Catholic Caucus: Sunday Mass Readings, 8-03-03

Reading I
Ex 16:2-4, 12-15

The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites said to them,
"Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!"

Then the LORD said to Moses,
"I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.
Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion;
thus will I test them,
to see whether they follow my instructions or not.

"I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God."

In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.
In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,
and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert
were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.
On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, "What is this?"
for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them,
"This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat."

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54

R (24b) The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
We will declare to the generation to come
the glorious deeds of the Lord and his strength
and the wonders that he wrought.
R The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven;
he rained manna upon them for food
and gave them heavenly bread.
R The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.
And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountains his right hand had won.
R The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

Reading II
Eph 4:17, 20-24

Brothers and sisters:
I declare and testify in the Lord
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds;
that is not how you learned Christ,
assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him,
as truth is in Jesus,
that you should put away the old self of your former way of life,
corrupted through deceitful desires,
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and put on the new self,
created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Gospel
Jn 6:24-35

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
"Rabbi, when did you get here?"
Jesus answered them and said,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal."
So they said to him,
"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."
So they said to him,
"What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat."
So Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world."

So they said to him,
"Sir, give us this bread always."
Jesus said to them,
"I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

From: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15

The Manna and the Quails

[2] And the whole congregation of the people of Israel murmured against
Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, [3] and said to them, "Would that we had
died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the
fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this
wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

[4] Then the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for
you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that
I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not. [5] 0n the sixth
day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they
gather daily."

[12] "I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel; say to them, 'At
twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with
bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God."'

[13] In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning
dew lay round about the camp. [14] And when the dew had gone up, there was
on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake like thing, fine as hoar frost
on the ground. [15] When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one
another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to
them, "It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. '

Commentary:

16:1-36. The prodigy of the manna and the quails was a very important sign
of God's special providence towards his people while they were in the
desert. It is recounted here and in Numbers 11, but in both accounts facts
are interwoven with interpretation of same and with things to do with
worship and ethics.

Some scholars have argued that the manna is the same thing as a sweet
secretion that comes from the tamarisk ("tamarix mannifera") when punctured
by a particular insect commonly found in the mountains of Sinai. The drops
of this resin solidify in the coldness of the night and some fall to the
ground. They have to be gathered up early in the morning because they
deteriorate at twenty-four degrees temperature (almost eighty degrees
Celsius). Even today desert Arabs collect them and use them for sucking and
as a sweetener in confectionery.

As we know, quails cross the Sinai peninsula on their migrations back and
forth between Africa and Europe or Asia. In May or June, when they return
from Africa they usually rest in Sinai, exhausted after a long sea crossing;
they can be easily trapped at this point.

Although these phenomenon can show where the manna and the quail come from,
the important thing is that the Israelites saw them as wonders worked by
God. The sacred writer stops to describe the impact the manna had on the
sons of Israel. They are puzzled by it, as can be seen from their remarks
when it comes for the first time: "What is it?" they ask, which in Hebrew
sounds like "man hu", that is, manna (v. 15), which is how the Greek
translation puts it. Indeed, the need to collect it every day gave rise to
complaints about some people being greedy (v. 20) and who did not understand
the scope of God's gift (v. 15). And just as manna is a divine gift to meet
a basic human need (nourishment), so too the divine precepts, specifically
that of the sabbath, are a free gift from the Lord (v. 28). So, obedience is
not a heavy burden but the exercise of a capacity to receive the good things
that God gives to those who obey him.

The prodigy of the manna will resound right through the Bible: in the
"Deuteronomic" tradition it is a test that God gives his people to show them
that "man does not live by bread alone, but [...] by everything that
proceeds from the mouth of the Lord" (Deut 8:3). The psalmist discovers that
manna is "the bread of the strong" ("of angels", says the Vulgate and the
RSV), which God sent in abundance (Ps 78:23ff; cf. Ps 105:40). The book of
Wisdom spells out the features of this bread from heaven "ready to eat,
providing every pleasure and suited to every taste" (Wis 16:20-29). And the
New Testament reveals the full depth of this "spiritual" food (1 Cor 10:3),
for, as the "Catechism" teaches, "manna in the desert prefigured the
Eucharist, 'the true bread from heaven' (Jn 6:32)" ("Catechism of the
Catholic Church", 1094).

