Feeding on the Wisdom of God

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to seek greater awareness and discernment in our experience of the communion with the Trinity offered us by Jesus.

Simple and profound

The personification in the Book of Proverbs of Lady Wisdom inviting us to her banquet initiates our consideration of entering into a mystical experience.

* [9:1–6, 13–18] Wisdom and folly are represented as women, each inviting people to her banquet. Wisdom’s banquet symbolizes joy and closeness to God. Unstable and senseless Folly furnishes stolen bread and water of deceit and vice that bring death to her guests. The opposition between wisdom and folly was stated at the beginning of chaps. 1–9 (folly in 1:8–19 and wisdom in 1:20–33) and is maintained throughout, down to this last chapter.

In the Letter to the Ephesians, the text centres around an exhortation to us to be filled with the Spirit.

* [5:15–16, 19–20] The wording is similar to Col 4:5 and Eph 3:16–17.

In Bread of Life Discourse, from the Gospel of John, Jesus offers Life through our union with His Body and Blood.

* [6:54–58] Eats: the verb used in these verses is not the classical Greek verb used of human eating, but that of animal eating: “munch,” “gnaw.” This may be part of John’s emphasis on the reality of the flesh and blood of Jesus (cf. Jn 6:55), but the same verb eventually became the ordinary verb in Greek meaning “eat.”

Larry Gillick, S.J., connects our search for wisdom, leading to awareness and discernment to the texts today.

The Jews here are hungry for wisdom; they are people of good hearts and minds. They resist their being fooled. They continue to shake their heads as Jesus continues nodding his, insisting that he can give them eternal life through their taking him interiorly, as one does when eating. As long as they argue and grumble, their mouths are filled with that which they are serving; they demand immediate proof and understanding.
With Jesus, everything is an invitation to “come and see.” The murmurers have followed Jesus across the lake after seeing the miraculous distribution. He is urging them into the sacred desert of belief where their ancestors grew deeper in their trust of the One God. They keep tripping over their “feeble senses” and their limited abilities to eat.

Scott Hoezee, of the Calvin Theological Center for Excellence in Preaching, comments that what Jesus is talking about really is a matter of life or death.

No, what Jesus is talking about really is a matter of life or death. To have any Life worth talking about, you really do need to enter into the Life of the Father through the Son. What Jesus is offering here is nothing short of an access to the Life of the Triune God. Think of that! Jesus is saying that union with him (signified by Eucharistic participation in Christ) allows us to enter into the rhythms of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, into the Life that existed before anything like the Creation existed and that even now is the bright center to everything in the universe.
Most weeks when we come to church and when we take to ourselves the bread and the wine of the Holy Supper, our thoughts are far too small. We cannot exaggerate what we’re getting through that meal. Mostly our imaginations are simply not big enough, our expectations are pedestrian and trivial. What Jesus is offering us is a slice of Life Eternal, of the very Life force that pulses as the heartbeat to everything that exists, that ever existed, or that ever will exist.

Don Schwager quotes “Abiding in Christ”, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

" Jesus recommended to us His Body and Blood in bread and wine, elements that are reduced into one out of many constituents. What is meant by eating that food and taking that drink is this: to remain in Christ and have Him remaining in us." (excerpt from Sermon on John 26,112)

A Reflection on “Jesus – the Bread of Life” from St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, in Vallejo California, begins with a statement from Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and mystic, that the deepest level of communication is not communication but communion.

Jesus as our Bread of Life means nourishment for our soul, joy in our sorrow, strength in our weakness. It means community, family, friendship with Jesus. Jesus as the Bread of life means Jesus in the Eucharist, in the Scriptures, in the church, in life itself. Jesus Christ means all of these things…Christ is all in all… for those who believe…Let me just focus on Jesus in the Eucharist – Jesus being present – body, soul and divinity in the Eucharist under the appearance of bread and wine.
We come to Church, we receive Communion, not because it is the rule of the Church but because our journey through life is difficult, to say the least… and so we receive communion because we need food for this journey. The Lord gives us this food. He is our food. He is the Bread of Life.

Friar Jude Winkler explains the invitation of Lady Wisdom to a parallel to the meal of Jesus. The matrimonial symbolism in the Gospel of John connects to the “one flesh” communion in the Bread of Life Discourse. Friar Jude asserts the bread of Life is the flesh of Jesus for Eternal Life.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, offers the thoughts of Derek Lin on wisdom from the Taoist Perennial Tradition.

Five hundred years before Jesus, Taoists taught passive resistance, a crucial element of world-changing modern spiritual activists such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Dalai Lama of Tibet… Wisdom is as wisdom does. Awakening oneself awakens the whole world.

The invitation to expand our imagination and our expectations in our Eucharistic encounter with Christ is one that leads to greater fulfillment as disciples of Christ.

References

(n.d.). Proverbs, chapter 9 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 19, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/proverbs/9
(n.d.). Ephesians, chapter 5 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 19, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/5
(n.d.). John 6. Retrieved August 19, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/john6.htm
(n.d.). Proper 15B - Center for Excellence in Preaching - Calvin Theological .... Retrieved August 19, 2018, from http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/proper-15b/
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 19, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(2015, August 11). The Bread of Life - St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church. Retrieved August 19, 2018, from https://stcatherinevallejo.org/wp/2015/08/11/921/
(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 19, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/