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HOMILIES ARCHIVE
HOMILIES
Dear Audience,For better understanding of the spiritual message behind this homily I kindly remind you to first read and contemplate the biblical texts before reading or listening to my preaching - a human reflection on the Word of God!
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Year A)
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0First Reading
A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy (8:2-3, 14b-16a)
Moses said to the people: "Remember how for forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep His commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord."
"Do not forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery; who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its seraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers."
(P) The word of the Lord.(R) Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms of David (147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20)
(R) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. For He has strengthened the bards of your gates; He has blessed your children within you. (R)
He has granted peace in your borders; with the best of wheat He fills you. He sends forth His command to the Earth; swiftly runs His word! (R)
He has proclaimed His word to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel. He has not done thus for any other nation; His ordinances He has not made known to them. (R)
Second Reading
A reading from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (10:16-17)
Brothers and sisters: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
(P) The word of the Lord.(R) Thanks be to God.
Gospel
A reading from the Gospel according to John (6:51-58)
Jesus said to the Jewish 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 word."
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 up 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."
(P) The Gospel of the Lord.(R) Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Homily
One day a man invited an acquaintance to his house for a meal. The acquaintance arrived on time at the house of the host and rang the doorbell several times. No one answered. He peered through the windows and found no one there. The acquaintance became very angry and upset at the host for making him wait for so long. So, on a piece of paper he wrote "fool" and hanged it on the door and then left. Well, after a couple of minutes, the host returned home and suddenly remembered the invitation. He ran to the bus stop, and when he spotted the acquaintance he said, "Oh, my friend, I am so sorry, please forgive me, I only remembered our appointment when I saw your name on my door."
Ability to remember is a great gift from God. Imagine you couldn't remember your own name or any previous event or person you had met or any appointment made or what was read or heard! Even though some memories are bad and painful, none of us would want to lose the ability to remember. To remember means the ability to recollect or recall or bring to mind again. Remembering or recalling is an essential part of Christian faith. Our Lord Jesus on the evening before his crucifixion and death, he commanded his friends and followers to remember him in a specific way. At his last meal with them, after he had given thanks, he broke the bread and said, "Take and eat. This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." And in the same way, he also took the cup of wine, and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me." Since then whenever we celebrate Mass, we reenact the Last Supper, as Jesus commanded us to do. In doing this, we remember his great act of love for us on the Cross. Long before the coming of Jesus, through Moses, God gave the Israelites a commandment, "Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day." There are also many texts that indicate Moses constantly urging the Israelites, during their wilderness wandering, to remember their past.
In today's first reading taken from the Book of Deuteronomy we read one of Moses' reminders. Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish scriptures called Torah. Deuteronomy comes from two Greek words nomos (law) and deutero (second) meaning it is a "second" or a "copy" or a "repetition" of the law and precepts formerly given to the Israelites on mount Sinai. Essentially the Book is a collection of Moses' sermons to the Israelites just prior to their entry into the Promised Land. The Book has been also called the "Gospel of the Old Testament", for it talks about God's love for the Israelites in depth, and Moses' last words also resemble the last words of our Lord Jesus to his disciples.
In today's text Moses seems to sum up the dealings of God with the Israelites in the desert. Moses tells them that as they are about to enter the "promised land" where they will have all they need, they must remember God's goodness to them in the past. Especially he wants them never to forget all God has done for them during the years in the desert. He calls upon them, "Remember how for forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert." What do they have to remember? Moses says that, first, they must remember the times of trial and struggle. As the times are improving, and their life is becoming more prosperous and secure they are to recall the struggles, and they must know that God purposely subjected them to hardships in order to test them, to see if they would be loyal to Him when things were bad. However, they must remember that even though God allowed them to suffer, it was God who always saw to it that they overcame all the struggles in the end. It was God who was and is in control of all things, and therefore they have to remain loyal to Him.
Second, they must remember all the miraculous acts of God, such as their liberation from Egyptian slavery, the protection from venomous snakes and scorpions and the water from the rocks and the miraculous supply of food that God provided them with. According to the story, within a few days after God had liberated them from the Egyptians, they ran out of food and grumbled to Moses and against God. God then rained down on their camps each night a kind of bread. When the people saw it they said: "What is this?", in Hebrew manna or man hu. It was not the ordinary bread they had always eaten, yet it was as nourishing as any bread, which showed God could feed His people without the earthly food which man normally feeds himself with. Moreover, they were given manna only for a day. If they tried to put some aside for the next day, it got spoiled. Saving the manna was a demonstration of self-reliance rather than trusting in God. But on the day before the Sabbath, God provided twice as much for each of them so that they could spend their Sabbath giving thanks to God for all the gifts they had received. So, Moses reminds them of the power of God who can feed them with food unknown to them and their ancestors, and encourages them to put their trust in God always.
What is the message for us?
- The ability to remember is a wonderful gift of God which most of us seem to take for granted. Today we have an opportunity to thank the Lord for the gift of a sound mind and memory, and pray for all those who suffer from both long term and short term memory loss.
- As we begin to enjoy the blessings of grace let us also remember the former days when we endured trials and struggles. Let us gratefully remember where our blessings come from. When we enjoy good health, a good job, good income, prosperity and security we are in danger of letting God slip from our minds, and forget that our lives are being led by God, or God was and is in control of all things in our life, working out everything according to the plan and purpose of His own will. Let us not just seek God for things when things are going bad but also thank and praise God for miraculous deliverance from fears, dangers, hardships and His great love for us. Let us also put our trust in the Lord with all our heart so that the One who helped you overcome your hardships will help you deal with your present obstacles.
- The miraculous food, manna, from the skies, was a symbol, a foreshadowing, of the more miraculous food from heaven which our Lord Jesus gives to us to sustain and nourish us. In today's gospel we read Jesus' declaration to the Jews, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven, whoever eats this bread will live forever." Jesus fulfilled his promise on the night before he was crucified when he took bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying: "This is my body, which will be given for you" and taking the cup of wine he said: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood which will be poured out for you", Luke (22:19). Whenever we receive his body and blood we are filled with invisible grace regardless of our unworthiness. Let us therefore humbly and gratefully remember the love of our Lord Jesus Christ today.
- As we learn to endure many discomforts and hardships at different stages of life, let us remember that God is with us during both good and bad times, and that He allows suffering in our life for three specific reasons: to humble us, to know what is in our hearts, and to teach us that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.
God Bless You!
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