Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles
Readings: Ephesians 2;19-22; Psalm 19:2-5; Luke 6:12-19

Citizenship is an important characteristic for many people. When I have applied to study at universities, or to work, the applications have often asked me to state my citizenship. With some pride about having been born in and living in a prosperous and peaceful country, I have filled in or selected “Canadian.” That said, it brings me much sadness at times to complete the paperwork of the refugees I have worked with both in Windsor and here in Toronto. Those forms also ask for the refugee’s citizenship. When I read his or her country of origin, I realize deeply that the people with whom I work have been persecuted, threatened, and driven from their homeland. Somehow I must give these people hope and show them compassion in a land foreign to them.

The earliest Christian communities were like those of foreigners to our own country in our time. Paul writes to the small Ephesian Christian communities- scattered, maligned for a variety of reasons by surrounding pagans, occasionally brutally persecuted (1)- that they have obtained the only citizenship that matters: they belong to “the household of God.” (2) Like being made citizens of a nation automatically by birth, their belonging to God’s household is less about their own effort than that of Christ who holds the “whole structure”- the Church, God’s kingdom on earth- together as a “holy temple” and “dwelling place for God.” (3) Thus with the Lord we are “no longer strangers and aliens.” (4)

Granted, Paul wrote from an advantageous position; he was a Pharisee and also a Roman citizen. (5) Paul could be compared with those today who enjoy legal privileges due to multiple citizenships. But Paul sacrificed his religious and legal rank to become a servant of Christ, a missionary to those without status. Paul is therefore counted among the Apostles, although he was not one of the original Twelve.

 Jesus’ choice of the Twelve in today’s Gospel also shows what it means to be an Apostle and to belong to God’s household. Jesus welcomed all kinds: impulsive people like Peter who denied Him (6), Judas Iscariot who betrayed Him (7), Thomas who believed only upon seeing the marks of the nails and lance on the risen Jesus (8), Matthew, a tax collector (9), Zealots like Simon who were part of a movement seeking a messiah figure who would overthrow the Romans in Israel (10), and those like Jude, named “Judas son of James” by Luke (10), whom we know little about except a later traditional patronage to “hopeless cases.” (12)

The Apostles, diverse as they were, were unified under Christ. However, the variety of those they would serve was more important than their own. We hear that people came from Tyre and Sidon, distant Gentile territory, to hear Jesus. (13) That diversity is a characteristic of the Church today as it was in the Apostles’ time.

As diverse as the Church is, we are all united by Christ, whose power spreads over us and heals all of us. Thus we are welcomed as “members of the household of God” and “citizens with the saints.” (14) Let us pray then especially for the consolation of those who have sought refuge from threats to their lives or security, and that our Church may increasingly be a place of welcome and healing as Christ intended her to be.

WRS

Friday, October 23, 2009
Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Romans 7:18-25a; Psalm 119:66, 68, 76, 77, 93, 94; Luke 12:54-59

Today’s readings are very Basilian. In the first verse of the Responsorial Psalm, we hear the Congregation’s motto, “Teach me goodness, discipline, and knowledge,” in a more up-to-date translation: “Teach me good judgement and knowledge.” (1) In place of “good judgement,” other English translations read “discernment” or “wisdom.” (2) Whatever the translation, we pray for openness toward God’s will and purpose for us. That will of God is the ultimate freedom with which God created us, sustains us, and will save us.

Psalm 119, from which we hear a part today, is the longest of the Biblical psalmody, an acrostic poem in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. This Psalm is a beautiful reflection on God’s “laws,” not merely empty legal stipulations but a grace-filled call to recognize God’s liberating direction in the here and now. (3)

This relates closely to today’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus criticizes the crowd for their hypocritical incapacity to “interpret the present time” while being able to “interpret the appearance of earth and sky.” (4) As the son of a meteorologist, I am intrigued by Jesus’ opening references to the rain following the cloud from the west and to the heat riding on the southerly wind. (5)

Some of Jesus’ disciples might have had a gift of forecasting weather long before the advent of modern meteorology. But Jesus asks more of us than that. Our Basilian Way of Life lists five sources from which the Lord “speaks to us:” “in the Scriptures, through the Church, in our community, in the signs of the times, and by His Spirit.” (6) In the Gospel, we see a phrase similar to “the signs of the times.”

