Corpus Christi

John 6:51-58

Hunger and thirst are powerful forces.  Either one alone can shape our journey or impede it.  Either one alone can mean the difference between life and death.  This is true on a physical level as much as a spiritual level.  The readings for today contain some rather astonishing claims that speak to a profound spiritual hunger and thirst that we all have.  Moses claims that we need God's word as much as we need food to live.  Paul claims that we are literally bound together as one body when we partake of the one loaf.  Jesus claims that his body and blood are true food and true drink and the very source of eternal life.

Indeed, the gospel readings for the past several weeks show that Jesus recognizes and speaks to our spiritual hunger, and that he longs to nourish our spiritual needs. To demonstrate this point, Jesus often uses dramatic language in revealing the purpose of his life and mission.  He once described himself as the light of the world (Jn 8:12).  Another time, he described himself as the way, the truth and the life (Jn14:6).  Yet another time, Jesus referred to himself as the true vine and his followers as the true branches (Jn 15:1-5).  Those who heard such talk did not think Jesus was speaking literally.  They understood and accepted his language as nothing more than analogy, a comparison, for the sake of revelation.  

When Jesus referred to himself as the bread of life come down from heaven, however, many had a very different response.  In fact, many went away in disbelief when Jesus claimed that, “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” (Jn 6:53-55). Many disciples also found this teaching too difficult, and they “returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (Jn 6:66).

This is a puzzling response from the very disciples who were also witness to some astonishing miracles by Jesus—feeding the multitude with a few loaves of bread and some fish, raising the dead, driving out demons, curing the lame and disabled.  Thus the difficulty these disciples had with the bread of life teaching was NOT because they misunderstood Jesus’ ability to make good on his claim.  Rather, the disciples had difficulty because they knew that Jesus was no longer speaking allegorically.  They knew he was speaking in a literal sense.  From their perspective, Jesus had crossed the line.

Jesus crossed the line with the promise of eternal life to those who ate his flesh and drank his blood.  Some of the disciples objected to this promise because, in their view, only God is the source of life.  Thus, for Jesus to claim that he too could give eternal life through his own body and blood was tantamount to claiming that he was God.  And that claim, as far as some of the disciples were concerned, was blasphemy. This perceived blasphemy is why many of the disciples objected to his promise and abandoned Jesus.

The Twelve, however, that small band of loyal followers, remained with Jesus.  They remained because they believed that Jesus was the “Holy One of God” (Jn 6:69; cf. Mt 16:21, Mk 8:29, Lk 9:20).  When Jesus asks the Twelve whether they too want to leave, Peter’s response demonstrates the basis of their loyalty: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:67-68). This response gives no indication, however, that the Twelve found the “bread of life” teaching any less radical than those who left.

 

The picture that emerges at the Last Supper, however, is quite different.  When the disciples gather with Jesus for the last time in the Upper Room and hear him declare that the bread and wine are his body and blood, they express no doubt or astonishment over his words and actions.  Nor is there any suggestion that any of them abandoned Jesus at this time.  In fact, Scripture suggests that the only concern of the disciples at this time was the fear of being accused as the betrayer of Jesus.

 

The contrast between the first and last reactions of the disciples to the bread of life teaching reflects a gradual, yet remarkable, transformation in perception and belief.    Their transformation suggests that perceiving Jesus in the Eucharist, as well as perceiving Jesus in others, is a gradual consequence of spiritual nourishment that takes place over time.

The lesson for us is clear.  When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn6:35), he in fact claims that he can nourish our spirits, that he can give life to our souls.  He claims that he is enough for all.

The difficulty for many today is that we doubt this possibility.  We do not know how to find genuine nourishment.  We look for it in the wrong places.  We spend our spiritual coin for what is not bread; our wages for what fails to satisfy.  Many of us live in spiritual poverty.  We have nothing to eat or drink.  We are not satisfied.

Yet, the Lord Jesus calls us out of our poverty.  He invites all of us to come to his banquet.  All we have to do is bring our hunger and our thirst to him and do as he says.  When we bring what we have to Christ—our needs and ourselves—and unite them to him, Christ becomes the foundation of our lives and he changes us.

 

Our relationship with Jesus then motivates us to imitate what he says and how he acts.  When we put on the mind of Christ, as St. Paul instructs us, we find reason and desire to share our gifts with others in a spirit of love.  We find reason to live the truth in love.  When we take Jesus into our hearts through word and sacrament, we become what he is, and our eternal life begins here and now.

Faith as Trust and Reason

A 5 Easter 14 (Jn 14:1-12)

            In a conversation about faith that Jesus has with his disciples, Jesus talks about faith in terms of both trust and reason.  Jesus makes the point that trust and reason both function as grounds for having faith in him. To demonstrate this point, Jesus first focuses on faith as a matter of trust. 

            Jesus begins with a twofold appeal to the disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”  In appealing first to the hearts of the disciples, Jesus shows that faith is primarily a matter of trust, that is, a matter for the heart rather than the head.  We can take to heart the word of Jesus.  We can rely on him, we can trust him, and therefore, we can have faith in him.

