Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings 28-April-2023

John
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	John 6
52.	6:53 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?	6:53 Litigabant ergo Judæi ad invicem, dicentes : Quomodo potest hic nobis carnem suam dare ad manducandum ?	εμαχοντο ουν προς αλληλους οι ιουδαιοι λεγοντες πως δυναται ουτος ημιν δουναι την σαρκα φαγειν
53.	6:54 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.	6:54 Dixit ergo eis Jesus : Amen, amen dico vobis : nisi manducaveritis carnem Filii hominis, et biberitis ejus sanguinem, non habebitis vitam in vobis.	ειπεν ουν αυτοις ο ιησους αμην αμην λεγω υμιν εαν μη φαγητε την σαρκα του υιου του ανθρωπου και πιητε αυτου το αιμα ουκ εχετε ζωην εν εαυτοις
54.	6:55 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.	6:55 Qui manducat meam carnem, et bibit meum sanguinem, habet vitam æternam : et ego resuscitabo eum in novissimo die.	ο τρωγων μου την σαρκα και πινων μου το αιμα εχει ζωην αιωνιον και εγω αναστησω αυτον [εν] τη εσχατη ημερα
55.	6:56 For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.	6:56 Caro enim mea vere est cibus : et sanguis meus, vere est potus ;	η γαρ σαρξ μου αληθως εστιν βρωσις και το αιμα μου αληθως εστιν ποσις
56.	6:57 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.	6:57 qui manducat meam carnem et bibit meum sanguinem, in me manet, et ego in illo.	ο τρωγων μου την σαρκα και πινων μου το αιμα εν εμοι μενει καγω εν αυτω
57.	6:58 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.	6:58 Sicut misit me vivens Pater, et ego vivo propter Patrem : et qui manducat me, et ipse vivet propter me.	καθως απεστειλεν με ο ζων πατηρ καγω ζω δια τον πατερα και ο τρωγων με κακεινος ζησεται δι εμε
58.	6:59 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.	6:59 Hic est panis qui de cælo descendit. Non sicut manducaverunt patres vestri manna, et mortui sunt. Qui manducat hunc panem, vivet in æternum.	ουτος εστιν ο αρτος ο εκ του ουρανου καταβας ου καθως εφαγον οι πατερες υμων το μαννα και απεθανον ο τρωγων τουτον τον αρτον ζησεται εις τον αιωνα
59.	6:60 These things he said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum.	6:60 Hæc dixit in synagoga docens, in Capharnaum.	ταυτα ειπεν εν συναγωγη διδασκων εν καπερναουμ

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

6:52–54

52. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

54. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxvi. s. 14) The Jews not understanding what was the bread of peace, strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat? Whereas they who eat the bread strive not among themselves, for God makes them to dwell together in unity.

BEDE. The Jews thought that our Lord would divide His flesh into pieces, and give it them to eat: and so mistaking Him, strove.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xlvii. 1) As they thought it impossible that He should do as He said, i. e. give them His flesh to eat, He shews them that it was not only possible, but necessary: Then said Jesus unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxvi. 15) As if He said, The sense in which that bread is eaten, and the mode of eating it, ye know not; but, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.

BEDE. And that this might not seem addressed to them alone, He declares universally, Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxvi. 15) And that they might not understand him to speak of this life, and make that an occasion of striving, He adds, Hath eternal life. This then he hath not who eateth not that flesh, nor drinketh that blood. The temporal life men may have without Him, the eternal they cannot. This is not true of material food. If we do not take that indeed, we shall not live, neither do we live, if we take it: for either disease, or old age, or some accident kills us after all. Whereas this meat and drink, i. e. the Body and Blood of Christ, is such that he that taketh it not hath not life, and he that taketh it hath life, even life eternal.

THEOPHYLACT. (in v. 52) For it is not the flesh of man simply, but of God: and it makes man divine, by inebriating him, as it were, with divinity.