Our interpretation of these “signs of the times,” in the context of our community and ecclesial lives enlivened by Sacred Scripture and guided by the Holy Spirit, must not be a submission to every whim of the world around us, nor ought we to adopt an exclusive legalism that shuts out the goodness of the world that God has made for us.

Jesus did not come primarily to judge the world, but to free us by uniting His will to that of His and our Father. (7) Therefore we are not appointed as judges, (8) but as disciples who pray to be able to interpret the word of God in our time by our everyday generosity and joy in response to God’s gift of our religious life. (9) Let us then petition the Lord, as in our Basilian motto and today’s Psalm: “Teach [us] goodness, discipline, and knowledge.”

WRS

Monday, October 19, 2009
Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Romans 4:20-25; Luke 1:68-75 (Responsorial Canticle); Luke 12:13-21

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has come to His people.” (1)

In place of a responsorial Psalm, today’s Mass includes the Benedictus, the beautiful hymn of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, from the Gospel of Luke. As religious, we recite this canticle every day as part of Morning Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. The repetition of the Benedictus, as powerful as its words are, can lead to an under-appreciation of the challenges that this prayer presents to us in our everyday lives.

I am especially moved by the first stanza of today’s responsorial canticle, wherein we show our gratitude toward God for having “raised up a mighty saviour for us” in the line of “His servant, David.” (2) Jesus Christ was sent among us in accordance with the promise of God conveyed through the ancient prophets. (3) The Benedictus continues beyond what is included in today’s Mass. However, in the Liturgy of the Hours we recite the verse: “And you, my child, shall be the prophet of the Most High. You will go before the Lord to prepare His way.” (4) Thus the difficult task of prophecy is extended to us, the children of God, from the prophets who preceded Jesus’ earthly life.

Our prophetic work as religious demands “our very life” of us (5), this day and for always, as Jesus tells us in the Gospel reading. Christ warns us that there can be no place for greed, materialism, and for worldly anxiety that are constant temptations to us from the affluence that surrounds us. On the contrary, we the prophets and children of God must continually store up in our souls the riches of Heaven (6): fraternal love, joy, and thanksgiving for the gifts of God and of each other in community. Thus, let us be an everlasting gift to God who now sends us forth in His name.

Through us, may the Lord be blessed, for “He has come to His people and set them free.” (7)

WRS

Friday, October 16, 2009
Memorial of Ste. Marguerite d’Youville
Readings: 1 Corinthians 13:4-13; Psalm 146:2-10; Matthew 25:31-40

Less than three weeks ago, the memorial of eight Jesuit “Canadian Martyrs” was celebrated in Canada. Those men gave their lives courageously to the service and spread of the word of God to the Native peoples of North America, and are therefore rightly honoured. In three days, the anniversary of the death of one of the eight “North American Martyrs,” St. Isaac Jogues, who died near present-day Albany, New York, will be commemorated in the United States. (1)

Today, in between the two great feast days of the Jesuit martyrs, the Canadian Church remembers the life of a more obscure saint, Marguerite d’Youville. I have long had an appreciation of Canadian history, particularly that of the Francophones of our nation. But I gained an even deeper perspective of French roots in my Anglophone-dominated native province of Alberta when I took a “Franco-Albertan” history course in my next-to-last year of undergraduate studies. (2) Also, I would often drive past the Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton, named after the Order founded by Ste. Marguerite and surrounded by the aptly-named road, Youville Drive.  

