Twentieth
Sunday in Ordinary Time
L-20 Ħadd
matul is-Sena B
Messalin B pp 441
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.”
L-Ewwel Qari
Qari mill-Ktieb tal-Proverbji 9, 1-6
Il-Għerf bena d-dar tiegħu,
waqqaf is-seba' kolonni tagħha; qatel
il-bhejjem imsemmna, ħejja l-inbid u
l-mejda tiegħu. U bagħat il-qaddejja
jxandru l-istedina minn
Responsorial
Psalm
PSALM 34:2-3,
4-5, 6-7
R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad. R/
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears. R/
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him. R/
Salm Responsojali
Salm
33 (34)
R/ Ippruvaw
u taraw kemm hu tajjeb il-Mulej
Kull ħin inbierek 'il-Mulej.
Tifħiru dejjem f'fommi.
Bil-Mulej tiftaħar ruħi,
jisimgħu l-fqajrin u jifirħu! R/
Ibżgħu mill-Mulej, qaddisin tiegħu,
xejn ma jonqsu min jibża' minnu.
Is-setgħana jiftaqru u jbata l-ġuħ;
min ifittex il-Mulej xejn ma jkun jonqsu. R/
Ejjew, uliedi, isimgħu lili;
jiena l-biża tal-Mulej ngħallimkom.
Min hu l-bniedem li jħobb il-ħajja,
u jixtieq jara għomru kullu riżq? R/
Ħares ilsienek mill-ħażen,
u xofftejk minn
Tbiegħed mill-ħażen u agħmel it-tajjeb,
fittex is-sliem u imxi warajh. R/
EPHESIANS
5:15-20
Brothers and sisters: 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.
It-Tieni Qari
mill-Ittra lill-Efesin 5, 15-20
Ħuti, qisu sewwa kif iġġibu
ruħkom, mhux bħal nies bla dehen, iżda
bħal nies għorrief, li jgħożżu ż-żmien, għaliex ħżiena huma l-jiem.
Għalhekk tkunux bla għaqal, imma
fittxu x'inhi r-rieda tal-Mulej. U
tiskrux bl-inbid, li fih hemm ħajja bla lġiem, iżda mtlew bl-Ispirtu. Kantaw flimkien
salmi, innijiet u għana spiritwali; kantaw u għannu minn
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.”
L-Evanġelju
Qari skond San Ġwann 6, 51 -58
F'dak iż-żmien, Ġesu' qal
lin-nies; "Jien hu l-ħobż ħaj, li niżel mis-sema. Jekk xi ħadd jiekol minn
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A reflection by Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB
In chapter six of John's Gospel (vv. 41-51), Jesus speaks of himself as
"the living bread that came down from heaven" and invites his hearers
to "eat of this bread" -- that is, to believe in him. He promises that those who do so will have
eternal life. Jesus compares himself to the manna that came down from heaven to
sustain the people of Israel Israel
Then in John 6:51, Jesus says, "The bread that I will
give for the life of the world is my flesh." Then his hearers ask:
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Did they respond in this
way to give Jesus a chance to explain himself? Surely, they may have imagined,
Jesus meant to say something else. After all, to eat someone's flesh appears in
the Bible as a metaphor for great hostility (Psalms 27:2; Zechariah 11:9). The
drinking of blood was looked upon as an abomination forbidden by God's law
(Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 3:17; Deuteronomy 12:23).
Yet Jesus responds to the question by further explaining his
initial declaration with explicit terms: "Unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh
and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day,
for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh
and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them."
No observant Jew would consider eating human flesh. We
may ask ourselves: "Why couldn't Jesus continue using such pleasant terms
as "abiding," "dwelling," "living in me"
terminology? Was he advocating pure cannibalism with such vivid imagery and
language?
Flesh and blood
In today's Gospel, Jesus uses strong language to express the
indissoluble union and inextricable participation of one life in another. Jesus
uses sacrificial language. The Torah requires ritual sacrifice of animals and
specifies how they are to be prepared and how their flesh is to be used. Some
flesh is to be burned on the altar and other flesh is to be eaten.