            Jesus does not ask for trust on false pretenses.  For, he makes it clear that he has no intention of abandoning his followers and leaving them to their own devices.  Rather, he goes ahead of them to prepare a place for them, and they know how to follow him.  Such consequences show the disciples that Jesus has their best interests at heart.  This is the nature of trust. 

            We trust someone because our hearts tell us that he or she has our backs.  Whether we have evidence for such trust may not matter all that much.  What seems to matter most is that we are confident that the person knows us, knows what is important to us, and will always act in ways that serve and protect our interests.  The critical aspect of trust is therefore confidence in the person we trust.  Thus, the initial appeal that Jesus makes to his disciples puts faith in him on par with trust in him, and trust is primarily a matter of the heart.

            By explaining faith first in terms of trust, Jesus in effect appeals to an ancient understanding of faith in God.  For the ancient Hebrews, faith in God was a two way street.  God wanted and eagerly sought out a relationship with his people.  They responded and entered that relationship by placing their trust in God.  Faith in God for the ancient Hebrews was an active relationship with God built on a lively belief and trust that He would make good on his promises; that God would indeed do as he said he would.  For this reason, their lives centered on their faith, and their faith shaped the way they lived.  For the ancient Hebrews, faith was a matter of trusting God.        

            But, the disciples Thomas and Phillip are less than convinced. They apparently need more than trust alone as the basis of their faith.  Thomas is the first to express such reservation by admitting no knowledge of where Jesus is going or how to get there. Philip displays a similar need for proof in asking to see the Father as reason enough for faith in Jesus.  These two disciples do not mistrust Jesus.  They simply express a very human need for having good reason when it comes to trust.  And, rather than taking offense, Jesus obliges.  He gives the disciples good reason for trusting him. 

            To show good reason for faith in him, Jesus relies on the second part of his twofold appeal: “You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”  This second part suggests a close union between Jesus and God, his father.  Jesus appeals to the close union between Father and Son as sufficient reason for having faith in him.  In other words, because of this close union, faith in God is the same thing as faith in Jesus.  We need no other proof.  This is the sense in which Jesus claims that faith in him is a matter of reason.

            But, Jesus goes a step further.  Jesus in effect says to the disciples, if you do not believe in me based on my word alone as a matter of trust, if you want proof, then, at least have faith in me because of the works that I do.  See what I have done out of love for you, for others, and for God.  Love proves itself in deeds.  These deeds are reason enough to have faith in Jesus.  Indeed, Jesus claims that “whoever believes in me, will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”      

            Some of us may be able to trust with our hearts, and some of us are like Thomas and Philip, and trust with our reason.  Jesus understands this and acknowledges that there is more than one way to the Father.  The challenge for all of us, no matter how we arrive at our faith, is what to do with our faith.  In a sense, we are like the ancient Hebrews.  We too see faith as an active relationship with God, but we can be unsure of what that means. 

            The expected result is to live in imitation of Jesus.  His deeds grew out of his love for God and showed his love and care for others, all of whom he viewed as the beloved children of God.  For this reason, Jesus calls us to do the same by loving God with our whole hearts and minds and our neighbors as ourselves.  The encounter between Jesus and his disciples shows that our calling to love is primarily a matter of striving to do our best and trusting God.  Faith really demands no more.        

Living A Holy Life (1 Thes 2:9-13)

Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians has an interesting and unique characteristic. Every chapter in that first letter ends with some reference to the return of Christ. Paul makes this reference so often to emphasize the need and the possibility for living a holy life.

We often think of holiness in terms of being set apart and dedicated to the service of the Lord. A passage found in Isaiah, however, puts a different light on that understanding: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (6:3). In light of this passage, it would be odd to say that God is set apart in service to himself. In fact, all of Scripture indicates that "holy" is a term that applies to God, to Jesus, to the saints of old, to ordinary persons, and even to God’s creation. That raises a question as to what there is about holiness that can be applied to these different ideas.  In particular, how can we speak of God’s holiness and our own in the same sense?

Such a possibility is not as difficult as it may seem, for God invites us to be holy because he is holy (Lv 11:44, 1 Pt 1:16). Jesus himself said that we should be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48). Thus, the perfection of God is like the holiness of God.

To say that God is perfect is to say that God is always true to himself. That is, God is always and never anything but God, and all that God does is always and completely consistent with who God is. I AM who I AM, God tells Moses (Ex 3:14). God always tells the truth, always loves, always does good, always creates beauty, always hopes for the best for us, is always joyful and faithful because God is love, God is truth, God is beauty, God is unity, God is good, God is perfect. In human terms, we might say that God is a person of integrity

The same can be said about Jesus. Jesus came to do the father’s will and never deviated from that purpose. He was perfect in his resolve to carry out the Father's will. He prayed to know the Father’s will and he applied his understanding of that will in his life to the best of his ability, even to the point of dying on a cross. Jesus was always true to himself, true to the living God, and true to what God called him to be. In human terms, we would say that Jesus was a person of integrity.   In other words, Jesus lived a holy life.

