Jn 6:51-58 Dt 8:2-3.14-16 1 Cor 10:16-17
Focus: God guides and sustains us on the various journeys of our life.
Function: We are called to pay attention to God’s presence and God’s gifts in our lives.
Dear sisters and brothers in the Lord, 0. a. During a directed retreat, I often invite the retreatant to an exercise called “My Spiritual Autobiography.” The retreatant hears the Scriptural message: “I am wonderfully made in the image and likeness of God. God is ever present in my life and has always been there for me, even when I didn’t realize it.”
Then the retreatant writes down significant events from his/her birth until the present. Out of these they select one event. They remember the time, and in their imagination enter into the scene. The feelings they recall may not all be positive ones. Yet they still can ask themselves in prayer: How has God been at work in this situation? This can be repeated for one or two more scenes. Remembering the way God has worked in our lives can help us to note God’s presence in the now, to appreciate it, and to experience it anew.
In today’s first reading Moses calls upon the people of Israel to remember. At the end of their 40 years journey through the desert, Moses tells them to look back. “Remember how…the Lord, your God has directed all your journeying.” Traveling through the desert, was troublesome: there was hunger and thirst; there were poisonous snakes and scorpions… Yet God, who had led the people out of the land of Egypt, the place of slavery, provided manna for food and water from the flinty rock.
Plus, God guided and strengthened the people by God’s word. They did not live by manna, quail and water alone, but by every word that came forth from the mouth of God.
And now as the people enter into the Promised Land, they can expect a better life. As prosperity takes the place of want, they are called to continue to remember and not to forget their God: God’s providential care for them, the guidance, the strength, and the challenge that comes from God.
There are so many gifts that we, too, receive from God. God’s greatest gift to us is his Son Jesus. It was Jesus’ mission to make visible and tangible God’s great love and care for all people. In his ministry he poured himself out for others. Especially he turned to the poor and to those treated unjustly in the society of his time. This ultimately led to his death on the cross. At the last supper before his passion he gave his original disciples and us today the memorial and the sacrament of his love: He became the bread that strengthens us on our life’s journey and that stills our deepest hunger.
We celebrate today the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. We are being reminded of our deepest truth, namely that in eating the Eucharistic bread and in drinking the cup of blessing we become one with him. We are being transformed by him. We receive life from him. We are invited to imitate him in his self-giving. And by him we are being united among each other, in spite of all our differences, into one body, into communion, for we all partake in one loaf.
Dear sisters and brothers in the Lord, God guides and sustains us on the various journeys of our life. We are called to pay attention to God’s presence and God’s manifold gifts in our lives.
It would be a good idea to spend a little time today with recalling our own personal history of salvation. Which events, joyful or more difficult, stand out for me as moments in which God cared for me, strengthen me, bestowed gifts upon me, me guided me, or challenged me?
In a preeminent way God nourishes and strengthens us at the Eucharist. This happens, on the one hand, the table of the word. We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. The 2nd Vatican Council said: “The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord.” [Constitution on Divine Revelation 21] God’s word is food for the journey. This time of pandemic is an invitation for all of us to feed at the table of God’s word.
On the other hand, there is the table of the Eucharist. Those who are not able yet at this point to attend Mass in person are invited to an act of spiritual communion. When Holy Communion is being distributed for those physically present those who watch at home can unite themselves spiritually with Christ in the Eucharist.
Unified by Christ at the Eucharist in one body we are invited to build unity actively in our world. The racial tensions in our country, including the violence in which they also expressed themselves, have brought to our attention anew how important it is to take new steps in this regard, like giving the other person the benefit of the doubt, paying more attention to commonalities then to differences, noticing our prejudices and generalizations, making cross racial friends… These are just a few examples of how we can build unity actively.
Let me conclude with a prayer by the late Sr. Macrina Wiederkehr: "O God of so much giving, my true life is all around me and within me. Life surrounds me and embraces me. Open the windows of my eyes. Take away the veil that prevents me from seeing the simple treasures [your gifts] that are in my reach." [The Flowing Grace of Now] AMEN.
~Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB