The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, August 18, 2024, as the twentieth Sunday in ordinary time, year B. The Entrance Antiphon of this day’s Mass says: “Turn your eyes, O God, our shield; and look on the face of your anointed one; one day within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. Amen.”
The Eucharist is at the center of our celebration on this day. It is the banquet to which we are all invited every day. The first reading, from the Book of Proverbs, includes the timeless invitation to all men and women to come to God’s banquet where they will eat the bread and drink the wine the Lord himself has mixed for them. The banquet is frequently used in Sacred Scripture to announce the coming of the Messiah, full of good things and blessings. This banquet, announced by the prophets centuries before, comes to us today in Saint John’s Gospel as the food of life. God’s Word made Flesh – Christ Jesus- the bread that gives us eternal life. God has set his wisdom banquet to join men and women to himself through the body and blood of his risen and glorified Son. Saint Paul sends a similar invitation to his converts of Ephesus in the second reading. He advises them to abandon their foolish ways and live the ways of wisdom. Instead of drugging themselves with alcohol, they should allow the Holy Spirit to guide them to the table of bread and life.
First Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6.
Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns; she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table. She has sent out her maidens; she calls from the heights out over the city: "Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding."
Comment
The Book of Proverbs contains what is commonly known as ‘the wisdom literature of the Bible’. It is a collection of wise sayings from diverse sources and ages, which serve as a general invitation to us to acquire wisdom. These biblical sayings are similar to the sayings from other regions of the world, including Africa. Many of them center around family life, the family being considered the place where children receive their early training in life. Many of these proverbs were the fruit of people’s experience, obtained by observing things around them, pondering on them and then articulating their experience in sayings and practical wisdom.
The main purpose of the Book of Proverbs is to give instructions primarily, but not exclusively, to young people on how to live a life of righteousness. The wisdom contained in it covers practically every sphere of human life and deals with both secular and religious truths as they touch the daily life of every human being.
We in Africa make extensive use of proverbs in everyday speech and writing. Many African writers, notably, the late Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, make vivid use of proverbs to describe the customs and traditions of their people. He, in particular, is the master of the use of proverbs which he calls “the palm oil” with which his people eat their words.
In this day’s passage, Wisdom is described as a woman who has built for herself a house and erected seven pillars. She is a generous hostess, who lays a plentiful table of meat and wine, and then sends her servants to proclaim her invitation from the city heights. This meal is a symbol for the teachings of the wise men; those who listen to them assimilate them and the words become part of them. This nourishment prefigures the Bread of Life that God gives to mankind – the Body of the Incarnate Word made Flesh, Christ himself. That is the message in Saint John’s Gospel of this day.
In this first reading, I hear God in his divine wisdom inviting me to share in the abundance of his Eucharistic table. He is a perfect host who urges me to come and enjoy his hospitality, despite my weaknesses. He calls me to share his love and goodness even though I am unworthy of them because of my sins. He does not keep account of my sins. I therefore pray for the wisdom to answer present to God’s invitation. Holy Spirit, come to my assistance. Amen.
Second Reading: Ephesians 5: 15-20.
Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
Comment
Saint Paul encourages his Christians of Ephesus to abandon the foolish life they have been living and embrace the ways of wisdom. Instead of drugging themselves with drink, they should open themselves up to the saving grace of the Holy Spirit. Whether alone or together, they should be a people whose heart always sings praise and thanks to the Father. To live like this is to love the new life of wisdom in the Spirit.
He tells them that the new life one receives in Baptism is characterized by wisdom which sharply contrasts with the foolishness of those who are bent on turning their backs on God (1 Cor 1:18). This wisdom, this sanity, stems from one’s knowledge of the will of God. When a person’s life is coherent with his faith, true wisdom is the result.
The Apostle Paul advises his converts to make the most of the time at their disposal, time that is passing quickly. This is a particularly pressing matter because the days are evil, meaning the devil is more active now than ever before. It is the same warning we receive from Saint Peter when he writes: “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Pet 5: 8-9).
Saint Paul warns against being constantly drunk, inviting them and us to temperance, the virtue that holds our passions and desires in check, especially the sensual ones. It also brings us to moderation in using temporal goods. The virtue of temperance also expresses man’s lordship over everything that God has made, and its practice is essential if one is to see life from the correct, supernatural, perspective.
