June 14th 2020. Corpus Christi
GOSPEL: John 6:51-58
GOSPEL: John 6:51-58
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Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio
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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel
GOSPEL: John 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Kieran’s summary . . . Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. But it is important also to understand the sacrament existentially. Why is the presence of God in this food so important? Our culture makes the gratification of our cravings the most central thing. This gives rise to a view of human nature that is totally dominated by individual desires and sensual satisfaction, as if the human being was little more than an appetite to be appeased. If friendship, marriage, human work and achievement are all a function of satisfaction, then they become distorted and wayward. In the Christian view, friendship is a free gift to others, marriage is built on unconditional love, work is service to others. The flourishing of human nature depends on a vision of the person that is rooted in the self-giving nature of God who created us in his image and likeness. Our culture may be turned in on itself, but the Eucharist shows us a better way! Here we see that the nature of God (and consequently the nature of humanity) is self-giving. Jesus was born among us and was placed in a feeding trough. He came not to be served, but to serve. His flesh and blood are food and drink for us because he is love and gives himself to us as a gift without reserve. Jesus was not focused on satisfying his own desires but on giving himself so that our deepest desires would be satiated. And for us too, our deepest nature is fulfilled when we act with love. A single act of selfless love will give me more joy than any amount of gratification of my appetites.
Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. But it is important also to understand the sacrament existentially. Why is the presence of God in this food so important?
How can Jesus give us his flesh to eat? We are so used to the reality of the Eucharist that perhaps we no longer grasp its sublime paradox. This event was chosen by the Lord to illuminate our memory and (therefore) our heart. This eating of bread and drinking of wine (which is truly his body and his blood) is the clearest and most direct way of making him present. In other times, the priority was to focus on the reality of the presence of the Lord in the Eucharistic species. Today, in this post-psychoanalytic era, which follows the most introspective period of the centuries, we thirst for the existential dimension of this sacrament, without forgetting the rest. How can the Lord feed us?
Our culture makes the gratification of our cravings the most central thing. This gives rise to a view of human nature that is totally dominated by individual desires, sensual satisfaction, as if the human being was little more than an appetite to be satisfied.
Humanity by nature tends to absolutize his needs and reduce himself to his appetites. We are in the most sensual of eras, where everything is a mouth to feed or an appetite to satisfy. The focus is on the aesthetic, on taste, pleasure, tasting, comfort and well-being. Today's culture seeks to transform stone into bread; it looks for aspects of enjoyment in every detail of experience. If you buy a chair, it is not so important that it does not help back pain, as long as it has a satisfying design. If you have to choose any object in common use, besides its usefulness, it must give you a dose of vanity, of presentability, of pleasure. Things may or may not work, but they must look good and give a good feeling. This is not "bad" or "good" but simply individualistic, sensual, in a world that holds up a very specific understanding of human nature, which the commercial world exploits and emphasizes: the human being is an appetite to be satisfied.
If friendship, marriage, human work and achievement are all a function of satisfaction, then they become distorted and wayward. In the Christian view, friendship is a free gift to others, marriage is built on unconditional love, work is service to others. The flourishing of human nature depends on a vision of the person that is rooted in the self-giving nature of God who created us in his image and likeness.
But if this is true, what is friendship? What is marriage? What is work, or time, or anything else? If this view of humanity - which perhaps no one explicitly affirms, but which many people follow in a practical sense - dominates, then all things become a function of satisfaction. The meaning of all things is consequentially distorted. In a correct Christian anthropology, friendship is a free gift to others; marriage is all about unconditional love; work is service to the people around me; time is the space in which love comes to fruition.
The Eucharist shows us a better way! Here we see that the nature of God (and consequently the nature of humanity) is self-giving. Jesus was born among us and was placed in a feeding trough. He came not to be served, but to serve. His flesh and blood are food and drink for us because he is love and gives himself to us as a gift without reserve. Jesus was not focused on satisfying his own desires but on giving himself so that our deepest desires would be satiated. And for us too, our deepest nature is fulfilled when we act with love. A single act of selfless love will give me more joy than any amount of gratification of my appetites.
We must begin from the school of the Eucharist. Here, we see the One who lifts humanity up and shows us the meaning of love in the divine sense of the word. In the Eucharist, we go beyond the childish vision in which the human being is mainly a mouth to be fed. Instead, we encounter the very hand of the Father who feeds us. We are challenged to be no longer children who ask, but to become, rather, fathers and mothers who look after others. This man, Christ, was born and placed in a manger to make it clear that he had come, not to be served, but to serve. He is the one who understands his flesh as food and his blood as drink because he is love, and everything that is his is a gift. To think of oneself as food and drink is to be free from one's ego. Curiously, this giving of oneself for others leads to the greatest possible fulfilment: authentic love. All the amusements that I can experience will never give me as much joy as a single act of true love.
