Tag: Cycle B

In today’s gospel there is a very familiar story of the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus. As with any familiar story, the danger is that we, upon hearing its opening lines say, “Oh that story,” and we just sort of tune out. But there are many things in the details of the story that we can easily miss. Ultimately the story of Bartimaeus is also our story, for we too must let the Lord heal our blindness and give us sight. One paradox of this gospel that we shall note, is that the man receives his sight as the result of hearing.

Let’s look at this gospel in 6 stages.

Stage I–Perception of the Problem–the text says, As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples, and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man sat by the roadside begging.

Bartimaeus has many troubles, he is blind, and he is poor. But although he is physically blind, he is not spiritually blind. For he knows he has troubles, he knows he is blind. And to know our troubles, to be in touch with our neediness, is an important spiritual insight that many lack.

It is possible for some to feel self-satisfied and to be unaware of how blind, pitiable, poor and naked they really are before God (cf Rev 3:17). Indeed, so poor and so needy that we depend on God for every beat of our heart. But some who are spiritually blind, lose this insight in becoming proud. They fail to ask for help from the Lord,  they fail to ask for grace. Jesus once said to the Pharisees Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (John 9:41)  In other words, physical blindness is not their problem, spiritual blindness is. And because they think themselves righteous on their own power, they do not need God nor do they truly seek him. Only humility and a true “vision” and experience of one’s poverty can help us to call out as we should.

But our blind man knows that he is blind and so he calls for help. As we shall see, however, his cries for help need some direction, a need to be properly specified and directed.

So we begin by simply noting this man is blind, but still, he has spiritual insight.

Do we have this? Do we really understand how blind we are? We struggle to see God, we struggle to see and understand ourselves, we struggle to see others with compassion and understanding. Indeed, God is more present to us than anything in this world. Yet, we see all the things of this world, and still struggle to see God. Neither do we see our own dignity, or the dignity and the gift of others,  yes, even the dignity of our enemies. We do not see or understand how things work together, and we struggle to see and find meaning in the events of our day. We are also blind to our sin, and we seldom understand what harm our sin actually does.

Yes, we have a great deal of blindness, we do struggle to see. But perhaps our worst blindness is it we do not even consider how blind we are. But too easily, like the Pharisees we go on thinking that we know a few things, and that therefore we know many things.

Consider the humility of the blind man, who knows he is blind who knows he needs help, and grace, and mercy. It is a humility that opens the door. Stage one in our journey must be the perception of the problem.

Stage II–the Proclamation that is Prescribed. – The text says  On being told it was Jesus of Nazareth who was passing by, he began to cry out and say “Jesus son of David have pity on me.”

Note the subtle but important transition here. Up until this point he was calling upon anyone, who happened to pass by, for help. But no mere passerby, nor anyone in this world, can ultimately help him with his real problem.

It is the same with us. Though we may turn to science, or medicine, philosophy, economics or politics, none of these can really help us. At best they can specify what is wrong, give us temporary medicines, passing comforts, etc. But all their solutions will be rooted in this world, which is passing away.

True vision can only be granted by the Lord, who opens for us a vision of glory, and who alone can draw safely to that place where joys will never end and visions never cease.

The blind man is told of the presence of Jesus. And hearing this, he directs his cry away from any mere passerby to the Lord who alone can heal him: Jesus, son of David, have pity on me! The world, and passersby can get him money, perhaps a meal, but only Jesus can give him meaning, the true vision that he really needs to see.

And do not miss this point that’s seeing comes paradoxically through hearing. For faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the word of God (cf Rom 10:17). It is a truth that faith is about hearing, not seeing. For most frequently, we doubt what we see. Even if our eyes see marvels, we think, “They have a way of doing that.” No, the eye is never satisfied with seeing (cf Eccl. 1:8). Faith comes by hearing, and faith is obedience to what is heard. We walk by faith, by an inner seeing, not by physical sight.

Thus, it is by hearing that the blind man will come to see Jesus who can help them to see. He hears from others that Jesus is passing by, and he takes up the proclamation that is prescribed, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!”

Stage III–the Perseverance that Produces–the text says, And they rebuked him, telling him to be silent. Yet he kept calling all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “call him.” So they called the blind man saying to him, “Take courage; get up. Jesus is calling you.”

Is it true fact, that those of us who seek to put our trust in the Lord, and call on him, will often experience rebuke, hostility, and ridicule from the world. Note that the blind man ignores all of this. And so should we. He has heard the Name above all names, who alone in heaven and earth can save, and he calls upon him.

Yes, Jesus does delay, he does not answer him right away. But the blind man persevered, calling out all the more, and eventually, Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

Why does God delay? This is a very deep mystery, but it is clear that one of the effects of his delay would seem to be to test our faith and strengthen it. In the end, it is not an incantation that saves us, but faith. Simply shouting, “In the name of Jesus!” Is not enough. The Name of Jesus is not some incantation like, “Open sesame.” Rather, it is an announcement of faith, and faith is more than words. Ultimately, it is not words alone that save us, but the faith that must underlie those words, “Jesus! Save me”

Stage IV–the Priority that is Presented–the text says, He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.

Do not miss this important detail. His cloak was probably the most valuable thing he owned. In that climate, a very arid climate, it gets cool in the evening after sunset. The temperature drops rapidly. So critical was the cloak, that Scripture forbade the taking of a cloak as collateral for a loan:  If a man is poor, do not go to sleep with his pledge in your possession. Return his cloak to him by sunset so that he may sleep in it. (Deut 24:12-13)

But note, this man cast aside his cloak, and leaving it behind, he went to Jesus. Thus, he leaves behind perhaps the most valuable and necessary thing for his survival in this world. To miss a meal, might be inconvenient but it would not kill him. But to sleep one night, a cold night, without his cloak might well end his life through hypothermia. But leaving everything, he runs to the Lord.

What of us? What are we willing to leave behind to find Christ? An old gospel song says, I’d rather have Jesus than silver and gold. Another old hymn says, There’s nothing between my soul in the Savior. Is there? Are you willing to leave it behind?? Are you and I free enough to do so?

Stage V–The Permission that is Procured–the text says, Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, Master, I want to see!”

Why does Jesus asked this question? Can he not see what a blind man needs? Perhaps.

But honestly, healing takes courage. The fact is, in life, most seek mere relief. True healing takes courage because it brings change, and new demands. If the blind man is healed, it would no longer be acceptable that he should sit and beg. Having been healed, more will be expected of him. His life will be irrevocably changed.

Yes, to be healed requires courage. Many of us wonder, of the Lord’s delay in answering our prayers. Perhaps a question from last week’s gospel is applicable as we cry to the Lord: Do you have any idea what you are asking?” Often we do not.

Truth be told, most of us want relief more than healing. There is a big difference. The Lord is in the healing business, but most of us just want relief. Do not miss what the Lord says here. In effect, he says to the blind man, and to us, “Are you really sure you want healing?” The Lord respects us, and our freedom. He wants our consent before he goes to work. And often, though many of us think we want healing, we don’t really know what we are asking.

The Lord waits, until a request makes real sense. He knows that most of us are not always ready for what he really offers. He asks, and when our yes becomes definitive, he goes to work.

Stage VI – The Path that is Pursued–the text says, Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way.

As we have already seen, true healing brings forth radical change. And now man who sat by the road begging, sees, but is also up and walking about. And what is he doing? He is  following Jesus. For faith has saved him, and faith not only gives sight, but summons us to obedience, an obedience that has us walk in the path of the Lord.

You see, (pardon the pun), faith is more than an offer of relief. True faith instills real change. A change in direction, a change in the way we walk.

And thus this gospel speaks to us of a man who was blind. And paradoxically he received his faith by hearing. For he heard of Jesus and called on him. Yes, his sight came from his hearing. And faith grants to vision by hearing. True vision, is to see Christ, and having seen him by hearing, to follow after him.

