Sermons
requiring that we reverence one another as the body of Christ
(Feast of Corpus Christi)
Do we Christians really believe that we are eating Jesus’ flesh and that we are drinking his blood? That would indeed sound like cannibalism. I don’t know if you ever had someone questioning you in this way. But in some discussions with people coming from outside of the Christian faith, from nonbelievers, from outsiders this question might arise.
I did grow up with a sense of the Real Presence at the heart of my faith. Our Christian language of eating flesh and drinking blood had never even hinted at cannibalism to me. But on hearing the question in a discussion, I realized that - from the outsider's point of view – the question was an obvious one and deserved an answer.
Even before I studied theology, I came up with something like this – maybe in easier words: “As Christians, we don't think of ourselves as consuming a dead body. The Eucharist is the way the risen Christ makes himself sacramentally available to us. Through this physical sign we encounter the risen Lord really present under the appearances of bread and wine.” I still think that was a pretty good answer.
But now, when I had to prepare this sermon about today’s gospel, I realize that there is even more to the eating and drinking language in today’s passage. Our chapter of John 6 is called the “eucharistic discourse”.
This chapter entails an important Jewish tradition that still goes largely unnoticed in current teaching and preaching. Anyone looking for the Eucharist in the Gospel according to John will find out the following: in John’s gospel there is no mention of Jesus' words linking the bread and cup with his Body and Blood. In John’s rendition of the Last Supper this does not appear. In that scene the evangelist has chosen to focus entirely on the fact that Jesus is washing the feet of disciples. John has chosen another place to elaborate the meaning of eucharistic eating and drinking, not the last supper. It is the discourse in the Capernaum synagogue - just after the feeding of the five thousand and the walking on the water.
So the background for today’s scene is the miracle of bread in the wilderness and Jesus’ own discourse about himself being greater than manna. This sets the stage: the primary background here is the biblical tradition of Moses with his people in the desert.Moses leads his people to the “God-given manna” in the desert. As Christians, we need to realize that the bread and wine is the presence of the same Lord who died for us.
Such references evoke a Jewish tradition well known to the original audience of this Gospel. This Jewish tradition is little known to today's readers, little known to us. It is the tradition that understood manna as a symbol of God's gift of the Torah to his people. The God given Manna is compared to the Torah, to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Have a look at the text of Deuteronomy we just heard: today’s first Reading takes us to the origin of that tradition: “[God] therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna … in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deut 8:3)
God’s word was in the Torah, the Torah was like manna feeding the people, keeping the people alive… A bit difficult to understand, I admit.
The human spirit hungers for the wisdom of how to live according to the will of God, The human spirit hungers for knowing what to believe and how to act in ways that find peace with God. The Torah, seen as the rule for a good life before God, is God's self-revelation of God's self and of God’s will. The Torah is therefore truly bread in the wilderness, in the desert. So now we know about this traditional association of manna with the Word of God in the Torah.
On this background, it is powerful, then, to say that Jesus is the true bread from heaven. Now it is Jesus—the eternal Word made flesh—who is the full revelation of divine communication to the world – no longer only the Torah. To know Jesus, and to receive him as sent by the Father, is to receive the fullness of God's wisdom. Jesus is the true manna from heaven. Once this is accepted, that Jesus is the true manna from heaven, then this Sunday's Gospel joins such an understanding with the Church’s practice of Eucharist.
It is especially in our celebration of the Eucharist that we encounter Jesus as God's wisdom made flesh for us. As we read further in the Gospel according to John, we learn this: to accept Jesus as sent by the Father to serve us means that we are to wash one another's feet, that we are to lay down our lives for one another.
In the second reading, we heard Paul writing to the Corinthians. Paul has his own way of speaking of the eucharistic body – but his way of speaking of the eucharistic body points in the same direction. First Paul asserts that the community is sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ —sharing in the one loaf—this makes us one body he writes (1 Cor 10:17). A chapter later, (1 Cor 11:29), Paul says it is absolutely crucial that we “know with which body we are dealing.”
Here, the context makes it clear that Paul means “body” in two senses: (1) the first meaning of “body” is that need to discern that the bread and wine is the presence of the same Lord who died for us; (2) and the second meaning is that we need to discern that the community of those who share in this worship of Christ’s body are themselves one body, one body requiring that we reverence one another as the body of Christ and attend to one another's needs.
This is the message of today’s feast, the solemnity of the body and blood of Christ: We are one body requiring that we reverence one another as the body of Christ and attend to one another's needs.
Cf https://liturgy.slu.edu/BodyBloodA061420/theword_hamm.html (P. Hamm sj)
Pentecost Sunday 2020 (31st May)
Christian follow the risen, not the historical Jesus
Something we take for granted today was still a hot, debated topic when Luke composed his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. We presume anyone can be a follower of Jesus. Race or social status make no difference. We need only have faith in Jesus. Christianity is its own religion, not a branch of any other faith.
This is what we think. There's just one problem. Christianity did not start that way.
In the beginning - immediately after Jesus' death and resurrection - all the followers of Jesus were Jews. Unlike ourselves, they looked at Jesus as a reformer of Judaism, not as the founder of a system of faith distinct from Judaism. Being Jewish was essential to being Christian.