AUGUSTINE. (de Civ. Dei, l. xxi. c. 25.) There are some who promise men deliverance from eternal punishment, if they are washed in Baptism and partake of Christ’s Body, whatever lives they live. The Apostle however contradicts them, where he says, The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19. et seq.) Let us examine what is meant here. He who is in the unity of His body, (i. e. one of the Christian members,) the Sacrament of which body the faithful receive when they communicate at the Altar; he is truly said to eat the body, and drink the blood of Christ. And heretics and schismatics, who are cut off from the unity of the body, may receive the same Sacrament; but it does not profit them, nay, rather is hurtful, as tending to make their judgment heavier, or their forgiveness later. Nor ought they to feel secure in their abandoned and damnable ways, who, by the iniquity of their lives, desert righteousness, i. e. Christ; either by fornication, or other sins of the like kind. Such are not to be said to eat the body of Christ; forasmuch as they are not to be counted among the members of Christ. For, not to mention other things, men cannot be members of Christ, and at the same time members of an harlot.

AUGUSTINE. (super Joan. c. xxvi. 15) By this meat and drink then, He would have us understand the society of His body, and His members, which is the Church, in the predestined, and called, and justified, and glorified saints and believers. The Sacrament whereof, i. e. of the unity of the body and blood of Christ, is administered, in some places daily, in others on such and such days from the Lord’s Table: and from the Lord’s Table it is received by some to their salvation, by others to their condemnation. But the thing itself of which this is the Sacrament, is for our salvation to every one who partakes of it, for condemnation to none. To prevent us supposing that those who, by virtue of that meat and drink, were promised eternal life, would not die in the body, He adds, And I will, raise him up at the last day; i. e. to that eternal life, a spiritual rest, which the spirits of the Saints enter into. But neither shall the body be defrauded of eternal life, but shall be endowed with it at the resurrection of the dead in the last day.

6:55–59

55. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

56. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

57. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

58. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

59. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

BEDE. He had said above, Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life: and now to shew the great difference between bodily meat and drink, and the spiritual mystery of His body and blood, He adds, For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xlvii. 1) i. e. this is no enigma, or parable, but ye must really eat the body of Christ; or He means to say that the true meat was He who saved the soul.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxvi. 17) Or thus: Whereas men desire meat and drink to satisfy hunger and thirst, this effect is only really produced by that meat and drink, which makes the receivers of it immortal and incorruptible; i. e. the society of Saints, where is peace and unity, full and perfect. On which account our Lord has chosen for the types of His body and blood, things which become one out of many. Bread is a quantity of grains united into one mass, wine a quantity of grapes squeezed together. Then He explains what it is to eat His body and drink His blood: He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. So then to partake of that meat and that drink, is to dwell in Christ and Christ in thee. He that dwelleth not in Christ, and in whom Christ dwelleth not, neither eateth His flesh, nor drinketh His blood: but rather eateth and drinketh the sacrament of it to his own damnation.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xlvii. 1) Or, having given a promise of eternal life to those that eat Him, He says this to confirm it: He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him.

AUGUSTINE. (de Verb. Dom.) As for those, as indeed there are many, who either eat that flesh and drink that blood hypocritically, or, who having eaten, become apostates, do they dwell in Christ, and Christ in them? Nay, but there is a certain mode of eating that flesh, and drinking that blood, in the which he that eateth and drinketh, dwelleth in Christ, and Christ in him.

AUGUSTINE. (de Civ. Dei, l. xxi. c. 25) That is to say, such an one eateth the body and drinketh the blood of Christ not in the sacramental sense, but in reality.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xlvi) And because I live, it is manifest that he will live also: As the living Father hath sent Me, and I lice by the Father, even so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. (Aug. de Verb. Dom. [Nic.]). As if He said, As the Father liveth, so do I live; adding, lest you should think Him unbegotten, By the Father, meaning that He has His source in the Father. He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me; the life here meant is not life simply, but the justified life: for even unbelievers live, who never eat of that flesh at all. Nor is it of the general resurrection He speaks, (for all will rise again,) but of the resurrection to glory, and reward.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxvi. s. 19) He saith not, As I eat the Father, and live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. For the Son does not grow better by partaking of the Father, as we do by partaking of the Son, i. e. of His one body and blood, which this eating and drinking signifies. So that His saying, I live by the Father, because He is from Him, must not be understood as detracting from His equality. Nor do the words, Even he that eateth Me, the same shall live by Me, give us the equality that He has. He does not equalize, but only mediates between God and man. If, however, we understand the words, I live by the Father, in the sense of those below, My Father is greater than I, (c. 14:28) then it is as if He said, That I live by the Father, i. e. refer my life to Him, as my superior, my1 humiliation in my incarnation is the cause; but He who lives by Me, lives by Me by virtue of partaking of My flesh.