I have it on the best authority that as he followed Jesus up the road, he sang this song:

In today’s gospel, the Lord Jesus speaks of crosses and crowns. The apostles have only crowns in mind, but the Lord Jesus knows the price of that crown. And thus, he must teach them, and us, that crowns, namely the things that we value most, come only through the cross.

It may help to remember the context of this gospel. Jesus is making his final journey to Jerusalem. He is on his way to the Cross, and has announced this Cross already, on two occasions, to his disciples. But all through this final journey, they prove unwilling, and or incapable of grasping what he is trying to teach them.

Today’s gospel is a perfect illustration of a common biblical theme known as the inept response. What this refers to is the common pattern in the gospels wherein Jesus will give a profound and important teaching, and within a matter of verses, or even just a few words, the apostles demonstrate that they have absolutely no understanding of what he just told them.

Today’s gospel illustrates the inept response. You may recall that on the previous two Sundays, the Lord gave two critically important teachings. Two weeks ago he stood a young child in their midst and spoke of the child as being truly great. He also warned that we must be able to receive the kingdom of God like a little child. Last week, he warned of the pernicious effects of wealth, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And yet, as this gospel opens, on very heels of those teachings, James and John, and later all the apostles, wish honors upon themselves. They want seats at the head of the table, high offices in the Kingdom, which they still conceive of, in very worldly terms. Nevermind, that Jesus has taught them that the place of honor is not at the head of the table, or even at the foot of the table. The place of honor is for those who wait on tables.

And thus we see here the “inept response.” The apostles, and us, we just don’t get it. No matter how clear Jesus is, no matter how often he repeats himself, we just don’t get it.

Let’s look at this gospel in 3 specific stages.

I. Misplaced Priorities–the Gospel opens with James and John approaching the Lord with an inept question, even a demand. “Grant that in your glory, we may sit, one that you right, and the other at your left.”

As we have already seen, this is a misplaced priority. Their understanding of the places of honor is worldly. Further, they want to move right to the head of the table. They want the Lord merely to grant them this honor. Even in a worldly way of thinking,  places of leadership, places a high honor, must usually be earned. Some are born into royalty, but most of the rest of us attain to leadership and honors only after years of effort. Thus, even from a worldly point of view, James and John are being utterly bold, and exhibit little understanding that prior to honors comes labor, comes the earning of it. Their priorities are misplaced. They want to crown but without the cross.

II. Major Price–the Lord Jesus, replies to them, “You do not know what you are asking! Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”

Was Jesus astonished, was he amused, or was he sad? It is not easy to say. But the bottom line is clear, they had absolutely no idea what they were asking. And neither do we. So often we want blessings, we want honors, we want seats in the high places. But we give little thought to the crosses that are necessary both to get there, and to stay there.

Those who finally do attain to leadership, often know what cross it is. It can be lonely, there are many pressures, often there are many long hours, and the heavy weight of a sense of responsibility. True leadership has its perks, but it is hard, and most leaders know also the consistent sting of criticism and isolation.

There is an old joke among bishops, to the effect that “When a man becomes a bishop, two things are certain. He will never again have a bad meal. And he will never again hear the truth.” Leaders in many other walks of life know something very similar.

And thus the Lord Jesus wonders if James and John have any idea what they are really talking about, what they are really asking for. His question is also poignant, for he has been trying to teach them of the kind of passion, the pain, the crucifixion that awaits him, and which he must endure before he, even the Lord of glory, must endure before entering into his glory. No, not only do they not know what they are asking, they just don’t get it.

And this must make the Lord very sad. Sometimes we underestimate the kind of suffering the Lord endured long before the garden of Gethsemane that fateful night, as the sufferings of his passion began in earnest. To one degree or another, prior to that evening, the Lord endured a kind of death by a thousand cuts: enemies trying to trap him, crowds wanting medical miracles but no true healing, strident and judgmental Pharisees, and other religious leaders, ridicule, and disciples who walked away from him as he talked on the Eucharist. And even the Twelve  to whom he looked for friendship, seemed completely disconnected from what he is trying to teach them. He also knew that one would betray him, another deny him, and all but one, would abandon him, and never make it to the foot of the cross. Oh the grief that they gave the Lord.

And Oh the grief that we continue to offer up, how we continue to offend his external glory and be difficult cases for the Lord. How easy it is for us to be hardheaded, stubborn, to have a neck of iron and a forehead  of brass! No, it is hard to scorn the apostles, for we do the very same things

To them and to us the Lord can only remind us of the major price, the true cost. No cross, no crown! Ultimately, Heaven costs everything, for we must leave all this world behind to attain to heaven. The Easter Sunday of glory, whether in this world or in the world to come, is accessed only by a journey through Good Friday.

It is a major price,  but it is a price that James and John seem dismissive of. They simply state, categorically, that they are able to drink the cup the Lord drinks, and to be baptized into his death. But again, they have no idea what they’re talking about. Neither do most of us.

III. Medicinal Prescription–the other apostles join in the confusion, and the inept response by becoming indignant that James and John tried to get special dibs on the seats of honor. Their indignity simply shows that they share in the inept response and they have no idea of anything the Lord is talking about.

Thus the Lord tries to bring the big picture of the cross, more down to earth. He tries to make it plain. He says that the greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all, indeed, the slave of all. Is this plain enough? It is not those who sit at the head of the table, even those who sit at the foot of the table, nor any place at the table. The greatest are those who wait on the table, who serve.

Do they get it? Probably not. Neither do we. It takes most of us a lifetime before we finally get it through our thick skulls, that the point in life is not to have the corner office with a view. We have everything upside down, and exactly backwards. We are not rich in what matters to God. We think of bank accounts, addresses, the square footage of homes, salaries and titles, not things of service.

It may take our death beds before we finally realize that the greatest people in our lives are those with the ministry of care, those who feed us, perhaps change our bandages, and give us basic care.

We like these apostles can be so foolish. At the end of the day, and at our final judgment, God will not care about the square footage of our house, our titles and honors. What will capture his notice is when we served, when we gave a cup of cold water, or food for the hungry. When we instruct the ignorant, prayed for the dying and cared for the needs of the poor. He will look for the calluses and the wounds of our service, of our proclamation of his kingdom. And he will tell us that what we did for the least we did for him

Don’t miss the point of this gospel. Life is not what we usually think. There is no crown without the cross. Honors in the kingdom, crowns and the kingdom, are reserved for those who serve, who take up the cross of washing the feet of others, of going to the lowest places.

In today’s gospel, the Lord speaks of crosses and crowns, and in that very order. We will not gain, we cannot gain, any crown in his kingdom without being baptized into his death, into his cross, into the humble servitude of dying for others in loving service.

The Gospel today invites us to wrestle with fundamental, essential, and focal questions, What does heaven cost? And, Am I willing to pay it?

I. Problematic Pondering. A man asks Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Now, his question is a good one, but it is problematic, because he couches it in terms of his own personal power and achievement. For, he wonders what he, himself, must do to attain eternal life.

The problem is, none of us have the holiness or the spiritual wealth or power to attain heaven based merely on what we do. The kind of righteousness we need can come only from God. The misguided question of the rich man betrays two common misunderstandings that we bring to the question of salvation and our need for redemption.

The first misunderstanding is rooted in a minimizing of how serious our condition is. We tend to think we’re basically in good shape, perhaps we have a few flaws, but basically we mean well and are decent people. We suspect that a few sacraments occasional prayers, and a few spiritual push-ups will be sufficient. But any look to the crucifix will belie our tendency to minimize. If it took the death of the Son of God, and a death that horrible to rescue me, then my condition must be worse than I commonly think with my darkened intellect.