Born in Varennes, Québec in 1701, Ste. Marguerite lived most of her life in poverty. Her father died when she was young. After two years of education under the Ursulines in Québec, she returned home to teach her five younger siblings. She married François You de la Découverte in 1722. François was abusive toward Marguerite and toward himself, and he bootlegged liquor to the Indian peoples. He died young, leaving Marguerite destitute with two boys who went on to become priests. Marguerite founded a home for poor women in Montréal in 1737, and ten years later she and her companions saved the General Hospital of New France from financial collapse. Another eight years passed before the rule of the Sisters of Charity of Montréal- the Grey Nuns- was approved. (3)

In 1990, Marguerite d’Youville became the first Canadian-born person to be canonized. (4) She is a saint not only because she was humble and poor, or because she founded a religious order, or because she was faithful to an abusive husband for eight years, while also losing four of six children in their infancy. Ste. Marguerite is the ideal religious, a Canadian and universal model of holiness.

In the words of St. Paul, “faith, hope and love” found their home in Ste. Marguerite. (5) Her love and kindness was directed toward the least of our brothers and sisters. (6) The Kingdom of Heaven (7) welcomes those like Ste. Marguerite d’Youville and those among us who strive after her example.

WRS

Thursday, October 8, 2009
Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Malachi 3:13-20; Psalm 1:1-4, 6; Luke 11:5-13

Much discussion about how Christians pray is centered upon the methods of prayer. People I have talked with have asked the question of me as to whether formal or rote prayer is better than spontaneous dialogue with God, or whether silence is better yet. I believe all these are necessary and helpful. We have formulas like the Lord’s Prayer, from yesterday’s Gospel reading (1), and prolonged prayer sets like the Liturgy of the Hours or even the Mass. Some find contemplative methods to be most effective, while others prefer trustful spontaneity, as in a conversation with their best friend.

No one of these is better than another- the Spirit must be allowed to move each of us differently and as He wills. When I went to Cali, I began to spend a short time in front of the Blessed Sacrament each day praying only that I would be able to learn a new culture and language and to better serve the people of our parish and school. I do not consider myself a spontaneous person, but my time in Colombia increased my appreciation of short and informal prayer.

Today’s readings, from the prophet Malachi and from the Gospel of Luke, also present us with differing ways to pray, contrasting one way that is displeasing and one that is pleasing to God.

How often we Christians fall into the pattern decried by Malachi. It is easy to see the evil in the world and, as those referred to in the first reading, to complain bitterly that those who commit such evil are not held accountable by God, but even seem to thrive. (2) How could a just God allow that to continue unabated?

In today’s follow-up to the Lucan version of the Our Father, Jesus teaches us about “persistence” in prayer (3), but He goes a step farther: If a friend needs to be persuaded toward hospitality when bothered at an inopportune time (4), and even if many among us would give almost anything to a fellow person in need- I met several of this kind of people in Colombia- God is even more generous in answering our prayer. (5) We have been sealed with the ultimate answer to our entreaty, the gift of the Holy Spirit. (6) Therefore, no longer is the core of Jesus’ message about persistence in prayer, but about unceasing prayer amid our everyday activities in a spirit of thanksgiving and of joy.

WRS

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Memorial of St. Jerome
Readings: Nehemiah 2:1-8; Psalm 137:1-6; Luke 9:57-62

Over the past two weeks, feast days excepted, the first readings have centered upon the activities of the Israelite people after the Babylonian exile. Following their conquest of the Babylonians, the Persian kings, beginning with Cyrus, were sympathetic toward Israel and allowed the exiles to return to their land and to rebuild the walls and temple of Jerusalem. (1)

