today I renew my faith in your true presence in the Eucharist. I believe you come down from heaven to be present in the host at every Mass and remain with me in the Tabernacle. You are the source of my hope. I long to be more united to you through this gift of yourself.

Petition: Lord, increase my devotion to you in the Eucharist.

1. Fear Not, It Is I: There was a bishop who would jokingly speak about the fact that he was not very good-looking; in fact, he had no problem recognizing that he was quite ugly. One day, a lady who appreciated this very holy man approached him and asked him to sign a photo of him she had just bought. She wanted to frame it and hang it in her living room. The bishop wrote on the photo, “Fear not, it is I.” Even though in the Eucharist we see a piece of bread, through our faith we believe that behind this veil is the body of Christ. So fear not, it is Christ.

2. How Can This Be? The Jews disputed with Jesus about this difficult truth they found extremely hard to accept. So, too, many who go to Mass on Sunday don’t really believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. At times, maybe even we receive the Eucharist with a certain lack of awareness of what we are doing. In this way, just like these Jews, we allow a seed of doubt to enter our hearts. It is important to ask ourselves, “What do I do to ensure that I receive Christ in the Eucharist with the fitting dispositions of fervor, longing, gratitude, self-offering, etc.? Is what I’m presently doing enough?”

3. You Will Never Die: Deep down in the heart of every man, woman and child has a yearning to live forever. On earth, only the Eucharist, Christ himself, can satisfy that thirst for the eternal. That is why we can experience so much peace and joy when we live a true devotion to the Eucharist and receive Our Lord with great reverence, faith and love. Truly, the Eucharist is the bread of life.

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, I believe, but help my unbelief. Give me your Body in the Eucharist, and grant me the grace to grow every day in my faith in your real presence in the Eucharist.

Resolution: I will try to make it to an additional Mass sometime during the week.

Forgetting to Remember

Dr. Mark Giszczak

June 22, 2014
Corpus Christi
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/062214.cfm

Too often, we forget. People used to tie strings around their fingers to remember, but now we have all sorts of buzzers, beeps, ringtones, iCals, and even text message reminders to help us remember our appointments, pay our bills on time, and get where we need to go. Remembering, and remembering at the right time, is a perpetual problem. On this Sunday’s feast of Corpus Christi, in the first reading we are reminded to remember—to remember all the great things God has done for us, his people.

Context

The whole book of Deuteronomy portrays Moses’ final pep talk to the people of Israel before they cross the River Jordan to take possession of the Promised Land. He retells the story of the journey through the desert and their deliverance from Egypt. He reminds them of how God has demonstrated his love and power by setting them free and leading them in safety to a new land. He also warns them against forgetting in the future.

Trial by “What’s it?”

Before he encourages the people to look forward, Moses asks them to look back on God’s faithfulness. The Lord tested his people “by affliction,” specifically by the affliction of hunger. They say the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach—I guess God knows this to be true! When we’re physically hungry our will can hit a serious testing point. God tests his people in order to “find out” their intention to keep or to break his commands. After a time of afflicting hunger, he sends heavenly manna to his people.

Now manna in Hebrew simply means “What is it?” because it was a food no one had ever eaten it before. Ironically, even Jesus talks about manna as “bread from heaven” (John 6:32) but here Moses tells us that God sent the manna specifically to show his people that “not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.” The trial of the Israelites by hunger, then by the mysterious “What’s it?” food from the sky was meant to help them recognize their dependence on God for their whole life.

Foreshadowing the True Bread

The Church offers us this reading that mentions manna twice on the feast of Corpus Christi on purpose. Among the many Old Testament “types” for the Eucharist, manna stands out as one that Jesus directly invokes. The lesson of the manna and the lesson of the Eucharist are the same. Each of them is meant to teach us to depend on God, not on ourselves. Each is meant to sustain us for the journey ahead. The Eucharist, the true bread from heaven, as the “source and summit of the Christian life,” fills us with God’s presence and empowers us to walk on the way with Jesus.

A Journey Behind

For the Israelites, their manna-fueled journey was almost at an end. The manna itself would cease coming down as soon as they crossed into the Promised Land. Moses helps them look back on the long journey on which the Lord has sustained them to ready them for the task at hand: conquering the land. By remembering his faithfulness in the past, they can look forward to his saving help in the future. By looking back, they can look forward with hope. But if they forget the Lord, forget his love, forget his faithfulness, then they will falter.

Don’t Forget to Remember

The verses left out of our reading (Deut 8:4-14a) reflect more on the Israelites’ wandering, describe the Promised Land in juicy detail and anticipate the difficulty of remaining faithful to the Lord in the midst of a prosperous future. These verses climax with 8:14b: “Do not forget the Lord, your God.” It might seem kind of funny to say it, but memory is who we are. If we forget whom we love, and who loves us, if we forget the past, we forget who we are. But remembering takes work, repetition, practice. This is why ritual, reading, recalling, and reflecting are so important to us. In fact, the Eucharist itself is a kind of “memory meal.” Jesus tells us to “do this in memory of me.” The Greek word for this kind of remembrance is anamnesis. When we participate in the Mass, we remember what Jesus has done for us, remember how God delivered us from the slavery of sin, remember the journey he has led us on and look forward to the journey to come.

So while it’s true that all our cell phone apps and widgets that help us remember can distract us from God, perhaps they also could help us not to forget to remember who it is that put us here in the first place.