16:2-3. The complaining that usually precedes the desert prodigies (cf.
14:11; 15:24; 17:3; Num 11:1, 4; 14:2; 20:2; 21:4-5) brings into focus the
chosen people's lack of faith and hope, and (by contrast) the faithfulness
of God, who time and again alleviates their needs even though they do not
deserve it. At the same time, just as Moses and Aaron listened patiently to
complaints, God too is always ready to dialogue with the sinner, sometimes
listening to his complaints and sorting them out, and sometimes simply
giving him a chance to repent: "Although God could inflict punishment on
those whom he condemns without saying anything, he does not do so; on the
contrary, up to the point when he does condemn, he speaks with the guilty
person and lets him talk, so as to help him avoid condemnation" (Origen,
"Homiliae in leremiam", 1, 1).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24

Spiritual Renewal

[17] Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live
as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. [20] You did not so
learn Christ!--[21] assuming that you have heard about him and were taught
in him, as the truth is in Jesus. [22] Put off your old nature which belongs
to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, [23]
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24] and put on the new nature,
created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Commentary:

17-19. The Christian, who has been configured to Christ by Baptism, is
called to holiness and therefore should not lead a dissolute life alienated
from God, as the Gentiles do. The "futility of their minds" has led them
away from God, the source of all truth (cf. Rom 1:18-32). Hence it is that
when man is put in the place of God the mind operates in a vacuum and the
resulting knowledge produces nothing but mere illusion and total deceit.

As St Paul tells the Romans, people who act in that way are those "who by
their wickedness suppress the truth" (Rom 1:18). It is true that the human
mind is capable of recognizing God as the creator of all things; but when
people give their passions full rein, their will becomes weakened; they thus
suppress the truth and their minds easily tend to adopt wrong ideas. All
this is a result of arrogance and pride which makes man unwilling to accept
God and acknowledge his own limitations as a creature: this eventually leads
to the "ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart" (v. 18).

Impurity opens the way to a whole series of vices and disorders connected
with greed (cf. notes on Rom 1:29-31 and Rom 1:32). The term "callous" is
used to indicate that these people lost their desire to try to lead a good
life and even lose their very sense of morality.

22-24. The sacred text emphasizes two basic points--one's duty to put off
one's "old nature" (the "old man") and, in parallel with that, the urgent
need to put on the "new nature" (the "new man"). These two expressions refer
directly to the symbolism of Christian Baptism, which effects the transition
from the life of sin to the life of grace, thanks to the merits of Christ
(cf. Rom 6:3-11).

In Baptism we have "put on Christ" (Gal 3:27) and become "partakers of the
divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4). From that moment onwards a Christian's life is
so radically different that to revert to one's previous--pagan--conduct is
the greatest insult we could offer the body of Christ. St Paul, therefore,
is not just exhorting people to root out this or that defect, but to strip
themselves of the "old nature" entirely.

The "old nature" is the carnal man, vitiated from conception by original sin
and become the slave of his own passions; whereas, the "new man" has been
born again through the Holy Spirit at Baptism: he is no longer ruled by sin,
although he is still subject to passions which have been made unruly by sin.
That is why the Apostle urges us to put off the "old nature" by fighting
against disordered desires and their evil effects (cf. Rom 6:12-14; 8:5-8)
and by being conscious that the renewal brought about by the Holy Spirit
helps the baptized person to see each and every event in his life from a
new, supernatural perspective, as befits the "new man".

