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20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

God provides everything that we need, but are we smart enough to see this?  Do we have faith enough to believe it?  To help us better see this, our readings this week use the images of a banquet, food and drink, as the enticement to come to the table of the Lord.

The Word for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58

Our first reading comes from the Book of Proverbs, one of the first of the books of wisdom dating back to the middle of the period of the Hebrew monarchy.  Typical of wisdom literature in the Bible, it is a collection of sayings and instructions intended to teach listeners about the ways of God and the world… an ancient type of catechism for the faithful.  As is typical for this genre, this Sunday’s passage presents wisdom as a woman.  Here she has prepared a sumptuous banquet.  It is evident she has gone to great effort to set her table, and then she summons “all who are simple” to come and dine.  The understanding here is that all that is wise and good and just comes from the Lord, and like the food that nourishes our bodies, wisdom should nourish our souls.  Our Psalm embraces this symbolism by singing “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”

Our Gospel from John this week continues from where we left off last week with the conclusion of the “Bread of Life” dialogue.  Last week Jesus told us that he is the “the bread of life,” and like the manna from Heaven that sustained their ancestors through the desert, he is a gift from God to bring them more than just sustenance, but eternal life.  But what exactly does that mean?  Here Jesus tells us… that this bread he gives is his flesh… his life for the life of the world.  The Jews in the crowd quarreled among themselves as to how this could be possible, so Jesus tells us specifically, “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life.”  It is a difficult lesson to understand (as we will see in next week’s gospel), so Jesus wants to make sure we are clear on this lesson… that God gave him life, those that feed on him will also have life.  Just as the woman in our first reading asks us to partake of her meal of wisdom, so Jesus is telling us that salvation is given to those wise enough to partake of what he has to offer.

Our second reading continues our study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  While the theme of our second reading doesn’t always align with the theme of the first reading and the Gospel during Ordinary Time, this week’s passage continues with our theme of wisdom.  Here Paul is warning them about how they should live… “not as foolish persons, but as wise.”  He implores them not to “continue in ignorance.”  They have heard the will of the Lord, which means they should put aside drunken debauchery and be “filled with the Spirit.

Final Thoughts:
Bishop Robert Barron, in his series The Mass, and in his previous presentations on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, likes to reminds us that the language used in this passage is specific.  When Jesus says “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man…” he is using a very specific verb.  The verb “to eat” in ancient Greek is “phagein,” but according to the text Jesus used the word, “trogein.”  In ancient Greek this verb is used for describing how an animal might eat, as in “to munch” or “to gnaw.”  The ancient Jews who were listening to Jesus talk about all of this would have been disgusted at the idea of mixing flesh and blood, and of eating human flesh, but when given the chance to rephrase this as something more spiritual, here Jesus doubles-down by saying that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood.

It also helps to understand how John’s gospel employs a certain “circular logic” in his lessons.  In this case, Jesus, like the manna from Heaven, comes from God, so therefore those who partake of him fully will be accepted by God.  In other words, a perfect circle, from God, to God.  While this can be seen from the opening chapter of his Gospel (In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God), I think it is perhaps more easily understood by the phrase he used in his later writing in the Book of Revelation:  “’I am the Alpha and the Omega’ says the Lord:”  The beginning and the end.

Life is a journey, and if we are to take a lesson from this week’s readings, it would be that this journey both begins with and ends with God.  But that’s only part of the lesson.  What’s really important is what we do along the way.  Here I think Paul’s words are poignant:  “Watch carefully how you life, not as foolish persons but as wise.”  As Paul says, we should “not continue in ignorance,” but rather partake of the banquet of wisdom which God provides.  Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

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