As the Solemn Feast of Assumption (August 15) was also the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time this year (2021), Cycle B, we celebrated the heavenly assumption of the Mother of Christ, the Seat of Wisdom. Given the sequential Sunday Gospel Readings from the 17th Sunday to the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time on Cycle B from John 6, it is important to review the Scripture Readings for the 20th Sunday, nevertheless.
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The Scripture Readings for the 20th Sunday
in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, (Proverbs 9:1-6; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7; Ephesians
5:15-20; John 6:51-58) remind us of necessity and importance of divine wisdom
to receive and enjoy its benefit of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which
is represented with the Living Bread of Christ together with the blood of
Christ.
Given a wisdom theme from the First Reading
(Proverbs 9:1-6), in connection to an impression of the wisdom as the pre-existing
and pre-incarnated Christ (Proverbs 8:22-31), there is multiple juxtapositions
between the personified or incarnated wisdom (Proverbs 9:1-6; cf. 8:22-31; cf.
1:22-33; cf. 3:13-18) and incarnated Word (John 1:1-2, 14; cf. 1 Timothy 3:16;
cf. 1 John 1:1-2; cf. 1 John 4:2)) and Jesus the Christ as the Living Bread of
Life (John 6:35, 48, 51; cf. 6:53-58; cf. 6:63; cf. Matthew 26:26-29//Mark
14:22-25//Luke 22:14-20). In fact, the First Reading (Proverbs 9:1-6) describes
that the personified wisdom, alluding to the incarnated wisdom, namely, Christ
the incarnated Word, has built a house with seven pillars, which are
allegorical to seven virtues, and invites us to enjoy the food and drink
prepared by the wisdom – to stand against vices (Proverbs 9:7-18).
The wisdom built a house with seven pillars,
indicating that the wisdom built with the seven virtues to stand against vices.
Now the wisdom is calling us to taste and see (Psalm 34) the food and the drink
prepared by her. And this is an allegory of the Church that he builds upon the
rock (i.e. Matthew 16:18) in which we the faithful are called to eat the Living
Bread of Life as the Body of Christ and to drink the wine as the Blood of
Christ at Mass. The Church herself is also one Body of Christ with many parts,
which we are (1 Corinthians 12:12-27), and it is the risen Body of Christ to be
the new Temple, the House of God (John 2:19).
We are, in fact, the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians
12:27), as we remain in him, while him in us, by eating his flesh
transubstantiated in the species of the Living Bread of Life (the Eucharistic
bread) (i.e. Luke 22:19) and by drinking his blood transubstantiated in the
Eucharistic wine (i.e. Luke 22:20) (John 6:56; cf. John 14:20;17:21-23;
cf.15:5, 9-10).
So, as the wisdom is calling us to her house to
feast on the food and the drink that she has prepared for us for a life against
vices and for further understanding (Proverbs 9:1-6), Jesus, who is the Christ,
incarnated wisdom, as well as, the incarnated Word, is calling us to eat his
flesh in the Living Bread of Life and to drink his blood through his discourse
(John 6:26-58) as we are to receive Corporis
et Sanguinis Christi in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at Mass until
his return in Parousia. In this juxtaposition, the Living Bread of
Life as the flesh of the incarnated Christ is the food of wisdom, while his
blood of life is the drink of wisdom, so that we can advance further in
understanding (Proverbs 9:6). And Paul indicates that it means to fill
ourselves with the Holy Spirit to understand God’s will for us to live with
wisdom (Ephesians 5:15-18). And this is to be done with thanksgiving to God the
Father (Ephesians 5:20), as Jesus himself did when he instituted the Sacrament
of the Holy Eucharist at his Passover celebration supper on the night before
his death (Luke 22:17, 19). In the biblical Greek word for “eucharist”, “εὐχαριστία/eucharistia”, implies “giving
thanks” (i.e. Ephesians 5:4) for what is well-given for free (eu + charis).
So, did the crowd of the size of about 5,000, whom
he fed out of five loaves and two fish (John 6:1-15), understand and become grateful to Jesus for
his offering of his body in the Living Bread of Life from heaven with his
blood?
Though the kept chasing Jesus to have their stomachs
filled again (John 6:26), Jesus really wanted to fill them with the food that
endures for eternal life (John 6:26), which is, indeed, the Bread of Life that
inoculates us from hunger (John 6:35, 48), while he wanted them to believe in
the Father (John 6:29) , who is the one to provide this food for eternal life
from heaven by sending Christ, who is
incarnated in the human flesh of Jesus (John 6:37-40). And believing this truth
keeps us free from thirst (John 6:35b).