The change from the old to the new nature St Paul describes in terms of
creation (v. 24). It does not involve any external change, as when someone
changes his clothes, but rather an inner renewal, whereby the Christian, by
becoming a new creature in Jesus Christ, is enabled to practise
righteousness and holiness in a manner that exceeds his natural human
capacity. It is not enough, then, for one to have simply a veneer of piety.
"Entering the church and venerating sacred images and crosses is not
sufficient for pleasing God, just as washing one's hands does not make one
clean all over. What truly pleases God is that a person flees from sin and
gets rid of his stains by means of confession and penance. Let him break the
chains of his faults by being humble of heart" (St Anastasius of Sinai,
"Sermon on the Holy Synaxis").

This inner renewal of the person is something which takes a lifetime. "The
power of God is made manifest in our weakness and it spurs us on to fight,
to battle against our defects, although we know that we will never achieve
total victory during our pilgrimage on earth. The Christian life is a
continuous beginning again each day. It renews itself over and over" ([St]
J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 114).

From: John 6:24-35

The People Look for Jesus

[24] So when the people saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples,
they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

The Discourse on the Bread of Life

[25] When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to
Him, "Rabbi, when did You come here?" [26] Jesus answered them,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs,
but because you ate your fill of the loaves. [27] Do not labor for the
food which perishes, but the food which endures to eternal life, which
the Son of Man will give to you; for on Him has God the Father set His
seal." [28] Then they said to Him, "What must we do, to be doing the
works of God?" [29] Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God,
that you believe in Him He has sent." [30] So they said to Him, "Then what
sign do You do, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?
[31] Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, `He
gave them bread from Heaven to eat.'" [32] Jesus then said to them, "Truly,
truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from Heaven; My
Father gives you the true bread from Heaven. [33] For the bread of God is
that which comes down from Heaven, and gives life to the world." [34] They
said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."

[35] Jesus said them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall
not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."

Commentary:

26. Our Lord begins by pointing out that their attitudes are wrong: if
they have the right attitude they will be able to understand His
teaching in the eucharistic discourse. "You seek me", St. Augustine
comments, "for the flesh, not for the spirit. How many seek Jesus for
no other purpose than that He may do them good in this present life!
[...] Scarcely ever is Jesus sought for Jesus' sake" ("In Ioann.
Evang.", 25, 10).

This verse marks the beginning of the discourse on the bread of life
which goes up to verse 59. It opens with an introduction in the form
of a dialogue between Jesus and the Jews (verses 26-34), in which our
Lord reveals Himself as the bringer of the messianic gifts. Then comes
the first part of the discourse (verses 35-47), in which Jesus presents
Himself as the Bread of Life, in the sense that faith in Him is food
for eternal life. In the second part (verses 48-59) Christ reveals the
mystery of the Eucharist: He is the Bread of Life who gives Himself
sacramentally as genuine food.

27. Bodily food helps keep us alive in this world; spiritual food
sustains and develops supernatural life, which will last forever in
Heaven. This food, which only God can give us, consists mainly in the
gift of faith and sanctifying grace. Through God's infinite love we
are given, in the Blessed Eucharist, the very author of these gifts,
Jesus Christ, as nourishment for our souls.

"On Him has God the Father set His seal": our Lord here refers to the
authority by virtue of which He can give men the gifts He has referred
to: for, being God and man, Jesus' human nature is the instrument by
means of which the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity acts. St.
Thomas Aquinas comments on this sentence as follows: "What the Son of

Man will give He possesses through His superiority over all other men
in His singular and outstanding fullness of grace. ...When a seal is
impressed on wax, the wax receives the complete form of the seal. So
it is that the Son received the entire form of the Father. This
occurred in two ways; eternally (eternal generation), which is not
referred to here because the seal and the sealed are different in
nature from one another; what is referred to here is the other manner,
that is, the mystery of the Incarnation, whereby God the Father
impressed on human nature the Word, who is the reflection and the very
stamp of God's nature, as Hebrews 1:3 says" ("Commentary on St. John,
in loc.").

