Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ - June 14, 2020

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ - June 14, 2020

Reflection

Jesus was a famous preacher. Many considered him a great prophet. People saw in him a rising religious career and they flocked towards him, drawn by his words and his miracles. Yet here is an episode where Jesus lost almost all his followers, got unfriended, received unlikes and bad reviews. It was the downturn of Jesus' stardom but he knew what he had to do and pressed on.

"Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you." This statement so scandalized the crowd they left Jesus and ceased following him. Jesus, however, was insistent. What he teaches is something that was a radical fulfillment of God's promises in the Old Testament.

The chosen people has always remembered how God cared for them in the desert. He provided them with water and manna, the bread from heaven. He saved them from death and from the venom of the serpent just by looking at a serpent mounted on a pole. This was a story of survival. That in escaping slavery, they had to struggle through the desert and God fed them both with food and his words.

Jesus now offers himself as the food that will save from death and slavery. He is both Word and food. He offers his blood and his flesh as the real bread from heaven. Just as each specie has to consume in order to extend their lives, Jesus gives himself to man that humanity may gain eternal life. The fullness of life within God, is passed on to man by allowing man to consume God.

This is one of the most difficult teachings of Christ and even now, we cannot fully grasp the mystery of it. Yet it does happen that when a Christian unites himself with Jesus in the most physical way, he becomes a part of him together with all who is united in Christ. God made this possible in Jesus who is God-in-the-flesh yet it is only through faith that man opens himself to this mystery.

True Christian faith does not only believe in the words of Jesus, but also feeding from Jesus. There is no other way.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity - June 7, 2020

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity - June 7, 2020

Reflection

Love entails knowledge. God in loving us, knows us. This time our liturgical readings present to us a God who makes himself known so that we might love him. While our concept of God is always clothed in glory and power, our readings present to us a more personal image of him. Our God is not one who is seated on the throne from afar, but one who involves himself with the people he cares about.

One of the most sacred phrases to describe God in the Old Testament is highlighted in our first reading. He is "rich in kindness and fidelity". For the chosen people, God is the faithful lover despite the infidelities of the beloved people. This faithfulness flows from a deepest depths of his compassion that not only does he share the suffering of his people, he dwells among them in fellowship.

This theme of faithfulness, compassion, and fellowship is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. John the Evangelist summed up the whole message of the scriptures in his declaration that Jesus is the love of God sent to man. It is important to understand that when Jesus came to become man God stooped down from the heights of heaven to extend a both hands for his children.

This understanding of the richness of the identity of God as love is central to our Christian faith. Because from what be believe, we become. St. Paul reminds the Christians of Corinth to mirror that fidelity and love of God with one another, with the "holy kiss". Christians are not only intimately united to God in love, but also deeply and truly in love with one another.

The point of God revealing himself to us is to transform us into himself. Humanity, despite its weaknesses and short comings, has been destined to be loved and to love with the fidelity, compassion and fellowship of God.

Pentecost Sunday - May 31, 2020

Pentecost Sunday - May 31, 2020

Reflection

Not many notice it but the New Testament has two accounts of how the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples at Pentecost. In our first reading, Luke writes that the Spirit burst into the room where the disciples were gathered. There appeared to them the tongues of fire which rested on each one of them. In the Gospel, John writes that Jesus himself burst into the room where the disciples locked themselves in out of fear. Jesus quelled their fears with the greeting "Peace be with you." And, in order to recall the events of creation, John writes that Jesus breathed on them.

The Holy Spirit is breath and fire.

He is breath because he is the Lord of life. In the events of creation, the Spirit was moving and breathing over the primordial waters in order to bring forth creation in the midst of chaos. In the creation of man, God breathed on the clay that Adam may have life. In the same way, Jesus breathes on the community of disciples that they may have new life.

Everything consumed by the fire of the Spirit is changed and renewed. The Christians who were hiding inside the house now boldly speaks in public. They speak in powerful language that the division of language is healed. The visiting nationalities in Jerusalem could understand them! Sin, in the biblical mind, is division. Jesus, in the Gospel of John, gives the Spirit in order to forgive sin, that is, to unite.

St. Paul poetically describes the action of the Spirit in the lives of the believers. Inspired and set fire by the Spirit many of them were moved to preach and do the works of the Gospel. There was the outpouring of spiritual gifts. The Spirit moves the members because they are part of the one body. The flame and breath of life is animating the body of Christ, the Church. He does this without discrimination but instead forges unity in the manifold beauty of the ministries.

The Spirit is the renewal of all creation. He renews each individual with his gifts. He animates and unites the community in love.