That's where the Holy Spirit stepped in. From Acts and Paul's letters, we know this Jewish requirement was eventually challenged by some liberal disciples of Jesus. This handful of radicals began teaching that anyone could be baptized into the faith of Jesus without first being required to convert to Judaism. The historical Jesus had no other choice but to express his faith in the context of Judaism. Except on rare occasions, Jesus remained in that context. That's why it was hard for some of his followers to step outside Judaism and begin to share his faith with people who had no idea of the Jewish faith. These non-Jews lived their lives in circumstances and traditions quite different from that of a Galilean carpenter. Why should they be required to accept the context in which Jesus was living before they accepted the faith of Jesus?
The key element in changing peoples' minds about this issue of context/faith seems to have been the insight that Christians followed the risen, not the historical Jesus. Everyone knew that a free, Jewish man died on Golgotha at 3:00 o'clock on Good Friday afternoon. But, as Paul reminded his Galatian community, the "new creation" which rose on Easter Sunday morning was just as much a slave as free, just as much Jew as Gentile, and just as much woman as man. People from any culture, social status, or even gender can identify with him / with her.
Jesus left his historical context in the tomb and rose into our own context, the context of the year 2020. Since the early church carried on the ministry of Jesus, it was guided by the same Spirit which had guided him. This Spirit eventually led them to take the gigantic step of baptizing Gentiles as Gentiles – they did not have to become Jews first.
That seems to be one of the reasons why Luke mentions the native lands of the people gathered in front of the house in which the disturbing wind, noise and fire occurred on Pentecost Sunday. All were Jews, but most lived in non-Jewish places. "We are Parthians, Medes, Elamites..." They are amazed to hear these Christians "... speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God."
Luke employs this phenomenon as an introduction to his theology that the risen Jesus can eventually be proclaimed in all cultures. No longer does one have to speak Hebrew or Aramaic in order to be among Yahweh's chosen. Though crucial parts of Paul's I Corinthians passage have been omitted from today's liturgical selection, one classic line has been included: "To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit." Jesus' Spirit enlivens all his followers. But this gift isn't just for the benefit of the person who possesses it. It somehow benefit's the whole community. We're gifted in order to be a gift for others. John's theology of the Sprit fits together with Paul's. If Jesus didn't send us out as God sent him out, we wouldn't need the Spirit. It's an essential part of our carrying on his uncharted risen ministry. Thankfully the early Church left some traditions behind and gave itself over to a Spirit who guided them down those uncharted roads. Had it insisted on maintaining its Jewish traditions, almost no Gentile would even have considered accepting the new faith if this meant to become a Jew first.
https://fosilonline.com/pdf/roger/Karban_20110605_20110612.pdf
5th Sunday of Eastertime May 10th 2020
You remember the first words in our gospel (John 14,1-12)? First Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Obviously, his friends, his followers are upset, so it is a kindly directive. And second, Jesus elaborates the reason they should not be upset, this is the essence of what he wants to teach them. The initiating statement of Jesus is this: “You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” Notice the two levels of meaning: The first level is practical: “Trust me, I am your friend, I never disappointed you.” But the second level requires much more consideration: “I am so much at one with God that you can belief in me in exactly the way you believe in God!”
Jesus is aware of the fact that his friends do not understand him. He then uses one of his parable-like stories to clarify. The Father has a house somewhere with a whole lot of rooms in it. Jesus has decided to go there and prepare a spot for each of his friends. And Jesus will come back and take them to that place so that they and Jesus will all be together again. This would be a supremely consoling image for us, isn’t it? We have known Jesus now for 2000 years. Consoling for us - but not to the disciples. At this point, the disciples are not ready to do without Jesus even for a few moments.
Remember when Jesus had asked them if they were going to leave him, also in John’s gospel. Peter had said, “Where would we go—you have the words of eternal life”? Now Jesus himself is the one leaving. And his friends still do not understand his intention, do not understand who he is.
So Jesus tries another explanation, extending the image of “the way”. Jesus says: “Where I am going you know the way.” This seems at last a practical statement – a statement that even doubting Thomas can deal with. Thomas says: “Sure, we could find a map and locate a path and follow it. But look, we can’t even know where you are going! Be practical!” Jesus’ statement was a play on words, not “practical” in the way Thomas expects it. “I am the way” says Jesus, he does not say: “I show you the way on the map.” Jesus himself is “the way.” This meaning is much deeper. The way to the Father is not a literal roadway but rather the person of Jesus!
Philip barks out: “Look, Master, just show us the Father and we will be satisfied”! Jesus answers: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” The apostles, practical and broken-hearted, hear mainly the pragmatic level. But Jesus coaches them on to the spiritual level. The disciples, his friends do not understand what he wants to say. The way to the Father is not a literal roadway but rather the person of Jesus!
For us, 2000 years later, after centuries with many many theological reflections, it is easier to understand: we are listening to the deepest mystery of the whole Christian faith — the way God can become a complete human being without ceasing to be God or human. Jesus did his best to show it to the disciples in today’s Gospel, with images, with a story, and a description. Maybe it is now up to us to cling to Jesus in prayer and contemplative listening, so that we too can move toward the answer. Even when we are feeling threatened by the corona virus. The way to the Father is the person of Jesus! is a relation with him, is his friendship.
Fr. Wolfgang Felber SJ
https://liturgy.slu.edu/5EasterA051020/reflections_foley.html