Jesus once  told the parable of a man who owed a huge debt, a debt of 10,000 talents (cf Mt 18:24). This man is us, and the amount is so huge as to be almost unimaginable. No man with such a debt is going to be able to work a little overtime, or get a part-time job to pay it off. 10,000 talents is beyond the national debt. You get the point? We’re in trouble, we have absolutely no ability to rescue ourselves.

A second misunderstanding is that we tend to intellectualize, and minimize what the law of God actually requires. “Okay, so I’m not supposed to kill anyone, no problem! I don’t like the sight of blood anyway! I’ve got this commandment down.” But this thinking minimizes the commandment and what it is wholeheartedly asking of us. This point will be developed more fully below, so here we mention it only in passing.

These two misunderstandings seem to under-gird the problematic nature of the rich man’s question. Jesus, in order to engage the man further, besides, in effect, to play along with the premise. And this leads us to the 2nd point.

II. Playful Prescription –  Jesus decides to engage the man’s premise and says to him, You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.”

Jesus is being playful here in the sense that he draws out the flawed premise of the man, that somehow he can attain to heaven by something he does.

It is interesting to ponder why Jesus only quotes the Second Table of the Law, the part pertaining to our love of neighbor, but he omits to draw from the First Table of the Law, the Commandments pertaining to the love of God. Perhaps we may see in this a premise by the Lord that the man does love God, for he is seeking the Kingdom of Heaven, and how to enter into it.  Thus, the Lord focuses on the Second Table of the Law, which is in evidence in this man’s life, at least in this interaction with the Lord. Further, as Scripture says elsewhere, “How can you say you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you do see.” (1 John 4:20).  Hence, the Second table of the Law, fleshes out the First table.

Now, mind you, the Lord is not affirming here that the keeping of the Commandments can save or justify us. For his even if we consider ourselves blameless, Scripture affirms, the just man sins seven times a day (Prov 24:16). Indeed we can affirm with Isaiah I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips (Is 6:5). And we must say with Paul, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Gal 2:21).

While it is true, that the law  gives us a necessary and clear frame of reference for what pleases God,  in the end, its summons, “Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev 19:22), is not attainable through mere  human effort, unaided by grace. Jesus makes it clear that when God says “be holy” he does not have in mind any mere human holiness, for Jesus says, “Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48).

Thus Jesus is drawing out the problematic premise, of the man. But as we next see, the rich man does not take the hint.

III. Perceived Perfection – Strangely, and humorously to our mind, the man boldly says, Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.

Notice, that his perfection is a perceived perfection, for simply noting it in himself does not mean he actually has it in himself. Having heard Jesus quote the second table of the Law, he announces that he has observed all of these from his youth!

To be fair, his self-analysis was not uncommon for a Jewish man of his time. The Jewish people, had a great reverence for the Law, a beautiful thing in itself. But, the law tended to be understood by them in a fairly minimalist, legalistic, and perfunctory  manner.

For example,  a conversation with a scribe of the law about the duty to love one’s neighbor, the Scribe asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor.” (LK 10:29) As if to say, “If I have to love my neighbor, and I acknowledge my duty to do so, how can I so define neighbor as to be something manageable?” In other words, if justice comes to the law, and I honestly recognize that I have limits, then the law must have limits, and I need to define those limits in such a way that the keeping of the law remains within my power.

Jesus sets aside such thinking in the sermon on the Mount, (Matt 5-7), where he calls for the law to be observed, not in a minimalist sense, but in the sense that fulfills it, that is to say, fills it full.  Thus He  says it is not enough, not to kill,  but that commandment requires of us that we reject everything that leads ultimately to killing, or wishing people were dead.  Thus, the commandment not to kill requires not only that we not take life, but that we also banish from our heart and mind, by God’s grace, hateful anger, retribution, and revenge. The commandment not to commit adultery requires, not merely that we avoid breaking our marriages  vows, but that, by God’s grace, we see banished from our heart and mind lustful, impure, and unrighteous sexual thoughts.

Hence,  the Commandments, and precepts of the law cannot, and should not, be understood in a minimalist way.  Thus,  Jesus sets aside the usual manner of the people of his time to reduce the law to something manageable and then declare they have kept it. God seeks more than perfunctory observance, his grace desires to accomplish within us wholehearted observance. Hence, we need grace, in order to be saved, in order to qualify for anything that God calls holy.

So Jesus sets aside the rich man’s claims of righteousness, and now is ready to called question, “what does heaven cost?”

IV. Pricey Prescription – Yes, what does heaven cost? And the answer is, everything! Jesus, looking at him with love, says to him You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.

Ultimately, what heaven costs, is to leave this world and everything in it, to go and possess God, and heaven.  To have heaven, we must set aside this world, not only its life, but its pomp, its ephemeral glories,  itss passing pleasures.  You want heaven? Gotta leave here!

And though we know this, we often live in a way that seeks to postpone the inevitable and to ignore the joke that this world is ultimately playing on us. The world says, “You can have it all!” Yes, and then you die and lose everything. But we like to postpone facing that , we like to pretend that, perhaps, it ain’t necessarily so. We’re like the gambler who goes to the casino, thinking we will be the exception. But in the end, the house always wins. You can’t cheat life, and in the end, whatever we have, whatever we claim to have won, we lose.

In the end, there is only one way to attain the things of lasting value. Only what you do for Christ will last. The Lord says “Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, that neither rust or moths can corrode, nor thieves break in and steal.” (Lk 12:33).

Notice that the Lord says that being generous to the needy and poor is a way of storing up treasure in heaven.  Sadly, most of us aren’t buying it, thinking that clinging to it here is a way of keeping it.  It isn’t. Whatever we have here, is slipping through our fingers like so much sand. The only way to keep it unto life internal is to give it away, to the needy, the poor, and to allow it to advance the kingdom of heaven and its values.

Otherwise, wealth is not only not helpful is harmful. There are many text in the Scriptures that speak of the danger and the harm of wealth, how it compromises our souls and endangers our salvation:

1. Mk 10:23-25 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

2. 1 Tim 6:7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world; 8 but if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.

3. Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.“

4. Luke 6:24-25 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

5. Mat 19:30 But many that are first will be last, and the last first.

6. James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?

Thus, while the Lord’s claim that heaven costs everything bewilders us, we cannot fail to see that it is true and that the world’s claims on us are rooted in a lie, in fake and passing declarations that somehow we can be secure in the passing glories the world. Yes, and then you die, end of glory. But we like the lie, and so we entertain it. But in the end, we give everything back, because it was never ours, it only seemed that way.

How foolish we are, how blind. And speaking of blindness, not that the Lord looked at the man with love. But somehow the man went away sad. That look of love from the Lord never reached his soul. If it had, the result would surely have been different.

And this leads us to the final point:

V. Powerful Possibility – So starting in shocking is this teaching, that even the apostles, who had in fact left everything to follow the Lord, are shocked by it. There they see, and are in touch with how deep this wound is in the human heart, how deep our delusion that the world and its goods can satisfy us. They see and know how strong and numerous are the hooks that this world has in us. Thus, they cry out “Then who can be saved!?” And Jesus responds “For man it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”

Thus, in the end, salvation must be God’s work. He alone can take these tortured hearts of ours, so rooted in passing things, and make them willing to forsake all things for the kingdom of heaven.  Only God can take our disordered love and directed to its proper end, the love rooted in God, and the things waiting for us in heaven. Only God can remove our obsession with the Titanic and place us squarely in the Noah’s Ark that is the Church, Peter’s barque.

Yes, God can give us a new heart, a properly ordered heart, our heart that desires first and foremost God’s love, a heart that can say You O Lord are enough, a heart that can say I gratefully receive Lord what you give me, and I covet nothing more. Thank you Lord, it is enough, you are enough.

Don’t miss the look of love that Jesus gave the young man, that he gives you. In the end, only a greater love, God’s love received, can replace the disordered love we have for this world.