Two especially important figures emerged for Israel in this period, both namesakes of books in the Bible: Ezra, a scribe and priest, (2) and Nehemiah, whom we hear from in today’s first reading. Nehemiah is shown to enjoy the company of people. Later in the book named after him he would host a banquet for “a hundred and fifty people, Jews [as well as] magistrates” of the Persian Empire. (3) He was a highly-regarded royal official of King Artaxerxes- his cup-bearer, Scripture tells us. (4) Nehemiah takes advantage of his friendship with the king, who knew that Nehemiah’s sadness at Judah’s plight was a departure from his normal disposition, (5) to ask for letters granting him passage to Judah that he might help with the construction of the temple, fortifications, and a house for himself in Jerusalem. (6)

All of Nehemiah’s requests to the king are granted, but more significantly, he attributes his success to God. (7) Nehemiah is merely God’s instrument at a pivotal point in Israel’s history. Likewise, we should understand ourselves as instruments of God, who has given us the joyful responsibility of Christian discipleship.  In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ three short proverbs, each told with a humourous hyperbole, are meant to show us the traits of the ideal disciple. (8) We are to emulate Jesus, the humble servant who gives His all, even a place “to lay his head.” (9) Though important, even family bonds are subordinate to our duty as followers of Christ. (10) Lastly, we are to be cheerful disciples who always look forward to future service, not back upon the already-ploughed field. (11) This looking forward is the example of Jesus, as it was that of Nehemiah and that St. Jerome, commemorated today.

St. Jerome was the translator of the Bible into Latin, the language of the common people. His Vulgate was used for centuries thereafter, and made an official Catholic Church document by the Council of Trent. St. Jerome was a skilled apologist, and defended the Church against many early heresies. He was not, unlike Nehemiah, a people person; he lived for four years in the Syrian desert. (12)

I could not help notice that I often refer to the Jerome Biblical Commentary to help with my understanding of Scripture. A Catholic newspaper that a friend of mine started in Edmonton was called “The Jerome.” This is the legacy of this saint and Doctor of the Church. He is frequently portrayed in icons with “writing materials and the trumpet of final judgement.” (13)

Like Nehemiah the cup-bearer, Jerome the bearer of Sacred Text employed his talent to serve God. Thus we, too, are called to use our many gifts. In our Mass, we are both the bearers of the Good News in the Liturgy of the Word, and bearers of the bread and wine that become for us the Body and Blood of Christ. Let us be thankful for what the Lord has given us and may our words and actions always give glory to God. Amen.

WRS

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Ezra 4:4-5, 6:1, 6-8, 12, 14-20; Psalm 122:1-5; Luke 8:19-21

This past August, I visited the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada, with my family. There, stories of the greatest people in the sport’s history are told, and their memorabilia is enshrined. But the exploits of some less heralded members of the Hall- broadcasters, coaches, executives- are recalled in a section dedicated to the game’s “builders.”

The Israelite people in today’s reading from Ezra were also builders, although their building concerned something more significant than contributions to a sport. The “people of Judah” (1) had just been allowed to return from exile in Babylon by King Cyrus of Persia. The book of Ezra begins where the second book of Chronicles that immediately precedes it ends, with Cyrus’ decree that allowed the people of Judah to rebuild the city walls and then the Temple of Jerusalem. (2)

However, even with the benevolence of King Cyrus, the reconstruction of the Temple was delayed. (3) The Samaritans, already established to the north of Jerusalem and unwilling to allow Judah’s encroachment on their territory and clash with their religious practice, interfered with the fulfillment of King Cyrus’ plans, bribing officials who stopped the building project until the reign of the next Persian king, Darius I. (4) Moreover, the book of Ezra tells us that Samaritan meddling caused the inhabitants of Judah to become “afraid to build.” (5) About eighteen years passed between the laying of the initial foundation of the “house of God” in Jerusalem and the resumption of construction under the decree re-iterated by King Darius. (6)

The stoppage in work on the Temple, though, raises a deeper question for us: When have we been “afraid to build” God’s house, not so much an exterior, physical structure or a literal building, but an interior dwelling place for God in our souls, nurtured through prayer and actions of kindness, justice, and mercy?

