20180420
THE EUCHARIST MUST BE INTERPRETED IN THE
CONTEXT OF THE INCARNATION, THE RESURRECTION AND THE CHURCH
20 APRIL, 2018, Friday, 3rd Week of Easter
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
First reading
|
Acts 9:1-20 ©
|
This man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before the
pagans
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Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s
disciples. He had gone to the high priest and asked for letters addressed to
the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to arrest and take to
Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he could find.
Suddenly,
while he was travelling to Damascus and just before he reached the city, there
came a light from heaven all round him. He fell to the ground, and then he
heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ ‘Who are you,
Lord?’ he asked, and the voice answered, ‘I am Jesus, and you are persecuting
me. Get up now and go into the city, and you will be told what you have to do.’
The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless, for though they heard the
voice they could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but even with his
eyes wide open he could see nothing at all, and they had to lead him into
Damascus by the hand. For three days he was without his sight, and took neither
food nor drink.
A disciple
called Ananias who lived in Damascus had a vision in which he heard the Lord
say to him, ‘Ananias!’ When he replied, ‘Here I am, Lord’, the Lord said, ‘You
must go to Straight Street and ask the house of Judas for someone called Saul,
who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is praying, having had a vision of a
man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on him to give him back his
sight.’
When he
heard that, Ananias said, ‘Lord, several people have told me about this man and
all the harm he has been doing to your saints in Jerusalem. He has only come
here because he holds a warrant from the chief priests to arrest everybody who
invokes your name.’ The Lord replied, ‘You must go all the same, because this
man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and
before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he himself must
suffer for my name.’ Then Ananias went. He entered the house, and at once laid
his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus
who appeared to you on your way here so that you may recover your sight and be
filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately it was as though scales fell away
from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. So he was baptised there and then, and
after taking some food he regained his strength.
He began
preaching in the synagogues, ‘Jesus is the Son of God.’
Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 116(117) ©
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Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good
News.
or
Alleluia!
O praise the Lord, all you nations,
acclaim him all you peoples!
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good
News.
or
Alleluia!
Strong is his love for us;
he is faithful for ever.
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good
News.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation
|
cf.Lk24:46,26
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Alleluia, alleluia!
It was ordained that the Christ should suffer
and rise from the dead,
and so enter into his glory.
Alleluia!
Or:
|
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!
Gospel
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John 6:52-59 ©
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My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink
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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.’
He taught this doctrine at Capernaum, in the synagogue.
THE EUCHARIST MUST BE INTERPRETED IN THE CONTEXT OF THE
INCARNATION, THE RESURRECTION AND THE CHURCH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ ACTS 9:1-20; JN 6:52-59 ]
“How can this
man give us his flesh to eat?” This question comes from the final verse
of the first part of the Eucharistic discourse found in yesterday’s gospel when
Jesus declared, “the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the
world.” This immediately provoked the Jews to ask the above question. It
was simply too scandalous for the Jews to think of eating the flesh of a
man. Instead of retracting His words, Jesus reasserted this truth by
saying “if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you will not have life in you.”
Why did Jesus
make such a claim for Himself, when in yesterday’s gospel He already called Himself, “the
living bread which has come down from heaven’? In saying this He was
affirming that He is identical with the bread from heaven, not of the manna of
the desert but of the Word of God. He did not speak only God’s Word, but
He is the Word of God. In other words, Jesus was speaking of His incarnation,
since He is the Word of God made flesh, the Word that has come down from heaven.
Hence, it follows that “anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.”
This claim of
Jesus as the Word of God in person is in itself a bold claim.
For the Jews to accept Him as the Living Word was already expecting too
much. How is it possible for Jesus to give His flesh to us? The
answer given is this, “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real
drink.” In other words, Jesus was speaking about the sacramental realism
of the Eucharist. His flesh is truly food and His blood is truly drink,
firstly, in the ordinary sense of the words. Yet, behind the food and
drink lies His real presence. The food and drink are truly real in the
fullest sense because of His real presence. This explains why Jesus could
guarantee that “anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal
life,” and “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in
him.”
But is this too
far-fetched a claim? Certainly not! Because if Jesus could claim,
“I am the living bread”, implying that He is the Word of God made flesh, then
He has already anticipated this realism of the Eucharist. Only because
of the incarnation, is the Eucharist possible. For if the incarnation
was possible, why shouldn’t the real presence of the Eucharist be possible,
since both are connected with the Father who gives life through the Son?
Hence, faith in the Eucharist is but a continuation and extension of the
Incarnation.