St. Augustine says Such, O my soul, are the miseries that attend on riches. They are gained with toil and kept with fear. They are enjoyed with danger, and lost with grief. It is hard to be saved if we have them; and impossible if we love them; and scarcely can we have them, but that we shall love them inordinately. Teach us, O Lord, this difficult lesson: to manage conscientiously the goods we possess and not covetously desire more than you give to us. (Letter 203)

I prayed, and prudence was given me;
I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
I preferred her to scepter and throne,
and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,
nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;
because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand,
and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.
Beyond health and comeliness I loved her,
and I chose to have her rather than the light,
because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
Yet all good things together came to me in her company,
and countless riches at her hands. (Wisdom 7:7-11)

Today’s first reading and Gospel speak to us of the miracle of marriage. If your marriage is even reasonably working, it is a miracle! We live in an age that is poisonous to marriage. Many people look for marriage to be ideal, and if there is any ordeal, they want a new deal. Our culture says if it doesn’t work out, bail out. Thus, successful marriages today are a miracle. Likewise, marriages are also a miracle since they are ultimately, a work of God.

Today’s readings bring before us, some fundamental teachings on marriage. Lets look at the Gospel, in five stages.

I. Rejection–the Gospel opens with the Pharisees approaching Jesus and they asked, somewhat rhetorically, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” Jesus, aware of their hypocrisy, that they do not really want an answer from him on which to base their lives, asks them in turn, “What did Moses command you?” They gleefully respond that Moses permitted a husband to divorce his wife so long as he filled out the paperwork.

But Jesus will have none of it and tells them that Moses only permitted this very regrettable thing called divorce because of their hard hearts.

There was a tradition among the Rabbis of Jesus time that this seemingly lax provision permitting divorce resulted from the fact that Moses reasoned,  that if he were to say to the men of his day that marriage was until death, that the men of his day might very well arrange for the death of their wives. Thus in order to prevent homicide, Moses permitted the lesser evil of divorce. But it was still an evil, and still something deeply regrettable. Thus God himself says in the book of Malachi:

And this again you do. You cover the Lord’ altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering…You ask, “why does he not?” Because the Lord is witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Has not the one God made and sustained for us the spirit of life? And what does he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves, and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth. “For I hate divorce says the Lord, the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the Lord of host. Yes…take heed to yourselves, and do not be faithless.” (Malachi 2:13–16)

Thus, in these opening lines of the gospel, Jesus spends time highlighting how the Pharisees, and many other men of his time, have rejected God’s fundamental teaching on marriage. Jesus is about to reiterate that teaching, but for now, note first, the rejection evidenced in the question of the Pharisees, a rejection which Jesus roots in hearts that have become hardened by sin, unforgiveness, and a rejection of God’s plan.

God hates divorce not only because it intrinsically rejects what he has set forth, but because it is also symptomatic of human hardness, and sinfulness.

II. Restoration–Jesus, having encountered their hard hearts, announces a restoration, a return to God’s original plan for marriage. The Lord quotes the book of Genesis saying,

But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. And for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife,  and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.

Note that the line begins with the phrase, “but from the beginning of creation…” In other words, Jesus signals that, whatever may have happened in the aftermath of Original Sin, whatever compromises or arrangements, that may have emerged in the reign of sin,  are now to be done away with in the reign of grace that will come as the result of Jesus’ saving death and resurrection.

On account of the grace that will be bestowed we are now able, and expected to return to God’s original plan for marriage, that is, one man for one woman in a lifelong, stable relationship, which is fruitful, bringing forth godly children for God and his kingdom. This is God’s plan, a plan which has no room for divorce, contraception, and anything other than fruitful, stable love.

We live in a time, in Western culture, when there have been many attempts to redefine God’s plan for marriage, and substitute something erroneous, something human, for God’s original and perfect plan. And while current attempts to redefine marriage as including same-sex unions are a particularly egregious attempt at redefining marriage, this is not the first or only way that many in our culture have sought to redefine God’s plan for marriage.

The first attempts began in the 1950s, when the first celebrity divorces began to happen in Hollywood, beginning with Ingrid Bergman and many others to follow. Many Americans, who love their Hollywood stars, began to justify divorce. “Don’t people deserved to be happy?” became the refrain. And thus marriage, which had its essential focus as what was good and best for children, began, subtly but clearly, to be redefined in terms of what was best for adults. The happiness of the adults, rather than the well-being of the children, began to take pride of place in most people’s thinking about marriage.

Pressure began to build to the 1950s and into the 1960s that sought to make divorce easier. Until the late 1960s, divorces had been legally difficult to obtain in America. Wealthier people, and celebrities, often went to Mexico to get divorces. But now, pressure began to build to make divorce in this country easier. In 1969 Gov. Ronald Reagan of California, signed the 1st “no-fault divorce law.” This legislation made divorce a very easy thing to obtain. Within ten years most of the 50 states had similar laws. Divorce rates skyrocketed, as we well know.

And this amounts to the 1st redefinition of marriage. No longer was a man to leave his father and mother, and “cling to his wife.” Now, at the sign of trouble men and women could easily sever their marriage vows. But this in direct contradiction to God’s plan which tells them to cling.  Thus, we engaged in what amounts to a redefinition of marriage.

The second redefinition of marriage came when the contraceptive mentality seized America in its grip beginning in the late 1950s and continuing apace to current times. Though God had said to the first couple, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth… (Genesis 1:28), Now children become more of a way of “accessorizing” the marriage, then an integral and expected fruit of marriage. Thus, children, were no longer an essential purpose of marriage, only an optional outcome, based on the wishes of the adults. And this too, is a redefinition of marriage in direct contradiction to God’s instruction to be fruitful and multiply. The happiness and will of the adults in question now attained to preeminence, children, rather than being an essential fruit, are only a possible outcome.

The current, and third redefinition of marriage is the proposal by many in our culture that people of the same sex can now enter into “marriage.” The utter absurdity of this proposal flows from the sinful conclusions of the first two redefinitions, which in effect state that, marriage is simply about two adults being happy, and doing what pleases them.

If that be the case, then there seems little basis in most people’s mind to protest “Gay” people getting married or, frankly, 3 or 4 or 5 adults getting married (polygamy is surely coming next).

We, in the heterosexual community, have misbehaved, and redefined essential aspects of marriage for over fifty years now. And the latest absurdity, (and it is absurd), of gay marriage flows from the flawed and sinful redefinition of marriage in the heterosexual community. We have sown in the wind, now we are reaping the whirlwind.

In the end, Jesus will have none of this. He rejects the attempts of the men of his age to redefine marriage, and he, through his Church, his living voice in the world today, also rejects the sinful and absurd redefinitions that we in our culture, propose, be it divorce, contraception or homosexual “marriage.”

God has set forth that a man leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and that the two of them become one flesh. In making a suitable partner for Adam, God created Eve, not Steve. And hence homosexual unions are excluded, a man is not a suitable partner for a man, a woman is not a suitable partner for a woman. Further, God did not, in making a suitable partner for Adam, make Eve, Ellen, Jane, Sue, Mary and Beth. Hence, polygamy, though mentioned, and tolerated for a time in the Bible (but always a source of trouble), is also not part of God’s plan.

God intends one man, for one woman, in a relationship of clinging, i.e., stable relationship, that bears the fruit of godly offspring.

This is the Lord’s plan and the Lord Jesus does not entertain any notion from the people of his day that will alter, or compromise God’s original design for marriage. He thus announces a restoration of God’s original plan for marriage as set forth in the book of Genesis.