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio
Please check us out on Facebook
Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel
GOSPEL: John 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Kieran’s summary . . . Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. But it is important also to understand the sacrament existentially. Why is the presence of God in this food so important? Our culture makes the gratification of our cravings the most central thing. This gives rise to a view of human nature that is totally dominated by individual desires and sensual satisfaction, as if the human being was little more than an appetite to be appeased. If friendship, marriage, human work and achievement are all a function of satisfaction, then they become distorted and wayward. In the Christian view, friendship is a free gift to others, marriage is built on unconditional love, work is service to others. The flourishing of human nature depends on a vision of the person that is rooted in the self-giving nature of God who created us in his image and likeness. Our culture may be turned in on itself, but the Eucharist shows us a better way! Here we see that the nature of God (and consequently the nature of humanity) is self-giving. Jesus was born among us and was placed in a feeding trough. He came not to be served, but to serve. His flesh and blood are food and drink for us because he is love and gives himself to us as a gift without reserve. Jesus was not focused on satisfying his own desires but on giving himself so that our deepest desires would be satiated. And for us too, our deepest nature is fulfilled when we act with love. A single act of selfless love will give me more joy than any amount of gratification of my appetites.
Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. But it is important also to understand the sacrament existentially. Why is the presence of God in this food so important?
How can Jesus give us his flesh to eat? We are so used to the reality of the Eucharist that perhaps we no longer grasp its sublime paradox. This event was chosen by the Lord to illuminate our memory and (therefore) our heart. This eating of bread and drinking of wine (which is truly his body and his blood) is the clearest and most direct way of making him present. In other times, the priority was to focus on the reality of the presence of the Lord in the Eucharistic species. Today, in this post-psychoanalytic era, which follows the most introspective period of the centuries, we thirst for the existential dimension of this sacrament, without forgetting the rest. How can the Lord feed us?
Our culture makes the gratification of our cravings the most central thing. This gives rise to a view of human nature that is totally dominated by individual desires, sensual satisfaction, as if the human being was little more than an appetite to be satisfied.
Humanity by nature tends to absolutize his needs and reduce himself to his appetites. We are in the most sensual of eras, where everything is a mouth to feed or an appetite to satisfy. The focus is on the aesthetic, on taste, pleasure, tasting, comfort and well-being. Today's culture seeks to transform stone into bread; it looks for aspects of enjoyment in every detail of experience. If you buy a chair, it is not so important that it does not help back pain, as long as it has a satisfying design. If you have to choose any object in common use, besides its usefulness, it must give you a dose of vanity, of presentability, of pleasure. Things may or may not work, but they must look good and give a good feeling. This is not "bad" or "good" but simply individualistic, sensual, in a world that holds up a very specific understanding of human nature, which the commercial world exploits and emphasizes: the human being is an appetite to be satisfied.
If friendship, marriage, human work and achievement are all a function of satisfaction, then they become distorted and wayward. In the Christian view, friendship is a free gift to others, marriage is built on unconditional love, work is service to others. The flourishing of human nature depends on a vision of the person that is rooted in the self-giving nature of God who created us in his image and likeness.
But if this is true, what is friendship? What is marriage? What is work, or time, or anything else? If this view of humanity - which perhaps no one explicitly affirms, but which many people follow in a practical sense - dominates, then all things become a function of satisfaction. The meaning of all things is consequentially distorted. In a correct Christian anthropology, friendship is a free gift to others; marriage is all about unconditional love; work is service to the people around me; time is the space in which love comes to fruition.
The Eucharist shows us a better way! Here we see that the nature of God (and consequently the nature of humanity) is self-giving. Jesus was born among us and was placed in a feeding trough. He came not to be served, but to serve. His flesh and blood are food and drink for us because he is love and gives himself to us as a gift without reserve. Jesus was not focused on satisfying his own desires but on giving himself so that our deepest desires would be satiated. And for us too, our deepest nature is fulfilled when we act with love. A single act of selfless love will give me more joy than any amount of gratification of my appetites.
We must begin from the school of the Eucharist. Here, we see the One who lifts humanity up and shows us the meaning of love in the divine sense of the word. In the Eucharist, we go beyond the childish vision in which the human being is mainly a mouth to be fed. Instead, we encounter the very hand of the Father who feeds us. We are challenged to be no longer children who ask, but to become, rather, fathers and mothers who look after others. This man, Christ, was born and placed in a manger to make it clear that he had come, not to be served, but to serve. He is the one who understands his flesh as food and his blood as drink because he is love, and everything that is his is a gift. To think of oneself as food and drink is to be free from one's ego. Curiously, this giving of oneself for others leads to the greatest possible fulfilment: authentic love. All the amusements that I can experience will never give me as much joy as a single act of true love.
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