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Daily Scripture

+ Feast of the Birth of Mary

We have the best and the worst among our ancestors>

We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. [Romans 8:28]

You will recognize the gospel passage as the one we usually avoid, assuming it has nothing to offer contemporary Christians. However, it does have a purpose beyond tracing the lineage of Jesus to David. It is not a scientific genealogy so don’t attempt to ‘prove’ it scientifically.

It’s a mixed bag at best. There are saints and sinners among the list but they are all ancestors of Jesus through Mary. It’s odd that on this feast of the birth of Mary that we read the genealogy of Joseph because it is through Joseph not Mary that Jesus is connected to David.

I suppose we are all connected at least spiritually. The late great Seton Hall professor and convert to Christianity, Msgr. Osteriecher, used to remind us frequently that we are all spiritual Semites, i.e., we are Judeo-Christians and therefore trace our lineage through David to Abraham.

And that’s why we claim Mary as our spiritual mother. Indeed, she is.

Beyond that, it’s good for us to be reminded that few if any of us are of pure breed. We often refer to our family as a “Heinz 57” family because like the food brand, we have at least 57 different nationalities among our ancestors, not all of them saints, to be sure. But whenever we got together for a ‘family’ event, we were one. I hosted the last family reunion at St. Joseph several years ago for over 200 relatives comprising four generations.

It’s never too late to give thanks for our heritage.

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Sunday July 26, 2009

There was more than enough to go around!

Have you ever been to a covered dish supper where the food ran out? There’s always more than enough to go around and still more food a doggie bag or two.

To help us to understand and to appreciate the Gospel story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, Church liturgists wisely placed the story of the miraculous feeding by Elisha as the introductory reading.

There is a pattern to the story of Elisha’s miracle:

1.The food is brought to the “man of God;”
2.The amount of the food is specific;
3.The quantity is inadequate;
4.The “man of God” ignores the objection of his assistant or servant;
5.Despite the deficiency, there is abundance and food left over.

This story is a ‘literary prototype’ of the gospel story of the multiplication of loaves that is more about meaning than magic. Through a wide use of metaphor and allegory, John seems to be making a clear connection between his description of the miraculous feed and the Eucharist. John’s Gospel contains no description of the Last Supper, as do the other gospel narratives. By the time he wrote his Gospel, the Sunday celebration of the ‘Lord’s Supper’ had become a common practice. John had no need to elaborate on the details.

Instead, John “theologized” on the meaning of the ritual celebration of the Eucharist presenting Jesus as “the Bread of Life.” The implication is that Jesus himself was and remains for all time the bread “blessed and broken” for the salvation of the world.

The pattern in John’s gospel expands on the pattern developed in the Elisha story. Very early in his gospel, John mentions the “signs” that Jesus was working—signs that drew large crowds. John’s gospel is referred to as the “Book of Signs,” signs meaning miracles but not magic. Jesus wasn’t a magician.

The first of these “signs” in John’s gospel was the dramatic story of the changing of water into wine during the wedding at Cana. Jesus is the water that becomes the new wine of which is placed not into old wine skins that burst but into new wineskins. In other words, it’s time to drop the old way of doing things. A new era has begun in Jesus.

As I mentioned earlier, the stories are highly dramatized with a wide use of metaphor and allegory. The miraculous multiplication of loaves, takes place on a mountain — not the mountain on which Moses received the law of God but the place where Jesus becomes the new Law, the living Law, the Word of God and the bread of life. “Not on bread alone do we live but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

John also states that Jesus multiplied the loaves near the feast of Passover, the feast on which the Jews were set free from the tyranny of Pharaoh. Jesus is the new Passover who frees us from the tyranny of sin. The food provided by the young boy is the food of the poor — barley bread and dried fish. Barley grain was used to make bread for the poor because it was cheap. Fish was symbolic of the end times. Jesus himself becomes bread for the poor, i.e., for the “poor in spirit” and for all who acknowledge their hunger before the Lord. He is also the sign that the time for the coming of the Messiah was fulfilled.

The grass is the pasture on which Jesus the “good shepherd” feeds his flock.

We continue to gather for the “breaking of the bread” every Sunday and many of us, every day at this our family table so that we may become bread blessed and broken for others. Thus the bread of Jesus life continues to multiply through the substance of our lives so that the hungers of humanity may be satisfied through the faith and good works of believers such as you and me. And everyone is welcome – saint and sinner. No exclusions. Sometimes it’s difficult if not impossible to distinguish between saints and sinners probably because there is a saint and sinner in every one of us.

Now more than ever we need to join hands around the Eucharist table. There will always be enough to go around and there are no exclusions.

This Eucharistic theology has several implications for liturgists and pastors. In recent years, the liturgy has been laden with precepts and prescriptions (rubrics) that have tended to lock out the deeper meaning of the mysteries we celebration turning it into a an act of worship detached from human experience.

Jesus continues to be the living word of God and the bread of life. There are many lessons to be learned at the table of God’s Word and this food has an everlasting quality whereby we become what we eat—the living Body of Christ given for humanity.

No reservations necessary. Come as you are!