In Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23 Jesus teaches that the
people of God are not set apart by particular traditions or ethnicity, but by a
purity that emanates from the heart, manifested by love for others. We do not
need more religion, but more reflection on what proceeds from our heart. Yes,
traditions can be good, and can point others to God. However, they can also
send a message explicitly or implicitly, "you don't belong."
Jesus challenged the purity “laws” and turned them upside down. In their place
he substituted a radically alternate social vision. The new community that
Jesus announced would be characterized by interior compassion for everyone, not
external compliance to a purity code, or by egalitarian inclusivity, but rather
by inward transformation.
"No outcasts," writes Garry Wills in What Jesus Meant,"were cast out far enough in Jesus'
world to make him shun them — not Roman collaborators, not lepers, not
prostitutes, not the crazed, not the possessed. Are there people now who could
possibly be outside his encompassing love?"
“Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile…
from within come evil thoughts and they defile.”
Who do we judge when we sanctimoniously spurn those who are not like us or not
part of our group? (Bible Study Blog, Bob Reina, August, 28, 2012)
In John 6:56-69, the followers of Jesus have heard words they do not understand. They are repelled! It simply is impossible to believe that Jesus is inviting them to eat his flesh and drink his blood…so, many of those who had followed Jesus up to this point now walk away. They have reached an obstacle which they cannot overcome.
It is not difficult to imagine his sadness as Jesus watched them leave…He feared that he was going to be completely abandoned. So, he turns to the twelve apostles and asks them what they are going to do...Peter speaks for us when he responds “Lord to whom can we go?”
We do all that we can in life to avoid being placed in position of vulnerability, yet in this Gospel we have the twelve surrendering control and choosing complete dependency on Jesus. That dependency reveals an ultimate statement of faith: Lord, we have no options. We have no choice but to keep following you.
Faith is deepened in situations where self-reliance is no longer possible, where it is difficult to rely on our intellect, reason or abilities.
The process of being attracted by something in Jesus - listening to what the Word says - and then asking: “am I going to leave or stay?” is part of our spiritual journey. For most of us, it can happen many times in a lifetime. We are faced with a choice: do I accept this, or do I acknowledge that I have to grow into its meaning? And what do I do? To whom do I turn while I am growing into understanding? These are the steps we take to be totally dependent, reliant, and available to Jesus. This is the challenge of the Gospel and in the end our response has to be personal…to walk away…or to stay and walk further into the Mystery.
The followers of Jesus have heard words they do not understand. Quite simply, they are repelled! In their minds and experience it is impossible to believe that Jesus is inviting them to eat his flesh and drink his blood…so, many of those who had followed Jesus up to this point now walk away. They have reached an obstacle which they cannot overcome. (John 6:51-58)
Isn’t that a little like us. We only know what we have experienced and a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and can lead us to the wrong conclusions. When it comes to God, we know only a little. Like all living things, our understanding of God continues to grow and to change. And so to know only a little, and to think the little that we do know is all that there is to know, can be fatal. Like the followers of Jesus, we have some “knowledge” about God but do we really know Him not by words or intellect but in the depth of our being? Faith is deepened in situations where self-reliance is no longer possible, where it is difficult to rely on our intellect, reason or abilities.
Richard Rohr writes that the Eucharist is an encounter of the heart, knowing Presence through our available presence. In the Eucharist, we move beyond mere words or rational thought and go to that place where we don’t talk about the Mystery; we begin to chew on it.
We must move our knowing to the bodily, cellular, participative, and unitive level. Then we keep eating and drinking the Mystery until one day it dawns on us, in an undefended moment, “My God, I really am what I eat!” Henceforth we can trust and allow what has been true since the first moment of our existence: We are the very Body of Christ. We have dignity and power flowing through us in our naked existence—and everybody else does too, even though most of us do not know it. This is enough to guide and empower our entire faith journey. If Christians did not already have Eucharist as our central ritual, we would have to create something very similar. [(Rohr,
Eucharist-Real Presence, July 24, 2018,
Center for Action and Contemplation (
Meditations@cac.org)]
Whether we say it aloud or not, I’m sure we are thinking it: Here comes another “Bread” story. What more can we possibly say? Hasn’t John really exhausted the subject? I suppose that this was my reaction when I first saw the lectionary scheduled for this week. I asked myself, what else can I say or write. I wondered how the priests and theologians were able to continue to plumb the depths of John’s gospel and help us understand its relevance to our lives. Later I tried to put myself in the audience of John’s day and began to understand how vital these stories of Jesus, the Bread of Life, are to our faith. We need to hear them again and again until Jesus becomes our bread of life in the depths of our very being.
I wonder if we fully comprehend the theological and existential significance of approaching and “gathering” around the altar, the table of the Lord, to receive Communion. And if we don’t, is it really any wonder? Let’s face it, debate about the meaning of the sacrament continues even now in this relatively tranquil ecumenical period between and within different denominations. The sacrament holds a pivotal place in the Church, in that it is central to our life of faith and yet can also be so very confusing.
John writes (John 6:41-51), “How can this man give us his flesh to eat...Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” In their literal interpretation these phrases had quite an impact on John’s audience then as they do now. He is speaking to us in the present time as directly as he did in his time.
St. Augustine attempts to clarify the connection between sacraments and our daily lives with his use of the phrase “visible words.” I find this phrase attractive because it helps me appreciate the Eucharist as the visible, physical reference to the presence of Christ in our lives. The Eucharist is the embodiment of the proclaimed and heard gospel and through imagery and our ability to relate to their physical forms, they enable us to bridge the metaphorical words of John with our humanity, and God’s incarnation in Jesus…through him and with him. As we fully absorb his presence in water, bread, and wine, we become incorporated into the “trinity.” When the word of God in scripture and the sacramental rites have worked their way through our senses and penetrate to the intuitive level of our being, the immense energies of the Spirit are released and our consciousness is gradually transformed into the mind of Christ. (Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ, p2)
The liturgy does not offer us a mere seat in the bleachers, or even a ringside seat. We are invited to participate in the event itself, to absorb its meaning and to relate to Christ on every level of his being as well as our own. The main thrust of the liturgy is to develop a relationship with Christ and engage all our faculties: the will, intellect, memory, imagination, senses and body. The transmission of the personal relationships through him…with the Father. It empowers us as we celebrate the mysteries of Christ, to not only perceive them as historical events but as manifestations of Christ here and now. (Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ, p8)
