20TH SUNDAY HOMILY OF THE ORDINARY TIME — YEAR B
HOMILY THEME: MY FLESH IS REAL FOOD & VICE VERSA!
BY: Fr. Benedict AGBO
Proverbs 9: 1-6, Ps. 34, Ephesians 5: 15-20, John 6: 51-58
A. PREAMBLE
The Eucharistic theology is so centrifugal to Christian faith that the Church devotes 5 Sundays of Year B to exhaust the message of the Eucharist as recorded in the 6th chapter of John’s gospel. From the 17th Sunday, the gospel drew our attention to the physical and spiritual need of the crowd and the responsibility of the Church to provide for them. Jesus said: ‘Give them something to eat yourselves!’ At the 18th Sunday, we saw Christ’s effort to shift people’s attention/ focus from the physical to the spiritual needs by telling them: ‘I am the bread of life’. At the 19th Sunday, the readings explained how this spiritual feeding works through logotherapy (teachings from the Word of God) and Eucharistic therapy (nourishments from the Eucharistic meal). Today, 20th Sunday, the readings expound the result of the spiritual life as Eucharistic purity & Transformation.
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Christ says: ‘If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man & drink his blood, you will not have life…because my flesh is real food & my blood is real drink’. He says: ‘He who eats my flesh & drinks my blood lives in me & I live in him’.The Eucharistic life is both regulatory & transformational. Regulatory in the sense that effort to purify ourselves in order to receive him worthily regulates our spiritual life (1 Cor 11: 27-29). Transformational in the sense that what we eat contains Jesus himself (by transubstantiation) who is the ultimate source of life (Jn 10: 10).
B. EUCHARISTIC WISDOM
1st Reading: Here we understand that the Eucharistic life is the highest level of theological wisdom because in the Eucharist ‘Wisdom has built herself a house (tabernacle) & slaughtered her beasts ( death of Christ the lamb of God) & laid a table ( at the altar) and says to the ignorant: Come and eat of my bread & drink of the wine I have prepared for you’, Prov 9: 1-6.
C. EUCHARISTIC DISCIPLINE
2nd reading: Here the conclusion is: Leave your foolish & senseless lives; lives of drunkenness & laziness ( bringing us povery) immorality (causing us different forms of sicknesses) and be filled by the Spirit. Sing Psalms & Hymns together in Eucharistic communion at Mass, Eph 5:15-20.
D. EUCHARISTIC DEVOTION
The reality of Christ in the Eucharist is the reality of the absence of Christ in the lives of those who cannot receive him on earth due to sin, 1 Cor 11: 27 – 29. The Mass is like a wedding video that replays the event of calvary each time you ‘do this in memory of me’, 1 Cor 10: 16. It has the Cultic dimension (emphasis on what we do, that is, ritual actions – the matter & form of the sacrament). It has the Evangelical dimension (emphasis on what we say, that is, the Message/ Word of God). It has the Celebrative dimension ( emphasis on how we feel, that is, the mood – the solemnity of divine presence at Consecration, before and after.
E. CONCLUSION
The truth is that if Catholics celebrate their mass very well, their spiritual lives must change for good. Many Christians still don’t believe in Christ’s statement that His flesh is real meal ( Eucharist) and that this real meal ( Eucharist) is His real flesh. It requires sacramental faith and this specie of faith is very scarce. Happy Sunday dear friends!
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