Of course, we
know that faith in Jesus’ incarnation and the Eucharist presupposes
faith in His resurrection. For this reason, the liturgy speaks of the
Eucharist always during the Easter Season. For it is only because of the
resurrection that the Spirit of Jesus could give life to the flesh and
therefore makes His presence real in the bread and wine. Hence, we see
the importance of the invocation of the Holy Spirit at the Eucharist.
Without the resurrection, it would not be possible for Jesus to be truly
present in the Eucharistic species. That the resurrection is a determined
factor can be culled from the fact that the Eucharist is mentioned always in
relationship to the resurrection. As Jesus said, “As I, who am sent by
the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will
draw life from me.” In these words, Jesus is saying that it is the Father
who sent Him in the incarnation and raised Him from the dead in the Spirit.
So, it must be
noted that whether it is the incarnation, the Eucharist or the
resurrection, it is the work of the Father; the same Father who gave the
Israelites manna from heaven. However, the bread given to the Israelites
was simply bread, which did not give eternal life. Although the bread
came from heaven, it is bread of the earth. Jesus, as the living bread
from heaven, both in the Word and in the Eucharist, is how the Father gave
Himself in the Son. Thus whoever “eats this bread will live for ever”
because they share in the life of God through the Son.
Having
established the link between the Eucharist and the resurrection as the
basis for the sacramental realism of the Eucharist, we must go further to
inquire not the how, but the why, of the Eucharist. In other words, we
must deepen our reflection and consider why it is important for Jesus to leave
behind the Eucharist to His disciples. Why it is that a spiritual union
of the disciples with Jesus is not enough and a physical union with
Him is necessary?
The truth is
that the Eucharist is the basis for the existence of the Church.
The only reason why the Eucharist is given is because without the Eucharist,
there would be no Church. Without the Eucharist, the Church cannot be
present as an extension of the Risen Lord. Only in the Eucharist can we
truly say that baptized Christians are members of the body of Christ in the
fullest sense. To say that in the Eucharist, we are the Body of Christ;
we are not simply making that claim in a mystical sense, but in a sacramental
sense. In the Eucharist, which is the body of Christ, we are one with Jesus in
a real way. In the incarnation, Jesus is identified with the whole of humanity;
but in the Eucharist through the resurrection, Jesus is now identified with
Christians in a unique and real manner. This is because in the Eucharist,
Jesus lives in us and the Church lives in Him.
This real
unity between Christians and Jesus is dramatically and concretely
brought out in the first reading when the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul.
Jesus identified Himself with the Christians when He said, “’Saul, Saul, why
are you persecuting me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ he asked, and the voice answered,
‘I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me.” It is clear therefore that the
Christians are one with Jesus. To persecute the Christians is to
persecute Christ as we all form His Body.
For this reason,
the Church is called the Sacrament, the sign of salvation for the
world. The Church is a sacrament only because Jesus is the Sacrament of
God and He has given Himself in the Eucharist to us as a sacrament so that we
can continually live in Him. By receiving the Eucharist, we become more
Christ and therefore more Church, since we become more and more the Body of
Christ and a sign to the world. Without the Eucharist, we will only be spiritually
making Christ present in our lives but not really making Jesus sacramentally
present in us. Hence, the Eucharist is the foundation for the existence of the
Church.
This explains
why the celebration of the Eucharist is the high point of the Church’s
liturgy. For in the Eucharist, the Church expresses herself, her
union with the Lord Jesus and her mission. In the Eucharist, Christians
recognize that baptism, which is an insertion into the paschal mystery, is
further strengthened by being incorporated more deeply into the body of Christ
through living out the paschal mystery in union with Jesus in their concrete
lives.
If the Eucharist
is so intrinsic to the Church, then it implies the absolute necessity
of the ordained Priesthood in the Church. Without the ordained
priesthood, there is no celebration of the Eucharist. Without the
Eucharist, the Church cannot exist. But for a validly ordained
priesthood, we need to be in continuity with the apostolic succession through
validly ordained bishops. The Eucharist is truly expressive of the
Church, for whenever the Eucharist is legitimately celebrated, the People of
God is present, gathered together in unity with the Bishop of the
diocese. Consequently, outside the Catholic Church, no true Eucharist can
be validly celebrated since there is no genuine ordained priesthood as there is
no apostolic succession.
Thus, as we
celebrate the Eucharist, Catholics cannot but thank God for this
wonderful gift of His personal and real presence to the Church through
His ordained ministers. Whenever the Eucharist is celebrated, the Church
becomes more Church because of the unity that is established between Christ and
the Church and among members of the body of Christ. In this way, we
become truly the Church, the Sacrament of the Body of Christ in the world.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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