Today’s Gospel reading also reminds us not to be afraid to be active builders of God’s house that is within each of us and is inclusive of the entire human community. In Jesus’ cultural milieu especially, that human community was centered on the family. The fourth of the Ten Commandments was taken to heart; one who honoured father and mother would be blessed by God with a long life in the promised homeland. (7)

Jesus extends this meaning of family in His teaching. According to Luke, He says to his disciples: “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (8) The building of human family and community must begin as an interior disposition to hearing the Word of God. Thus, our hearts become the house of the Word of God, the foundation upon which we are built as temples of the Holy Spirit (9) who act upon the inspiration of that indwelling Word.

The post-exilic Israelites became examples of active building in the book of Ezra. After the Temple was finished, they dedicated it to God and then celebrated the Passover according to Mosaic law. (10) As we build communion with one another and intimacy with God through prayer, then, let us celebrate our Passover into new life, our Eucharist, in thanksgiving and in memory of Christ our Lord. (11) Amen.

WRS

Monday, September 14, 2009
Feast of the Triumph of the Cross
Readings: Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38; John 3:13-17

As a small child I often wondered why Jesus had to die so hideously, crucified between two criminals. Each time I asked that question, the response from relatives was that the death of Christ was necessary: “It had to happen that way.”

“But why?,” I would protest.

No answer was satisfactory for me, even the minimal though accurate clarification I received if I pressed for it for long enough: “Jesus had to die that way to save us.”

At about the same time I had a favourite story on cassette tape called “The Story of Little Tree,” who sprouts just before Jesus’ birth and, in the story, witnesses the birth, earthly life and ministry, death, and Resurrection of Our Lord. His companion, Big Tree, teaches him from his “Small Beginning” all about friendship and love- being “Two of a Kind” despite their disparity in size and “Wisdom.” Then a storm comes, Little Tree is injured, and Big Tree is no more. Little Tree despairs until a kind man- Jesus- sits under his branches and begins to teach the children. Then the unthinkable happens: men cut a branch from Little Tree that becomes the Cross upon which Christ is crucified. Little Tree’s question, through tears, is close to my question as a child: “What could He have done to deserve this?” (1)

The contrast between the Cross upon which Jesus “must be… lifted up,” (2) as in John’s Gospel, and the bronze serpent fashioned by Moses to cure the Israelites who had been bitten by poisonous snakes in today’s first reading (3), shows that Christ’s death had nothing to do with what He deserved. Instead, we deserve the condemnation that Jesus freely took upon Himself “in order that the world might be saved through Him.” (4) Today’s Responsorial Psalm details the disobedience of Israel toward God, “yet He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them.” (5)

Moses had merely ‘placed’ the serpent on a pole and prayed for the people he led out of Egypt, that they might be spared from snakebite that God had brought upon them for their complaining at Mount Hor. St. John’s Greek usage versus the Septuagint text of the Book of Numbers is fascinating; Jesus is actually glorified- hypsothenai- by His death. (6) The Cross is then indeed a triumph, as we celebrate today. This concept must have been unsettling for Nicodemus, a secret disciple of the Lord whom Jesus counselled after dark and who later helped to receive Jesus’ body from the Cross. (7)

We can only speak of the Triumph of the Cross if the reason given for the humiliation of the Cross in the Gospel of John is also true: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (8) God wills us to life everlasting, so the Cross is our atonement and also our victory.

Therefore we are able to pray to the One who, “though [He] was in the form of God…became obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross.” (9) St. Paul rightly urges the Philippians and us to prayerfully celebrate the triumphant love of God. May “every knee… bend, in heaven on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue… confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (10) Amen.