28-34. This dialogue between Jesus and His hearers is reminiscent of
the episode of the Samaritan woman (cf. John 4:11-15). On that
occasion Jesus was speaking about water springing up to eternal life;
here, He speaks of bread coming down from Heaven to give to the world.
There, the woman was asking Jesus if He was greater than Jacob; here
the people want to know if He can compare with Moses (cf. Exodus
16:13). "The Lord spoke of Himself in a way that made Him seem
superior to Moses, for Moses never dared to say that he would give food
which would never perish but would endure to eternal life. Jesus
promises much more than Moses. Moses promised a kingdom, and a land
flowing with milk and honey, good health and other temporal blessings
[...], plenty for the belly, but food which perishes; whereas Christ
promised food which never perishes but which endures forever" (St.
Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 25:12).

These people know that the manna--food which the Jews collected every
day during the journey through the wilderness (cf. Exodus 16:13ff)--
symbolized messianic blessings; which was why they asked our Lord for a
dramatic sign like the manna. But there was no way they could suspect
that the manna was a figure of a great supernatural messianic gift
which Christ was bringing to mankind--the Blessed Eucharist. In this
dialogue and in the first part of the discourse (verses 35-47), the
main thing Jesus is trying to do is bring them to make an act of faith
in Him, so that He can then openly reveal to them the mystery of the
Blessed Eucharist--that He is the bread "which comes down from Heaven,
and gives life to the world" (verse 33). Also, St. Paul explains that
the manna and the other marvels which happened in the wilderness were a
clear prefiguring of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:3-4).

The disbelieving attitude of these Jews prevented them from accepting
what Jesus revealed. To accept the mystery of the Eucharist, faith is
required, as [Pope] Paul VI stressed: "In the first place we want to
remind you that the Eucharist is a very great mystery; strictly
speaking, to use the words of sacred liturgy, it is `the mystery of
faith'. This is something well known to you but it is essential to the
purpose of rejecting any poisonous rationalism. Many martyrs have
witnessed to it with their blood. Distinguished Fathers and Doctors of
the Church in unbroken succession have taught and professed it. [...]
We must, therefore, approach this mystery, above all, with humble
reverence, not following human arguments, which ought to be hushed, but
in steadfast adherence to divine revelation" ("Mysterium Fidei").

35. Going to Jesus means believing in Him, for it is through faith that
we approach our Lord. Jesus uses the metaphor of food and drink to
show that He is the one who really meets all man's noblest aspirations:
"How beautiful is our Catholic faith! It provides a solution for all
our anxieties, calms our minds and fills our hearts with hope"
([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 582).

The Word Among Us

Sunday, August 03, 2003

Meditation
John 6:24-35

Have you ever dreamed about being born into a family as rich as the Rockefellers or the Kennedys? What would you do with all that money? Well, the truth is that in God, we have the richest Father imaginable! After all, he owns everything in the universe. He even has the power to create whatever else he wants to. What’s more, God’s heart is so full of love that he can’t help but lavish priceless gifts upon us, his children.

When the Israelites asked for food in the desert, God gave them exactly what they needed. He wasn’t even put off by their grumblings. Similarly, when the throngs gathered around Jesus, he not only fed them, he gave them more than they could eat. In both instances, God’s main goal was to manifest his love in such a way that it would move the people to trust him with their lives.

Those who crowded around Jesus asked him a simple question: “What must we do to do the works of God?” And he gave an equally simple answer: “Believe in me.” The greatest “work of God” we can ever do is open our hearts to him so he can fill us and change us. Scripture gives many examples of people who opened themselves to God and were changed. Cornelius sought God in prayer and was surprised by the Holy Spirit (Acts 10). Mary Magdalene pursued Jesus wholeheartedly and with great joy found him at the tomb (Luke 24:1-9). Paul and Silas sang and worshipped God and were released from prison (Acts 16:16-35).

