Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14b-16a
Psalm: 147: 12-15, 19-20
1 Corinthians 10: 16-17
John 6: 51-58
I'm not sure that I could really blame those people who heard Jesus' words in the Gospel for shaking their heads and walking away.... his proclamation was pretty shocking and audacious! Eat my flesh, drink my blood...Was he espousing some type of cannibalism? And the word that he used for 'flesh' is NOT the one you'd use to describe Miss Universe contestants... but more of the broken and diseased bodies Mother Teresa ministered to in the streets of Calcutta. So, what DID he mean, how could ingesting THAT be life-giving?
We recall that God became human in Jesus not because of our perfection, but out of love and compassion for us in our frailty. And while Jesus gives us the perfect model of humanity, imperfection remains as a reality in our world, in our lives, sadly even in our Church. Here's the Good News: God doesn't reject us in our weakness. Members of the Body of Christ, through the indescribable gift of the Eucharist we are nourished by the Body of Christ, in order that we might carry his compassion, love, patience and healing forgiveness wherever there is pain or dis-ease. We may not get it right all the time, and that's why the Eucharist is offered daily as both reminder and sustenance for us.
As Ronald Rolheiser writes in his beautiful book, "The Holy Longing", "My task is not to walk to God as an individual but to be within a community that is worshiping God. ... in this life, whenever I meet the presence of God within community I will not meet it in its pure form. ...To be a member of the church is to carry the mantle of both the worst sin and the finest heroism of soul... because the church always looks exactly as it looked at the original crucifixion, God hung among thieves."
This link takes you to last year's blog post reflection, for YOUR continued reflection!
There is no RCIA gathering this Sunday. There will be an Inquiry Session on Tuesday, June 28.
No comments:
Post a Comment