WRS

Friday, September 11, 2009
Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14; Psalm 16:1-2a, 3-5a, 6-7; Luke 6:39-42

St. Paul begins his first letter to Timothy by wishing three gifts from God- “Grace, mercy, and peace”- upon his friend and legate in Ephesus. (1) This salutation resembles a phrase often used by Paul to initiate his letters. One of the opening greetings of the Mass follows the same formula: “The grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (2) However, here Paul adds the word ‘mercy’ in between ‘grace’ and ‘peace’. This exact expression appears in only one other place in the Pauline letters- in his second epistle to Timothy. (3)

Mercy is emphasized as a medium by which grace takes effect as peace. In Biblical terms, “petitioning for mercy [meant] the same as asking for salvation.” (4) Our salvation- eternal peace- is possible only because our God is merciful toward us. Thus, through mercy, grace and peace meet. God is a font of mercy, grace, and peace, but He also wills for us to disseminate these gifts in our world. Our vocation must therefore be one of mercy; just before the start of today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke, we are commissioned to “be merciful, as [our] Father is merciful.” (5)

Unfortunately, we live in a world appallingly lacking at times in mercy toward our fellow human beings. Eight years have passed since the September 11, 2001 attacks, acts as antithetical to mercy as is possible. Perhaps as sadly, these events have begotten yet more fear, more violence, and more bloodshed. This was evident to me not only in North America, but in France, where divisions have deepened between Muslims and non-Muslims. The year after 9/11 was my first time living outside North America, on a student exchange that began with my arrival in Paris on September 11, 2001.

The kind of violence that brings about the horror of 9/11, prejudice, terrorism, war, and the concurrent displacement of people, is learned; Jesus reminds us that “a disciple is not above the teacher.” (6) We condition ourselves over time not to see our own more glaring faults, but to focus on even smaller errors of others. (7) Scripture proposes a solution to this problem: we are able to and we must open ourselves to the mercy of God and of each other, and to “the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus,” (8) instead of acting “ignorantly in unbelief.” (9) That entails the recognition of our own faults for what they are and prayer for and action in a spirit of forgiveness toward our neighbour.

Penitential living is St. Paul’s model for Timothy and for us. Paul’s sudden conversion did not immediately make him perfect, but, as shown in today’s letter to Timothy and elsewhere in Scripture, he was able to recognize his faults and his dependence on Divine mercy. (10) Thus Paul teaches us by example to be grateful to our Lord “who has strengthened [us]” (11) for our Christian calling as ambassadors of grace, of mercy, and of peace.

Let us then pray for an end to the blasphemy of violence in our world, especially under the guise of religion, for its victims, and also for its perpetrators. Let us live lives of repentance and forgiveness. We ask for peace in our world, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

WRS

Sunday, August 9, 2009
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Kings 19:4-8; Psalm 34:2-9; Ephesians 4:30- 5:2; John 6:41-51 

Prophecy is a difficult, even dangerous, undertaking. Elijah knew this well. He contended with the unprecedented depravity of King Ahab who, as Scripture recounts, had done “evil in the sight of the Lord more than any of his predecessors.” (1) Just when Ahab would have been hard-pressed to do any worse, he married Jezebel, who proceeded to murder all the prophets of the Lord and to impose the worship of foreign idols upon Israel. Elijah was the only one of the Lord’s prophets to escape Jezebel’s rampage. He was left to end a crippling famine and to turn Israel back toward its God by slaying Jezebel’s idolatrous army of false prophets. Jezebel responded with renewed wrath, forcing Elijah to flee for his life into the wilderness. (2)

Neither the length of the journey, nor the heat, nor fatigue threatened Elijah’s resolve to prophesy; Elijah felt like a failure. He had brought a drought to an end and shown Israel’s God to be greater than the imported pagan deities. Yet, there he was, a fugitive under a flimsy broom tree in the desert. His end would be no more glorious than that of his ancestors. Therefore Elijah did not pray to God for the strength to continue. Instead, in his hopelessness he wished to die. (3)

Perhaps many of us can relate to such despair, even as deep as that of Elijah. We might feel underappreciated for our work. We’re too old, too young, too sad, or too sick. We complain bitterly. We struggle spiritually, and little consolation comes from prayer or from going to Mass. We feel like we’ve failed. But even total failure is redeemed by our God. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus delivers an astounding promise: “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (4) This bread is not perishable, as Jesus explains, like the manna that was provided from Heaven in Moses’ time. The Israelites ate that manna, “and they died.” (5) Jesus is the everlasting, “living bread that comes down from Heaven.” (6) But, as Jesus’ allusion to His flesh indicates, eternal life can only come through the Cross.

