THE BANQUET OF THE LORD


 First Reading: Prov 9:1-6
Second Reading: Eph 5:15-20
Gospel: Jn 6:51-58

Dear friends, this twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time invite us to focus on the central mystery of our catholic faith; the Eucharist. The Lord who made His dwelling among humans through His physical presence has not left that presence. He continues to be present physically among humans across the world in the form of the Eucharistic bread. In the gospel passage of today, Jesus stresses that eating of His body and drinking of His blood is necessary for eternal life. The consumption of His body and blood ensures His presence in the person who consumed it. Jesus insists on this eating, so that He could abide in us. The life of Jesus depends on the life of God the Father who sent Him. As the Father lives, so the Son. Without the life of the Father, the existence of the Son is impossible and vice versa. Their divine intimacy, one feeding on the other, one causing the other to exist is inseparable. Jesus invites us to have this form of intimacy with Him. He is calling us to place our existence wholly on Him.

We take food to nourish our body and improve our physic. The body takes what is necessary from the food that we consume and sends the rest away. Our body has control over food that we intake. On the contrary, the spiritual food of Eucharist preserves what is needed for our soul and sends all the dirt away. Here, the food takes control over the being who has consumed it. Yes, Jesus is present everywhere. His power could be sensed in all places. However, there is a difference between the invisible presence of Jesus in all places and His concrete and lasting presence in the Eucharist. In the gospel, Jesus affirms firmly that we need to eat His body and blood to abide in Him. Thus, it is not enough to be satisfied with the spiritual presence of Jesus. We need to allow Jesus to be physically present in us. The presence of Jesus in the Eucharistic bread is true, real and substantial. Once, the priest invokes the presence of God’s Spirit upon the gifts in the Holy Mass, the presence of Jesus is made manifest concretely in the bread and wine until they are consumed and dissolved. No circumstance or accidents (irreverence) can take away the presence of Jesus from the bread and wine. That’s the reason why the Catholic Church offers atonement whenever tabernacles are vandalized and holy species are treated contemptuously. Even the priest who has the power to invoke the spirit to transform the bread and wine into the most holy body and blood of Jesus cannot remove the real presence of Jesus from the Eucharist at any circumstances and conditions. Therefore, after the distribution of communion in the Holy Mass, the Eucharistic bread is either preserved in the tabernacle or consumed so that any potential irreverence is averted.

This teaching is hard to accept. It needs wisdom beyond human prudence to comprehend. In the first reading, wisdom is presented as lady who is ready with food made up of all ingredients. That food is none other than wisdom itself. The banquet of the wisdom is given to the simple and the lowly. They are invited to partake in the banquet of wisdom, so that they can lay aside their simplicity and walk in the way of insight (Prov 9:6). Similarly, the eating of Jesus’ flesh and blood will enable us to understand the mystery that is present in the Eucharist. In both the meal – wisdom and Eucharist – it is a banquet. It cannot be eaten alone. There is a community aspect which is present inherently. The Lord throws the party of wisdom and His Body and Blood to the multitude. We receive wisdom of the Lord and Eucharist in the community. The celebration of Eucharist we listen to the Wisdom of God (God’s Word) and receive communion as community. As St. Paul says in the second reading let us not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (Eph 5:17). It is the will of the Lord that we make His presence felt in us concretely through the consumption of the Eucharist. Our eternal life consists in receiving His Most Holy Body and the Blood in the form of bread and wine. Let us carry out this will of the Lord faithfully without any doubt and irreverence. May the Wisdom of the Lord guide us to understand this central mystery of the Catholic Church.       

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