For this reason, Jesus is our model for what it means to be holy.   Being holy means being true to ourselves as God has fashioned us to be, and true to the living God. This is how the saints of old lived their lives. They listened to and responded to the Word of God. They applied their understanding in their lives as best they could. They allowed the Word of God to transform and motivate how they lived their lives. In a myriad of ways, the saints show us that a holy life is one that expresses God’s love for others and for creation. Like Jesus, they are people of integrity.

This is just what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Thessalonians.  This same theme is found throughout his letters: “Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rom 12:2). In other words, find out what God wants and do it. Being holy is being and doing what God wants us to be and do. This is what it means to speak of the holiness of God, of Jesus, of the saints, of creation, and of our own holiness. Being true to ourselves and true to God by imitating Jesus in all things is what it means to live a holy life.

Jesus and the Ten Commandments

3 Sun Lent B 12
Ex 20:1-17
A homily by Deacon Joe Stackhouse
March 11, 2012

A favorite topic among Sunday school teachers is the Ten Commandments. One Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ she asked the class, 'Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?' Yes, said one little boy. 'Thou shall not kill.'

The story of how Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai is well known. Written by God on two stone tablets, this Divine code was given amid thunder, lightning and smoke on Mount Sinai, and became the cornerstone of the Mosaic Law. The fact that the Commandments were written in stone has a significance all its own. To be written in stone suggests reliability and permanence, something that can’t be changed. What is written in stone has meaning and value that will last forever.

Jesus drew on this aspect of the Ten Commandments when he applied them in new ways throughout his mission on earth. During the Sermon on the Mount, for example, Jesus declared that unnecessary oaths before God were as wrong as false oaths. He condemned hatred and anger as much as murder. He transformed common ideas of retaliation and vengeance into forgiveness and mercy--turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, do not refuse those in need. In this way, Jesus extended the principle of love embedded in the Ten Commandments to include love of enemies as well as love for God and neighbor.

There is an interesting psychology in the way the Commandments are stated. Only two are stated in positive terms—keep holy the Sabbath and honor father and mother. The others are stated in negative terms—thou shall not do so and so. In both cases, however, it’s as if God stated the Commandments in a way that pushes us away from doing things that are harmful to ourselves and to others.

As for what the negative commands push us away from, the first commandment is broad enough to show what all this involves. The first commandment seems simple enough to understand and fairly easy to apply. The ancient Hebrews would have been familiar with this commandment. For, the same message can be found in Psalm 81, which reads: “There shall be no foreign god among you; you shall not bow down to an alien god. I am the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” In light of the many Roman and Greek gods that were available for the ancient Hebrews to choose from, the point of this first commandment seems fairly obvious.

But for Jesus, each Commandment has meaning and value that go beyond the obvious. With an eye to the first commandment, Jesus tells his disciples, “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16:13). The Pharisees who heard this ridiculed Jesus. Because they loved money, they rejected Jesus’ criticism of their lack of compassion for the poor (16:19-31).

The word “mammon” means more than just money, however. It refers to wealth in general and all the things of this world on which we rely. In this sense, Jesus is saying to his disciples, “Be on your guard with money and worldly wealth. It’s not as great as you think. It will fail you in the end. Thus, if you don’t learn to use it wisely, it may very well be your undoing.” Jesus delivered this message because he knows how we can turn anything into our god, especially material wealth.

For us, there remains a question of how to hear his message—how are we suppose to use our material wealth in a spiritually wise manner. Jesus is clear on this point as well. The whole life and mission of Jesus shows us that we must practice justice and mercy with our wealth. We are not to turn our backs on those in need by refusing to share the wealth that we have. All of our wealth—not just our money. And each of us knows what we count as wealth.

There is a passage in the first letter of Timothy that summarizes all of this in a very clear and powerful manner. Verses 17 through 19 in that letter read like this: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life (1 Tim 6:17-19). If we make friends with wealth in this way, we can be sure that when it ends, we will find welcome in the Father’s home.


So much for the breadth of the first Commandment. Jesus makes it clear that mercy, compassion, and love are the touchstones in each commandment. One example that illustrates this point is an encounter that Jesus had with the Pharisees in the synagogue, where there was a man who had a withered hand. The Pharisees asked Jesus whether it is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath. They wanted to accuse Jesus of disobeying the Law of Moses, which prohibited healing on the Sabbath. Jesus said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable a person is than a sheep. So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand’” and the hand was restored as sound as the other (Mt 12:9-13).

Each Commandment lends itself to a similar reflection, interpretation, and application and Jesus knew that. For instance:

The Commandment says: Thou shall not kill; and Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

The Commandment says, “Thou shall not commit adultery or covet thy neighbor’s spouse,” and Jesus says, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.”

The Commandment says, “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor,” and Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

The Commandment says, “Thou shall not steal,” and Jesus says, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”

Jesus summed up the meaning and value of the entire Ten Commandments in this way: Love God with your whole heart, your whole mind and your whole soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.