HILARY. (vii. de Trin. c. 14) Of the truth then of the body and blood of Christ, no room for doubting remains: for, by the declaration of our Lord Himself, and by the teaching of our own faith, the flesh is really flesh, and the blood really blood. This then is our principle of life. While we are in the flesh, Christ dwelleth in us by His flesh. (c.14:19) And we shall live by Him, according as He liveth. If then we live naturally by partaking of Him according to the flesh, He also liveth naturally by the indwelling of the Father according to the Spirit. His birth did not give Him an alien or different nature from the Father.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxvi. c. 20) That we who cannot obtain eternal life of ourselves, might live by the eating that bread, He descended from heaven: This is the bread which cometh down from heaven.

HILARY. (de Trin. x. c. 18.) He calls Himself the bread, because He is the origin of His own body. And lest it should be thought that the virtue and nature of the Word had given way to the flesh, He calls the bread His flesh, that, inasmuch as the bread came down from heaven, it might be seen that His body was not of human conception, but a heavenly body. To say that the bread is His own, is to declare that the Word assumed His body Himself.

THEOPHYLACT. For we do not eat God simply, God being impalpable and incorporeal; nor again, the flesh of man simply, which would not profit us. But God having taken flesh into union with Himself, that flesh is quickening. Not that it has changed its own for the Divine nature; but, just as heated iron remains iron, with the action of the heat in it; so our Lord’s flesh is quickening, as being the flesh of the Word of God.

BEDE. And to shew the wide interval between the shadow and the light, the type and the reality, He adds, Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxvi. 20) The death here meant is death eternal. For even those who eat Christ are subject to natural death; but they live for ever, because Christ is everlasting life.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xlvii. 1) For if it was possible without harvest or fruit of the earth, or any such thing, to preserve the lives of the Israelites of old for forty years, much more will He be able to do this with that spiritual food, of which the manna is the type. He knew how precious a thing life was in men’s eyes, and therefore repeats His promise of life often; just as the Old Testament had done; (Exod. 20:12) only that it only offered length of life, He life without end. (Deut. 22:7) This promise was an abolition of that sentence of death, which sin had brought upon us. These things said He in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum; (1 Kings 3:14) where many displays of His power took place. (Ps. 21:4; 91:16) He taught in the synagogue and in the temple, (Prov. 3:2) with the view of attracting the multitude, and as a sign that He was not acting in opposition to the Father.

BEDE. Mystically, Capernaum, which means beautiful town, stands for the world: the synagogue, for the Jewish people. The meaning is, that our Lord hath, by the mystery of the incarnation, manifested Himself to the world, and also taught the Jewish people His doctrines.

Catena Aurea John 6

St. Peter Chanel: A missionary to Oceania

MICHAEL R. HEINLEIN 3 MIN READ

When St. Peter Chanel (1803-1841) first applied for his bishop’s permission for missionary work, not long after his 1827 ordination, he was denied and sent to work in a French country parish. For a priest with his gifts and talents, it was no surprise that he revitalized it in a short amount of time. The people came to love him for his charity and care for them, particularly the marginalized and sick.

St. Peter Chanel did not let his desire for the missions die out, however. He had long been drawn to foreign evangelization since he was a young boy, after reading accounts of American missionaries written by the French missionary Bishop Louis Dubourg, who had authority over much of America’s southern states and territories.

A bright and gifted student, St. Peter won a variety of awards that proved his theological and linguistic prowess, making him an ideal candidate for the missions.

In 1831, St. Peter again sought permission to join the Society of Mary (called the Marists), a missionary congregation founded a few decades earlier in his native France focused on evangelical work in local and foreign missions. Despite joining the congregation, however, St. Peter was unable to fulfill his missionary desires for at least five years, assigned instead to teach in a minor seminary.

In 1836, after the Marists obtained papal approval, the order was asked to send missionaries to various regions of Oceania. St. Peter was assigned as superior of a group who set sail the same year.

A desire to share the Gospel with those who never heard of Christ brought St. Peter to the French controlled island of Futuna. He and his companion, a French lay brother, were in store for a difficult and arduous task in the mission field there. Although St. Peter struggled to learn the language, he went on to master it. And there were the difficulties with a new culture and isolation on a remote island. St. Peter wrote how he believed the local religion was Satan’s work, but he was patient and willing to work slowly for their conversion.