III. Reality. As has become the case today, Jesus’ reassertion of traditional, and biblical marriage, was not without controversy. In Matthew’s account of this moment, many of the disciples react with disdain, saying, If that is a case of a man and his wife, it is better never to marry! (Matt 19:10)

In this gospel we see that the disciples are somewhat troubled by what Jesus says, and that they asked him about it again later, in the house. But Jesus does not back down, and even intensifies his language saying, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

There will be no apology from Jesus, divorce and remarriage is adultery. There may have been some in Jesus time, and today, who hold up their divorce papers and say that they have a divorced decree. But in effect, Jesus more than implies, that he is not impressed with some papers signed by a human judge, and he is not bound by the decision of some secular authority. What God has joined together, no man must separate. In other words, once again be establishes, that once God has in fact joined a couple in holy matrimony, the bond which God has affected is to be respected by all, including the couple themselves.

In other words, marriage has a reality beyond what mere humans bring to or say of it. Marriage is a work of God, a work that has a reality, and an existence the flows from God’s work, not man’s. All of our attempts to redefine, obfuscate, or alter marriage as God has set it forth, is both sinful and something which God does not recognize as a reality.

IV. Reemphasis–now comes an interesting twist, which includes with itself a reminder of one of the most essential purposes of marriage. The gospel text says,

And people were bringing their little children to Jesus that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

This is not a new element to the story, neither have we gone into a separate pericope . Rather, Jesus’ remarks about children remind us of the essential reason why marriage is structured as it is. Why should marriage be heterosexual, why should it be stable, why should include a father and a mother, rather than two fathers, or two mothers, or one mother or one father?

The fundamental answer, is it the essential work of marriage is to procreate, and raise children! Since children remain marriage’s most fundamental fruit, it makes sense that marriage should be structured based on what is best for children. And the fact is, that children are best raised in a stable, lasting environment, where their parents have committed to one another in mutual support, and partnership in raising the children. Further, it makes sense psychologically that a child should be receiving influence from both a father and a mother, a male and a female parent. There are things that a father can teach a child that a mother, or another woman alone cannot. Further, there are things that a mother and a woman can teach a child that a father alone or two fathers cannot. Psycho-social development is best achieved in what God and nature have set forth, namely, that every child should have a father, and a mother; a male and female influence, growing up.

Anything else, amounts to something which is less than ideal. To the degree that we intentionally impose the less than ideal on children, we are guilty of an injustice. Bringing children into the world prior to marriage or apart from it, wherein a child will be raised in a single-parent home, is an injustice. It is an even greater injustice that children conceived under the promiscuous circumstances are far more likely to be aborted. To kill a child through abortion is a horrific injustice, it is also an injustice to raise a child apart from a marriage situation.

This preference for stable lasting heterosexual unions, clearly excludes homosexual unions. For same-sex “parents” are far from ideal for a child. To raise a child in such circumstances intentionally is an injustice, for it is to subject the child to that which is unnatural, and far from ideal.

Catholics have every obligation, to both uphold and to insist upon traditional marriage as what is right and just, not only because it is God’s plan, but because it is clearly what is best for children, and marriage is fundamentally about children. It is not simply a religious sensibility that should lead us to our position, but a position deeply rooted in natural law, common sense, and what is best for children.

Traditional marriage should be encouraged in every way, and becoming more fuzzy about what marriage is, or defining it down does not help our culture esteem traditional marriage. Traditional marriage has pride of place since it is focused on raising the next generation and is critical to that essential function of our society.

There is much talk today about the rights of people to do as they please, and so-called gay “marriage” is presented in this framework. But sadly, many who discuss rights, only refer to adults and seem to care less about what is really best for children. What is good, and right for children, needs to have a much higher priority in our culture today than it currently does.

Jesus reemphasizes the teaching on marriage by bringing a young child before them and telling them not to hinder the children. One of the clearest ways we hinder children from finding their way to God and to his kingdom, is with our own bad behavior. Bad behavior such as: promiscuous sexual acts that endanger children through abortion and single parenthood, bad behavior such as divorce which leaves children in divided predicaments and confused loyalties, bad behaviors such as homosexual insistence on adult rights above what is best for children. To all of this bad behavior Jesus presents a young child to us and says, “do not hinder them.” And our bad behavior hinders them.

V. Reassurance–to be sure, this teaching about marriage is, to a certain degree, “heavy weather.” Indeed, many in our culture have tried, and failed to attain to the vision of marriage which the Lord teaches today. There are complicated reasons, too many to note here, as to why people struggle to live this teaching today.

But whatever our own failures have been, we need to go to the Lord with a childlike trust, a trust that cries out for help. Thus, Jesus says at the conclusion of today’s gospel, Amen and I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God, like a child, will not enter it.

It pertains to children, often to feel overwhelmed, but in the midst of that, to run to their parents and seek help. It is in this spirit, that the Lord asked us to receive this teaching. Indeed, many of us may well have to run, and say “Abba, God, I don’t know how to live this teaching. My marriage is in ruins, and I don’t know how to save it. I’ve tried, but my spouse is unwilling. I can’t go back and undo what I did years ago.”

But note, how the Lord embraces the child in this gospel, and he is willing to embrace us as well, in our failures, and our difficulties. If we have failed, we should be like a young child and run to the Father. What we should most avoid is to be relentlessly adult, dig in our heels and say, “God is unreasonable, the gospel is unreasonable!”

In the end, only God can accomplish strong marriages and strong families for us. We must run to him as a Father, and seek his help. If we have failed, we must not fail to tell the next generation what God teaches, even if we have not been able to live it perfectly.

God’s plan still remains his plan for everyone, whatever our personal failings. We have every obligation to run to him and trust, and to ask his help, but even in the midst of personal failures, we can and must announce and celebrate the truth for others. In the end, God does not give us his teaching to burden us, or accuse us, but rather, to bless us. Our assurance must be, in his mercy and his capacity to write straight, even with the crooked lines of our lives.

If we in this generation have failed, and many of us have failed in this generation, we must still announce God’s plan for marriage to the next generation, we must not cease to hand on God’s perfect plan.

In the end, it takes a miracle, but God is still in the miracle working business, the miracle of marriage.

Photo Credit: Spiering Photography www.spieringphotography.com The couple pictured here are the Archduke Imre and Archduchess Kathleen of Austria who recently wed here in DC. A fine Catholic couple who seriously prepared for the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony and are possessed of devout faith which will surely help them embrace the miracle of marriage.

In the readings today we are reminded of, and invited to rejoice, at the great Eucharistic Feast of the Lord Jesus. Indeed, the Lord Jesus at the great cost of the loss of many disciples, teaches us that he himself is the food of this great feast: the Bread is in fact his Body, broken and offered, the Wine is in fact his Blood in the New Covenant shed for many unto the remission of sin. And the Church, in the voice of “Lady Wisdom” from Proverbs, calls all to come to the holy feast, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb and the Church, his beautiful Bride. And in that feast we are not only to recognize the Lord and receive, we are to rejoice with song, as the second reading joyfully sets forth.

Yes, you might say we have here Wine, a Woman and Song: the Wine of Christ’s sacrificed body and blood, the Woman who is his beloved Bride the Church saying “Come to the feast!” And the song of our praise in every Holy Eucharist. Lets look at each dimension in today’s readings.

I. WINE – We are, in the Gospel continuing with the great treatise on the Eucharist by Jesus in John 6. Many of the Jewish listeners who hear him the synagogue at Capernaum are grumbling and murmuring in protest at his insistence that they eat his flesh and drink his blood. But Jesus does not back down for a minute. In fact, he “doubles down” and quite graphically teaches a very real (as distinct from symbolic) call for eating his flesh and drinking his blood. He does this in four stages. He begins by insisting on the:

A. REALITY of the Eucharist – He says: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Notice therefore, the bread IS HIS FLESH. The bread is not simply a symbol of his flesh, of his body, or of his life and teachings. It is not simply a way of remembering him when he is gone. No, it IS his flesh. Other scriptures also insist on the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and the truth that it is his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity:

a. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor 11:23-25)

b.The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? (1 Cor 10:16)

c. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. (1 Cor 11:27-29)

d. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight..Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24:31, 35)

Thus the Lord teaches them first of the reality of the Eucharist, of the food, the wine that he offers. It is in fact his Body and Blood.

