Year A

Jan 10 2025

Tastes of Beauty in the Body of Christ

She was young. But she remembers that dry day like it was yesterday. “This is ridiculous. How can he give us his flesh to eat?” She listens to the shouting. She sits outside the synagogue. As a woman, she’s not permitted to enter. But she can hear them clearly. This is Jesus of Nazareth they are yelling at; Jesus, whose love has transformed her; Jesus, whose words burn like a fire inside of her. Can they not see what he is offering? “Bread of Life—who does he think he is? We know his father from Nazareth. He’s a carpenter’s son.” The door opens and the leaders stomp their feet into the dust of the dry ground and walk away.

She wants to shout after them in the distance, “You never really heard him,” but again she hears voices at the doorway, not so loud, but irritated: “This saying is hard; who can accept it? The Bread of Life! How can he say he is the Bread of Life?” Those who had walked closely with him began to walk away also. She knew these ones. She had eaten with them. They were his own. “We will no longer go with him . . . I am going home.” She is grief-stricken. She shouts, “How can you leave him? His words are Spirit and life!” “Ah, woman, you are young. Go home also.”

The door opens a third time and he comes out, full of sorrow. “Will you also leave me?” Peter says the words she will remember all her life. She has told them to her children and her children’s children. Now as her community is struggling with betrayal and desertion, she shares what Peter said: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Rain began to fall on the dry soil, watering the earth.

Consider/Discuss

Is this teaching of Jesus too hard? Doubt tastes like dust in the mouth. Faith refreshes like the rain. As many walk away, how can we express what Jesus in the Eucharist means to us? How can we describe the taste of glory that comes as we open our hands to receive him?
We believe that the Eucharist is the sacrament of unity in the Church. Yet like this unnamed young woman of the first century, some sit at the peripheries, some voices are not heard, some are rendered invisible. How can we be more conscientious in our sharing, our koinonia, in bringing in those at the edges, to solidify the Body of Christ?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, you are the Bread of Life. We have tasted your manna. We have been touched by your presence. You unite us so that together we can abide in you. At the same time, we grieve for those who walk away. We love them. How can they go? Even the angels weep.

Holy Spirit, bubble up within us so that we bring your life to the world in which we live.

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Israel has finally arrived on the threshold of the Promised Land. Through the years, they struggled to trust that the God who delivered them from bondage can take care of them and provide for all their needs. This has been, and will continue to be, an important challenge, since distrust leads to the worship of other gods. Moses thus reminds the people of all God has done for them, providing them with food and water, and not just any food, but manna, a special food created by God for them. Through the trials, God has been teaching them that they can and must rely on God, who provides all they need for the journey.

Paul’s rhetorical questions regarding the blood and body of Christ occur within the context of an admonition to the Corinthians to avoid buying meat known to have been offered to pagan gods. Eating meat from such sacrifices, even if one does not believe that the gods are real, constitutes a “participation” with them. Just as ancient Israel could have no relationship with any gods but the God of the covenant, so Christians may not “participate” with anyone but Christ. They do this in the sharing of the cup of blessing and the breaking of the bread. This common participation creates a single body, whose members are responsible for each other and therefore should show proper concern for each other.

Jesus’ claim to be “the living bread that came down from heaven” occurs within a scene that begins with a question about believing that Jesus has been sent by God. The crowd has asked for a sign (“What can you do?” [6:30]), like the sign of the manna given in the desert. Jesus responds that he himself is the true bread from heaven. Just as the manna nourished the people, Jesus says, so he, who is the true bread from heaven, will nourish those who can accept it. When they eat Jesus’ flesh they will be receiving him, establishing or strengthening a mutual indwelling. Through this mutual “abiding” Jesus shares his own eternal life with the recipient.

Jan 10 2025

The Trinity—A Divine Dance

We know so little of God. When it comes to describing the Trinity, we can feel that we know even less. The Mystery of Mysteries, the God-Who-Is—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is not just a philosophical doctrine to be illustrated with clovers and candles. The Trinity is a Someone, Someone who is deeply involved in our lives.

Saints Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus (known as the Cappadocian Fathers) saw the interrelationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a dance. They described a divine give-and-take, a perichoresis (dancing together), a mystical solidarity of interdependence, a never-ending “I am here for you” and “I am constant in my care for you” within the oneness of God. That mutual love overflows to us.

In the scriptures, we see that God continually communicates as the Father who never stops seeking out wayward Israel, the Son who becomes flesh and gives up his life for us, and the Holy Spirit who is with us always.

Our Triune God so loves the world that those divine “hands” invite us: Come, join in the dance! What does that look like? Think of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers—they whirl and flow across a stage together with just a nudge or a touch. Folk dancers have a similar perpetual motion of bowing and twirling and jumping. With practiced responsiveness, they move as one.