At first, the king of Futuna favorably received St. Peter and his companion. However, there was a miscommunication that the missionaries were only visitors learning the natives’ language and customs. Once their intentions were made clear, combined with the successes of Christian missionaries on nearby islands, the king turned on the missionaries. He perceived and feared the threats they posed to his power. But, for good reason, the Europeans were also feared for their exploitation of Futuna women and general mistreatment of the natives.

The king’s tension with the missionaries reached a boiling point when the king’s own son expressed his desire for baptism. In response, the king sent his brute son-in-law to kill the missionaries.

St. Peter knew well that his life was threatened, writing: “It does not matter whether or not I am killed; the religion has taken root on the island; it will not be destroyed by my death, since it comes not from men but from God.”

While others rushed the saint’s house and vandalized it, the king’s son-in-law clubbed St. Peter to the ground, killing him with an axe. He died, only 37, on April 28, 1841, the protomartyr of Oceania and of his congregation.

Within a year of St. Peter Chanel’s death, the local bishop assigned several other missionaries to Futuna, and most of the island converted to the Faith — including St. Peter’s murderer.

His feast day is April 28.

simplycatholic.com

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

From: Acts 9:1-20

Saul on His Way to Damascus
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[1] But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest [2] and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. [3] Now a he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from Heaven flashed about him. [4] And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" [5] And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting; [6] but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." [7] The men who were travelling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. [8] Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. [9] And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Ananias Baptizes Saul
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[10] Now there was a disciple at Damascus called Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." [11] And the Lord said to him, "Rise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying, [12] and he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight." [13] But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to Thy saints at Jerusalem; [14] and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Thy name." [15] But the Lord said to him, "Go for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; [16] for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name." [17] So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." [18] And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, [19] and took food and was strengthened.

For several days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

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Commentary:

1-3. Roman authorities recognized the moral authority of the Sanhedrin and even permitted it to exercise a certain jurisdiction over members of Jewish communities outside Palestine--as was the case with Damascus. The Sanhedrin even had the right to extradite Jews to Palestine (cf. I Maccabees 15:21).

Damascus was about 230-250 kilometers (150 miles) from Jerusalem, depending on which route one took. Saul and his associates, who would probably have been mounted, would have had no difficulty in doing the journey in under a week. This apparition took place towards the end of the journey, when they were near Damascus.

2. "The Way": the corresponding word in Hebrew also means religious behavior. Here it refers to both Christian lifestyle and the Gospel itself; indirectly it means all the early followers of Jesus (cf. Acts 18:25ff; 19:9, 23; 22:4) and all those who come after them and are on the way to Heaven; it reminds us of Jesus' words, "The gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:14).

3-19. This is the first of the three accounts of the calling of Saul--occurring probably between the years 34 and 36--that are given in the Acts of the Apostles (cf. Acts 22:5-16; 26:10-18); where important events are concerned, St. Luke does not mind repeating himself. Once again the Light shines in the darkness (cf. John 1:5). It does so here in a spectacular way and, as in every conversion, it makes the convert see God, himself and others in a new way.

However, the episode on the road to Damascus is not only a conversion. It marks the beginning of St. Paul's vocation: "What amazes you seems natural to me: that God has sought you out in the practice of your profession!

"This is how He sought the first, Peter and Andrew, James and John, beside their nets, and Matthew, sitting in the custom-house.

"And--wonder of wonders!--Paul, in his eagerness to destroy the seed of the Christians" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 799).

The background to St. Luke's concise account is easy to fill in. There would have been no Hellenist Christians left in Jerusalem: they had fled the city, some going as far afield as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. Many had sought refuge in Damascus, and Saul must have realized that their evangelizing zeal would win many converts among faithful Jews in that city. Saul genuinely wanted to serve God, which explains his readiness to respond to grace. Like most Jews of his time, he saw the Messiah as a political liberator, a warrior-king, a half-Heavenly, half-earthly figure such as described in the apocryphal "Book of Enoch", 46: "It is impossible to imagine how even his glance terrifies his enemies. Wherever he turns, everything trembles; wherever his voice reaches everything is overwhelmed and those who hear it are dissolved as wax in fire." A hero of this type does not fall into the power of his enemies, much less let them crucify him; on the contrary, he is a victor, he annihilates his enemies and establishes an everlasting kingdom of peace and justice. For Saul, Jesus' death on a cross was a clear proof that He was a false messiah; and the whole notion of a brotherhood of Jews and Gentiles was inconceivable.

