More thoughts on the Eucharist

John 6:44-51

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus offers himself as food for the soul. There is a great truth revealed in the bread of life discourse: it is the law of the gift. This personal, incarnating God wants to be eaten and drunk, to be radically and fully for the other.

Why were the gods of the ancient world so popular? Because they were projections of ourselves—vain, arrogant, resentful, violent. This means that they put little moral pressure on us. They were frightening but not morally demanding.

But this God who shows that he is totally love, and who wants us to eat and drink him in, is the God who wants us to be like him. As he is food and drink for the world, so we must be food and drink for the world. As he gave himself away utterly, so we must give ourselves away fully.

We’re not to cling to the goods, honors, and values of the world—all those things that aggrandize the ego—but rather give ourselves away. That’s what we learn from the God of the gift.

Bishop Robert Barron

 

Thoughts on the Eucharist

John 6:30-35

Friends, today’s Gospel is from the bread of life discourse: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." What God has wanted from the beginning is to sit down with his creatures in a fellowship banquet, sharing life and laughter, giving, receiving, and giving back again.

This is the loop of grace. The more we receive the divine life, the more we should give it away and thereby get more of it.

Throughout the Old Testament, we find images of the holy banquet. On God’s holy mountain, Isaiah says there will be good meats and pure choice wines. And throughout his ministry, Jesus hosts meals to which all are invited. God wants to share his life with us.

This comes to fullest expression at the Eucharist, where Jesus identifies himself so radically with the bread and the wine that they change into his Body and Blood, and then invites all of us around this table to feast and share life, to give and to receive and to give again.

Bishop Robert Barron

 

Thoughts on friendship

John 6:22-29

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus tells the crowd, which he just fed, to believe in him and relate to him personally. Why is this so hard? Well, it is intellectually counter-intuitive. Why would this one figure, this Jesus, be the one and only? Why should I choose to relate to him and not the numerous other religious leaders and philosophers? Are all other religious people just lost or misguided? Wouldn’t it just be easier to relate to Jesus’ ideas and principles, to imitate his style of life? Yes, indeed it would, but that’s not what he says.

Perhaps we could look at it from Jesus’ side. Jesus wants to be friends: "‘I no longer call you servants, but friends,’ says the Lord." What if there were someone who wanted to be friends with you, and you were to say, "Oh sure! I admire you and would like to imitate your form of life, but I don’t want to spend a lot of time with you." How would that strike your prospective friend?

What is unique to Christianity is that God is offering us friendship. You don’t mess around with friendship; you don’t turn it into something abstract; you don’t compromise with it. You enter into it fully.

Bishop Robert Barron
 

Thoughts on meditation

“Waste” Your time with God

 

John Eudes talked about that moment, that point, that lies before comparison, before the beginning of the vicious cycle or the self-fulfilling prophecy. That is the moment, point, or place where meditation can enter in. It is the moment to stop reading, speaking, socializing, and to “waste” your time in meditation. When you find your mind competing again, you might plan an “empty time” of meditation, in this way interrupting the vicious circle of your ruminations and entering into the depth of your own soul. There you can be with him who was before you came, who loved you before you could love, and has given you your own self before any comparison was possible. In meditation we can come to the affirmation that we are not created by other people but by God, that we are not judged by how we compare with others but by how we fulfill the will of God.

 

Henri Nouwen

 

 

More thoughts on Mary

Mary’s moments in the New Testament are few, precious, and significant. Sometimes, she teaches by her actions. Other times, she teaches us by her seeming inaction. Why would Mary, the mother of Jesus, born free of original sin, need to purify her heart? We venerate her Immaculate Heart to contemplate her love of God and the earthly journey on which he took her. What could we, normal, struggling children of God hope to learn from such a woman about purifying our own hearts? Ah, that’s the thing about Mary. Like the family members and friends we most admire and desire to emulate, she shows strength in her vulnerability. Her lessons, while challenging, are as gentle as the shepherd we see in the Lord’s face.

—from the book Blessed Are You: Finding Inspiration from Our Sisters in Faith by Melanie Rigney

Thoughts on Mary

Mary is the hinge of doctrine because she is the hinge of history. God awaited her yes at the pivotal moment. Thus, St. Irenaeus in the second century called her the “cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race".  She was not the Savior, but she was indeed the “cause of salvation” and the first to be saved. Mary’s place in history, doctrine, and devotion is extraordinary, exceptional, unique. Her vocation was distinctive and singular, and she responded with unfailing fidelity. In their turn, the Fathers gave her a singular devotion—Athanasius called it “commemoration”—that developed over the centuries, expressing itself in countless ways.

—from the book Keeping Mary Close: Devotion to Our Lady Through the Ages by Mike Aquilina

Thoughts on John 3:16

John 3:16-21

Friends, maybe you've seen informal evangelists at football or baseball games holding up a sign: “John 3:16.” Did you ever wonder what that means?

Well, we hear this verse from the Gospel of John in today’s reading: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

I think it's good that those people hold up that sign, because in many ways that is the whole Gospel, and even the whole Christian tradition, in miniature. Every cathedral, every church, every poem, every drama, the life of every saint—that's what they're all about.

Christianity does not announce, primarily, our virtue; it doesn't sing our praises; it doesn't exult in human civilization. What it primarily does is announce that message: that even in our sin—you might say, especially in our sin—God loved us. And so what did he do? He broke open his own heart and he sent his own self into our humanity to heal us and offer us eternal life. 

Bishop Robert Barron