B. REACTION – The Lord’s teaching provokes a reaction: The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Here was one of the most difficult moments of Jesus’ public ministry. The scene is the synagogue at Capernaum. The town where Jesus worked some of his greatest miracles. You’d think he’d have a real audience here! But as it turns out: You might say he had no “Amen corner,” and the old spiritual was demonstrated that says, Way down yonder by myself and I couldn’t hear nobody pray. As we shall see next week, their reaction and revulsion is so severe that many will leave him and no longer walk in his company. It is to be wondered if Jesus did not have this moment in mind when he said of Capernaum: And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.” (Mat 11:23-24)

C. REINFORCEMENT – But Jesus does not back down. Their rejection leads to his reinforcement of his teaching: Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Yes, Jesus gets emphatic and uses the intensifier  “Amen, Amen I say to you” which is the Jewish equivalent of “Let me be perfectly clear…” And he also switches his vocabulary from the polite word for “eat” (φαγεῖν (phagein) in Greek) to τρώγων (trogon) which more graphically and impolitely speaks of gnawing on, or crunching or chewing his flesh.

Jesus wants to be very clear. They understood him to speak literally, not metaphorically or symbolically. He assures them he expect to be understood literally. Why is he so emphatic? He wants to save us and links the eating of his Body and Blood to eternal life: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. In order to be raised up and to make the journey to eternal life we must be sustained and strengthened for the journey by eating and drinking his blood.

It is just like the manna in the wilderness that sustained them for forty years in the desert as they journeyed to the Promised Land. Had they not eaten, they would have died in the desert. So it is for us in the desert of this world. Without our Manna, our Bread from heaven, without the Body and Blood of the Lord to sustain us, we will not make it to the Promised Land of heaven.

Jesus insists: EAT! Else the journey will be too long for you! For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. I am the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die.

D. REWARD of the Eucharist – Here the words of Jesus speak plainly of the reward in receiving the Eucharist: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.“

And therefore, we see the most essential teaching of today’s readings: the Bread is Christ’s Body and the Wine is his blood. How can any of us doubt what Jesus teaches us here about his true presence? St Thomas Aquinas says simply of this teaching of Jesus: Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius, nil hoc verbo veritátis vérius (I believe whatever the Son of God says, nothing is more true than this word of truth).

And thus we have the “Wine” of this day, the wine of Truth, the Wine that is his Blood, the bread that is in fact his Body. And this leads us to the “Woman” of today’s feast, the Church.

II. A WOMAN – The First reading describes the Woman this way: Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns; she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table. She has sent out her maidens; she calls from the heights out over the city: “Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.”

The “Woman” here is “Lady Wisdom” an allegory for the Church, Christ’s Bride and our Mother. Notice two things that the Church as Mother does:

1. She FEEDS – the text describes here as having set up her seven columns (the Sacraments) and that she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table. She calls out: Come, eat of my food. And in the great banquet of the Eucharist She feeds us with the Word and Eucharist. To every Catholic our Mother, the Church calls every Sunday, and she says “Eat! Partake of what my Spouse offers, His Word, and his Word become flesh, his very Body and Blood. Come Eat!”

2. She FORMS – For the Church, like any mother says, “Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.” She calls us not only to be informed by the Word of God but to be transformed!

Yes, there is a Woman in today’s feast, Christ’s holy Bride and our Mother.

III. SONG – and finally there is a song as described in the Epistle today: Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Yes, we are called to the feast to partake the WINE of Christ’s Body and Blood, by the WOMAN, our Mother the Church, and she calls us to SONG, to rejoicing, to celebration.

And as the text from the Epistle says, we ought to sing in thanksgiving, the very meaning of the word “Eucharist.” Scripture says that we were made to praise the Lord: we…have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory (Eph 1:12). It also says, The joy of the LORD is your strength. (Neh 8:9).

Yes, we are called to this feast to tell our story and recount the victory of the Cross. Every Sunday we rejoice that, whatever our trials, God can and does make a way, and that we already have the Victory in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So today, Wine, a Woman, and Song. The wine, the feast of Christ’s Body and Blood, the Woman, his Bride and our Mother the Church, the Song, our very rejoicing and the feast of Victory for our King, Jesus.

Somehow this post reminds me of an old Monteverdi Motet entitled “Jubilet Tota Civitas” (from Selva Morale) wherein Holy Mother Church Bids the whole city to rejoice. Here is a translation, then the motet:

Jubilet tota civitas.
 Psallat nunc organis Mater Ecclesia Deo aeterno, quae Salvatori nostro gloriae melos laetabunda canat. Let the whole city rejoice.
 Mother Church now sings with instruments to the eternal God, she who to our Savior now joyfully sings a song of glory.

Quae occasio cor tuum, dilectissima Virgo, gaudio replet tanta hilaris et laeta? Nuntia mihi! What glad and happy occasion, most beloved Virgin, fills your heart with such joy? Tell me!

Festum est hodie Sancti gloriosi
 qui coram Deo et hominibus operatus est. Today is the feast of a glorious Saint
 who worked in the sight of God and of men.

Quis est iste Sanctus qui pro lege Dei tam illustri vita et insignis operationibus usque ad mortem operatus est. Who is this Saint who, for the law of God,
 with such a distinguished life and outstanding works labored until death?

Est Sanctus Cyprianus. It is Saint Cyprian.

O Sancte benedicte! O holy and blessed one!

Dignus est certe ut in ejus laudibus Semper versentur fidelium linguae. Jubilet ergo. Jubilet ergo tota civitas. Alleluia. He is assuredly worthy that in his praises
 the tongues of the faithful will always be exercised. Rejoice therefore! Let the whole city rejoice.
 Alleluia.

Enjoy this Soprano solo, so light and joyful.

The Gospel today amounts to a summons to faith by Jesus. In particular he is summoning us faith in himself, and the truth he proclaims about his presence in the Holy Eucharist. Last week’s Gospel ended with Jesus declaring that he was the bread that has come down from heaven. Today’s Gospel opens with his Jewish listeners grumbling that he  claims to have come from heaven. Throughout the gospel Jesus stands firm on his call to faith and teaches them on the necessity of faith, it origins and its fruits. Lets learn of what the Lord teaches us in four stages.

I. The Focus of faith. The gospel opens with the grumbling of the crowds since Jesus claims to have come from heaven – The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven, ” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?“

Their lack of faith is a scandal and also shifts our focus to the need for faith, and also how difficult it is to have faith. Both the scandal and difficulty are illustrated in the background to the crowd’s lack of faith.

First, recall that Jesus had just fed over 20,000 of them with five loaves and two fishes, and there were still 12 baskets full of leftovers. It was this very miracle that had made many of them follow him, when he went to the other side of the lake. All the miracles Jesus worked were meant to summon people to faith and provide evidence for the truth of his his words. Jesus said elsewhere,  …for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the Father has sent me (John 5:36).

Thus their lack of faith, their grumbling and murmuring was scandalous. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes was not the only miracle he had work till now or would work. Recall that he had:

Changed water into wine, healed lepers, healed the centurion’s servant, cast out numerous demons, healed a the lame, healed the woman with a hemorrhage, raised Jairus’ daughter, cast out blindness in numerous individuals, one of them blind since birth, cured the man with a withered hand, Walked on the water, Calmed storms at sea, Fed 4000, Fed 5000, healing of the deaf and mute, Caused miraculous catches of fish, Raised the widow’s son, Raised Lazarus

So the question is What are they (we) going to focus on? What Jesus does, or where he’s from? It seems clear they are more focused on his human origins, where he from and who is human kin are.