Happiness and joy are not simply attained through material things but rather through obedience to the actions of the Holy Spirit in our souls. Docility to the will of the Holy Spirit gives peace and joy which the world is not able to give.
What lesson am I taking from this reading? I listen keenly to the call for temperance which, as someone has said, makes the soul sober, modest, and understanding. I pray to the Holy Spirit to make me a modest servant of God in everything I do. Lord, help me to steer clear of excesses in all I do and help me to do your will today and always. I make my supplication through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel: John 6: 51-58.
Jesus said to the crowds: "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." The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "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."
Comment
Jesus’ words are sometimes difficult to understand. We wonder what he means in today’s Gospel by “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever.” That is why the Jews cannot believe what they are hearing. How, they ask, can this man, whom they all know as the son of a carpenter, give them his flesh to eat? Are they cannibals? That is why many of his disciples, believing that he must be insane, turn their backs on him.
Without necessarily indulging in polemic over words, let us say simply that Christ, the wisdom of God in the flesh, invites us to eat the bread that nourishes us for life. He invites us to the banquet of life to feed on the food which God has prepared for us. This food can only come to us through faith, which the Jews, who reject him, do not have. Through faith Jesus becomes our bread of eternal life.
Through the Eucharist, Christ becomes for us our spiritual food. That is why he says “The bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51). It is not only the Jews who failed to understand Christ; many of us do not understand him either. Christian Cardinal Tumi, the Emeritus Archbishop of Douala in Cameroon, always recounted a story of a woman, a non-Catholic, who told him that even though she admired the Catholic faith, she found it difficult to understand how anyone in their right mind could believe that a piece of bread could be said to be a living being. The Cardinal’s response was that he did not understand it either but that he believed because Christ himself said that the piece of bread he presents to us is his body. “This is my body, this is my blood, given for you” he tells us. We are in the area of faith.
In the sacrament of the Eucharist we draw life from the body and blood of Jesus. He says “Do this in memory of me,” the words we hear at Consecration. We are nourished by real food and real drink in the Lord. We eat the wisdom of God; it becomes part of our very being; it becomes our resource for living a life of wisdom.
The Fathers of Vatican II Council teach us that the Eucharist is “a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.” The Eucharist proclaims the death of the Lord until He comes again at the end of time when our earthly bodies will be resurrected and united with our souls (1 Cor 111:26). Saint Ignatius of Antioch calls the Eucharist the “medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, the means to live always in Jesus Christ”. This means that the Eucharist sows within us the seed of immortality since the life of grace is more enduring than death.
The Eucharist is the highest expression of Jesus’ self-giving. The Eucharistic table unites us with God and with the Christian community. A story is told of Saint Francis of Assisi who was one day attacked by thieves. These were lawless men of the underworld who did not only rob people but would not hesitate to kill them. Saint Francis realized that they were hungry. He spoke to them kindly, brought out food and shared it with them. The hospitality, love and kindness they experienced changed their hearts and minds, and they gave up their bad ways and began a new life. It all started with a meal shared in love.
The meal shared is a sign of friendship and love. In the Eucharist, Christ invites us to the meal prepared by himself. It is the supreme expression of his love for us. He left us the Eucharistic bread to strengthen and heal us. He asks us to share it with our brothers and sisters. Those who share the Eucharist together become one with the Lord and with one another.
As Pope Leo I once said: “The effect of our communion in the Body and Blood of Christ is that we are transformed into what we consume, and that he in whom we have died and in whom we have risen from the dead lives and is manifested in every movement of our body and of our spirit.”
In the beautiful words of Saint John Vianney, the Curé d’Ars, Patron Saint of parish priests, “The Holy Eucharist is an eternal pledge for us. It assures us of Heaven. This is the dowry sent to us by Heaven as a promise that one day it will be our resting place. What is more, Jesus Christ will cause our bodies to rise again with greater glory, insofar as we have frequently and reverently received him in Communion.” (St John Vianney).
Let us pray to God, the Father Almighty, to give us strength this day to travel with human and supernatural dignity along our way on earth, strengthened by the Eucharist, our eyes firmly fixed on our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
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