20180819
LIVING FOREVER
19 AUGUST, 2018, Sunday, 20th Week,
Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Proverbs 9:1-6 ©
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Wisdom builds her house and invites all to eat her bread there
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Wisdom has built herself a house,
she has erected her seven pillars,
she has slaughtered her beasts, prepared her wine,
she has laid her table.
She has despatched her maidservants
and proclaimed from the city’s heights:
‘Who is ignorant? Let him step this way.’
To the fool she says,
‘Come and eat my bread,
drink the wine I have prepared!
Leave your folly and you will live,
walk in the ways of perception.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 33(34):2-3,10-15 ©
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Taste and see that the Lord is good.
I will bless the Lord at all times,
his praise always on my lips;
in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.
The humble shall hear and be glad.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Revere the Lord, you his saints.
They lack nothing, those who revere him.
Strong lions suffer want and go hungry
but those who seek the Lord lack no blessing.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Come, children, and hear me
that I may teach you the fear of the Lord.
Who is he who longs for life
and many days, to enjoy his prosperity?
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Then keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn aside from evil and do good;
seek and strive after peace.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
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Second reading
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Ephesians 5:15-20 ©
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Be filled not with wine, but with the Spirit
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Be very careful about the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent
and not like senseless people. This may be a wicked age, but you redeem it. And
do not be thoughtless but recognise what is the will of the Lord. Do not drug
yourselves with wine, this is simply dissipation; be filled with the Spirit.
Sing the words and tunes of the psalms and hymns when you are together, and go
on singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts, so that always and
everywhere you are giving thanks to God who is our Father in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn1:14,12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word was made flesh and lived among us:
to all who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn6:56
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Alleluia, alleluia!
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me, and I live in him,
says the Lord.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 6:51-58 ©
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My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink
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Jesus said to the crowd:
‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,
for the life of the world.’
Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man
give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me
and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father,
myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me.
This is the bread come down from heaven;
not like the bread our ancestors ate:
they are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’
LIVING FOREVER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Prov 9:1-6; Ps 34:2-3, 10-15; Eph 5:15-20; Jn 6:51-58 ]
We all want
to live.
But it is not just living; we want to live the fullness of life, a life of joy,
purpose and meaning. How can we have this life? In the
final analysis, happiness and meaning in life is about whether one is living a
life of folly or a life of wisdom. This is the question we are
invited to reflect on. All the three scripture readings speak about
living an intelligent life, a life of wisdom. St Paul wrote, “Be very
careful about the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like
senseless people.” And in the first reading, Wisdom invites us to come
and partake of His love and life. “She has slaughtered her beasts,
prepared her wine, she has laid her table. She has dispatched her maidservants
and proclaimed from the city’s heights: ‘Who is ignorant? Let him step this
way.'”
What does a
life of folly consist of? It is to live on the level of an animal. That is to say, we
live on the dimension of the senses and particularly on pleasure. Such
people equate happiness as having good food to eat, wine to drink, living a
luxurious life of physical comfort. Whilst these gifts are certainly from
God, when we live merely on this level, we are living a sub-standard
life. We are not just constituted of body but also of spirit. We
have a mind and a heart that longs for the aesthetic and intellectual things of
life.
A life of
folly is when we live only for ourselves, thinking that we can find happiness
when we care for ourselves. When we make ourselves the center of the universe and serve
only our interests in life, we lose all meaning and purpose. The truth is
that we are made for love, for giving and for others. Man is not an
island. We find our purpose and meaning in life only when we love and
share with others. It is only when we find authentic friendships through
the giving of oneself in love and service that we find ourselves. We
maximize our potentials in life not by having people serve us but when we
expand ourselves and our resources in serving others.
Thirdly, a
life of folly is when we live for the things of this world, be it power, glory
or wealth. When we are driven by such pursuits in life, we become ruthless,
heartless and ambitious. We create enemies, and we treat all others as
competitors to our goal. But security and happiness in life is not
determined by how much we have. We remember the parable of the rich fool
when the Lord said to the farmer, “‘You fool! This very night your life is
being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they
be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not
rich toward God.” (Lk 12:20f) What is the use of having all the things of
this earth but we are poor in love and poor in friends?