He has almost reached Damascus when a light flashes; he is thrown onto the ground and hears a voice from Heaven calling his name twice, in a tone of sad complaint.

Saul surrenders unconditionally and places himself at the Lord's service. He does not bemoan his past life; he is ready to start anew. No longer is the Cross a "scandal": it has become for him a sign of salvation, the "power of God", a throne of victory, whose praises he will sing in his epistles. Soon St. Paul will learn more about this Way and about all that Jesus did and taught, but from this moment onwards, the moment of his calling, he realizes that Jesus is the risen Messiah, in whom the prophecies find fulfillment; he believes in the divinity of Christ: he sees how different his idea of the Messiah was from the glorified, pre-existing and eternal Son of God; he understands Christ's mystical presence in His followers: "Why do you persecute me?" In other words, he realizes that he has been chosen by God, called by God, and immediately places himself at his service.

4. This identification of Christ and Christians is something which the Apostle will later elaborate on when he speaks of the Mystical Body of Christ (cf. Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22f).

St. Bede comments as follows: "Jesus does not say, `Why do you persecute My members?', but, `Why do you persecute Me?', because He Himself still suffers affronts in His body, which is the Church. Similarly Christ will take account of the good actions done to His members, for He said, `I was hungry and you gave Me food...' (Matthew 25:35), and explaining these words He added `As you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me' (Matthew 25:40)" ("Super Act. Expositio, ad loc.").

5-6. In the Vulgate and in many other translations these words are added between the end of verse 5 and the start of verse 6: "It is hard for thee to kick against the goad. And he, trembling and astonished, said: "Lord, what will Thou have me to do? And the Lord said to him". These words do not seem to be part of the original sacred text but rather a later explanatory gloss; for this reason the New Vulgate omits them. (The first part of the addition comes from Paul's address in Acts 26:14).

6. The calling of Saul was exceptional as regards the manner in which God called him; but the effect it had on him was the same as what happens when God gives a specific calling to the apostolate to certain individual Christians, inviting them to follow Him more closely. Paul's immediate response is a model of how those who receive these specific callings should act (all Christians, of course, have a common calling to holiness and apostolate that comes with Baptism).

[Pope] Paul VI describes in this way the effects of this specific kind of vocation in a person's soul: "The apostolate is [...] an inner voice, which makes one both restless and serene, a voice that is both gentle and imperious, troublesome and affectionate, a voice which comes unexpectedly and with great events and then, at a particular point, exercises a strong attraction, as it were revealing to us our life and our destiny. It speaks prophetically and almost in a tone of victory, which eventually dispels all uncertainty, all timidity and all fear, and which facilitates-- making it easy, desirable and pleasant--the response of our whole personality, when we pronounce that word which reveals the supreme secret of love: Yes; Yes, Lord, tell what I must do and I will try to do it, I will do it. Like St. Paul, thrown to the ground at the gates of Damascus: What would You have me do?

"The roots of the apostolate run deep: the apostolate is vocation, election, interior encounter with Christ, abandonment of one's personal autonomy to His will, to His invisible presence; it is a kind of substitution of our poor, restless heart, inconstant and at times unfaithful yet hungry for love, for His heart, the heart of Christ which is beginning to pulsate in the one who has been chosen. And then comes the second act in the psychological drama of the apostolate: the need to spread, to do, to give, to speak, to pass on to others one's own treasure, one's own fire. [...]

"The apostolate becomes a continuous expansion of one's soul, the exuberance of a personality taken over by Christ and animated by His Spirit; it becomes a need to hasten, to work, to do everything one can to spread the Kingdom of God, to save other souls, to save all souls" ("Homily", 14 October 1968).

8-11. Straight Street runs through Damascus from east to west and can still be identified today.

13. Ananias refers to Christ's followers as "saints"; this was the word normally used to describe the disciples, first in Palestine and then in the world at large. God is THE Holy One (cf. Isaiah 6:3); as the Old Testament repeatedly says, those who approach God and keep His commandments share in this holiness: "The Lord said to Moses, `Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy'" (Leviticus 19:1-2).

The use of this term is an example of the spiritual sensitivity of our first brothers and sisters in the faith: "What a moving name--saints! --the early Christians used to address each other!...

"Learn to be a brother to your brothers" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 469).

15-16. Our Lord calls St. Paul His "vessel of election", which is a Hebraicism equivalent to "chosen instrument", and He tells Ananias how much the Apostle will have to suffer on His account. A Christian called to the apostolate is also, by virtue of this divine vocation, an instrument in the hands of God; to be effective he must be docile: he must let God use him and must do what God tells him.

The task God has given him is far beyond Paul's ability--"to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel". In Acts we will see how Paul fulfills his mission, with the help of God's grace and suffering a great deal on account of His name. Down through the centuries, in diverse circumstance, those whom the Lord elects to carry out specific missions will also be able to perform them if they are good instruments who allow grace to act in them and who are ready to suffer for their ideals.

19. In spite of the exceptional manner in which God called St. Paul, He desired him to mature in the normal way--to be instructed by others and learn God's will through them. In this case he chose Ananias to confer Baptism on Paul and teach him the basics of the Christian faith.

In Ananias we can see a trace of the role of the spiritual director or guide in Christian asceticism. There is a principle which states that "no one can be a good judge in his own case, because everyone judges according to his own inclinations" (cf. Cassian, "Collationes", XVI, 11). A person guiding a soul has a special "grace of state" to make God's will known to him; and even if the guide makes a mistake, the person who is being guided will--if obedient--always do the right thing, always do God's will. In this connection St. Vincent Ferrer says: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, without whom we can do nothing, will not give His grace to him who, though he has access to an expert guide, rejects this precious means of sanctification, thinking that he can look after on his own everything that touches on his salvation. He who has a director, whom he obeys in everything, will reach his goal more easily and more quickly than if he had acted as his own guide, even if he be very intelligent and have the very best of spiritual books" ("Treatise on the Spiritual Life", 2, 1).

On the spiritual guidance of ordinary Christians, who seek holiness and carry out apostolate in the context of everyday life, St Escriva, writes: "A Director. You need one. So that you can give yourself to God, and give yourself fully...by obedience. A director who understands your apostolate, who knows what God wants: that way he will second the work of the Holy Spirit in your soul, without taking you from your place, filling you with peace, and teaching you how to make your work fruitful" ("The Way", 62).

20-23. In his letter to the Galatians (cf. Galatians 1:16f) St. Paul tells of how he went into Arabia after his conversion and then returned to Damascus. He spent almost three years away, and it was on his return that he preached the divinity of Jesus, using all his energy and learning, now placed at the service of Christ. This surprised and confounded the Jews, who immediately began to take action against him.

From: John 6:52-59

The Discourse on the Bread of Life (Continuation)
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[52] The Jews disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" [53] So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; [54] he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. [55] For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. [56] He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. [57] As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will live because of Me. [58] This is the bread which came from Heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever." This He said in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum.

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Commentary:

52. Christ's hearers understand perfectly well that He means exactly what He says; but they cannot believe that what He says could be true; if they had understood Him in a metaphorical, figurative or symbolic sense there would be no reason for them to be surprised and nothing to cause an argument. Later, Jesus reaffirms what He has said—confirming what they have understood Him to say (cf. verses 54-56).

53. Once again Jesus stresses very forcefully that it is necessary to receive Him in the Blessed Eucharist in order to share in divine life and develop the life of grace received in Baptism. No parent is content to bring children into the world: they have to be nourished and looked after to enable them to reach maturity. "We receive Jesus Christ in Holy Communion to nourish our souls and to give us an increase of grace and the gift of eternal life" ("St. Pius X Catechism", 289).

54. Jesus clearly states that His body and blood are a pledge of eternal life and a guarantee of the resurrection of the body. St. Thomas Aquinas gives this explanation: "The Word gives life to our souls, but the Word made flesh nourishes our bodies. In this Sacrament is contained the Word not only in His divinity but also in His humanity; therefore, it is the cause not only of the glorification of our souls but also of that of our bodies" ("Commentary on St. John, in loc.").

Our Lord uses a stronger word than just "eating" (the original verb could be translated as "chewing") which shows that Communion is a real meal. There is no room for saying that He was speaking only symbolically, which would mean that Communion was only a metaphor and not really eating and drinking the Body and Blood of Christ.

