Sunday, August 26, 2012

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Are you, too, going to leave?" There is a sadness in the question of Jesus.
Peter responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?” You speak the truth to us, and we long to hear it.
Jesus has just completed the Bread of Life discourse, in which He declares that to have eternal life, they must eat His flesh, and drink His blood, and that it is true food and drink.
The Jews are repulsed, and perhaps rightfully so. After all, there is a law against eating blood, much less human blood and flesh… But Jesus does not back down, in fact, each time they balk at His teaching, He gets stronger.
So they just walk away. And Jesus allows them. He does not back down, explain it away, or compromise.
He gives us the same choice.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the Eucharist, Jesus gives us his very body and blood, which we must eat to have eternal life. The Jews quarreled about what this meant, but Jesus is clear - We must eat His Flesh and Drink His Blood to have eternal life. We receive His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, through the ministry of the priest, which enable us to live in Christ.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life that has come from the Father, and He gives life to the world. But the crowds take offense at Him. They think that they know Him, because they know His human history. They cannot see that Jesus is God, and that He is providing for their needs.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Give us this bread always! The crowds cry to Jesus, but it seems that they are only interested in their own stomachs than in the food that Jesus is going to provide. He tells them that He is the "Bread of Life". He is the food that meets more than a biological need - it meets the need for a higher way of living. Jesus is the bread that gives it. In the next weeks, we will continue to hear this message - and Jesus gets stronger. For now, we must ask ourselves, "Are we willing to accept as a gift what the Lord has provided for us, or are we going to grumble, ignoring aha the Lord is truly doing in our lives to lead us to true and lasting freedom?"