Ordinary Time

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

Moses calls the people to hear (shema). It is a solemn summons used to assemble the people of God for consultation, worship, or war. It is used here to stress the significance of the proclamation of the law that is to follow. Obedience to the law is not for Israel’s sake alone. Israel’s compliance will serve to witness to the other nations the extraordinary character of these statutes and decrees. Such obedience is, then, a sign of Israel’s wisdom. The nations will recognize the wisdom contained in this law, and conclude that only a great people would merit so great a God.

Three characteristics of God are praised in the Letter of James. God is first described as the fountain of giving and the source of all the gifts themselves. Furthermore, God’s goodness is constant, not intermittent. God is the source of both our birth and our re-birth or salvation. Finally, the Christians are admonished to avoid those practices of the world that challenge Christian values. They are also to intervene on behalf of the community’s most vulnerable, the widows and orphans who have no legal status in the patriarchal society. When they do this, the word of truth will take concrete form in their lives.

The conflict between Jesus and some of his opponents concerns ritual cleansing. The custom of hand washing originated as a regulation observed by priests when offering sacrifice, and over time developed into an obligation for everyone. Jesus’ disciples were not observing this custom. Jesus’ response to criticism is swift and incisive. He explicitly draws a comparison between those whom the prophet condemns and the scribes and Pharisees who condemn the disciples. The very ones who demand strict observance of their law fail to observe God’s law. Jesus uses this encounter to teach a deeper lesson. He insists that defilement originates from the innermost recesses of the heart, not from some external behavior.

Jan 30 2025

R.S.V.P.

“Does it please you to serve the Lord?” Joshua asked at Shechem. “Decide today.” And the people answered: “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord for the service of other gods,” going on to name the deeds the Lord had done for them.

Centuries later, after hearing Jesus call himself bread to be eaten, descendants of those at Shechem said: “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” And they “no longer accompanied him.” Jesus then asked the Twelve if they would leave, too. Simon answered for all: “We have come to believe and are convinced you are the Holy One of God.”

Our response is a simple but weighty Amen (meaning “So be it”). When the consecrated host is held up, accompanied by “The Body of Christ,” and the cup offered with “The Blood of Christ,” we are asked to put our faith on the line and say, “Amen.”

Has familiarity bred contentment? Are we so used to this mystery that we rarely have a sense of awe or wonder? The first act of faith is believing that God is present in things as ordinary as this bread and wine. We believe that the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. What is the change in us that should accompany receiving them?

But of such stuff dreams are made—God’s dream of a family, loving daughters and sons, gathered around a table to say “Amen,” then to live Communion in a world of broken bodies, shed blood, wounded hearts, and crushed spirits. When you say “Amen” to this mystery, who knows what might happen?

Consider/Discuss

What meaning does “Amen” have for you?
Is it a response in word only, or in word and in deed, so that you not only “receive” Communion with Christ and his body but live it daily?

Responding to the Word

Jesus, you came from the Father and returned to the Father and remain ever near the Father’s heart. You remain the Father’s Word of love to us, the Word of the Father’s commitment to us, draw us into being “Amen” as you were also “Amen” to the Father’s will. Amen.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

In his address to the assembly, Joshua places before them a choice that will shape their own self-identity, and will determine the path that they will travel for the rest of their lives and the lives of their descendants. Whom will they serve? They can continue to serve their ancestral gods; they can opt for the gods of the people in whose land they are now dwelling; or they can worship the Lord. Speaking for his own family, Joshua declares: We will serve the Lord. The rest of the people make the same decision. Their choice of a god is determined by the personal involvement of God in their lives.

The responsibilities of husbands in contrast to a traditional patriarchal marriage are the subject of the Ephesian reading. First, Christ loved the church enough to give his life for it. This is the degree of spousal commitment envisioned for husbands. Following the example of Christ who sacrificed his divine privileges for the sake of the church, husbands are told to sacrifice their patriarchal privileges for the sake of their wives. In Genesis the husband and wife constitute one flesh (2:24). Building on this concept, the author argues that when husbands love their spouses, they are really loving themselves. This transformed understanding of marriage is then used to characterize the mysterious union of Christ and the church.

Jesus’ words or deeds were met with disbelief. He responds to the challenge of these unbelievers with one of his own. If they were troubled by the thought of him descending from heaven, what would they think about him ascending back to where he had originated? Both descending and ascending imply that he is a heavenly being, the very claim that scandalized his hearers in the first place. Jesus continues his defense by setting the notion of flesh against that of spirit. He insists that the flesh (the human way of being in the world) cannot give life. On hearing this, some no longer followed him.

Jan 30 2025

Eat, Drink, Live

As a boy, I was often sent to Kauder’s Bakery on the corner of Preston and Ensor Streets in Baltimore. There was nothing like the variety of breads today, but whether it was white, rye, or Vienna, the smell of fresh baked bread and especially the crunch of the crust stays with me more than sixty years later.

Kauder’s came to mind after reading today’s Gospel. Biblical scholars point out that the crowds would have been appalled at Jesus’ words: “Unless you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” The word used for “eat” is a very physical word, the equivalent of munching or chewing. To hear “eat my flesh” would have been repulsive. An invitation to cannibalism! The same with “drink my blood.” Jewish law was very clear that no blood should remain in any animal slaughtered for eating. Blood was the “seat of life” and life belonged only to God.

But this is precisely the point. Behind this “sign” is God’s wondrous life-giving plan: to bring us into intimate communion when we partake of the very life of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. We are not to get drunk on the wine of this world but on the divinized drink of everlasting life. Not mundane manna but the bread that mediates an encounter with the Lord of our salvation. This is truly Wisdom’s house, where we eat both the bread of God’s word and the bread that is the Lamb of God.

Consider/Discuss

Can you appreciate the shocking impact of Jesus’ words on those listening?
Do these words have any impact on you or have they become too familiar to shock?

Responding to the Word

Lord Jesus, you call us to the banquet table to eat the food that will nourish us for eternal life, bringing us into communion with you, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Give us an appetite for this food you so generously offer. May we not turn away from it for other food that neither nourishes nor satisfies.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

Wisdom prepares a lavish banquet. Everything is ready, and servants are sent out to call in the guests. Wisdom always invites, cajoles, persuades; she never commands. She feeds the desire for knowledge and insight; she satisfies the hunger for learning. Wisdom is interested in the simple, the innocent, the childlike, those who are eager to learn. She oversees all of the mysteries of the universe; in her hands are the secrets of life. These are the delicacies with which she spreads her table; this is the fare that she offers her guests. No one can survive without Wisdom. The way of understanding is the way to life. The wisdom theme continues in the second reading. Christians are encouraged to live like the wise, not like the foolish. The wise are those who know how to make the most out of every opportunity. They can recognize the decisive point of the moment, and they can seize it. The ignorance against which the author warns is the inability to draw prudent conclusions in practical situations. Some people just do not seem to be able to learn from experience. As a remedy to this, Christians are urged to seek God’s will for them and to live in accordance with it. The bread of life discourse ends with a eucharistic reinterpretation of the manna tradition. Jesus’ flesh is food and his blood is drink. His flesh and blood are the source of life for those who partake of it. Just as we become one with what we eat and drink, so Jesus and those who feed on him form an intimate union. Those who share in the Eucharist already possess eternal life. For them, the future holds fullness of life that will be enjoyed after the general resurrection on the last day. Jesus, not manna, is the bread that came, not from the sky, but from the very being of God. Those who ate manna died; those who feed on Jesus live forever.