Instead, the
scripture readings invite us to the table of Wisdom, the rich banquet of life
that the Lord wants to offer us. Life in scripture is always portrayed in terms of a banquet
where there is love, joy, celebration and food. To come to this table of
banquet, we are called to come to the Lord who will teach us how to live an
authentic life of everlasting joy and happiness on this earth and in the life
to come. Indeed, this is what Wisdom in the first reading is inviting us
to. “To the fool she says, ‘Come and eat my bread, drink the wine I have
prepared! Leave your folly and you will live, walk in the ways of perception.'”
If we want to
live the fullness of life, a life of wisdom, an enlightened life, then we must
come to Jesus. “As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life
from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me.” To draw life
from Jesus, we need to be in full communion with Him. Jesus said,
“For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and
drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.” Partaking of His
body and blood is the way in which the Lord lives in us. Through the
sacramental Eucharist, the Lord comes into our lives. It is through the
Eucharist that we share in His Spirit. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is given to us
when we receive the Eucharist.
But receiving
the Eucharist superstitiously will not bring us life unless we know what we are
eating. This explains why 98% of our Catholics receive the Eucharist at
every mass but few lives are transformed because they do not recognize what and
whom they are receiving. It is merely a ritual that they go through
without thinking and understanding. Hence, St Paul said, “And do not be
thoughtless but recognise what is the will of the Lord. Do not drug yourselves
with wine, this is simply dissipation; be filled with the Spirit.”
To receive
the Eucharist, is to enter into the life of Christ. We become what we
eat. So what we eat at the Eucharist is first and foremost the Word of
God. Jesus is the bread of life that came down from heaven. He was
first and foremost the manna of God, the Word of God in person, both by His
words and His life. That is why, Jesus said, “I am the living bread which
has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and
the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” This
means that we come into contact with the person of our Lord principally through
the Word of God since it tells us about Jesus, and through our worship and
contact with Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist and also made present in
the body of Christ, the Christian community. This is why we should draw
life from Christ and His body the Church so that we can share with others.
To receive
the Eucharist is to celebrate communion with each other and with Him. A banquet is not a private
dinner but a celebration of love. Life is meaningful only when it is
shared with others. In receiving the Eucharist, we are called to die to
individualism and to be one with others, sharing our life and our love.
As we share ourselves with others, we find life more meaningful because we are
no longer alone. We are called to be in one communion of love. That
is why the Eucharist we receive is called communion. It is supposed to
strengthen our union with Christ and with our fellow Christians. Together
as one Church and as His body, we support and encourage each other in living
out the gospel life.
What, then,
is the life of Christ, that life of wisdom? It is a life that is lived
for others. The whole life of Jesus was given up for us. Fullness of life is
ours when we “do this in memory” of Him by imitating Him in surrendering our
lives for the good of our fellowmen. St Paul in Ephesians wrote,
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as
Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God.” Concretely it means to give up a self-centered life and the worship
of self.” (cf Eph 5:1-4)
Secondly, it
is a life that is lived in the light, in truth and honesty. “For once you were
darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light
– for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and
true.” (cf Eph 5:8-13) Indeed, only when we live a life of
integrity, can we find true freedom because we have no fear that we would be
discovered one day for living a double life or a hypocritical life. To
live in the light is what makes us happy with ourselves, living with a clear
conscience, and standing tall before man without fear of anyone, even those in
power.
Thirdly, an
enlightened life is one that is lived in such a way that we give glory to God
in whatever we do and say. This is what St Paul meant when he wrote, “Sing the words
and tunes of the psalms and hymns when you are together, and go on singing and
chanting to the Lord in your hearts, so that always and everywhere you are
giving thanks to God who is our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” When we are doing God’s will and giving Him thanks in everything
we do, glorifying Him by the way we speak, the way we act and the way we live,
such is already a blessed life, a life that is lived in God and with God.
In this way, we already share in the life of God, now and to the fullest in the
life to come.
So let us
live life to the fullest by living a life of wisdom. This is the only way
to not just save ourselves but the world as well. St Paul wrote, “This
may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it.” This is the best
form of witnessing, not by our words but by our very life, for that is what the
Lord said, “the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the
world.” So let us be life-givers through the very life that we live, a
life that is lived in Christ, with Christ and for Christ. This is
the true meaning of eating His bread and drinking His blood so that we might
have life to the fullest.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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