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5th Annual Konkan Fruit Fest
Promenade, D B Bandodkar Road, Panaji, Goa
16-18, May 2008
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2008-May/073789.html
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17-May-2008
Dear Friend,
From the time we were children we tended to believe that everything centred
around us and we liked it that way. The child wants all the toys for itself.
Even as we grow up we become more and more self –centred. Our world tends to be
‘I, me, and myself.’ Coincidentally, everything that we eat becomes part of me.
In the Eucharist the equation is reversed, we are invited to become Jesus
rather than Jesus becoming us. Our God invites us to be other-centred, for that
is what loving is all about! The Eucharist reminds us about self-giving rather
than self-seeking. Have a Eucharistic, God-filled weekend! Fr. Jude
Sunday Reflections: The Feast of Corpus Christi -“Take and eat! This is my
Body!” 25-May-2008
Readings: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14-16; 1 Corinthians 10:
16-17; John 6:51-58;
The first reading the author exhorts the Israelites to remember their journey
to the Promised Land through the desert. It was here that their faith in Yahweh
was severely tested. It was in the desert that they felt real hunger and
thirsted for water. In the desert the Lord God provided for them and they were
called to rely totally on God’s providence to feed them and nourish them.
Remembering for the Hebrews was not merely recalling a past event but making
present the saving action of God for the present generation. Yahweh tried and
tested his people to see if they would continue to rely on him; it also
provided an occasion for the Israelites to be faithful to the Word of God. More
than physical realities, they needed God’s word to nourish them. Man does not
live on bread alone; we need God who satisfies us.
Bread for the hungry
There 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 loves 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’
In this section of the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul warns the
Christians of the dangers of idolatry and pagan worship, practiced by the
pagans around them. Christians have no need to sacrifice to the world’s idols,
they have Jesus, the Son of God and the blood of Christ which has saved them,
and the bread of life which makes them one. The sharing of the many in the one
cup should remind them that they are called to unity of mind and heart through
the Eucharist they celebrate.
The Gospel is chosen from the Eucharistic discourses of Jesus. Jesus is
presented as stressing that his own flesh is the bread that gives life to men.
“I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this
bread will live forever…. If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man you
will not have life in you.” By the term ‘flesh’ John reminds us of the
incarnation, and the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist. This statement of
Jesus causes controversy among the listeners of Jesus. How can he say such a
thing? This is intolerable language! How could anyone accept it? Many left the
company of Jesus and went their way. Those who objected to Jesus’ teaching
about eating flesh and drinking blood did not argue rationally against it. They
did not analyse it carefully and discuss the finer points with Jesus. They
simply reacted with feeling and genuine emotion. What Jesus is emphasizing is
the absolute need of accepting him and
his teaching if we are to have a genuine spiritual life. There can be no
substitute for Jesus. In the person of Jesus there is a new word of God and a
new bread from heaven. Now the word of God has become flesh and the bread from
heaven; this bread is the very life of Jesus himself. To eat this bread is to
have a share in the life of God himself; it is to participate in eternal life.
In the Eucharist we are called to remember Jesus. Most of us don’t have to
remember to eat; our stomach reminds us of that. But we do have to remember to
eat in the name of Jesus – which is why the Church asks us to gather as a
community each week to keep his memory alive. Our Eucharist is a celebration of
thanksgiving for what Jesus has done for us. Are we ready to partake of Jesus?
As the bread we eat becomes part of us, can we become Jesus only by partaking
of his body and blood? It is either total acceptance of Jesus or nothing! Will
we too walk away or stay with
Him?
“The Eucharist will never be a means of spreading the faith. That is the very
reason why the early Church reserved its teaching about it to the baptized
only. Nevertheless the Eucharist was heralded since the days of the Old
Testament through positive signs from God which prepared the hearts of the poor
and met their unspoken desires. There is Israel ’s experience of the power of
the divine word which came forth from the mouth of God and did not return to
him empty. There is the plan of God, which he himself affirms again and again,
of taking the human to himself; to be present to the people in their daily
lives, to dwell in their midst, with all that means of living communion.
Finally, aspired to at least by some, there is the mind-stretching expectation
of the coming of God for which one hopes, without being able to imagine it. But
was it possible even to suspect that Jesus was the living bread which came down
from heaven? A gift made to a friend
contains something of the donor. In the lowliness and weakness of the
Eucharistic bread Christ gives himself totally. At least to the extent that we
experience our hunger and our want each day, as Israel did in the desert, so
too from one Eucharist to the next, we shall journey towards our final dwelling
where the banquet God has prepared will last forever. ” – Glenstal Bible Missal
Eucharistic Mystery
St.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 6th
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 life
Napoleon 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 them.”
F.H.Drinkwater in ‘More Quotes and Anecdotes’
May we ‘remember’ Jesus, 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.
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