"All these invitations, promises and threats sprang from the great desire which (Jesus) had of giving us Himself in the holy Sacrament of the altar. But why should Jesus so ardently desire us to receive Him in Holy Communion? It is because love always sighs for, and tends to a union with, the object beloved. True friends wish to be united in such a manner as to become only one. The love of God for us being immense, He destined us to possess Him not only in Heaven, but also here below, by the most intimate union, under the appearance of bread in the Eucharist. It is true we do not see Him; but He beholds us, and is really present; yes, He is present in order that we may possess Him and He conceals Himself, that we may desire Him, and until we reach our true homeland Jesus Christ wishes in this way to be entirely ours, and to be perfectly united to us" (St. Alphonsus Liguori, "The Love of Our Lord Jesus Christ Reduced to Practice", Chapter 2).

55. In the same way as bodily food is necessary for life on earth, Holy Communion is necessary for maintaining the life of the soul, which is why the Church exhorts us to receive this Sacrament frequently: "Every day, as is desirable, and in the greatest possible numbers, the faithful must take an active part in the sacrifice of the Mass, avail themselves of the pure, holy refreshment of Holy Communion and make a suitable thanksgiving in return for this great gift of Christ the Lord. Here are the words they should keep in mind: `Jesus Christ and the Church desire all Christ's faithful to approach the sacred banquet every day. The basis of this desire is that they should be united to God by the sacrament and draw strength from it to restrain lust, to wash away the slight faults of daily occurrence and to take precautions against the more serious sins to which human frailty is liable' (Decree of the S.C. of the Council, 20 December 1905)" (St Pope Paul VI, "Mysterium Fidei").

"The Savior has instituted the most august sacrament of the Eucharist, which truly contains His flesh and His blood, so that he who eats this bread may live forever; whosoever, therefore, makes use of it often with devotion so strengthens the health and the life of his soul, that it is almost impossible for him to be poisoned by any kind of evil affection. We cannot be nourished with this flesh of life, and live with the affections of death. [...]. Christians who are damned will be unable to make any reply when the just Judge shows them how much they are to blame for dying spiritually, since it was so easy for them to maintain themselves in life and in health by eating His Body which He had left them for this purpose. Unhappy souls, He will say, why did you die, seeing that you had at your command the fruit and the food of life?" (St. Francis de Sales, "Introduction to the Devout Life", II, 20, 1).

56. The most important effect of the Blessed Eucharist is intimate union with Jesus Christ. The very word "communion" suggests sharing in the life of our Lord and becoming one with Him; if our union with Jesus is promoted by all the sacraments through the grace which they give us, this happens more intensely in the Eucharist, for in it we receive not only grace but the very Author of grace: "Really sharing in the body of the Lord in the breaking of the eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with Him and with one another. `Because the bread is one, we, though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread' (1 Corinthians 10:17)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 7). Precisely because the Eucharist is the sacrament which best signifies and effects our union with Christ, it is there that the whole Church manifests and effects its unity: Jesus Christ "instituted in His Church the wonderful sacrament of the Eucharist, by which the unity of the Church is both signified and brought about" (Vatican II, "Unitatis Redintegratio", 2).

57. In Christ, the Incarnate Word sent to mankind, "the whole fullness of deity, dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9) through the ineffable union of His human nature and His divine nature in the Person of the Word. By receiving in this sacrament the body and blood of Christ indissolubly united to His divinity, we share in the divine life of the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. We will never be able to appreciate enough the intimacy with God Himself--Father, Son and Holy Spirit—that we are offered in the eucharistic banquet.

"We can therefore do nothing more agreeable to Jesus Christ than to go to Communion with the dispositions suitable to so great an action, since we are then united to Jesus Christ, according to the desire of this all-loving God. I have said with `suitable' and not `worthy' disposition, for who could communicate if it was necessary to be worthy of so great a Savior? No one but a God would be worthy to receive a God. But by this word suitable, or convenient, I mean such a disposition as becomes a miserable creature, who is clothed with the unhappy flesh of Adam. Ordinarily speaking, it is sufficient that we communicate in a state of grace and with an anxious desire of advancing in the love of Jesus Christ" (St. Alphonsus Liguori, "The Love of Our Lord Jesus Christ Reduced to Practice", Chapter 2).

58. For the third time (cf. 6:31-32 and 6:49) Jesus compares the true bread of life, His own body, with the manna God used to feed the Israelites every day during their forty years in the wilderness--thereby, inviting us to nourish our soul frequently with the food of His body.

"`Going to Communion every day for so many years! Anybody else would be a saint by now, you told me, and I...I'm always the same!' Son, I replied, keep up your daily Communion, and think: what would I be if I had not gone'" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 534).

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Readings at Mass

This man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before the pagans

My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink

Christian Art

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

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