Christ crucified is the ultimate symbol of complete failure, but only by the Cross are we drawn forever to the Father with the Risen Jesus. St. John’s use of the verb “to draw” (7), in the context of the Father drawing us to Jesus, is remarkable, but its significance is easily missed. The next occurrence of this verb in Greek in John’s Gospel is when Jesus predicts His death: “When I am lifted up… I will draw everyone to Myself.” (8) The third appearance of this verb is less obvious in English because of differing translation; on the sea of Tiberias after the Resurrection, when Jesus tells the seven disciples to cast their net over the right side of the boat after a long night fishing without a catch, there are so many fish that the disciples are barely able “to pull” the net to shore. (9) But, as the net is pulled to shore but does not tear under the strain, so we, redeemed from sinful failure by a loving and merciful God, are drawn to Our Father by Christ who died and is risen for us.

The three instances of this verb, “to draw” or “to pull”, in the Gospel of John emphasize three related themes: the Passion, the Resurrection, and prophecy. The last of these stands out more in conjunction with today’s first reading centered on Elijah, who stands for the prophets. Last week’s first reading featured Moses, symbolic of the law. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and of the prophets. His Bread of Life Discourse- Chapter six of John- from which we read for four weeks in a row this month, superimposes a fourth theme upon the previous three: that of the Eucharist. When we receive the Eucharist, we profess our belief in the Body and Blood of Christ crucified and risen by whom we are saved. Therefore, we become prophets of Christ’s death and Resurrection because we bear the “bread for the life of the world” (10), the flesh of Christ, within our own flesh. By our reception of the fullness of God made human, we are “all… taught by God” in the intimacy of our hearts and are thus drawn to the Father (11), as Jesus highlights by His references to the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah in today’s Gospel.

The universal call to be bearers and prophets of Christ to the world was made particularly clear to me two years ago, when I participated in a delegation to the Holy See Mission to the United Nations in New York. During the week we visited a different church in Manhattan for Mass each day. One of the daily Masses was at the home parish of the UN, the Church of the Holy Family. There, I was captivated by the beauty of the tabernacle. It was inscribed in Latin with the words from the prologue to John’s Gospel: “Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis – The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (12) Indeed the Incarnate Word dwells among us and within us. We acknowledge this mystery every time we respond to the reception of the host at Communion: “Amen.”

To be a prophet of Christ is not easy. We are faced with times of despair. We are tempted to grumble and to want to give up. But St. Paul, whose letter to the Ephesians challenges us to “be imitators of God,” (13) offers us consolation also. We are “beloved children” (14) whom God has forgiven and calls to be like Him- “kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another.” (15) This is how we are to prophesy as Christians- by supporting and loving one another as one Church, as God loves us. (16)

St. Augustine offers another insight into our goal of prophetic discipleship in Christ. In two separate sermons focused on the Eucharist, he wrote: “If you receive worthily, you are what you have received” (17)… “To that which you are, you answer: ‘Amen’; and by answering, you subscribe to it. For you hear: ‘The Body of Christ!’ and you answer: ‘Amen!’ Be a member of Christ’s Body, so that your ‘Amen’ may be the truth.” (18)

When we receive the Body of Christ, that is what we become, so our “Amen” is both recognition of the Lord who comes to live among us, as well as a special greeting. Let us then, when we receive the Communion host, greet one another as fellow disciples and prophets of the Lord made flesh for our salvation. We are the Church- “the Body of Christ.” “Amen.”

WRS