In this discourse of the Living Bread of Life (John
6:26-58), Jesus progressively revealed what this heavenly and spiritual food
for eternal life, entitling us to the resurrection, is about.
At first, Jesus called the crowd to seek the food
that endures for eternal life rather than food that perishes and makes us
hungry again, by believing (John 6:26-29). Then, he declared that the food that endures for eternal life
(John 6:27) is he, who is the Bread of Life that keeps us free from hunger
(John 6:35), sent from heaven by the Father , as it is His will for those who
seek His Son, Christ, to have eternal life (John 6:37-40).
But, the crowd failed to believe this Christological
truth of Jesus, who is the Bread of Life from heaven, because they only saw
Jesus as the son of Joseph (John 6:41-42). Their confirmation bias that
prevented them from believing is a stumbling block to receive wisdom and what
she prepares to nourish us for understanding (Proverbs 9:1-6).
So, Jesus revealed more about him – making further
Christological revelation – as the Bread
of Life is living – the living flesh (σάρξ/sarx)
of his (John 6:51) to them, in the context of
his relation to the one who sent him, the Father in heaven, in the hope
that they would understand that he is the Bread of Life sent from heaven (John
6:44-51).
But, again, the crowd failed to believe. This time,
they had a problem not only with the fact that he is the Bread of Life from
heaven but also with the fact that eating the Bread of Life, which is the
Living Bread of Life, means eating his living flesh (σάρξ/sarx) rather than “dead meat”(κρέας /kreas) (John 6:52).
Amen,
amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is
true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life
because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because
of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who
ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever (John 6:53-58).
In the above kerygma, Jesus expounded on what he
meant by:
I
am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will
live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the
world (John 6:51).
And it is what Jesus meant by:
I
am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever
believes in me will never thirst (John 6:35).
And, it is how Jesus elaborated what he meant by:
Do
not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his
seal
(John 6:27).
You sure want to live. You sure prefer to have food
that endures for eternal life (John 6:27), and
this food is Jesus, who is the Bread of Life from heaven to keep us free from
hunger, keeping us free from thirst in believing in him (John 6:33, 35). And
this is the food well-prepared (cf. Proverbs 9:2) by the Father (John 6:37-40),
who sends it well and freely, in His Son, out of love (John 3:16), to bring us
to Him through Jesus (John 14:6), who is the incarnated divine wisdom (i.e.
Proverbs 8:22-31), the incarnated Word (John 1-2, 14), as the wisdom calls us
to her house (Proverbs 9:3-5).
Coming to Jesus to receive him as the Bread of Life (John
6:35) is also to learn from the Father by listening to him (John 6:45) – seeking
to understand by coming to the house of wisdom and to receive what the wisdom
has prepared (Proverbs 9:1-6).
This way, we can understand how the Bread of Life
(John 6:35) leads to eternal life though Manna did not (John 6:47-50) and what
Jesus means by the Living Bread of Life is his living flesh to be eaten for
eternal life (John 6:51) and why he calls us to eat his flesh and to drink his
blood for eternal life (John 6:53-55). We will come to understand that the
Living Bread of Life, which is his flesh to be eaten by us as our true food for
eternal life, also drinking his blood as the true drink, is to be one with him –
to be in full communion with him (John 6:55), just as he is so with the Father
(John 10:30, 38; cf. John 17:21-23). And this is the ultimate reason why the
Father has sent His only begotten Son out of His love (John 3:16) as the source
for our eternal life (John 6:56-58), as the true food that endures for eternal
life (John 6:27).
It is also the divine wisdom calling us to eat and
drink what she has prepared for us to live a life of understanding (Proverbs
9:1-6) – to understand the meaning of Jesus as the Living Bread of Life for
eternal life and for the way to the Father by becoming in full communion with
him (John 6:26-58). And this is how we
live a life filled with the Holy Spirit (cf. John 6:63), the Eucharistic life
of giving thanks, as our life of virtues against vices (Ephesians 5:15-20),
singing psalm of praising God for calling us to taste and see His goodness
(Psalm 34: 2-3, 4-5, 6-7. 9a).
Now, having listened to Jesus’ discourse on the
Living Bread of Life (John 6:26-58), since the 18th Sunday in
Ordinary Time, in the Sunday Gospel Readings (John 6:24-35; 41-51; 51-58), are
we grateful for this food for eternal life, along with the true drink, for
eternal life and full communion with Christ, to be his body (John 6:51-56; cf.
John 14:20; 17:21-23; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27)?
Jesus will ask us if we accept his teaching on the
Living Bread of Life in the Gospel Reading for the next Sunday, 21st
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B (John 6:60-69).
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