Many today as well seem more focused on the human dimensions of the Church, or the foibles of believers, or even on their own struggles. Yet how many today really put their focus on what God is doing, on the many daily miracles of simple existence, and of the many ways even defeats often become victories?

So whats your focus? On mere human things? But what if the focus is on God, and that God is worthy? Is faith your focus? We can see why Jesus focuses on faith, because, frankly, we are a hard case and our faith needs to grow.

II. The Font Faith – Noting their lack of faith, Jesus rebukes them in these words: “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.

Jesus here teaches two things, that our faith in him comes from the Father, and also, that we are a hard case.

First Jesus teaches that his Father is the source of our faith in Him. Scripture elsewhere teaches this truth

1. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. (Eph 2:8)

2. This is my beloved son, listen to him. (Matt 3:17)

3. But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. (John 5:36)

4. I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness to me. (John 8:18)

Here then is the central work of the Father, to save us by drawing us to faith in his Son, when He sent to redeem the word.

But Jesus also teaches that this work of God generally involves considerable resistance on our part. And this fact is evident in the word Jesus uses, namely, that the Father must “draw” us to the Son. the Greek word here is ἑλκύσῃ (helkuse) – means to drag, draw, pull, or persuade, and it always implies some kind of resistance from what is drawn, or dragged. For example is it also the word used in John 21:6 for drawing a heavy laden net to shore.

Thus Jesus points to their (our) stubbornness in coming to faith. We are stubborn, and stiff necked, so the Father has to exert effort to draw, yes even drag us to Jesus.

Yes we’re a hard case and we have to be “drug.”  Some one once said,

I had a drug problem when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather. I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher. Or if I didn’t put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me. I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profane four letter word. I was drug out to pull weeds in mom’s garden and flower beds and to do my chores. I was drug to the homes of family, friends, and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline or chop some fire wood. And if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the wood shed. Those drugs are still in my veins; and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, and think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin, and if today’s children had this kind of drug problem, America might be a better place today.

III. The Functioning and Fruit of Faith – Jesus goes on to teach of both how faith functions and what its fruit is: Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

First, as regards the functioning of faith, the Greek text is more clear than our English translation. The Greek word here for “believes” is πιστεύων (pisteuon), a present, active, participle. This construction signifies an on-going action, and is better translated as “He who goes on believing…” or “He who is believing….”

The danger is that we reduce faith to an event, or to an act. Thus some say, they answered an altar call, others point to their baptism. Good. But what is going on today? What is prescribed here by the Lord is lasting, ongoing faith. It is a lasting faith since faith is more than an event. It is an on-going reality. It is more than something you have,  it is something you do, daily. It involves leaning, and trusting in God. It is a basing of our whole life on his Word,  the daily obedience of faith.

Scripture says elsewhere of this on-going necessity for faith:

(1) But you must hold fast to faith, be firmly grounded and steadfast in it. Unshaken in the hope promised you by the gospel you have heard. (Col 1:21ff)
(2) Brethren I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and in which you stand firm. You are being saved by it at this very moment provided you hold fast to it as I preached it to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain. (1 Cor 15:1)
(3) He who perseveres to the end will be saved. (Matt 24:13)

Jesus, having taught of the on-going quality of faith also speaks of its fruit which is “eternal life.” Here too we have to move beyond reductionist notions of what is meant by eternal life.

The Christian use of the word “eternal” does refer only to the length of life, but the fullness or quality of it. The Greek word here that is translated “eternal” is αἰώνιος (aionios – where we get the English word Aeon). And aiṓnios, according the Greek lexicon of Scripture does not focus on the future per se, but rather on the quality of the age.

Note too that the Greek word translated here as “has” is ἔχει (echei) and is a present, indicative, active. Thus it does not refer to something only that we will have, but something we now have. So believers live in “eternal life” right now, experiencing this quality of God’s life now, as a present possession. It is true, we do not enjoy it fully, as we will in heaven, but we do have it now, and it is growing within us.

Thus, Jesus teaches that the one believing, enjoys the fullness of life in him, even now, and in a growing way, day by day. One day too, we will enjoy the fullness of life, to the top, in heaven.

Here then is Jesus teaching on the functioning of faith (its on-going quality) and the fruit of faith (eternal life, i.e. the fulness of life).

IV. The Food of Faith – Having set forth the necessity of faith, Jesus now prepares to turn the heat a bit, and test their faith. Not only has he come from heaven, but he is Bread they must eat. And the bread is his flesh. He says to them –  Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died but this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Now this final verse points to next week’s Gospel when this will be developed more fully and graphically. But in effect, having warned them of the necessity of faith, Jesus now points to one of his most essential teachings, the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.

Without faith, they (we) cannot grasp this teaching or accept it. And, as we shall see next week, most of them turned away from Him and would no longer follow him, because they could not accept what he was saying, they did not have the faith to trust him in this matter. They scoff and leave him. We will say more on this next week as John 6 continues to unfold for us.

But for now, let the Lord ask you, “Do you have faith to believe what I teach you on this?” Perhaps we can say with the Centurion, “I do believe, help my unbelief” or with the Apostles who said, “Increase our faith!” Or we can say with St. Thomas Aquinas:

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, (sight, touch and taste, in thee fail)

Sed auditu solo tuto creditur. (But only the hearing is safely believed)

Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius; (I believe whatever the Son of God says)

Nil hoc verbo veritátis verius. (Nothing is more true than this word of truth).

But in the end we either have faith or will be famished. Either we will have the faith to approach the Lord’s table, or we will go unfed. Jesus says later, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you have no life in you (Jn 6:53). In other words, we starve spiritually without the faith that brings us to God’s table.

Behold how few come to the Lord’s table in these days, these days which so lack faith. Only 27% of American Catholics go to Mass anymore. If one has faith in the Eucharist, how can we stay away? We cannot. To the degree that we believe, will will never miss a Sunday. And our devotion to he Lord will grow daily. And our experience of the fullness of life (eternal life) will grow.

It’s either faith or famished. Do you believe?

All the readings in today’s Mass speak of the fact of human desire. The Israelites in the desert are hungry, so are the people by the lakeside, with Jesus. And in the Epistle St. Paul warns of corrupted desires. In all the readings, God teaches us that our desires are ultimately directed to Him, who alone can really satisfy us. Why is this? Because our desires are infinite, and no finite world can really satisfy us.

Lets look at what the Lord teaches by focusing especially on the Gospel, but also including insights from the other readings. There are three basic parts to the teaching on desire.

I. THE HUNGER OF DESIRE – The Gospel text begins where last week’s gospel left off. Jesus had multiplied the loaves and fishes and satisfied the crowd with abundant food. After working this miracle he slipped away and headed across the lake to Capernaum. Today’s text begins:  When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

Thus we begin simply by noting the hunger of the people. Allow hunger here to represent all our desires. Desires, of themselves are good and God-given. It is their hunger, their desire,  that makes them seek for Jesus. Further, their desire is very deep and strong, for they are willing to journey a significant distance to find Jesus.

As such, desire has something important to teach us. It does not take much to note that our desires not only motivate us, but that they are infinite, unlimited. For no matter how much we get, we simply want more. We may experience some momentary satisfaction with certain things like food, but it doesn’t last long. And, taken together, our desires are limitless.

But this limitless, infinite quality demonstrates God’s existence, for a finite world cannot give what it doesn’t have, namely infinite longing. Thus, our infinite longings point to God and must come from him. Our hearts, with all their infinite longings teach us that we where made for God and will not find rest apart from God.

Purification needed – Thus the journey of the people around the lake to find Jesus is good in itself. But as we shall see, their hunger needs purification and a more proper focus. They do not seek Jesus as God, but rather as “Bread King.” They seek mere bread, mere food for their stomachs. But the Lord wants to teach them that all their desires really point higher. And that leads us to the second movement of this Gospel.