Can we join in the dance? We might choose to live as plodders who stumble through life. Or we could discover holy agility. The Holy Spirit leans toward us, gently touching and nudging us in everyday life, whispering, “Be attentive. Follow my lead!” To move within the life of the Trinity is exciting, exhilarating. God’s tender “Take my hand. I am here for you” is offered to us at all times.

Consider/Discuss

We are not God and God is not us. How does that distinction set us free to be dancing partners with the Triune God? In the Gospel (John 3:1–5), how did Jesus offer his hand to Nicodemus to join in the dance?
Sometimes we do plod. We may not sense the movement of the Spirit. Sometimes we don’t “get” the Trinity. We may wonder, how can anybody get so excited about Trinity? Think of the little nudges that you have felt. How can we trust that God is constantly at work in our lives and learn to be even more attentive and responsive?

Living and Praying with the Word

God of Trinity, you are so beautiful, so beautiful in motion! All that we see in the created world leads us to you. Holy Spirit, surround us, enthuse us, and sustain us. You are deeply within us, and yet sometimes, we are not deeply within you. We beg for your grace to grow more agile. And when you do give us those tastes of abundant life in the divine dance that surrounds us, how can we keep from singing . . . and dancing!

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Much of the book of Exodus is concerned with answering the question “Who is the Lord?” In the deliverance from Egypt, provision in the wilderness, and establishment of the covenant, God is shown to be faithful, powerful, and wise. The present scene takes place shortly after the affair of the golden calf, which nearly ends the covenant relationship. Thanks to Moses, who reminds the Lord of his fidelity, the covenant has been renewed. It is against this background that the famous phrase must be understood: The God of Israel can be angered by human infidelity, but God’s mercy, grace, kindness, and fidelity far outshine that anger. This is who the Lord is.

Throughout his second letter to them, Paul has been admonishing the Corinthians to forsake the division and lack of fidelity to the gospel way of life that he has seen among them. He warns them to examine themselves to see if they are living in faith: “Test yourselves” (13:5). Despite the severe tone, he ends by exhorting them to rejoice—they have been saved by Christ. In that joy they should recognize their fellowship and act accordingly, with mutual encouragement, agreement, and peace. Then their community will be a sign of God’s love and peace. The letter ends with an invocation of Christ, God (the Father), and the Holy Spirit, one of the clearest “trinitarian” expressions in the New Testament.

In his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus has told him that “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (3:5). That is, one must be (re)born from above. This is a gift from God that can only be accepted by believing that Jesus is God’s Son, given by God—both in the sense of the incarnation of the Word and in his death on the cross—so that those who do believe might have eternal life. In John, “eternal life” refers to a “abundant life” (10:10), a quality of life that can be lived on earth and after bodily death, rather than simply a “duration” of life after death.

Jan 10 2025

The Erupting Spirit

She whispered under her breath, “Lord, have mercy.” The others in the room echoed, “Lord, have mercy.” It was not a church but a hospital room. Gospel music was playing softly on the player on the windowsill. She smiled, “Lord, have mercy God almighty, I am coming home!” Words of faith—the Spirit of God overflowed within her and her joy erupted into words.

The feast of Pentecost is the day to celebrate the gift of speech! Some of us speak for a living. Preachers preach often in the Easter season. Teachers talk the whole school year through. Sometimes we may wonder, where does the power come from to speak effectively? And do words make any difference in this world that is already so full of words?

The experience of the Spirit in the second chapter of Acts came to seemingly dried-up and disheartened disciples. The Spirit rushed upon them like a mighty wind! Out of their emptiness, Acts tells us, three thousand people were converted and the church was born. At that moment, Christian preaching was also born. What if Peter had not spoken? What if he had remained silent? The Spirit so filled him that he had to speak. He had to speak. His joy bubbled up into words, telling the glorious story of Jesus’ resurrection. Human speech matters more than we can ever imagine.

Our words matter, too. On this holy day of empowering, do we hunger for those we love to meet the living God? If so, what words do we speak? We have to discern our words carefully. But joy bubbling into words of faith, even when they are hesitant, can have an effect. For if those we love have not heard, how are they going to believe? Come, Holy Spirit, fill the words of your faithful!

Consider/Discuss

Jesus breathed on his future preachers and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This tender waft of Jesus’ air became the mighty wind of Pentecost. Who has breathed on you words that have transformed your life?
Faith is caught as much as it is taught. Yet words are necessary. We have to speak. Where do you struggle with speaking—talk too little? too much? too unthinkingly? too carefully? Spend a little time in prayer, discerning where your words may have hurt and how very much your words of love matter. What do you need to do to become a more Holy Spirit–inspired speaker?

Living and Praying with the Word

On this holy day of days, Holy Spirit, erupt within us. Send tongues of fire upon us so that we are aflame with your joy. We cannot fulfill our mission on our own strength. You are the Delight of delights, the Wonder of wonders. We are thrilled to exult in you. You are Holy Wisdom; fill us this day so that your inspired words radiate out through us into a world hungry for your glory.