Our hearts are starving to receive God’s love, waiting to be watered with his grace. Deep within, we all long to know that God loves us as his own children. If we will sit quietly before the Lord each day in prayer and receive his body at Mass with open hearts, he will feed us. So let’s go to him. Let’s ask him for the grace to love our families and to reach out in service to our neighbors. Let’s believe in him with our whole hearts. Then, we’ll find ourselves doing his work in our lives.

“Lord Jesus, I marvel at your desire to fill us to overflowing with your life and your love. You are the bread of life. In love and trust, I will open my heart to you today.”

One Bread, One Body

<< Sunday, August 3, 2003 >>

18th Sunday Ordinary Time

Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Ephesians 4:17, 20-24

Psalm 78:3-4, 23-25, 54
John 6:24-35

View Readings

EAT! EAT!

“He gave them bread from the heavens to eat.” —John 6:31

Today’s gospel reading from the sixth chapter of John begins Jesus’ famous Bread of Life discourse, which we read for four consecutive Sundays. There is a distinct, intentional progression in the words of Jesus regarding our response to this heavenly bread.

During the first part of the discourse, Jesus emphasizes that we must believe He is the Bread of Life. The word believe is used four times from verses 29 through 47. Jesus teaches that we must believe in Him, and accordingly, believe the truths He is revealing. “I Myself am the Bread of Life. No one who comes to Me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in Me shall ever thirst” (Jn 6:35).

Jesus makes an abrupt, intentional transition in the last half of the discourse. He stops using the word “believe” and begins using verbs and nouns referring to eating and drinking. For nine consecutive verses, 50 through 59, the verbs eat and drink or nouns for food and drink are used. “If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever” (Jn 6:51). “If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53). “The man who feeds on this bread shall live forever” (Jn 6:58).

Jesus clearly states that anyone who believes in Him will take the next step and eat His eucharistic flesh. There was no confusion for His initial hearers. They understood exactly the progression Jesus was making; they just refused to obey and eat (Jn 6:60ff). What about you? What will you do in response to Jesus’ clear words? “Unless you eat...”

Prayer: Father, every day, or as often as possible, I will open wide my mouth so You may fill it with the food of Your eucharistic body and blood (Ps 81:11, 17).

Promise: “He rained manna upon them for food and gave them heavenly bread.” —Ps 78:24

Praise: Praise the risen Jesus, Who became our Bread of Life!

FEAST OF THE DAY

St. Lydia is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and is considered
one of the first converts to Christianity of Europe. St. Lydia was an
apparently wealthy woman who lived in Thyatira near the beginning
of the first century. Lydia was a convert to Judaism when St. Paul
came to the city spreading the Word of God. When Lydia heard
Paul's teaching, she and her whole family were baptized into the
Faith.

St. Lydia converted to Christianity around the year 55 and is the
patron saint of dyers. St. Lydia is mentioned the sixteenth chapter of
the Acts of the Apostles in verses 11 through 15.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

We set sail from Troas, making a straight run for Samothrace, and
on the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, a leading city
in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We spent some
time in that city. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate along
the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat
and spoke with the women who had gathered there. One of them, a
woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of
Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened and the Lord opened her heart
to pay attention to what Paul was saying. After she and her
household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, "If you
consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home," and
she prevailed on us. -Acts 16:11-15

TODAY IN HISTORY

1492 Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain on his first voyage

TODAY'S TIDBIT

One common devotion of many Catholics is to the Sacred Heart.
One of the ways that this devotion is expressed is by making a
special effort to attend Mass on the first Friday of every month. St.
Margaret Mary Alacoque is responsible for encouraging devotion to
the Sacred Heart and helped form the devotion to what it is today. In
private revelations of Christ, in the year 1675, she received twelve
promises with regards to devotion to the Sacred Heart. Over the next
several days, these promises will be given in "Today's Tidbit."

1. "I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life."
2. "I will establish peace in their homes."

INTENTION FOR THE DAY

Please pray for all people seeking homes.

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