ALTAR DECOR AT MASS

August 20, 2006 Twentieth Sunday of the Year John 6: 51-58
“He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Medical Mission Sisters, Fox Chase PA

This gospel from the sixth chapter of John presents a great challenge for the preacher. The words we read are a part of a long homily that Jesus himself is preaching, five times longer than what we read today. Jesus bases his homily on a text of the Old Testament…. The text is this: “He gave them bread from heaven to eat….”

In the final words of his homily Jesus develops the theme of eating even further and talks of eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood. Eating the manna does not give life but eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man does give life. Jesus’ reference to flesh and blood is a reference to the bloody way in which he is to die. And he invites us moreover, to take part in his life and death in this very intimate way; invites us to actually chew (the word for eat clearly includes this notion of chewing) on his body and drink his blood…..

Ray Brown calls this language “evocative of the Eucharist.” And adds: “the words, ‘the bread that I will give is my own flesh for the life of the world’ may well be the Johannine Eucharistic formula comparable to ‘This is my body which is given for you’ in Luke[’s gospel.]”….


Our challenge is placing the power of the Eucharist into the real world in which we live…..

We struggle to live in a world known for its moral and physical danger; we are sometimes so much more conscious of the violence of human life than we are of the generous spirit of love that fills most human relationships. In this context each of us has his or her own conversation with the Lord who shares himself so completely in the intimacy of our prayer. Sometimes as individuals we do not know what to say; in this case we should imitate what the saints said. Sometimes as a gathering of believers we do not know what to say; in this case we go to our ritual books or to our hymns or to our statements of common mission. Sometimes the events of the day or time simply overwhelm us, render us wordless and we need a Jesus who will respect our silence and restore our speech.

And this is a suitable place for us to be quiet in His presence.

“He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”