13-Jun-2017 Dear Friend, One of the preoccupations of human beings is eating. While some wonder where their next meal will come from, others are wondering which foods will tickle their palate. Most people will acknowledge that there is more to life than just eating. There are hungers and needs that food cannot satisfy. Can we recall something that satisfied the deep hunger within? Have we tried Jesus? May His Word awaken a hunger within us! Have a nourishing weekend! –Fr. Jude. Sunday Reflections: Corpus Christi Receiving and being the Body of Christ 18-Jun-2017Readings: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14-16; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17; John 6: 51-58; Today’s first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy attempts to remind the people of something that was fundamental to their very existence: the remembrance of all that God had done for them. Moses wishes to let the ancient traditions of Israel speak with force to the people of Israel, in the hope that remembering the past will help them cope with the present crises. Re-learning from the past can help the Israelites to be on guard against former failures. Remembering what God has done can be a stimulus to renewing our life at the present. Remembering is an important part of Jewish worship. In prayer they remind God and themselves of the promises of God, thus keeping alive their memory and their faith in God. Moses, as he exhorts them to remember God’s action on their behalf, is in fact reminding them that they need God. They might satisfy their bodily hungers and needs but only God can satisfy their deepest needs.
Two fundamental needsEthiopia suffered a terrible famine during the years 1984 to 1986. Cardinal Hume of Westminster tells us about an incident that happened when he visited Ethiopia in the middle of the famine. One of the places he visited was a settlement in the hills where the people were waiting for food which was unlikely to arrive. He was taken there by helicopter. As he got out of the helicopter a small boy, aged about ten, came up to him and took his hand. He was wearing nothing but a loincloth around his waist. The whole time that the cardinal was there the little child would not let go of his hand. As they went around he made two gestures: with one hand he pointed to his mouth, and with the other he took the cardinal’s hand and rubbed it on his cheek. Later, the cardinal said, “Here was an orphan boy who was lost and starving. Yet by two simple gestures he indicated two fundamental needs or hungers. With one gesture he showed me his hunger for food, and with the other his hunger for love. I have never forgotten that incident, and to this day I wonder whether that child is alive.”Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday & Holy Day Liturgies’ In the Gospel we have the discourse of Jesus on the Bread of Life, which itself follows the feeding of the five thousand and the journey across the lake. All these events form part of the remembrance of the Exodus and the covenant. Memories are a wonderful stimulus for growth in faith. The Eucharist is a memorial sacrifice, which Jesus asked us to celebrate. “Do this in memory of me.” In the Eucharist we can remember how God has saved us from some particular catastrophe or blessed us in un-thought of ways. The Eucharist can also jog our memories into realization of our failures. It is frightening to remember that many of the Nazis who committed atrocities were Christians and also Catholics. Many who participate in wars and brutal acts of terror do so in the name of God. Memories can be dangerous because they force us to take a stand that we otherwise might not do. The Eucharistic mystery then is not something that we have to understand and grasp but something that we have to believe and live. Jesus reminds us that without him we cannot live. “I tell you solemnly, if you do not eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will not have life in you …He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I in him...anyone who eats this bread will live forever.” Let us remember that eating and drinking are meant to be symbolic of our wanting to live by the word of God. As St Augustine said: “It is no use feeding on Christ with our teeth, if we are not feeding on him with our minds,” that is by faith. How can God be present in a tiny host?Some time ago, a street-corner preacher who knew how to make religious truths come to life, was faced by a hostile crowd. “How,” one of them demanded, “is it possible for bread and wine to become the body and blood of Christ?” The preacher looked calmly at the stout questioner for a moment and answered, “You have grown somewhat since you were a child and have more flesh and blood than you had then. Surely, if a human body can change food and drink into flesh and blood, God can do it too.” “But how,” countered the heckler, “is it possible for Christ to be present in his entirety in a small host?” The preacher glanced up at the sky and down at the city street before them and answered, “This city scene and the sky above it is something immense, while your eye is very small. Yet your eye in itself contains the whole picture. When you consider this, it won’t seem impossible for Christ to be present in his entirety in a little piece of bread.” Once more the heckler attacked. “How, then, is it possible for the same body of Christ to be present in all your churches at the same time?” The preacher’s answer was, “In a large mirror you see your image reflected but once. When you break the mirror into a thousand pieces, you see the same image of yourself in each of the hundred fragments. If such things occur in everyday life, why should it be impossible for the body of Christ to be present in many places at once? And tell me, just what isn’t possible for God, anyhow?”Harold Buetow in ‘God Still Speaks: Listen!’ As human beings we cannot live on bread alone. We need more than food to live. Jesus offered different kinds of ‘bread’ to people satisfying their many hungers. To people who followed him in to the desert, and who were starving, he offered ordinary bread and so satisfied their physical hunger. To the leper whose body was falling apart, he offered the only bread that mattered –the bread of physical healing. To the lonely woman at Jacob’s well, he offered the bread of human kindness and acceptance. To sinners he offered the bread of forgiveness. To the rejects and outcasts, by mixing with them, he offered the bread of companionship. To the widow of Nain, and Martha and Mary, who had lost someone dear to them, he offered the bread of compassion. To the thief who died by his side, he offered the bread of reconciliation with God. What bread are we looking for? Only Jesus can offer us that bread. Bread for the hungryThere was once a very poor mother with three children who lived close to a very rich lady who was very stingy and would share nothing. It so happened that the poor lady was again out of bread and her children were hungry so she went and asked the rich lady, “Could you give just one loaf of bread for my children who are almost starving?” “I don’t have any bread myself so how can I give you some?” the rich lady replied. “But” the poor lady insisted, “I am sure you must have a small bit of bread somewhere in your cupboard.” “No I don’t,” insisted the rich lady, “If I do then may God change every bit of it into stone.” So the poor lady went away crying while the rich lady said to her children, “Now, let’s make a nice jam and butter sandwich.” She went to the cupboard to take out the bread, but it had turned to stone! “Never mind.” said the lady and sent her children to buy some fresh bread from the bakery. The children went off but took a long time returning home. When they finally got home they said, “Mummy the basket got so heavy we could not carry it.” On opening the basket the lady found the loaves had turned to stone. She was shocked and realized her folly. She went straight to the bakery and bought some bread and cakes for the poor lady then went to her house and handing them over said, “Lady, I will never again be selfish!” She went back home and found that the stones in the basket had turned into bread again.Willi Hoffsuemmer in ‘1000 Stories You Can Use’ Eucharistic MysterySt. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the most famous philosopher and theologian, was a great devotee of the Eucharist. He wrote the liturgy of the feast and many hymns associated with the feast, like ‘Tantum Ergo Sacramentum’ are accredited to St. Thomas Aquinas. One night when he was praying in the Dominican Chapel in Naples, the sacristan concealed himself to watch the saint in prayer. He saw him lifted up in the air, and heard Christ speaking to him from the Crucifix: “Thomas, you have written well of me. What reward would you have?” “Lord, nothing but yourself,” replied Thomas. His request was granted. On December 6, 1273, when he was celebrating mass in the same chapel, he had some profound mystical experience. We do not know what it was, but after Mass, Thomas said to his long time secretary, “God has revealed such great things to me that whatever I have written so far seems so much straw to me.” This prolific writer put down his pen, and never wrote again. Two months later he died at the age of forty-nine.John Rose in ‘John’s Sunday Homilies’ Happiest day in my lifeNapoleon was an artist in war, and his long succession of victories were the marvel of the world. One day some of his generals were discussing and comparing their master’s great battles, and one of them ventured to ask him which was the happiest day of his life. They wondered if he would think of the battle of Lodi perhaps, the scene of his early triumph with the army of Italy, a young general of twenty-six wresting Lombardy from the Austrians. Or more likely of the ‘glorious sun’ of Austerlitz, the shattering victory which made him master of Europe. The emperor looked thoughtful. “Ah –the happiest day of my life? That was the day of my first communion. I was near to God then.”F.H. Drinkwater in ‘More Quotes and Anecdotes’ Oscar RomeroWhen installed as Archbishop, Oscar Romero was just a conservative churchman unaware of the massive repression against poor Salvadoran campesinos, the peasant victims of State-sponsored violence. Stunned by the murder of his Jesuit friend, Rutilio Grande, a ‘prophet of the poor’ in BCC’s and sugar plantations, Romero courageously called for cessation of violence and criticized national leaders, many of whom were Christians. Thereafter, he received death-threats. A day before his murder, Romero said, “If they kill me, I will rise again in the people of El Salvador!” On March 24, 1980, Romero preached, “This Eucharist is an act of faith...May this body immolated and this blood sacrificed for humankind nourish us also, so that we may give our body and blood, like Christ, for our people”. Minutes later, while raising the chalice during consecration, Romero was shot dead.Francis Gonsalves in ‘Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds’ May we ‘remember’ Jesus, and become Jesus, through the Eucharist! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