Jesus makes his sacrifice on behalf of the world -- not just Israel
For those who receive Jesus, the whole Jesus, his life clings
to their bones and courses through their veins. He can no more be taken from a
believer's life than last Saturday's dinner can be extricated from one's body.
True reception of
Jesus
In our cerebral approach to religion we often assume that
what really matters is believing some important religious dogmas or truths.
Receiving Jesus can be reduced to a matter of intellectual assent. There are
times, however, when we can be particularly grateful that the presence of
Christ is not something that can be recognized cerebrally but can be received
by other means as well.
The bread that Jesus used to feed the 5,000 on the
mountaintop was something less than true bread because it satisfied the people's
hunger only momentarily. By way of contrast, Jesus' flesh and blood are true
food because "whoever eats of this bread will live forever" (v. 51)
-- and "have eternal life" (v. 54).
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven"
(v. 51a). This "living bread" parallels the "living
water" that Jesus offered the Samaritan woman (4:10). To eat of this
bread, in this context, means the once-and-for-all action of accepting or
believing in Christ.
Historical background
It is important to be aware of two things that were happening
at the time of the writing of this Gospel that might have influenced John to
emphasize the eating of Jesus' flesh and the drinking of his blood.
The first was the influence of Docetic and Gnostic heresies,
both of which considered flesh to be evil and denied that Christ could have a
physical body. The second was Jewish discrimination against Christian
believers. Christians who observed the Lord's Supper were likely to be banned
from synagogues.
The Eucharist fulfils the meaning hidden in the gift of
manna. Jesus thus presents himself as the true and perfect fulfillment of what
was symbolically foretold in the Old Covenant. Another of Moses' acts has a
prophetic value: To quench the thirst of the people in the desert, he makes water
flow from the rock. On the "feast of Tabernacles," Jesus promises to
quench humanity's spiritual thirst: "If anyone thirst, let him come to me
and drink. He who believes in me, as Scripture says, 'Out of his heart shall
flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:37-38).
The ways we eat
Our eating style reflects and affects who and what we are. It
identifies our approach to life. If we examine various societies and cultures,
we see that each has its traditional foods and food rituals. "I am of
Italian descent. I often eat spaghetti, lasagna, tortellini alla panna, or
pizza," or "I am a real American. I eat hamburgers, hot dogs, steak,
Coke, and French fries."
"I am Québecois. I feast on poutine and drink maple
syrup." The French eat crepes, Belgians eat waffles, Chinese eat rice,
Palestinians and Israelis eat falafel, the Swiss eat chocolate, and Eskimos eat
whale blubber. In short, the "way we eat" reveals how we identify
ourselves. It reflects and often determines our worldview, our values, and our
entire approach to life.
Foods are much more than just a collection of nutrients; they
are a wealth of influences and connotations. Rare foods and spices are
treasured as special culinary delights. Some foods are worshiped in various
cultures as having an unusual holiness or are avoided altogether. The type of
food we choose can affect our moods. Hot, spicy, or stimulating foods may
influence many of us toward hot-temperedness or nervousness. Cooling foods can
relax us and give us peace of mind. Foods can help us celebrate and can comfort
us when we mourn. They are a sign of love and are a means of uniting people on
many occasions.
The "ways we eat" are an important part of our
heritage. The soul is not nourished by physical bread, as the body is. The food
we eat is actually a combination of both a physical and a spiritual entity. The
body is nourished by the physical aspects, or nutrients, contained in the foods
we eat; the soul is nourished by the spiritual power which enlivens the
physical substance of all matter, including food.
Catholic rather than
catabolic?
The actual phrase "you are what you eat" didn't
emerge in the English language until the 1920s and 30s, when the nutritionist
Victor Lindlahr, a strong believer in the idea that food controls health,
developed the Catabolic Diet. In 1942, Lindlahr published You Are What You Eat: How to Win and Keep Health With
Diet. From that moment onward, the phrase entered the
public consciousness.
For all who seek the presence of Christ, Jesus' teaching in
John's Gospel is good news indeed: "We are what we eat." We become
what we receive in the Eucharist. This week, let us examine our spiritual diets
and look at the things that truly give us life, and those things that are junk
foods that don't lead us to eternal life.
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