II. THE HEALING OF DESIRE- As we have already noted, desire is good and God-given. But, in our fallen condition, our desires are often unruly, and our darkened minds also misinterpret what our desire is really telling us.

They are unruly because we desire many things out of proportion to what we need, and to what is right and good.

Our minds are darkened to the degree that we consistently turn to the finite world in a futile attempt to have it satisfy us, and, when it fails, we keep thinking that more and more of the finite world will satisfy our infinite longing. This is futile and the sign of a confused and darkened mind, because the world cannot possibly satisfy us.  More on this in a moment.

For now, Jesus must work with these bread-seekers (us) and help them realize that their desire for bread is about much more than bread, it is about God, and He is the Lord whom they rally seek. Lets observe how he works to heal their desires.

A. The Doctor is in – the text says, And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” – Their question is somewhat gratuitous since they know exactly when he got there, and they are simply trying to strike up a conversation in order to get more bread. As we shall see, Jesus calls them on it. But note this much, they are looking for Jesus and they do call him “Rabbi.” Both these facts are good. Their desire, though imperfectly experienced, has brought them to Jesus who, as Lord, can now teach them (and us) about what their longing is really saying. The doctor is in.

B. The Diagnosis – The text says, Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. In other words, “You are not looking for me because you saw signs and want to believe in me, but because you want your bellies filled.”

And this is our essential problem, that we focus on our lower desires, our bodily needs, and neglect our higher spiritual desires. We have a very deep and infinite longing for God, for his love, for his goodness, beauty and truth. But instead of seeking these things, we think another hamburger will do. Or if not that, a new car, a new house, and new job, more money, more sex, more power, more popularity. Yes, we think, if we just get enough of all this “stuff” will finally be happy. We will not, it is a lie. A finite world cannot satisfy an infinite longing.

In the Second reading from today’s Mass St. Paul warns: I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds….that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds (Eph. 4:17, 20-23)

Note St. Paul’s use of the word “futility.” The Greek word is ματαιότης (mataiotes) here meaning unreality, purposelessness, ineffectiveness, a kind of aimlessness due to lacking purpose or any meaningful end; nonsense because it is transitory and not enduring.

In other words it is exactly what the Lord is getting at, in telling them that their desires are messed up. It is the sign of a darkened mind to pile up finite, earthly goods, in a futile attempt to satisfy infinite desires.

St. Paul goes on to say that some of our desires are deceitful. They are so because they bewitch us into thinking our life is about them and that if we attend to them only, we will be happy. We will not, this is a deception. Simply getting more food, sex, drink, houses, money, power, marrying the prom queen, etc., cannot cut the deal. These are finite things, our desires are ultimately infinite.

So the doctor, along with his assistant, St. Paul has made the diagnosis. You and I are seeking bread (not evil in itself) when we should also be seeking He who is the True Bread of Life. They say to us, in effect, “You seek the consolations of God, but not the God of all consolation. You want good things, but do not seek the giver of every good and perfect gift.”

So we have our diagnosis. Our desires are our of wack and/or our darkened minds misinterpret the message our lower desires are really giving us. Next come the directives:

C. The Directives – The Lord gives three essential directives:

1. Fix your focus – Jesus says, Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Here the point being that we should attend more to things that endure unto life eternal, than to the passing things of this world.

Most of us do just the opposite. The passing world and its demands get all our attention and things like prayer, scripture, sacraments, building our relationship with the Lord, learning his will and obeying it all get short shrift. We attend to “the man” and tell God to take a number. Kind of dumb, really.

The passing world, a sinking ship, gets all our attention. And calling on the one who can rescue us, learning his saving directives and following them, gets little attention. Instead we “rearrange deck chairs on the titanic,” indulge ourselves on the “ledo deck” and get angry that we don’t have a first class cabin.

The Lord says, Hey! Fix your focus! That ship is going down. What then? Why obsess about that stuff? Turn to me and listen carefully, I alone can save you.” Fix your focus: Less worry about things that perish, more focus on things that last and can save.

2. Firm Up your Faith – Jesus goes on to say: For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.“

Okay, so the ship is going down, the world is perishing, so how DO we get saved from it? And the answer is faith.

But faith here must be understood as more than answering a mere altar call or reciting a creed, and surely it is more than “lip-service.” Faith here is understood as being in a life-giving, transformative relationship with Jesus Christ.

Real faith puts us into a relationship with the Lord that changes the way we walk, that gives us a new mind and heart, new priorities, indeed, a whole new self. To be in a relationship with Christ, through faith is to be changed by him. And it is this change, this obedience of faith, this transformation that saves us and gets us ready to meet God.

So the Lord says “Come to me and firm up your faith.”

3. Find your Food – But as the discussion with them continues, they show themselves to be a stubborn lot.  and they say: “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

In effect they are still back to demanding bread. As if to say, “Sure fine, all that higher stuff is fine, but I want bread for my belly. So give me that and then we’ll talk about all that higher stuff and that bread that endures and does not perish. If you want me to have faith, give me bread for my belly.”

So they’re still more interested in the stuff of a sinking ship.

So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” And in saying this, Jesus is saying, in effect, “Don’t you see the ancient bread in the wilderness was about GOD. It was not merely food to fill their bellies, it was food to draw them to deeper and saving faith. It was food to strengthen them for the journey to the Promised Land. And so it must be for you that you understand that even your lower desires are ultimately about God. If mere grain is your food, you are doomed for that food perishes and you along with it. But if God himself is your food, now you can be saved for I, the Lord and the Bread that endures and draws you with me to eternal life.”

And in these ways the Lord seeks to heal their desires. But now comes the main point.

III. THE HEART OF DESIRE – So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.“

And thus we see that the Lord now makes it plain – I AM your food. I AM the fulfillment of all your desires. I AM the only one who can really fulfill your infinite longings, for I AM the Lord and I AM infinite.Yes, I AM your true bread.

Question: And then the Lord adds that if we come to him we will never be hungry or thirsty again. This says to us that he is the fulfillment of our infinite longings, but it does raise a question. For even those of us who come to him in faith and receive him weekly, even daily in Holy Communion, who are in a life changing, transformative and saving relationship, we still hunger and thirst. So what does the Lord mean in saying we will never again hunger or thirst?

To some extent we must see that Jesus is employing an ancient “Jewish way of speaking” which looks to the end of things and adopts them as now fully present. There is no time to fully develop this here and how it is used elsewhere, but in effect it is the capacity to see things as “already but not yet” and begin to live out of the “already” here and now.

Thus Jesus is saying, in more modern terms, “To the degree that you enter into a life changing and transformative life with me, and to the degree that I more and more become your bread, become that which satisfies you, your desires will come more and more into line and you will find your deepest desires being satisfied to a greater and greater degree, with each passing day. You will find in your life a satisfaction that a new iPad could never give, that money, power, sex, possessions and all other passing goods could never give. And one day, this satisfaction will be full and never pass away when you are with me in heaven.”

Of this I am a witness, for with each passing day in my life of faith with the Lord, I can truly say I am more and more satisfied. The things of this passing world are of less interest to me, and the things of God and heaven are increasingly the apple of my eye. I have a way to go, but the Lord has been good to me and his promises are true for I have test them in the laboratory of my own life.

The old song is increasingly mine which says: I heard my mother say, Give me Jesus. You may have all this world, just give me Jesus.

In the weeks ahead the Lord Jesus will develop how he is bread for us in more than a metaphorical way. Rather he is our True Bread in the Eucharist and the Bread he will give is his flesh for the life of the world, yes, his Body and blood are our saving food for the journey to the Promised Land.

I am mindful of an old gospel hymn that I’d like to give a Catholic spin. For I have it on the best of authority that when Jesus was speaking to the crowd in today’s Gospel he started to tap his toe and sing this song: 😉