The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate our response to times of trial or persecution as we ponder the Presence of the “bread of life.”
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| Friends In Italy |
In the reading from the Book of Acts, Saul persecutes the Church and Philip preaches in Samaria.
* [8:3] Saul…was trying to destroy the church: like Stephen, Saul was able to perceive that the Christian movement contained the seeds of doctrinal divergence from Judaism. A pupil of Gamaliel, according to Acts 22:3, and totally dedicated to the law as the way of salvation (Gal 1:13–14), Saul accepted the task of crushing the Christian movement, at least insofar as it detracted from the importance of the temple and the law. His vehement opposition to Christianity reveals how difficult it was for a Jew of his time to accept a messianism that differed so greatly from the general expectation.1
Psalm 66 offers praise for God’s goodness to Israel.
* [Psalm 66] In the first part (Ps 66:1–12), the community praises God for powerful acts for Israel, both in the past (the exodus from Egypt and the entry into the land [Ps 66:6]) and in the present (deliverance from a recent but unspecified calamity [Ps 66:8–12]). In the second part (Ps 66:13–20), an individual from the rescued community fulfills a vow to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. As often in thanksgivings, the rescued person steps forward to teach the community what God has done (Ps 66:16–20).2
In the Gospel of John, the “bread of life” is a figure for God’s revelation in Jesus.
* [6:35–59] Up to Jn 6:50 “bread of life” is a figure for God’s revelation in Jesus; in Jn 6:51–58, the eucharistic theme comes to the fore. There may thus be a break between Jn 6:50–513.
Tamora Whitney made a good choice when she chose Catherine of Sienna for her confirmation saint as a role model for women in the church.
Our Psalm today says, “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.” Catherine lived every aspect of her life for God and his glory. She learned to read and write so she could learn more about God and religion and so she could share her mystical experiences through her letters and dialogues. She travelled in support of the pope at a time when women didn’t travel and not alone. She considered herself married to Christ in opposition to her parents’ wishes for her family. She accepted Jesus totally as the bread of life… She lived her spirituality in every fiber of her being and shared her love of God with everyone she could.4
Don Schwager quotes “Possessing the Scriptures,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"When you understand anything in the Scriptures, it is love that is manifesting itself to you. When you fail to understand, it is love that is hiding itself from you. Those, therefore, who possess charity possess both what is manifest in the divine words and what is hidden in them." (excerpt from Sermon 350,2)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 6:35-40 observes in today’s Gospel, part of the famous Bread of Life discourse, Jesus’ message was not all that clear to his listeners. The more Jesus talked, the more scandalized they became. How can he say he came down from heaven? How could he give them his flesh to eat?
Jesus’ meaning was both symbolic and literal, so it’s no wonder that people were confused. When Jesus refers to himself as the Bread of Life, he is talking about faith in him as the sustenance for our journey through life. He is saying that his words and our relationship with him are nourishment for our souls.
But Jesus is also speaking literally. He was describing his gift of the Eucharist, which would become the pinnacle of our worship. He was talking about how receiving this gift could unite us with his Body and Blood, his soul and divinity. It wasn’t until after the resurrection that Jesus’ followers began to celebrate the Eucharist. So at this point, his listeners had no way of knowing what he was referring to. All they could do was accept his words with faith.
Even today, the Eucharist is mysterious. It defies our imagination, and only the gift of faith can allow us to believe it.
After hearing the Bread of Life discourse, many of Jesus’ followers left him. Not Peter though. He was probably just as confused as the others, but he believed in Jesus.
It’s normal to have doubts. We may question a Church teaching or wonder why bad things happen to good people. But whatever our questions, we can always hold on to our faith until God makes his ways clearer to us—just as Peter did.6
Friar Jude Winkler suggests the persecutions described in Acts were mostly against the Hellenists. In the beginning of the Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus is Wisdom Incarnate connecting to Lady Wisdom in the Hebrew Testament who prepared a meal of bread and wine. Friar Jude comments on the realized and future eschatology in the Bread of Life presentation of the Eucharist.
A post by Franciscan Media comments that Catherine of Sienna ranks high among the mystics and spiritual writers of the Church. In 1939, she and Francis of Assisi were declared co-patrons of Italy. Pope Paul VI named her and Teresa of Avila doctors of the Church in 1970. Her spiritual testament is found in The Dialogue.
Though she lived her life in a faith experience and spirituality far different from that of our own time, Catherine of Siena stands as a companion with us on the Christian journey in her undivided effort to invite the Lord to take flesh in her own life. Events which might make us wince or chuckle or even yawn fill her biographies: a mystical experience at six, childhood betrothal to Christ, stories of harsh asceticism, her frequent ecstatic visions. Still, Catherine lived in an age which did not know the rapid change of 21st-century mobile America. The value of her life for us today lies in her recognition of holiness as a goal to be sought over the course of a lifetime.7
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, asks what if we can choose to experience this liminal space and time, this uncomfortable now, as . . . a place and state of creativity, of construction and deconstruction, choice and transformation[?] He wonders whether it is, then, also the realm of the Holy Spirit, our comforter, who does not take away the vastness and possibility of this opened-up threshold time, but invites us to lay down our fears and discomfort to see what else is there, hard as that may be.
One transformation in this liminal time of cancer treatment and recovery was my recognition that the staggering vulnerability I was experiencing was not weakness, not shameful, but the source of what would allow me to survive and, eventually, to thrive. I allowed others to see me—not just my broken, lopsided face, but also my pain, sorrow, disappointment, and discouragement, as well as my gratitude, resilience, joy, and recovery. . . .
Like Jonah in the belly of the sea monster, we are led where we do not want to go—not once, but many times in our lives. Dwelling in unsettling liminal space, whether we are pushed or we jump, we are led to draw on resources and possibilities we may not have tapped before. In the unknown space between here and there, younger and older, past and future, life happens. And, if we attend, we can feel the Holy Spirit moving with us in a way that we may not be aware of in more settled times. In liminal time and space, we can learn to let reality—even in its darkness—be our teacher, rather than living in the illusion that we are creating it on our own. We can enter into the liminal paradox: a disturbing time and space that not only breaks us down, but also offers us the choice to live in it with fierce aliveness, freedom, sacredness, companionship, and awareness of Presence.8
Our experience of the Bread of Life may be expressed in the witness of our journey rather than the types of persecution and preaching known to the saints.
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